This Sunday, Muni’s all door boarding policy officially starts. Muni will have more inspectors to check for those who don’t pay, increasing from 42 to 52 officers. With 30% of Muni’s time spent boarding passengers, boarding through any door on buses could save the agency as much as $76m per year by speeding up average service by 1mph.
SFWeekly has a detailed article on the deteriorating state of the SFMTA’s bus and rail fleet. Duct taped buses, garbage bags covering high voltage pantograph wiring, and rubber bands holding up roof ladders are discussed. According to the article, it takes as many as 5 workers to change a part on a bus, and there are no modern inventory controls such as bar coding in place. All these deferred maintenance problems cause delays, dangerous equipment malfunctions, and even fatal accidents.
Muni’s plan to hire 95 part-time drivers to save cash under Prop G hasn’t worked out as planned. The current operator attrition rate at 12 per month, and Muni hasn’t been able to hire new drivers fast enough with the current students in the 8 week training course. TWU-250A’s president Eric Williams says a smeared reputation by SFMTA management and the media has made getting new operators difficult. Converting part-time drivers to full time has saved the agency money, $1.05m compared to running overtime drivers at $1.8m.