Extra

Berkeley Power Outage Stops BART, Darkens North Berkeley, Downtown

By Janna Brancolini (BCN)
Tuesday March 22, 2011 - 02:19:00 PM

The North Berkeley and downtown Berkeley BART stations reopened this afternoon after power was restored to most of the city's 27,000 PG&E customers who lost electricity during an outage this morning, officials said. 

Power was restored at about 1 p.m. to all but 3,000 customers affected by the outage, which began at about 11:15 a.m., PG&E spokeswoman Fiona Chan said. 

BART trains ran at reduced speeds through Berkeley during the outage and did not stop at the downtown and North Berkeley stations, said agency spokesman Jim Allison. 

Allison said the stations were reopened at about 1 p.m., and trains were expected to be running at full speed soon after. 

Delays were reported on the Richmond line in the Richmond, Fremont and Millbrae directions while the power was out. 

The outage affected a portion of downtown Berkeley between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Fulton Street, from Cedar Street to Bancroft Way, a PG&E spokeswoman said. 

The area from University Avenue south to Bancroft Way was also in the dark between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Shattuck Avenue. 

Another area north of the university campus, from Hearst Avenue to Le Conte Avenue, was also impacted between Oxford Street and Highland Place.