A Daly City substation fire that disrupted Bay Area Rapid Transit services was linked to extreme heat and ageing electrical equipment, according to BART officials.
Sylvia Lamb, BART’s assistant general manager of operations, told the agency’s board that an HVAC unit failed inside the substation on Tuesday, September 8, allowing temperatures to rise before the fire broke out.
The facility is at least 40 years old and was already among those due for replacement. “This is a very clear failure that is due to aging equipment,” Ms Lamb said.
The blaze damaged the substation, train-control equipment and a traction-power cable near Daly City. A second fire was reported on nearby tracks, where a cable thought to be about 30 years old was damaged.
BART spokesperson Christopher Filippi said there appeared to be a connection between the cable damage and the substation fire. Fire officials said there was no indication that the incident was suspicious, and no injuries were reported.
Green Line remains suspended after Daly City fire
The heat also caused false “occupancy” readings in BART’s train-control system, making it appear that trains were present in sections of track where there were none. Services were slowed and trains were switched manually as engineers responded to the problem.
All 50 BART stations remained accessible, but the Green Line was suspended between Berryessa and Daly City to reduce congestion around the damaged equipment. The Yellow, Red, Blue and Orange lines were operating, although some passengers faced delays of between five and 20 minutes.
BART restored transbay services late on Tuesday night, after the fire had caused an interruption of about two hours. Crews continued working overnight to repair the train-control system and restore normal operations, but officials said they could not give a firm timetable for the return of full five-line service.
The agency said the Daly City substation was one of its highest-priority replacement projects. BART has said most of its traction-power facilities were installed more than 50 years ago and that a $3.5 billion bond approved by voters in 2016 was being used to replace ageing infrastructure.
Officials acknowledged that bringing forward work at Daly City could delay another major project, as the system has funding to replace only one additional substation at present.
