A fire under the tracks near the San Leandro BART station on Tuesday cut off service on lines running in parts of the East Bay, affecting thousands of passengers.
Trains were not running during the morning rush hour on the green and orange lines from Lake Merritt in Oakland to Berryessa in San Jose. There was also no service on the blue line from Lake Merritt to the Dublin-Pleasanton station.
Trains were running in San Francisco and other parts of the system. But the fire was “causing major system wide delays,” according to an agency spokesperson. The fire was reported around 5:08 a.m. Its cause was unclear, but cables were damaged, BART said.
BART hopes repairs will be made so trains are running again between approximately 3:45 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. Commuters were advised to look for alternate modes of transportation until then.
Video posted on X by a KCBS reporter showed flames leaping from the elevated tracks and a fire burning on the ground.
BREAKING: dramatic electrical fire on the BART tracks at the San Leandro station has shut down service on multiple lines in the East Bay. Listen to @KCBSRadio for the latest. (Thanks to Amy Brown for this footage around 4:50am) pic.twitter.com/LNaUTa3izJ
— Matt Bigler (@mattbiglerradio) May 20, 2025
The Alameda County Fire Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The problems were compounded when a person entered the trackway at the 16th Street station in the Mission around 8:20 a.m. and caused 20-minute delays, BART said.
On May 9, the entire BART system was shut down for hours during the morning rush hour due to computer networking problems.