Potential Evening Delays Due to Power Cable Replacement in Downtown San Francisco

This is the 2020 article about cable replacement. View the 2021 article.

As we experience dramatically reduced ridership due to shelter-in-place orders, we are reducing hours of operation. This gives us the ability to do additional work on vital track and infrastructure projects in the off hours.

One such project is our replacement of the 34.5kV power cables that supply power to our trains. These cables have not been replaced since BART opened. We are currently replacing cables on our Downtown San Francisco line and have been doing most of the work late at night and on Sundays. 

Starting 4/13, we have been doing additional work during the week. We start the preparatory work of bringing in staff and materials as early as 7pm which means we start single tracking at that time which potentially may cause some delays. This earlier start time is necessary for us to be ready to use the full window of time when we are closed. The extra time means, potentially, we will be able to “pull” 4 reels of cable instead of 1 per shift. That equals up to 9,200 linear feet of cable that can be installed each night. This could shave off up to a year of work affecting our customers from the six-year-long project
 
We appreciate all who are staying at home to help “flatten the curve” and for those who need us, we are doing what we can to be there for you. Thank you for your patience.