A group of BART officials, journalists and politicians, including state Sen. Scott Wiener, got stuck in an elevator for about 15 minutes after a press tour of the transit system’s facilities on Tuesday, a BART spokesperson confirmed with The Standard.
For the event, BART General Manager Bob Powers gave Wiener a tour of the transit network’s updated facilities to promote its safety and cleanliness measures, including new fare gates installed at the West Oakland station to deter fare evaders. BART expects every station to have the updated fare gates by 2025.
The elevator incident occurred at BART police headquarters in Oakland as people were leaving the building. The headquarters was the last stop on the tour, which began at Civic Center station and featured stops at the West Oakland and Lake Merritt stations.
A tweet from KPIX reporter Brian Dinsmore showed the group trapped in the elevator.
BART officials did not say what caused the elevator to become stuck. An employee was able to fix the issue in about 15 minutes.
BART Police is in the process of finding a new location for its headquarters. In a July presentation shared with The Standard, the police force said its current facilities are aging and require an upgrade.