Rescue Muni

This week, the MTA Citizens Advisory Council will hold a hearing on the service problems resulting from the startup of the T-Third and Muni’s plan to fix them. Senior Muni managers are slated to attend.

The hearing will be Thursday, May 3rd, at 5:30 p.m. at One South Van Ness, Room 3074. The public is welcome to attend and, as with all public meetings, there will be an opportunity for public comment. The agenda for the meeting is here.

-Daniel M.

The deterioration of service on the N-Judah since the startup of the T-Third is at its most dramatic during the PM commute. This random glimpse via NextMuni speaks volumes about the state of things on the line:

Muni announced a series of steps to deal with the petit mal Metro meltdown, including the rapid hiring of more LRV operators, bringing some LRV operators back on a temporary basis, and the re-engineering of the bottleneck intersection at Fourth and King, and says we should see results in a month or two. The steps seem reasonable, but would it be asking too much that they be undertaken, you know, before service started on the T?

Supposedly, trains are being re-designated at Embarcadero to even out service, but, at about 6:00 p.m. Thursday, after waiting 13 minutes for an outbound N at Van Ness, only to be passed by a crush-loaded N (and a slew of half-empty M-Ocean Views), and to be informed by the helpful folks at 311 that the next N would be in, uh, 26 minutes (and obviously crush-loaded too, after that long a gap) I gave up and took a cab.

And on days when there’s a game at Pac Bell/SBC/AT&T/its-heirs-and-successors Park, well, just forget it.

Is Metro service just as bad on the other lines? What’s your experience? This can’t be unique to the N, can it?

-Daniel M.

MTA director Nathaniel Ford told the Chronicle that service is improving on the T Third as well as other Muni Metro lines since the opening three weeks ago. (This is over a baseline of 25% on time service for the T-Third, according to a staff report at the SFCTA CAC (pdf) this week.)

Is service improving for you? Comment below or in our Yahoo Group. And check the NextMuni Google Map to find out where your streetcar is before riding.

Update: KGO-TV has a story about the Caltrain riders’ petition mentioned previously.

Today’s Examiner has a story about an online petition started by Peninsula commuters including Rescue Muni reader svetcov frustrated with reliability problems on Muni Metro from Caltrain to Embarcadero. The organizers have requested a meeting downtown with Muni top management to discuss these issues. (Rescue Muni is also working on hosting a meeting downtown on Metro operations – if we can arrange this we will of course invite Peninsula commuters.)

See our T-Third category for more on this issue including alternate routes to downtown from many locations on the T including Caltrain.

Immediate recommendation to all involved: put a NextBus display in the Caltrain station!

Friday’s Chronicle has an update on the T-Third / Muni Metro story. Muni is prioritizing I-280 traffic ahead of transit riders:

Officials have decided not to use a special traffic-signaling system that gives streetcars priority to move through the Fourth and King intersection. They fear that would create a major tie-up for vehicles heading off of and onto Interstate 280 down the block, said Muni spokeswoman Maggie Lynch.

But I-280 traffic or not, are the efforts to speed the trains through Fourth and King, Embarcadero, Castro, etc. making a difference? Comment here.

If you’re planning to ride, check NextMuni before you go to your stop.