The Concord BART Station is set to reopen Sunday morning following a train derailment on Friday that damaged nearby tracks, transit officials said.
Track repairs have been completed and BART officials were busy testing rails and equipment in the area, according to an email sent this morning from BART spokesman Jim Allison.
Regular service was expected to resume today with the first scheduled departure from Concord Station at 8:07 a.m., Allison said.
On Friday at around 6:30 p.m., an out-of-service train was leaving the Concord station when some train wheels went off the track, BART officials said.
The derailment occurred as the train traveled over a switching mechanism known as an interlocking, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.
The train operator was not injured and no passengers were on board.
Shuttle service was deployed to carry passengers east of Pleasant Hill while repairs were under way.
Cranes hoisted the four cars involved in the derailment off of the elevated BART tracks in Concord and crews repairing two sections of mainline tracks and a damaged third rail, Allison said.
Cables and other parts of the trackway damaged by the derailment were replaced and an inspection of the rails for safety were conducted, the spokesman said.
Witnesses said it appeared something went wrong at the switch between two parallel tracks.
"It popped over," a witness said. "First car went on this track, second car tried to go on that track, and then, it went downhill from there."
