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Maintenance Car Crash In Transbay Tube Leads To Major BART Delays

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Initial repair work was completed Friday morning to ease congested Bay Area Rapid Transit service traveling through the Transbay Tube after maintenance vehicles damaged the tracks earlier Friday, agency officials said.

Temporary repairs were completed around 8:45 a.m., allowing full train service to start safely running at 9 a.m. between San Francisco and Oakland. Previously trains had to single-track, causing delays of up to 40 minutes, officials said.

The accident that spurred the delays happened around 2:35 a.m. when one maintenance vehicle rear-ended the other, damaging 380 feet of the third rail on the Transbay Tube tracks that take trains from San Francisco to the East Bay, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.

Maintenance Vehicle Ax in Transbay Tube Snarls BART Commute

No one was injured in the collision, which involved a rail grinder and another vehicle, she said.

BART spokeswoman Luna Salaver said it would run trains manually at restricted speeds through the Transbay Tube and finish repairs to the track after service ends Friday. Salaver said the slower speed of 25 mph over the repaired section would only add 2 to 3 minutes to the normal commute times.
Originally, BART said it would revert to single tracking in the tube at midday to complete the repairs.
As of 11:00 a.m. BART reported delays of about five minutes on the system.

Many commuters took to social media to post comments about long delays and crowds waiting at BART stations Friday morning.

One Twitter user posted just before 9 a.m., "Life is not fun right now. Stuck at (MacArthur station) in a crowded train."

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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