Napa's recent quake occurred at 3:20 am, less than an hour before BART trains were set to start running again. For those of us who spend a fair amount of time shuttling between Bay Area cities, there's a good chance we could be caught in the transbay tube or (even worse) high above ground on an aerial trackway when the next big one hits.
The good news is that BART is hooked up to UC Berkeley's early warning system, the Earthquake Event Reaction System, implemented in 2012. Which mean that, when an earthquake is about to hit the Bay Area, a warning alert is triggered and sent to BART's main control center. We're the only public transportation network in the country to have such a system, which is pretty rad. The bad news? Despite the warning, they don't have that much time to respond. In the recent Napa case, for example, BART had only ten seconds. Eeks!
Thoroughly freaked out by the thought of getting stuck in a train during a major tremor, I spoke with BART's spokesman Jim Allison to get the lowdown on earthquake safety on public transit.
According to Allison, once an earthquake notice is received, BART immediately halts all trains for at least 5 minutes to prevent derailing, except for trains in the tube or the Berkeley tunnel—those cars cruise at a slow 25 miles per hour to the nearest station. Trains can continue on their merry way as soon as operators have assessed potential damage to the tracks.
Allison also explained that a train traveling at 30 miles per hour can be brought to a halt in under ten seconds, the amount of warning time they were given for the Napa quake; however, trains normally travel at a speed of 70 miles per hour and can only be slowed to 30 miles per hour in that time. Which is a little worrisome.
If you are on a moving BART train during a quake, the best thing you can do is remain calm and listen to your operator—they've been trained in disaster preparedness, so, ideally, they can help calm their passengers. Another important tip: DO NOT open the doors to try to escape. This is very dangerous and you could get hurt. Or worse. Instead, pore over BART's life-saving evacuation procedures here.
While I hope to never be aboard BART when the big one hits, it's still nice to know that the transit system has a plan (albeit some of those plans are slated for the future, according to Bart.gov.) Loma Prieta was the biggest test of BART's ability to withstand seismic impact. The next one could be bigger. Brace yourselves.
