Bart trains closed the system in the San Francisco Bay region

The main public transport system of the San Francisco Bay region was forced to close all the trains for several hours Friday morning due to a computer problem, sending shuttlers who are unleashed to find alternatives before the service resumed shortly after 9 am.

Bay Area Rapid Transit, which carries more than 170,000 passengers during the week in a large part of the region, said that the service had been suspended due to a problem of “computer networking”. Bart spokesperson said there had been a problem with the feeding system for trains, preventing trains from working.

Although the train service took over the system, major delays were expected.

The breakdown occurred while Bart struggled to attract passengers after the COVVI-19 pandemic. Many residents of the Bay region focused on technology were able to continue working remotely, and Bart had to face one of the most steep declines in the traffic of any large American public transport system. Passenger trafficking on the bay region’s system remains less than half of what it was before the pandemic, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

It was not immediately clear which had caused the networking problem. During the morning journey, traffic was thick at the highway to Bay Bridge, which links Oakland and other East Bay communities to San Francisco. The runners looked for alternatives, car pools with local bus services and ferries.

Chris Filippi, spokesperson for Bart, said in a statement that IT problems had affected 50 system stations.

At El Cerrito Plaza station in the city of East Bay in El Cerrito, California, a Bart manager diverted shuttlers wearing backpacks and the big tote bags before the service resumed. A handful of commuters were standing on the sidewalk by looking forward to driving sharing options and looking at bus cards.