BART reopens Transbay Tube track A nightmare commute after early-morning crash hits rail

BART investigators are searching for clues as to why two maintenance vehicles crashed inside the Transbay Tube early Friday - an underground collision that mangled tracks, slowed the morning commute to a crawl, and forced tens of thousands of people to find other ways to get to and from San Francisco.

The 2:35 a.m. crash between a self-powered flatbed maintenance train and a heavy-duty pickup snarled 280 feet of the electric third rail on the track used by eastbound trains. As crews scrambled to repair the damage, riders suffered through a brutally slow slog on crowded cars.

"Ugh, it was hell," said Richard Herrera, 41, as he jogged out of the Montgomery Street Station. "We're already late. We got on a 7:24 train (at Bay Fair Station). It should have been here a few minutes before 8, and now it's 8:15."

After relying on one track most of the morning, BART reopened a second track at 9:10 a.m.

But trains still chugged along at reduced speeds of 25 mph for the rest of the day. Crews planned to complete repairs on the damaged section after train service ended at midnight Friday, and return the cars to full speed, BART said.

Commuters crowd into an S.F.-bound train as it waits to leave the MacArthur BART Station. Riders suffered through a brutally slow slog to get to work. Commuters crowd into an S.F.-bound train as it waits to leave the MacArthur BART Station. Riders suffered through a brutally slow slog to get to work. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close BART reopens Transbay Tube track 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

The trouble began when the self-powered flatbed slid down an incline and crashed into the pickup as it was welding track, said Alicia Trost, an agency spokeswoman.

The flatbed car pushed the truck along the track, damaging a lengthy stretch of the third rail before it finally came to a stop.

No one was hurt and BART is investigating the cause of the crash, Trost said.

Took cars instead

As news of the severe delays spread, people who normally take BART got into their cars and headed for the freeways. By 6:45 a.m., westbound traffic was already backed up through the MacArthur Maze. Through 9 a.m., train ridership was 30,000 below normal, BART said.

AC Transit offered extra bus service from downtown Oakland, and the Bay Area Ferry Service added boats.

At the MacArthur Station in Oakland, one San Francisco-bound train packed with riders stopped for more than 10 minutes just before 8 a.m. More would-be passengers were lined up at each door. There was no place to go, and nothing to do but wait.

Stop and go

A few minutes later, the train moved about 100 yards, then stopped again. Finally, it left.

"There's no light at the end of the tunnel, and I think this is going to suck," said Tyler Crosser, an accountant trying to get to San Francisco.

Crosser, 31, said his morning started at 7 a.m. when he got on BART at the Ashby Station in Berkeley. He didn't know about the delays until he arrived at the station.

Hold accountable

"It broke. I get it," Crosser said of the tube crash. "But what I don't understand is, how did two cars collide into each other? I work hard, I get paid, I do something like that, I'm going to get fired. I want to make sure people are held accountable for this."

Some tried hard to take the hassles in stride. "I'm almost an hour late," John Moxley, 49, said when he arrived at the Montgomery Street Station en route to his finance job. "I had a meeting this morning I had to miss, which isn't great. But when I saw how hard they were working to fix it, I understand what they had to do."