A beloved California aunt who helped send several of her nieces and nephews to college died Monday after a crazed homeless man pushed her onto a moving train, police reports said.

The 74-year-old woman was on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) platform at San Francisco's Powell Street Station when suspect Trevor Belmont allegedly pushed her into an oncoming train shortly after 11 p.m., BART police said.

The victim, identified by the coroner as Corazon Dandan, hit his head on the train and fell to the platform.

Corazon Dandan, 74, was killed Monday night when a homeless man allegedly pushed her onto a moving BART train. Family photo

She was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where she later died, traffic police said.

Dandan, of San Mateo County, was on her way home from her job as a telephone operator at the Parc 55 hotel when she was killed, her nephew told the San Francisco Standard.

Alvin Dandan, a St. Louis doctor, said his aunt took the BART to work and back home every day and revealed his cousins ​​recently warned her against using the BART late at night.

Corazon, who was divorced and never had children, continued to work well past the usual retirement age even though she did not need the income, he said.

“She just loved working and being around younger people,” Alvin told the local news publication.

She also loved her many nieces and nephews, he added, and helped finance his medical studies and the education of several of his cousins.

Shortly after the fatal shove, BART police arrested 49-year-old Trevor Belmont, also known as Hoak Taing, at the Powell Street Station. Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images

“Great doesn't even describe how I feel about this woman,” Alvin DanDan told The Standard on Tuesday. “I wouldn't be here and a lot of my cousins ​​wouldn't be here. … She put a lot of people through school.”

Dandan landed in San Francisco from the Philippines in the 1980s “as a single, independent woman,” he added.

Alvin said he spoke to his aunt via text message the day she was murdered.

“She sounded cheerful,” he said.

Dandan's nephew, a doctor in St. Louis, said his aunt helped him finance his medical studies. AP

BART officers arrested the 49-year-old Belmont man shortly after the fatal shoving at the station. Police said the suspect, also known as Hoak Taing, was a “transient.”

Belmont was booked into the San Francisco County Jail on Tuesday morning. He remains behind bars on charges of murder and assault on an elderly person likely to cause serious injury.

Investigators have not yet determined a motive for this shocking crime and are continuing to interview witnesses and review surveillance videos.

The investigation is ongoing.

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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Bay Area Rapid Transit is running trains at reduced speeds due to the warm weather, the transit system announced Friday. BART trains between Orinda and Pittsburg/Bay Point stations operate at a slower rate between 12:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m

Passengers are advised to add 20 minutes to the scheduled travel time to accommodate delays.

Eastbound traffic on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was blocked

Trains between Hayward and Fremont as well as Castro Valley and Dublin/Pleasanton stations also run slower due to high temperatures. Passengers on these lines are advised to add 10 minutes to the scheduled travel time to accommodate delays.

Friday’s planned slowdown follows an incident in June 2021 when a Yellow Line BART train derailed between Pleasant Hill and Concord stations. BART later blamed high temperatures for the derailment. Temperatures in Concord that day were around 100 degrees.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A mask mandate for commuter rail passengers is back by popular demand in the San Francisco Bay Area, the region that two years ago imposed the nation’s first coronavirus stay-at-home order and now is bucking the national trend away from required face coverings.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system, known as BART, had decided last week to drop its rule in line with a federal court ruling but that decision prompted an outcry, spokeswoman Alicia Trost said Friday.

“We started to immediately hear from riders in phone calls, emails, tweets, that they felt unsafe on the train if there was not a mask mandate,” BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said Friday.

BART’s board of directors decided in a meeting Thursday to temporarily restore the mask rule until at least July 18, the agency said in a statement. Children ages 2 and under as well as people with medical conditions that prevent them from wearing masks are exempt from the mandate.

The decision makes the Bay Area’s largest transit system the latest in California to bring back a mandate for face coverings after Los Angeles County restored its masking rule a week ago for all public transportation including buses, trains, subways, taxis and airports.

The reinstatement came 10 days after a federal judge in Florida ended the nation’s federal mask mandate on public transportation, freeing airlines, airports and mass transit systems to make their own decisions about mask requirements. A mix of responses has taken shape across the country that reflects the nation’s ongoing divisions over how to battle the virus.

Major airlines immediately dropped mask requirements after the decision, as did many local transit agencies around the country.

New York City, Chicago and Connecticut, however, continued to require masks for travelers.

San Francisco and Los Angeles public transit agencies initially dropped their mask requirements, but many have since flip-flopped.

Thursday’s BART board meeting was flooded by callers who voiced support for reinstating the policy in particular to protect vulnerable riders, Trost said.

BART, which connects San Francisco to its eastern and southern suburbs, is struggling to restore ridership that plummeted from pre-pandemic highs of over 400,000 weekday riders to about 130,000, according to recent data. It quickly became clear that banishing mask mandates would not help.

“We are still really trying to win back riders, and I think masks can play an important role in doing that,” Trost said.

San Francisco and the wider Bay Area have had some of the strictest pandemic regulations and compliance with the rules in the nation, starting in March 2020 when the Bay Area became the first to declare a state of emergency. Many residents have continued to wear masks in supermarkets and other indoor venues even though indoor mask mandates were largely lifted in February. Similarly, most BART riders have continued to wear masks in the past week, despite the temporary lifting of the mask rule.

BART said its police force will emphasize education-based enforcement by offering masks to riders before issuing citations up to $75 or ejecting anyone. BART officials said that police won’t use those enforcement options for the first week of the mandate.

COVID-19 infections in California have multiplied in recent weeks, following a trend seen around the country, but hospitalizations remain low in California. The Bay Area has reported a more pronounced spike in cases than elsewhere in the state with a seven-day average of 26 new cases per 100,000 residents, compared to 10.6 cases per 100,000 in California overall.

However, Los Angeles County on Friday reported more than 28 new cases per 100,000 residents. Public health officials said the county was experiencing “a high rate of transmission” and cases were steadily rising.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Note: GJEL Accident Attorneys regularly sponsors coverage on Streetsblog San Francisco and Streetsblog California. Unless noted in the story, GJEL Accident Attorneys is not consulted for the content or editorial direction of the sponsored content.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo is concerned about a projected $3 billion cost overrun for the BART extension to downtown San Jose, attributed to designs that use a controversial single-bore, 85-foot-deep subway concept pushed by VTA.

Nevertheless, VTA is moving forward. From a San Jose Mercury News story about the VTA Board’s decision Thursday to award contracts for the project. “VTA approves $235 million San Jose BART extension contract — so why is it also reviewing its controversial design?”:

The unanimous vote from the board puts the VTA in the unusual position of awarding a $235 million contract that moves forward with the extension’s “single-bore” tunnel plan, while simultaneously launching a new analysis of the contentious design.

A map of the extension. Image: VTA

As reported previously, in an attempt to eliminate disruption to merchants, VTA had decided on a $9 billion deep, single-bore subway plan–which analysis shows could cost some $3 billion more than conventional tunneling–to construct the six-mile BART extension under downtown San Jose. VTA’s preferred design would place the two tracks stacked one above the other inside a super-large, single tunnel (see comparative diagrams below). This single-bore construction technique can make sense in cities that need to avoid underground obstacles such as legacy subway tunnels (think London, Tokyo, etc). But, of course, there aren’t any subways, crooked streets, or other such obstacles in San Jose.

VTA’s design for a single, very deep bore through downtown San Jose. This concept is supported by merchants because it minimizes temporary surface disruptions. Image: BEARD
The traditional, twin-bore configuration would have a max depth of 55 feet for riders, versus 85 feet for single-bore. Image: BEARD

But merchants always want transit in a subway, the deeper the better, with the belief that if it’s deep underground construction will have no impact on their businesses. It also, however, means when the subway is finished riders will have longer trips to and from the platforms. It also complicates construction, fire safety, and operations, since trains can’t switch from track to track without building complicated ramps between the two levels.

Nevertheless, it seemed San Jose politics had all but locked in the controversial, single-bore design, despite pushback from transit advocates. But at Thursday evening’s VTA board meeting, as reported in advocate Adina Levin’s Green Caltrain blog, Mayor Liccardo submitted his memo calling for reviews of the project to explore:

• Better connections at Diridon Station
• Entrances on both sides of Santa Clara Street at the downtown station
• Support for very high density transit oriented development

…and, most notably, an independent analysis comparing single-bore and dual-bore options, building on an earlier analysis done in 2017. Also from Green Caltrain:

“…the tradeoffs of the single and dual-bore options with regard to “passenger safety, rider access and experience, cost, and construction delay.” The previous analysis in 2017 had focused on constructability and operability, but did not compare the construction techniques for the ability to support better rider access and dense transit oriented development.

The memo from the Mayor is co-signed by San Jose Council Member and VTA board chair Chappie Jones, and Council Member Raul Peralez. Earlier this year, San Jose City Council had approved a resolution calling for improvements to the project relating to transit connections, multiple entrances, TOD, and alleviating construction impacts on businesses.

Since VTA originally made the decision in favor of the single bore option in 2018, concerns have grown regarding limitations in the project design and increasing cost estimates. SPUR and grassroots advocacy organizations such as the Transbay Coalition and Friends of Caltrain have called for passenger-focused improvements to the project, including adding entrances on both sides of the street, better passenger flow, better transit connections, and better support for transit-oriented development. A conventional subway design, with the train tunnels built side-by-side and far closer to the surface, makes it easier to accommodate such improvements.

Read more on the Green Caltrain blog and check out the coverage in the SJ Merc News.

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Lateefah Simon vacated her seat on the BART Board of Directors Wednesday after the agency determined she no longer resides in the district she represents — despite assurances she says she received from BART officials that her move kept her within district boundaries.

Simon presided over the BART Board of Directors during the height of the pandemic and represented BART’s District 7 that includes BART’s Richmond stations, Berkeley’s Ashby station and a portion of North Oakland’s MacArthur station. Simon told The Chronicle in a phone interview Thursday morning that she consulted with senior BART officials before moving last year from her Richmond home to an apartment complex adjacent to the MacArthur BART station.

A BART spokesperson said Thursday that the agency couldn’t confirm whether an agency official had given Simon that reassurance nor could the agency find any written evidence supporting Simon’s claim.

At the time, Simon was receiving death threats and other harassing messages — some of them laced with racist and misogynistic slurs — including an incident in which she found urine on her doorstep in North Richmond.

Simon planned to join Thursday’s Board of Directors meeting remotely before receiving news from BART officials within the last week that her home was “a stone’s throw” outside her district line. Her departure was briefly acknowledged at the beginning of Thursday’s meeting.

“I’m devastated,” Simon said in a phone call from Selma, Ala., where she is commemorating the 57th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday civil rights march.

In a later statement, Simon said, “Before moving, I informed top BART officials and sought their input, and was assured that the building is within District 7. I would not have moved my family otherwise.”

Before moving, Simon said she had numerous conversations with senior BART officials who helped her execute a conflict of interest memo, since her home is part of a transit-oriented development on the agency’s land.

Legally blind, Simon said she opted to move into an apartment complex across the street from MacArthur station because, “as a visually impaired person, to be able to walk across the street and access transit — it’s the best thing in the world.”

Simon shared representation of MacArthur station with board Director Robert Raburn, according to a map of BART’s district boundaries. Simon’s district included the station, itself, while Raburn’s district covers the portion east of northbound State Route 24 that includes the station’s entrance plaza, parking garage and apartments built on BART property.

Alicia Trost, BART’s chief communications officer, said that the agency last week asked Simon to give her address after “it came to our attention that there was a residency discrepancy.” The address Simon gave, which is across the street from the State Route 24 boundary, made it clear she no longer resided in the district she represented, Trost said.

Trost said the agency can’t confirm whether a conversation between BART officials and Simon about the move took place because the BART employee believed to have been involved is on leave.

The threats that prompted Simon’s move appeared to be linked to work she had done on police reform. She has been outspoken calling for a new investigation into the 2009 deadly shooting of Oscar Grant at Fruitvale Station by a transit officer. Simon also successfully pushed for BART’s ambassador program, in which the agency deploys uniformed civilian officers to help with security and handle some duties traditionally assigned to sworn police.

Simon’s election in 2016 was viewed by some as a changing of the guard that steered the agency’s Board of Directors toward social issues and a more progressive bent. Her colleagues elected her board president in December 2019. Months later, the start of a pandemic spiraled the agency into a fight for survival after ridership plummeted by 94% in spring 2020.

Several board directors were stunned by the news of Simon’s departure. They credited her for helping steer BART during its most tumultuous period and lobbying for the financial assistance from the federal government that has largely sustained BART since the pandemic.

“It’s been through my leadership that hundreds of millions of dollars came to the district during COVID,” Simon said.

As a single mom who rides BART daily, several board directors said she brought the perspective of transit-dependent riders seldom represented on the BART board.

BART board President Rebecca Saltzman, who urged Simon to run in 2016, said “we are a better agency because of Lateefah’s contribution.”

“She was president during probably the hardest year in BART’s history when the pandemic hit. The way she brought our board and staff together, and management and labor unions, to weather the crisis and bring in a huge amount of federal funding, it was really incredible,” Saltzman said.

Board Director Janice Li described Simon’s departure as “a huge loss for the BART board,” noting that she is now the only person of color on the government body. During the pandemic, low-income people of color who don’t own cars have accounted for a growing share of BART’s ridership, according to a 2020 customer satisfaction survey.

“Lateefah always spoke up for low-income folks, people with disabilities, Black riders,” Li said. “To lose that voice is significant.”

District 7 voters will decide Simon’s permanent replacement in a forthcoming election. The Board of Directors has 60 days to appoint a replacement to fill the vacated seat in the interim.

Bevan Dufty, a BART board director representing a San Francisco district, said Thursday that Simon “sought the advice of a district official and was assured that her move kept her within District 7, which she so ably represents. This advice was wrong, and here we are today.” He hoped Simon would consider moving back within the district and apply to be appointed to the seat she vacated this week.

“People who have known and worked with Lateefah began to view BART differently because of her presence on this body,” Dufty said.

Rachel Swan and Ricardo Cano are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com, ricardo.cano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan, @ByRicardoCano

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) – New Years Eve celebrations can get a free ride on SF Muni on Friday evenings, and BART and other transport companies offer an expanded service for the holidays.

The free New Year’s Eve service on Muni runs from 8 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Saturday, officials from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said.

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At midnight on New Year’s Eve, there will be city-sponsored fireworks from a barge in front of the Embarcadero, south of the ferry terminal. From around 10:00 p.m. Muni will redirect the area and resume normal service once the roads are clear.

BART will offer the standard service on Friday at the full tariff, but with an extended closing time to accommodate the drivers enjoying fireworks and other festivities. The last train towards East Bay that goes through downtown San Francisco will be around 1:30 a.m. and the last train going south towards Millbrae will go through downtown San Francisco at 2:10

Further information on the BART service on New Year’s Eve can be found at https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2021/news20211116-1.

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Ride Muni Free New Year’s Eve includes all Muni lines and routes. Clipper Card customers should not tap their cards to ensure they will not be billed for a fare. Muni Mobile passes are not required. That night, the subway ticket offices will be open. Further information on the extra service on Muni on New Year’s Eve can be found at https://www.sfmta.com/travel-updates/new-years-eve-free-muni-and-extra-service.

The Caltrain service is free on New Year’s Eve from 8:00 p.m. until the last special train leaves San Francisco after the event. Trains run after midnight until 1:30 a.m. or until full.

SamTrans offers free rides on all buses from Friday 8 p.m. to Saturday 5 a.m. Further information on the SamTrans holiday plan can be found at https://www.samtrans.com/schedulesandmaps/holidayservice.html.

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© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A power outage at Millbrae BART station early Monday morning halted train traffic to San Francisco International Airport amid the onslaught of travelers either returning home or leaving the Bay Area after the Christmas holiday weekend.

Traffic officials reported the outage around 5 a.m. and immediately erected a SamTrans bus bridge to take passengers to the airport and also to the San Bruno train station of the transit system.

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“There is a train station closure in Millbrae,” said traffic officials. “There is no train connection on the Millbrae Line between Millbrae and San Bruno or SFO due to a power outage at Millbrae station.”

The outage also caused a significant delay on the San Francisco line towards the East Bay. There was no ETA as to when service would be restored.

Other issues also contributed to the BART issues on Monday morning.

“Due to several decommissioned trains, power failure at Millbrae station and wet weather conditions, there is a limited service system,” said traffic officials in a warning.

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The service outage was just the newest challenge for leisure travelers. On Sunday there were 46 flights from SFO and 230 flight delays. Then there was the new COVID test requirement for international travel.

“It’s stressful, absolutely stressful. We’re just trying to take it as it comes and that’s all you can do, ”said Sandra Brown, who was planning to travel to Vancouver, Canada with her family on Sunday. “We had to rebook once today because our flight was canceled.

There were long lines at check-in and security counters and even longer waiting times for those who need a rapid COVID test on flights to overseas destinations.

Jordan Simon showed up the day before his flight to Southeast Asia because he wasn’t sure he would get a test before his flight on Monday.

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“I think it’s a terrible line, I think it’s a terrible line,” he said as he stood on the test line. “From up there they say that if you are here you have to wait three hours. So it’s like a five-hour line. ”

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – BART officials said Wednesday climate change and sea level rise will pose a growing threat to the transit system in the coming decades.

The ailing transport company is trying to find money to combat the long-term but looming threat.

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“One of the predictions is that by mid-century we might see tides a foot higher than they are now. So that’s 2050, ”said BART spokesman Jim Allison.

BART engineers say sea level rise could have a number of potential effects. For example, the Embarcadero train station in San Francisco could occasionally be inundated by floods.

Other stations could be threatened by rising groundwater, which would strain the existing pumps and the aging infrastructure of the system.

“The thing for me is that we’re at the height of technology and innovation in the Bay Area, but this is an old system that is really shabby,” said BART driver Jason Caballero.

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BART has identified many of the potential problem areas, but the agency relies on injections of money from the federal government just to keep trains running.

“The devastating effects of the pandemic and the dramatic decrease in the number of passengers paying for their tickets have really turned our funding plan upside down,” Allison said.

BART drivers say they understand the transportation company’s financial plight but are concerned about the long-term costs of inaction.

“It might be better to say, ‘Let’s pretend it’ll happen in 10 years.’ And what could the BART system do in 10 years to avoid being caught wading in the BART system with pants down and knee-deep water? ”Asked rider Bianca Espinoza.

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BART officials noted that several vulnerable stations are connected to other important pieces of infrastructure in the Bay Area, such as the airports in San Francisco and Oakland. Any plan to mitigate this impact would necessarily have to be regional and collaborative.

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Here is some streetsblog news to start your weekend off.

BART will be back on Monday:

Starting next week, BART will essentially return to pre-pandemic levels. This corresponds to an increase in service hours of 76 percent compared to this month. From a BART version:

BART is returning to a pre-pandemic service level on Monday, August 2, 2021, with a highlight being the return of our midnight closing time Monday through Saturday.

The new timetable is very similar to the one before the pandemic, but with some targeted service enhancements, but also some areas that will not return to pre-pandemic levels, such as the additional commuter trains on the Antioch-SFO (yellow) line during peak hours. Sunday service will continue to operate at 30 minute frequencies and close at 9 p.m. to allow for BART’s critical cable replacement project and other infrastructure remodeling work.

There was also a slight change to the service map, especially the SFO connection (see map in main picture). While this may be a little misleading, the new map and service schedule should be less confusing for those traveling to and from the airport, as trains reverse from Millbrae to follow the Ye in SFO.

Streetsblog readers will remember that since the pandemic began in 2020, BART has been operating on a restricted timetable, with the last trains leaving at 9 p.m.

The South Bayfront Bike-Ped Bridge in Emeryville is nearing completion.

Photo: Streetsblog / Rudick

It’s OK. No, really, it’s okay to spend $ 21.4 million on infrastructure just for cyclists and pedestrians – especially since they don’t add to traffic and global warming. So it’s nice to see that one of these rare projects is nearing completion. The South Bayfront Bridge over the railroad tracks in Emeryville will connect Ohlone Way and Bay Street to Horton Street. The expected opening date of the bike-and-pedal-only bridge is mid to late 2021.

For years, cyclists and pedestrians have been waiting for this train connection to get from most of Emeryville to the Bayfront Mall and the water. The link is due to open this fall, and it looks like construction is on the right track, with workers installing irrigation for landscaping and other finishing touches.

Streetsblog can only dream of one day when the bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure is first completed – and motorists can be classified as “alternative modes of transport” and wait a decade or more for a safe route to get from A to B.

Streetsblog last reviewed this project in October 2020 when the crews delivered the red archway to support the bridge.

Caltrain is getting the freezer and the summer heat

Photo: Caltrain

Sometimes a train cannot take a break.

As part of acceptance tests, railways put trains through their paces – speed tests, endurance tests, door tests, safety tests, etc. But who would have thought that trains would have to get stuck in a huge refrigerator and oven?

Testing of the electric train continues in Elmira, NY, in a special climatic chamber room. A car is exposed to different climatic conditions, from lower winters to higher extreme temperatures and humidity in summer. The tests will also take into account different levels of passengers to ensure that the journey is comfortable for both passengers and operators in different climatic conditions.

Sounds like trains can talk if this one would curse. But if the interior of the train stays cozy in a simulated New York summer and winter, the Bay Area should do just fine. It’s a shame the windows won’t open.

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The number of BART drivers rose steadily this week, as the agency’s communications team announced on Twitter on Friday, reaching a new high that has not been seen since the pandemic began.

BART recorded 64,070 drivers on Thursday, 16% of the prepandemic. That’s still 84% fewer than the normal number of drivers, but it’s a significant improvement on the 90 +% drop in driver numbers that was seen for most of last year.

On Monday the number of drivers was 59,814, and the number has increased for every consecutive day. This can be explained by several factors: a) Cinco de Mayo happened, b) the weather was pretty nice, and c) San Francisco stepped onto the “yellow” row, which meant that many bars open indoor spaces on Thursday. Also, many people are now fully vaccinated who were less than a week or two ago, and these numbers will only increase in the coming weeks.

“We are preparing to offer quality service again because we know that this will get people back on the train,” says BART. (As you may recall, even before the pandemic started, driver numbers were in a slump, partly due to a general lack of safety and cleanliness.)

Ridership Watch:
Mon: 59.814
Tuesday: 62.731
Wed: 62,920
Thu: 64,070 (84% of drivers before the pandemic and new high).
We are preparing to bring quality service back because we know this will get people back on the train.
A thread from your favorite transit communications team pic.twitter.com/sJk4JKgxsU

– SFBART (@SFBART), May 7, 2021

BART says it will add 26 more trains to the daily schedule on June 15 as the state pledged to open more of the economy. And by August 30, it is said, the service will return to an “almost pre-pandemic level” thanks to the federal government’s economic aid.

“It takes several months of mandatory operator and station agent training [for this]”Says BART in a tweet.” We opened the Berryessa extension [last June] Without doing this, we need to hire / train more. “

The communication team also apologizes for the fact that several station entrances in different locations are closed. They say they know this isn’t very driver friendly, but it does allow them to keep things cleaner and safer for the time being at the open entrances. It’s only temporary, they say, and the entrances will “reopen when the number of drivers increases”.

“We want you to know we’re not holding back,” they tweeted. “The federal emergency grant gives us the confidence to hire more workers and get the trains back on track, and increase the frequency on weekdays and weekends as the weekends are a key part of recovery. So take the train.”

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