SAN LEANDRO — A fire Tuesday morning near BART’s San Leandro station damaged electrical cables and other BART infrastructure, interrupting service for hours between between the Lake Merritt, Berryessa and Dublin stations.
The stoppage — which impacted the Blue, Green and Orange lines — began about 5:45 a.m., according to Alicia Trost, a BART spokesperson. Limited service began running between the Berryessa and Hayward stations and between the Dublin and Bay Fair stations around 5:30 p.m., according to a social media post from BART.
Full service was expected to resume Wednesday morning, according to a press release from BART. Trains will be running at a reduced speed between the Bay Fair and Coliseum stations.
The cause of the fire, which started south of the station platform, was still under investigation Tuesday afternoon. Trost said the flames were on aerial tracks starting from right underneath the tracks, but not at ground level.
Other BART lines, including through the Transbay Tube, were not impacted.
Authorities said the fire apparently caused a power outage in the surrounding neighborhoods, but the number of homes and businesses were impacted was not immediately available. As of 9 a.m., PG&E’s online outage map initially showed a loss of service for between 500 and 4,999 customers in the area around the San Leandro BART station. By 3:25 p.m., the outage map said only a handful of customers were affected.
Throughout the day, commuters were advised to seek alternate forms of transportation. BART officials said Alameda-Contra Costa Transit was providing help for commuters stranded between the Lake Merritt and Fremont stations while the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority was offering to aid travelers between the Milpitas and Berryessa stations.
The shutdown was the second major one for BART in less than two weeks.
On May 9 there was a systemwide closure that lasted between 4:25 a.m. and 9:20 a.m. that resulted because of a network connectivity issue that prevented controllers from seeing train locations.
Check back for updates on this developing story. Staff writer Caelyn Pender contributed to this report.