CONCORD — Every week, dozens of BART cars are taken out of service because of problems with their doors.
When the doors malfunction — often because of passengers squeezing through closing doors, according to officials — cars are taken to BART's maintenance facility in Concord. There, crews perform tasks, like checking the pressure of doors with a rod stick.
"We need to have as many cars ready as we can, so that means making sure the repairs are done correctly," said the transit agency's spokesman Jim Allison. "If somebody gets their finger caught, if the adjustment is not proper, it won't release."
The temperature of the rubber on the doors also influences whether they perform as needed.
An entire train can get knocked out of service when a rider forces open a door to get into a crowded car, according to Quality Assurance Manager Sandy Miniz. A similar situation played out last month on San Francisco's MUNI trains when a passenger got trapped and dragged on the platform.
"If there's a hundred passengers in one car times 10, you've inconvenienced 1,000 people," said Miniz.
That ripple effect happens because the operator needs to identify the broken door, said Allison.
"The train operator might have to go back through every car to find the one door that's causing the problem," said Allison. "It's an easily preventable problem if people kind of follow the rules and common sense of not forcing their way in."
