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BART Transbay Tube shutdown leaves commuters frustrated
BART said a "loss of communications" halted service between San Francisco and Oakland, forcing riders onto crowded bus bridges at the Salesforce Transit Center.
SAN FRANCISCO - BART suspended service through the Transbay Tube on Sunday after a "loss of communications," stranding riders and forcing them to seek alternate routes between San Francisco and Oakland.
Service resumed Monday at 4:30 a.m.
Until then, BART officials said trains had to turn back at the West Oakland and Embarcadero stations, while crews worked to address the problem through the night.
The disruption triggered long lines at the Salesforce Transit Center, where crowds waited for buses. Some riders reported waiting hours to get across the bay.
"Annoying, frustrating, aggravating," said Ryan Gygi of Berkeley, who was trying to get home.
Alvonda Meyers of Oakland said she had been waiting since early evening.
"When I got to the BART station, they said that the tube was closed, and I had been waiting there for two hours and then they said that they have buses here to take us to West Oakland," she said. "It's an inconvenience. I've been here for about three hours now."
BART first reported the issue around 4 p.m., posting alerts that Transbay service was suspended."
Doug, a rider from Cupertino, said he learned about the shutdown after hearing an announcement at the Embarcadero station.
"We got down and saw that there’s no service, because there’s no communication through the Transbay Tube," he said.
The latest disruption follows several significant service meltdowns last year that caused systemwide delays tied to power and computer network problems, according to the transit agency.
Riders expressed concern about how the outage could affect the Monday morning commute if service is not restored.
"It’s happened pretty frequently. I don’t understand why, because a lot of us depend on BART to get to and from work, so this is pretty stressful," Meyers said.