UPDATE: ALL CLEAR! Major Caltrain Delays Reported; Other Commuter Services Accepting Caltrain Tickets

UPDATE: Wednesday, March 19, 10 a.m.

Caltrain is back up and running this morning after a power outage caused its computerized dispatching system and prompted major system-wide delays, Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said.

At around 8:30 a.m. today, an outage at Caltrain's San Jose dispatching center caused the computer dispatching system to fail, Dunn said, forcing Caltrain to halt all trains.

The dispatching center switched to a back-up generator, but a glitch with the computer system itself caused operations to stop, Dunn said.

The dispatching system was back up and running around 9:20 a.m.

Riders are advised to board the next available train that comes to their station.

#######
Wednesday, March 19, 

Caltrain is experiencing major system-wide delays this morning following a failure in its computerized dispatching system, Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said.

At around 8:30 a.m. today, the computer dispatching system failed, Dunn said, forcing Caltrain to halt all trains.

"We are not able to operate trains, so there are major system wide delays and we don't have any idea on how long this will take to repair," Dunn warned.

Caltrain has made arrangements with VTA, Samtrans and BART to accept Caltrain tickets.

Some trains are moving at a slower pace, as Caltrain officials are working some switches by hand. Dunn is not aware of what trains are running at this time.

Initially, there was a power failure near San Jose, but Caltrain back up generators took over, Dunn said. The glitch is with the computer system itself, she said.

A squirrel caused a power outage that has left nearly 1,200 PG&E customers in San Jose without power this morning, a utility spokeswoman said, but it was not confirmed if it were related to the Caltrain issue.

The outage was first reported around 8:20 a.m. and is affecting 1,180 customers in the city's College Park neighborhood, according to PG&E spokeswoman Monica Tell.

She said a squirrel came into contact with some PG&E equipment in the area, causing the outage.

The spokeswoman said she did not know whether the outage was responsible for a failure in Caltrain's computer dispatching system this morning. Power is expected to be restored to the San Jose customers around 11 a.m., Tell said.

Copyright © 2014 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.