A power outage at the Downtown Berkeley BART station closed down the station for more than an hour and a half Tuesday afternoon.
The power went out at 3:57 p.m., according to Tamar Sarkissian, spokesperson for PG&E. At the peak of the outage, about 1,150 customers in the Downtown area were affected.
Up until about 5:40, trains ran through the station, but they did not stop. The station remained closed until BART brought in a generator, allowing the station to reopen to commuters, according to BART spokesperson Jim Allison.
While the Downtown station was closed, all passengers were advised to go to the Ashby or the North Berkeley stations, according to BART Assistant Chief Transportation Officer Roy Aguilera..
The Berkeley Fire Department had been called in to try and retrieve an individual, who was stuck in the elevator, according to Aguilera. By about 4:45 p.m., a BART repairman had successfully freed the person.
The cause of the outage is currently under investigation.
“There are so many things that can cause a power outage,” Sarkissian said. “It’s too early to say.”
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