BART Maintenance Truck Derails In East Bay; Morning Commute Delays
HAYWARD (CBS SF) -- A BART maintenance truck designed to travel on the transit system's rail line derailed early Thursday, triggering major delays on the Fremont-Warm Springs line, authorities said.
While major delays were reported on the line impacted, other trains experienced only minor delays during the Thursday morning commute.
BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the likely cause of the derailment during a normal overnight track inspection was a "human error."
"It appears like at some level it was operator error," she said of the cause. "It was not caused by any defect in the rails."
BART officials said the truck -- which was still disabled on the northbound line on the Fremont-Warm Springs route -- also damaged 40-foot of the third rail that powers the trains.
Crews removed a 65-foot length of third rail, but it did not impact trains traveling on the route.
"We can run a train without that 65-foot part of third rail -- it's a perfect size that we can still run service because the other cars that are part of a train is getting third-rail power from those locations."
Trost said the third rail will be repaired in the early morning hours Friday when trains are not in service.
The truck derailed at around 3:20 a.m. No injuries were reported.
BART single-tracked trains between the South Hayward and Union City stations for much of the morning commute. Officials said maintenance crews cleared the area by 8:30 a.m.
