BART suspends entire line for several days – SF Gate

BART said Monday there will be no red line trains between Richmond and Millbrae for several days due to power issues. The red line trains are popular with East Bay residents traveling to and from the San Francisco International Airport. 

Despite the power issues, orange line trains are running on a normal schedule between Richmond and the MacArthur station in Oakland.

If you are traveling between the Richmond and Ashby stations to or from San Francisco or the airport, you will need to transfer between an orange line train and a yellow train. 

BART specified, “If traveling to San Francisco, riders can expect a timed transfer between an Orange Line train and a Yellow Line train at MacArthur Station. If traveling from San Francisco, riders can expect a timed transfer between an Orange Line train and a Yellow Line train at 19th St. Oakland Station.”

With the red line suspended, BART is operating a shuttle train between the airport and Millbrae stations. 


BART posted a map reflecting the temporary service changes on its website and recommended alternatives, such as taking AC Transit buses, for those who wish to skip the service impacts. 

The problem started Sunday when a cable broke between the El Cerrito Plaza and Ashby stations. The next day, a substation failure in the same section led to power loss between El Cerrito del Norte and North Berkeley stations in the morning. As the substation failure continued to impact service on Monday, BART said the damaged cable is causing the ongoing problems. 

The cables “are part of the original 34.5 kV cables which BART has been replacing systemwide for years,” the transit agency said. “The cables were installed in the 1970s as part of BART’s original infrastructure and have outlasted their useful life 50 years later.”

While orange line service has been restored, the damaged cables are unable to provide enough electricity to run red trains, BART said.

Crews are working on repairing the cables but it will take several days.  

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *