BART officials shut down the red line from Richmond to Millbrae on Wednesday morning, snarling a key route that delivers passengers from the East Bay to downtown San Francisco and the Peninsula.
Staff at the rail agency blamed the outage on a wayside power issue between Glen Park and Montgomery stations in San Francisco, where crews removed a coverboard and insulator from the track. Trains had to maneuver around the obstruction, causing 10-minute delays during the 8 a.m. rush hour.
The agency had stalled red line service “so we can avoid congestion in San Francisco,” BART communications officer Christopher Filippi said. He emphasized that riders at all stations have had service available all day, albeit with complications. With the red line suspended, a person trying to get to San Francisco from, say, downtown Berkeley has to take the orange Berryessa line and transfer to a yellow SFO train at Oakland’s Macarthur Station…