A reader writes in to ask one of the biggest questions there is about MUNI:
I've attached a screenshot of the J Church train on a Friday night, according to Next Muni's site.Yep, that is five trains arriving within one ten-minute period, for a train that's supposed to go every ten minutes. This is at a stop that is five stops from the terminus, where (in theory) someone should be sitting there saying "A J left ten minutes ago, now it's your turn to go."
Um, what the hell is this? If five are arriving this quickly, that means I'll probably have to wait forty for the next one. This really isn't that hard. What's going on, MUNI?
Good question. We remember being at the Montgomery Station and watching like four or five M,L, and K trains go by, each holding less and less riders in them before we saw our N Judah pass. Shouldn't somebody sit there and go: "gosh, maybe we shouldn't have the same train run over and over again when other trains are late?" How frakin' difficult is it to do something like that?
Dan from Burritophile continues on after the jump. And remember folks, send your Dear Mr. Ford cards and letters to us
I can follow up. I live about a ten minute walk from the J stop at Castro/Market. I went into El Castillito to get a couple of burritos to go..... There were two people in front of me, and while I waited for them, ordered and paid, three J trains went by. I timed it at about eight minutes total, from entry to payment. Three trains. The first was relatively full, the last nearly empty. I walked down to the shelter, and Nextbus read:J church
9 minutes
43 minutesThis wasn't Nextbus screwing up, this was...
Well, it's exactly what we expect from MUNI, isn't it?
If the train is supposed to show up every ten minutes, having each train leave every ten minutes from the terminus should be a pretty good place to start. Why don't they do this?
All we can say is reverand.
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Actually, it's safer for them to travel in a caravan. This way, if they're attacked by wild Indians out on the plains, they can circle around and defend themselves more effectively. And if they run out of food while going over the Rockies, they can eat each other.
The screen shot says these are outbound trains at 7:02 pm. Most of them are probably the trains that were the N Judah outbound commute and are headed back via the J to Balboa Park to go out of service now that the peak demand is over.
Speaking of the NextBus sign at Duboce and Church. Has anyone noticed the mystery black button?
First of all, mattymatt's comments might be one of the most funny I've read. And Mr. Fischer makes a good point about the practicalities of this time of day.
But it does raise a question which constantly annoys me. Shouldn't there be some hard and fast work rule that binds drivers (I'm thinking more for buses) to not go out in these caravans during non-commute hours? Nothing is more frustrating than missing a 3 bus caravan and waiting another 20 minutes on a route where they're supposed to be running every 5 or 8 minutes.
And it's my silent suspicion as to one big reason why there is no hurry in rolling out NextBus citywide on all routes. More information to the public will reveal how good (or bad) the service on their line really is.
Did you push the button HM? If not do it.
Eric is right, these are "pull ins" which are vehicles returning to the car barn at Balboa Park. But the bunching happens ALL the time.
I am going to guess that it is trains returning to the yard for the night. I have definitely seen J-Church marked trains leave from 4th and King. The J route is the shortest path back to the Balboa Park yard. They can't take a driver whose shift is nearly over and send him/her out to Ocean Beach without paying even more overtime.
I do understand the frustration because I have been caught in this situation so many times on various routes.
From what I 've been told, by making the N Judah NOT go to Caltrain anymore, but instead make it end at Embarcadero, and then having both the J Church and the T-Third (which will replace the Castro Shuttle), turnaround times for all 3 lines are supposedly improved.
that said, I agree, it does get frustrating. There are times when I am sitting there with my stupid groceries going "WTF?". And I refuse to take a jacked up cab fare home. They're worse than MUNI these days.
The Citizen Advisory Council (which I'm on) and others have been pressuring Muni to turnback trains at Embarcadero to fill line needs, but the idea just hits up against a wall. Cost has been cited as one obstacle, but they'd make up for it in the productivity gained (that third train or bus in a row running completely empty still costs money to run)
The J-Church running to Caltrain and the T-Third south from there doesn't so much improve turnaround times as it doubles the frequency of trains to Caltrain. One-car trains about every 4-5 minutes instead of a two-car train every 8-9 minutes. It's still cars overall. This still leaves 4 lines turning back at Embarcadero.
The T-Third turning back at Castro (every 9 minutes peak) is going to help with congestion between Castro and Embarcadero, which should help with bunching and delays.
We'll see how it all works out.
"Speaking of the NextBus sign at Duboce and Church. Has anyone noticed the mystery black button?"
Part of a pilot program from Muni Accessible Services. When you push the button, the text displayed on a NextBus screen is read out loud for you.
Check it out and see if it works.
I'd like to believe that those trains were used-to-be N-Judahs, I really would.
Except that all three of the trains that lumbered by were one-cars. Ns are almost always two, especially during commute hours.