Today was a BART directors board meeting day, and it fell just six days afer the transit system experienced a systemwide meltdown just before the morning commute — for the second time in four months.

Naturally, BART directors had some questions they wanted answered from the agency's management.

"This cannot and should not be the norm that every few months we say, 'I'm really sorry, this is unacceptable,'" said Director Janice Li, during the meeting. "We'll do better, given the moment we're in and the existential crisis that we're facing. These instances further threaten public trust in us."

As Bay City News reported from the meeting, Sylvia Lamb, the assistant general manager in charge of infrastructure upgrades across the BART system, took responsibility for Friday's meltdown, explaining that it occurred as contract workers were working at Montgomery Station in San Francisco. The workers physically moved fiber optic cables from some old train-control equipment to new equipment, and this caused a malfunction.

"This event was my responsibility and avoidable," Lamb said, per Bay City News. "We underestimated risk and impact of this risk. There is no one that feels worse about this than myself and my team."

Lamb also said that, in retrospect, her team realized that they overlooked the possibility of isolating the west and east branches of the BART system in order to restart the system quicker.

She also said that eight similar switches of cables had already been done at other stations without incident, and, ominously, she noted that 41 more stations still need cable replacements.

This is part of a systemwide computer upgrade project that has been ongoing for years.

BART says it is working with its vendor to determine next steps to avoid any future problems like Friday's.

BART's board also addressed an incident that occurred a week earlier, on August 29, when two trains became stuck in the Transbay Tube as a smoke situation developed in the tunnel.

The cause was reportedly a blown insulator between the track and electric third rail, and a Dublin-bound train stopped in the tunnel just before reaching West Oakland Station, leaving passengers trapped as smoke started entering train cars.

One passenger, Alan Mond, spoke at the meeting, as KRON4 reports, about the terrifying incident.

"When the train first stopped in the tunnel there was silence up to four minutes. After a while, when the smoke was coming and people were trying to go [through] the connecting door, that’s when we first heard something, but that’s only when it first stopped," Mond said.

BART Board President Mark Foley addressed the public at the meeting regarding both incidents, saying, "I first want to apologize to our riders in the entire Bay Area, we failed, simply put we failed, our riders deserve better."

Previously: BART Resumes Service After Entire System Goes Down Due to Computer Failure

Photo by Derek Zhang