Shiny new station, but same old problems
BART’s Warm Springs/ South Fremont station is shiny, clean and just 3 weeks old. But already new riders are being introduced to some of the transit system’s traditions: broken escalators, closed restrooms and even puddles of urine in the elevators.
After riders reported that an escalator at the station was shut down and under repair, The Chronicle paid a visit Friday. When a reporter and photographer arrived, all six were working — but not for long. About an hour later, the middle of three elevators at the station entrance stopped abruptly, and the station agent blocked it with strands of yellow caution
tape.
Inside, one of the two all-gender restrooms was closed — dramatically blocked with a tangle of yellow tape — and one of the many ticket machines wore a handwritten sign warning that, like some mom-and-pop businesses, it accepted only cash.
But everything else — the drinking fountains, the four elevators, the remarkably clear public address system, the ticket machines, the fare gates and the train destination signs — all appeared to be in working order. As one might expect from a brandspanking new station.
Just a few passengers flowed through the fare gates and down the escalators to the platform to wait for trains midmorning Friday. Several toured the station, pausing to take pictures and marvel at its shininess.
A station agent, who declined to give her name, acknowledged that the escalators have shut down occasionally, sometimes when patrons inadvertently caused them to stop.
“They go out of service every now and then. It could be a bike hitting the skirt,” she said, referring to the escalator’s lower side panel.
She declined to answer further questions.
At BART headquarters, 11 stations north on the Richmond line, spokesman Taylor Huckaby said officials were aware of some troubles with the station’s escalators. At 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and 5:30 a.m. Thursday, he said, two separate escalators shut down at Warm Springs/South Fremont because of mechanical problems. Both were repaired and back in service by noon Thursday. He said he had not been made aware of Friday’s escalator shutdown.
Jim Allison, another BART spokesman, said there was no pattern to the escalator breakdowns, and no mechanical issues had been identified.
Huckaby said the escalators are under a two-year warranty, which requires the manufacturer, Schindler, to arrive at the station and start repairs within four hours. That happened in both cases, he said.
He said he was not aware of the restroom closure or any ongoing problems with the new station’s restrooms. But he did say that BART cleanup crews received their first urine cleanup call in a Warm Springs elevator on March 31.
Chronicle staff photographer Natasha Dangond contributed
to this report.