BART service was back to normal in Contra Costa County, transit officials said Tuesday, nearly a day after a partial derailment near the Orinda station sent several people to hospitals with minor injuries and forced hundreds of riders to seek alternative transportation.
The derailment occurred at about 9 a.m. on New Year’s Day in the eastbound direction on BART’s Yellow Line, between the Lafayette and Orinda stations, BART spokesman Jim Allison said. A computer failure prevented a train from automatically changing routes at an interlocking, according to BART officials.
An interlocking is an area of track that gives trains options of where to go. Monday’s incident forced the train operator to manually align the route instead of the computer.
“Just prior to the derailment, the train operator was instructed by the Operations Control Center to manually align the route at the interlocking because a signaling issue prevented the computer from doing it,” BART said Monday afternoon.
The details of what happened are under investigation. BART officials said the California Public Utilities Commission was notified and staff went to the scene.
Two cars derailed in the incident and caught fire. Passengers aboard the train evacuated safely and were taken to the Orinda station by BART staff, Allision said. Moraga-Orinda Fire District crews extinguished the blaze.
Nine people who were onboard the train when the derailment occurred were taken to a medical center to be evaluated for possible injuries.
Trains in both directions on the Yellow Line, which runs between the San Francisco International Airport and Antioch, experienced major delays. Direct service between Rockridge and Walnut Creek was halted for more than 10 hours as workers brought in a large crane to hoist the two derailed cars back onto the tracks, prompting partial lane closures on adjacent Highway 24. Two eastbound lanes of the freeway were closed starting at 4:30 p.m. between Wilder Road and St. Stephens Drive, according to Caltrans.
The two derailed cars were reattached to the rest of the train, which was towed away so repairs could be made to the damaged tracks. AC Transit set up a bus bridge during the service disruption, providing free rides between the Walnut Creek and Rockridge stations.
The derailment occurred the same day that new higher fares took effect on the transit system. The 5.5 percent fare hike approved by the BART Board of Directors last June is expected to raise an additional $26 million for the cash-strapped system through the end of the 2025 fiscal year.
Bay City News staff writers Kathleen Kirkwood and Thomas Hughes contributed to this report.