With so many people involved process seems to be trumping the nuts and bolts, but the short of it is that BART management and the striking unions have reached a tentative agreement. It isn't yet clear when BART will begin running again; earlier it was suggested that an agreement had to be reached by 6 p.m. local time in order for BART to be available for the morning commute; it's now just after 10 p.m. BART Director Grace Crunican has just announced that trains will "hopefully" be running in time for the afternoon commute but not for the morning commute.
It appears that the accident which occurred over the weekend prompted both sides to reach an agreement which, at the point the strike began, was held up more by disagreement on safety issues; the dollars and cents issues had already been worked out.
I don't need BART to get to work myself but many of my friends and colleagues do (as does my partner). And of course the downtown San Francisco as well as bridges and freeways in the immediate area on either side of the Bay were a mess today. At this point I'm just relieved that things have been resolved.
Update below the break...
UPDATE: Tentative announcement that trains WILL be running as of 4 a.m., albeit with lower than normal capacity.