Thanks to Craig Cannon & J. Morales for the pictures of the BART trains being lifted off the tracks after the Friday night derailment in Concord.
BART officials are now saying that repairs to a damaged train, track and third rail following a derailment at the Concord BART station on Friday are likely to continue through Saturday night.
Train service past Pleasant Hill on the Pittsburg/Bay Point line has been canceled, with buses serving the Concord, North Concord/Martinez and Pittsburg/Bay Point stations from Pleasant Hill until the end of scheduled service, BART said in a statement on Friday evening.
Riders traveling in to San Francisco or Oakland are being advised to catch their trains at the Pleasant Hill station on Saturday. A shuttle train will also be operating between Pittsburg/Bay Point and North Concord, and buses will operate between the North Concord, Concord and Pleasant Hill stations.
The out-of-service train, which was traveling empty to the Concord Yard, was just leaving the Concord station around 6:30 p.m. when some train wheels went off the track, BART officials said.
While the cause remains unknown, the derailment occurred as the train traveled over a switching mechanism known as an interlocking, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.
The train is now blocking the rails in both directions and removing it is expected to be a difficult, lengthy process.
The train operator was not injured and no passengers were on board.
The Concord station was also the scene of a derailment on March, 13, 2011 involving a 10-car train carrying 65 passengers to San Francisco International Airport. Three people reported minor back injuries after that incident.
Service in the 2011 incident was restored in less than 24 hours.
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