Nixle alert for BART systemwide outage came 2 hours later. Here's why
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- During BART's systemwide outage two Fridays ago, it took two hours for a Nixle alert to go out, but BART wasn't responsible for the delay. ABC7 News investigative reporter Melanie Woodrow dug into the issue to find out what happened.
When BART had its most recent systemwide outage on Friday, Sept, 5, some Bay Area residents complained there was little to no communication.
"I was woken up at 4:30 a.m.," said Alicia Trost, BART Spokesperson.
Trost says by 4:50 a.m., an email was sent to all BART service advisory subscribers and media outlets.
At 5:03 a.m., BART began posting about the outage on its social media and website.
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At 5:11 a.m., a text message was sent to subscribers.
And a minute later at 5:12 a.m., an email was sent to the media about in-person interviews.
At 5:19 a.m., Trost reached out by email to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management. That's when the communication began to break down.
"Did you reach out only by email," asked ABC7 News investigative reporter Melanie Woodrow.
"That is the instructions they have given me," said Trost.
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"My thought was well at 5am, someone is probably asleep. I understand you're saying that's the process," Woodrow continued.
"That's what they've asked me to do," said Trost.
In an email thread Trost shared with Woodrow, the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management was first to respond to the email at 6:16 a.m., nearly an hour later, to say they amplified the message to their socials.
"They responded within an hour, which in the middle of the night, early morning, for a traffic related incident," said Trost.
Meanwhile, MTC responded at 6:51 a.m.
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"That's almost two hours later," said Woodrow.
"I'm not sure what their hours are," said Trost.
MTC is responsible for 511 traffic alerts. With BART down, there was more traffic than usual.
The 6:51 a.m., MTC email response said they'd amplified the message on their standard dissemination channels and they were preparing to send an emergency level Nixle alert. An MTC employee asked Trost if there was an ETA on resumption of services.
At 6:55 a.m., Trost replied, "No ETA yet" ... and "Please do a Nixle."
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At 7 a.m., the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, in that same email thread, said it had pushed two Nixle alerts via AlertSF, one about the BART outage and one about likely impacts to SFMTA service due to operators being delayed into the city. The person writing the email agreed, "...511 should also push a Nixle."
And finally at 7:17 a.m., two hours after MTC was first notified by email, the agency responded, "511 just sent out a Nixle alert to Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Contra Costa Counties."
"Do you think that's acceptable," asked Woodrow.
"I'm just happy that they helped amplify our message," said Trost.
"It sounds like you're happy you got any response," said Woodrow.
"We're happy they helped amplify our message, yeah," said Trost.
In a follow-up email to Trost on Sept. 9, an MTC employee wrote, "Our 511 Nixle program is used pretty infrequently. The threshold for sending a Nixle typically revolves around regional transportation emergencies that are unlikely to be resolved relatively quickly. Since it takes a bit of time to roll these alerts out to multiple counties, before we pushed the button last Friday, we needed to confirm with you that there was no immediate ETA for restoration of service."
Trost told Woodrow she understood that need. As for the method of communication --
"Since we're talking about ways to improve for the future, is there any I don't know thought from BART to contact MTC and say hey maybe we should do this a little differently going forward," asked Woodrow.
"So we did. Me seeing that the alert didn't get out until 7 a.m., I did follow up with them to say you know there's people that are noticing the alert didn't go out until 7 a.m. and it would have been really helpful if it went out sooner and I did specifically ask, can I get a phone number and they did give me a cell phone number so I have that for moving forward. I updated all of our crisis plan documents for all spokespeople at BART so that they know what phone number to call at 511 if we were to ever need it," said Trost.
Woodrow reached out to MTC and the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management.
The Department of Emergency Management said it issued its first AlertSF message at 6:12 a.m. once it was confirmed the disruption would affect the morning commute, followed by a second alert at 6:45 a.m. noting possible Muni impacts.
MTC said, Nixle alerts are reserved for transportation incidents that have a high regional impact and no immediate estimated time for resolution. MTC further said it got the word out on its standard dissemination channels at 5:11am but that the Nixle alert didn't go out until 7:11 a.m. once BART had confirmed at 6:55 a.m. there was no estimated time for resolution.
MTC also confirmed since the systemwide outage, it has now provided BART with multiple points of contact including phone numbers. BART says it's alert to subscribers was sent out at 4:50 a.m. You can sign up for those alerts on the BART website or app.
Take a look at more stories by the ABC7 News I-Team.
