BART train derails — delays, no injuries
A BART train derailed in Daly City, forcing the evacuation of 24 passengers and causing major delays throughout the transit system Saturday afternoon, officials said.
The wheels on the two middle cars of a nine-car train came off the tracks at 2:55 p.m. immediately after it had left Daly City on its way to Balboa Park Station, said BART spokesman Taylor Huckaby.
“The trucks, or wheel axles, came off of the rail several feet on two cars,” Huckaby said of the Dublin/Pleasanton-bound train. “I don’t have any details on how it happened, but we are investigating.”
Nobody was injured in the incident, but emergency crews had to unload and escort two dozen people back to the Daly City Station platform, about 250 feet from where the train had stopped.
Service was stopped between Balboa Park, Colma, San Francisco International Airport and Millbrae until single-track service was resumed at 4 p.m. Huckaby said service was delayed across the entire system throughout the rest of the day.
Muni provided buses between Daly City and Balboa Park, while SamTrans buses picked up passengers between Colma and Daly City.
“We’re going to be singletracking until the end of service at midnight,” Huckaby said Saturday afternoon. “Whenever we have one problem in the system, it throws off the schedule in the rest of the system.”
Huckaby said there is no evidence the derailment was caused by an operator error. He said the disabled train would be removed by the start of service Sunday, in time for the Bay to Breakers race.
“We are not expecting this incident to affect service to tomorrow’s Bay to Breakers event,” he said. “BART will still be opening early at 6 a.m. with long trains to accommodate those participating, and we strongly encourage people to use BART to get there.”