BART dispatch recordings of a train derailment might hold new clues about what went wrong. Jodi Hernandez reports.
BART service resumed early Tuesday in the East Bay after a train partially derailed and caught fire on New Year's Day just outside the Orinda station.
BART officials are working to determine the cause of the derailment that sent people to a hospital with minor injuries. Early indications were that the derailment happened at an interlocking section of rail, where trains can switch from one track to another.
"The operations control center was unable to communicate with the interlocking to move the tracks into the proper position, so they instructed the train operator to stop the train, off board, and manually crank the tracks into position," BART spokesman Jim Allison said. "This is a procedure that they're trained to do, that they practice, and it's not entirely uncommon to do it."
The BART train had just left Orinda on its way to Lafayette around 9 a.m. Monday when the front two cars went off the track, Allison said.
All passengers were evacuated and fire crews quickly extinguished flames in two cars, he said.
Crews late Monday worked to clear the derailed train and used a crane to rerail cars before towing them away to a yard. Two lanes of Highway 24 were also shut down while crews worked to make repairs to the damaged sections of the track.
The California Public Utilities Commission is also investigating the incident. No one was seriously hurt, but at least one of the $2.2 million fleet of the future cars has extensive damage and will be out for long term repairs.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
