Major delays were caused on BART on Monday afternoon after dark smoke billowed from a Richmond-bound train near MacArthur Station, but one passenger on board said that no one from BART told anyone on her car what was happening or even told them to evacuate.
Mariam Ghvamichava, a law student who was heading home to Berkeley on the train, evacuated the packed train along with dozens of other people around 2:30 p.m. after a passenger opened an emergency door, she said.
There were no announcements over the intercom system, according to Ghvamichava, and the only way people in her car knew there was an issue was because people from other cars began migrating away from what appeared to be smoke from one car.
“It was a scary situation,” she said.
A BART spokesperson said on the agency’s recorded media line that “all passengers were evacuated off the train,” but Ghvamichava said that, at least in her car, no one told anyone to get off the train.
Another spokesperson for BART, Alicia Trost, said at 5 p.m. that it was too soon to confirm whether announcements about the situation and how to get to safety were made.
Ghvamichava said it began with the train coming to halt near the MacArthur station and then just sitting there. She said she assumed it was just technical difficulties, but then she saw passengers rapidly moving into her car.
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CA Is Burning said:
Makes sense, 500 union jobs, millions in donations from unions to democrats.
CA Is Burning said:
Providing Feedback said:
Rick Bonilla said:
Rick Bonilla said:
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