Bay Area Rapid Transit Systemwide Shutdown Strands Thousands During Morning Commute

A computer networking problem caused a complete shutdown of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system early Friday morning, disrupting train service across the San Francisco Bay Area for about four hours. The outage, which halted trains at all 50 stations and affected the region's main commuter rail system, left tens of thousands of commuters scrambling to find alternative transportation such as buses, trams, ferries, and personal vehicles. Despite reports of congestion on key routes like the Golden Gate and Oakland Bay Bridges, other transit options including Muni buses, cable cars, and the San Francisco Bay Ferry continued to operate, helping to alleviate some of the commuting difficulties. BART officials indicated that the problem emerged during system startup after overnight maintenance and emphasized that there was no evidence of a cyberattack. Ridership remains below pre-pandemic levels, which likely reduced the potential severity of the disruption. Technicians worked on resolving the issue, and service resumed after several hours, although delays persisted.