BART now says its Warm Springs/South Fremont station will not open until winter 2017, although it still hasn’t set a date.

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On Dec. 9, BART updated the station project’s website to announce “Passenger service to the Warm Springs/South Fremont Station is expected to begin Winter 2017.”

Last week agency officials said they still could not provide a time frame.

By way of explanation for the latest delay, BART wrote on its website, “Unique challenges associated with integrating new, state-of-the-art technologies with the 40-plus year old BART operating system, has created delays and the need for more testing.”

Asked to elaborate, BART spokesman Taylor Huckaby wrote in an email Tuesday, “Whenever you have new technology interfacing with old technology you’re going to have issues.

“Any estimate is anybody’s best guess at any given time, and as issues arise, we have to reevaluate where we’re at. We weren’t expecting the 45-year-old cables that we had to be giving us problems. During testing, unexpected things show up, and it’s our job to fix them and then retest again until those issues don’t arise.”

Huckaby said the increased power needed to move more trains and people puts stress on the old infrastructure.

“We ended up having to replace our power transmission infrastructure down there on the south part of the Fremont line, and that added time and expense,” he said.

“Safety and reliability are our number one priorities,” Huckaby added. “And anytime that there is something that comes up that throws safety and reliability into jeopardy, we’re going to ensure that problem gets ironed out absolutely, before we move forward with putting thousands of people onto a section of track, and sending them off on their way at 60 miles per hour.

“We understand the frustration of folks who have been waiting to have BART come online, but we’re not going to do anything, unequivocally, without those systems being safe, reliable, and tested. Safety and reliability are not negotiable,” he said.

As for the new opening date, Huckaby said he couldn’t be more specific than sometime between the new year and March 20.