On Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) shut down completely. BART trains are run not by the drivers of the train but by a central computer system, signaling the train when to go and when to make its turns. To keep this system in top shape, BART has to do system updates during the off-hours (overnight). These updates are used to improve the public transportation system. However, on Sept. 5, this update resulted in BART not being ready to be used in the morning.
According to BART, this past August, they took 186,600 commuters every weekday. Due to the shutdown, no one was able to use BART to commute in the morning, from 5 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Berkeley High School students who take BART to school also had to find another way to get there. Jaya Baudart-Gehlawat, a current Berkeley High School junior, rides BART to school practically every morning. “I was really distraught when it happened. I was upset, and I had to think of a solution really fast. And it just, you know, messed up my whole morning,” she said. Senior Georgia Lee had already gotten to BART when she realized it had shut down. “I was annoyed and frustrated because I had to call my mom. My mom had to come pick me up to take me to school,” she said.
Service ended up resuming, but much later than the needed time for most riders. At 9:30 a.m., some services resumed, but there were not any trains headed into San Francisco or San Mateo County. At 11:45 a.m., all trains were running, and every station had trains stopping at it. However, this still came with many delays.
“BART does a really good job of having backup transportation, like bus bridges when the lines are down. So, for example, they do maintenance, and you can't take the train, they'll offer a bus service,” Wissem Bouali said. Bouali is a BHS alum who works on the financing and budget side of BART. Overall, BART does try to provide riders with other opportunities to get where they need to go. But according to NBC Bay Area, the buses on Sept. 5 were extremely crowded with passengers trying to get a spot on an already full bus.
The complete change in their commute left many riders frustrated and eager to give feedback. “Yes, I mean, you will see it like social media and people send in their complaints to BART directly … so there's a lot of backlash,” Bouali said. The backlash doesn’t help with the issues that BART is currently dealing with, like funding issues such as using emergency funds to run the service, which will expire in 2026. The ridership of BART has declined significantly due to many people working from home and not using the train to commute. Even though people have begun to return to riding the train, many ride less frequently. Less riders means less revenue, which directly impacts BART’s ability to provide quality service, or even service at all. The company has changed many things in the system, including running shorter trains to save money in energy costs, getting more promotion for the system, targeted reductions to all operating departments, and much more. But that is still not enough. They need a long term funding source.
Due to this, they have since created a measure to be put on the ballot in 2026. The measure will increase sales tax to fund public transit. Senate Bill 63 is directed toward Bay Area voters, giving them the ability to vote on a 0.5 percent increase in sales tax (1 percent for San Francisco to help fund Muni). Governor Gavin Newsom has until Oct. 12 to either veto or sign the bill. If he signs it, the decision will then head to the voters. A bill like Senate Bill 63 would help BART have fewer shutdowns like the one that happened on Sept. 5.
On Sept.11, 2025, BART Board Members issued an apology for two recent breakdowns, one being the Sept. 5 breakdown and the second being on Aug. 29, 2025, when two trains were reported to have smoke and caused delays. The board thoroughly reviewed the two incidents before issuing an apology. For the Aug. 29 incident, BART Director Robert Raburn said, "I want to issue a public apology. It's unthinkable to be trapped in the Transbay Tube in a car that's stopped and filling with smoke." For Sept. 5, Sylvia Lamb, the assistant general manager in charge of the upgrades, took full responsibility. "We underestimated risk and impact of this risk. There is no one that feels worse about this than myself and my team,” she said.
According to NBC Bay Area, BART will now be doing system upgrades on weekends to avoid problems on days where people are commuting to work. BART also made promises, aiming to be better at making sure to have better preventative measures so that this does not happen again.