I headed into SF on Saturday afternoon for dinner with the girlfriend near Glen Park BART. Traffic was miserable so I got off the freeway in Richmond and decided to take BART into SF. The BART trip was fairly uneventful with a switch of lines at MacArthur to an SF/Millbrae train to complete the journey. As we approached Powell Street station something was amiss as I was looking out the window and could not see the station. What happened was a blackout occurred due to a fire in a sub-station and it caused the lighting to go out at Powell and Civic Center stations.
While sitting for a few minutes for the train ahead of us to clear Civic Center and to see what BART Central Control would have to say our operator advised all passengers on the platform to get on this train because it would be the last one to stop at Powell Street before they closed the station and any remaining passengers would be removed from the station. After a couple of minutes of waiting the train left and bypassed the Civic Center station which was closed just prior to our train passing through. We arrived into 16th Street/Mission station which had power and anyone heading to the East Bay got off there to catch a train to the East Bay.
After a lovely dinner at Chenery Park Restaurant (if you know anything about SF restaurants the chef was at one time executive chef at Boulevard a very swanky restaurant) we needed to head back downtown. We walked back to Glen Park BART to find out that Civic Center and Powell were still closed with no power for the lighting. Realizing where we needed to go was close to Montgomery Street station we got off there as they still had power.
The gathering we went to was in the dark as the restaurant the group met in had no power at all due to the power outage in Downtown. Candlelight was the rule and it made for a nice albeit dark atmosphere.
For the return to Richmond (CA not VA B) ) we decided to take a train from Montgomery to 16th street to meet our connecting Pittsburg/Bay Point train to 12th Street as there was a large crowd at Montgomery heading to the East Bay and we wanted seats. At 16th we switched to the next to last East Bay bound train of the evening as the last BART train leaves downtown at 12:24 AM, and had a seamless switch at 12th Street to our Richmond train arriving back to the car at near 1 AM.
All in all it was an interesting experience but the thing that surprised me the most was that BART was able to keep 3d rail power, and automatic train control with just those stations losing power to the lighting. I guess BART must have their own sub stations to keep the essential parts of the system powered.
While sitting for a few minutes for the train ahead of us to clear Civic Center and to see what BART Central Control would have to say our operator advised all passengers on the platform to get on this train because it would be the last one to stop at Powell Street before they closed the station and any remaining passengers would be removed from the station. After a couple of minutes of waiting the train left and bypassed the Civic Center station which was closed just prior to our train passing through. We arrived into 16th Street/Mission station which had power and anyone heading to the East Bay got off there to catch a train to the East Bay.
After a lovely dinner at Chenery Park Restaurant (if you know anything about SF restaurants the chef was at one time executive chef at Boulevard a very swanky restaurant) we needed to head back downtown. We walked back to Glen Park BART to find out that Civic Center and Powell were still closed with no power for the lighting. Realizing where we needed to go was close to Montgomery Street station we got off there as they still had power.
The gathering we went to was in the dark as the restaurant the group met in had no power at all due to the power outage in Downtown. Candlelight was the rule and it made for a nice albeit dark atmosphere.
For the return to Richmond (CA not VA B) ) we decided to take a train from Montgomery to 16th street to meet our connecting Pittsburg/Bay Point train to 12th Street as there was a large crowd at Montgomery heading to the East Bay and we wanted seats. At 16th we switched to the next to last East Bay bound train of the evening as the last BART train leaves downtown at 12:24 AM, and had a seamless switch at 12th Street to our Richmond train arriving back to the car at near 1 AM.
All in all it was an interesting experience but the thing that surprised me the most was that BART was able to keep 3d rail power, and automatic train control with just those stations losing power to the lighting. I guess BART must have their own sub stations to keep the essential parts of the system powered.
