January 15, 2007
Your Commute: Riding The T Third
Hey, the new MUNI T Third line is finally open! That's the new light rail route that goes (.gif) from Castro Station down Third Street, through Dogpatch, down the Bayview, past Monster Park, and all the way to Sunnydale Avenue. We decided to spend our day off today checking it out.
The T-Third is running in beta from now until April 1-- it's only running on weekends and every twenty minutes (though we waited about 45 minutes), but it's free if you get on the train at any of the new stations (from Fourth and King on down Third). Regular T service will start on April 1, at which point: 1) the N will terminate at Embarcadero and 2) the J will start running to the ballpark and the Caltrain station during rush hour.
We expect they'll be rehiring that lady whose voice does all the in-tunnel announcements to record her saying "T" -- as it stands now, the announcements go, "Inbound. N. In 2 minutes. ----. In 13 minutes." Once our train arrived, it was packed with people who'd gone to the Martin Luther King Jr. day celebrations, as well as a number of public transit enthusiasts. A bunch of MUNI employees were riding along as well, and they were probably the most excited of everyone.
We had a great time, and took some pictures, a few of which we've included after the jump. (And check out SF Metblogs' excellent coverage as well!)
Picture of the fun advertising campaign for the T Third!
There's a nice piece of public art right outside the controversial Hunters Point PG&E plant.
A train pulling into the Sunnydale station (the last stop on the line).
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I also saw T-Thirds running yesterday but was not able to make time to ride.
I noticed a few other things. It looks like they are changing the manual signs on the Breda cars so that the color matches the color on the signs inside the stations. For example, I noticed several J-Church cars yesterday where the "J" was in an orange circle instead of magenta. Orange is indeed the color of the J line on the signs.
I also noticed that the are changing the electronic signs from "N Judah" - PAUSE - "Destination" - PAUSE - Caltrain to say N Judah on the top line and Caltrain on the bottom line. This is much easier to read as the cars pull into the stations.
Yeehaw! Now the Noe Valley yuppies will suffer the J to CalTrain that the N riders have had to endure for the past 8 years or so. Finally, a mainly white, wealthy line will have to suffer. Now if they can get rid of those stupid Castro shuttles and get more trains that go to the more economically diverse sections of town, that will be a great benefit to the low wage workers in town. And next, perhaps they'll increase rush hour times to include low wage workers who do retail work from 10 am til 9 pm who have no choice but to ride MUNI. Oh yeah, I'm not holding my breath.
In all the T-rail hoopla (which I've been following since I work next to the 4th street bridge), I have never once noticed the minor detail that the N-jJudah will STOP AT EMBARCADERO! I live in the Haight and work in China Basin. The only good thing about that was I was able to get on the N before it became a sardine can. Does anyone else find this to be a giant pain the the [fill in the blank]?
Catherine, just get on the J at Duboce and Church, it will take you where you need to go.
While N-Judah riders will have to transfer, at least there are now two options during rush hour, the T and the J.
Frequency on the T-Third Street will be every 9 minutes peak, 15 minutes off peak, and 20 minutes late night. The T-Line isn't the only new service for our city's southernmost end. The 9X will become full time with service until 1:00 am and be extended to City Collage and Fisherman's wharf.
The T-Third Street will have the same hours as the other lines, but when the new Muni Metro East storage and maintenance facility opens next year, the trains pulling in after they finish service on the other lines will probably mean later service than any other line has.
"While N-Judah riders will have to transfer, at least there are now two options during rush hour, the T and the J."
I remain skeptical.
Catherine, I ride the N from the Sunset to China Basin every day...and am probably going to make my transfer at the Embarcadero in the morning and Church & Duboce in the evening. In the morning crowding to from the Embarcadero to CalTrain isn't all that bad, and in the evening lot of people pile out of the train when it comes out of the tunnel at Safeway. It might be less packed at that point.
You could also try to change your work schedule a little so you miss the worst of rush-hour crowding.
While the transfer will probably add another 15 minutes to my already 50-minute commute, there's not much to do but adapt to the changes. Or start driving...
Jeff, you can fully understand my pain. In the morning, I skip the whole process by taking the bus but seriously, how is it possible that a 4 mile commute takes longer than driving to Redwood City (which I used to do every day). I will probably go back to riding my bike. That's $45/month they just lost.
Just hope its warms up a bit before April.
cranky,
The J Church is much less reliable than the N Judah.
But don't let little things like facts get in the way of your rant.
http://www.sfist.com/archives/2007/02/20/muni_by_the_numbers.php