News Shocker: Muni Aware of its own Shortcomings
In case you were wondering how Muni was going to explain the near-meltdown two weeks ago, look no further than the agenda for the April 25th meeting of the Citizen's Advisory Committee. (It's not online yet, so you'll just have to take our word for it.) Apparently, blame is laid at the feet of bottlenecks at a switchback and an offline substation and a switching issue and OH GOD WHO CARES WE JUST WANT TO GET HOME FROM WORK WHILE WE'RE STILL YOUNG.
Honestly, it's just unbelievable how many people want to have their hands on the post-mortem for the T launch. Everyone's talking analysis and suggestions and overhauls and we just yearn for the day that we can go back to writing about such wildly diverse topics as Kirk Cameron's heterosexuality and science fiction.
Muni, please fix yourself. Not just so that we can get around town, but so that we can stop complaining about how we can't.
After the jump: Muni's description of What Went Wrong, including good news like "as of April 16 on-time performance on the T-Third had increased to 25%."
Agenda item Eight for the APril 25 CAC meeting contains the following tidbit:
The T-Third was off to a rough start, with delays and malfunctions. On April 7 the on-time performance of the T-Third line was only 12%. The main causes of delays were bottlenecks at the Embarcadero turnback, the tripping of a breaker at one of the substations, and switching restrictions at the intersection of Fourth and King Streets. The bottlenecks at the turnback were caused by additional trains using the subway and exacerbated by the poor on-time performance of the T-Third. MTA has been addressing this issue by operational and control changes, and as of this writing 80% of the trains are turning back within the allotted window. The substation was brought back on-line later that same day. MTA reports that as of April 16 on-time performance on the T-Third had increased to 25%. The switching issue at Fourth and King, which is considered by MTA to be the main contributor to T-Third schedule disruptions, is being addressed by software modifications which are underway as of this writing. MTA expects that once this issue is resolved, on-time performance will increase dramatically. The lack of sufficient LRV operators systemwide to cover for sickness, vacations, or absenteeism continues to be a challenge for MTA, as is the availability of sufficient vehicles and mechanics to provide sustainable service for the new line.