Staffing problems, weather lead to major service disruptions on BART
PITTSBURG, Calif. - Low staffing and weather-related issues were being blamed for delays and service disruptions on BART on Tuesday.
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During the early morning commute, train service actually came to a halt at the Antioch and Pittsburg Center stations.
"From 6:30am-9am we didn’t have train service at Antioch or Pittsburg Center due to a staffing issue in the BART to Antioch Control Center," BART Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost told KTVU.
BART brought in Tri Delta buses to be used as a bus bridge and shuttle commuters from those stations to Pittsburg/Bay Point, which became the starting point of the train line.
Trost explained that it was highly unusual to have staffing issues disrupt service like this. "The Control Center staff is critical for operations," she said, adding, "Once we learned there was a staffing problem, we tried to bring in stand-by staff to cover to no avail."
While service did eventually resume, BART also warned riders to brace for system-wide delays on Tuesday and blamed the wet conditions.
"We slow trains down to prevent flat spots on our wheels when the rail is slippery," the transit agency explained on Twitter.
As of about 11:00 a.m., BART reported it was seeing delays of about 20 minutes throughout the system.