SFist: Eyewitness Account of Muni Meekness

motor

Thu, 17 May 2007 22:27:13 -0800

Seems ike Mr. Ford stepped into a mess. He told us that he got here to take the MUNI job and then found out what was going on, or not, with the $650m project, and realized that there were a few things missing. Subtext sounded like they had to open the line when they did because of politics - Central Subway Boondoggle Money, cough, cough - although they knew it wasn't ready yet. The proejct reaks of bad design. The mess at 4th & King couldn't have been modeled to check operations, and the split platforms and lack of SAFE pedestrain space will get someone really hurt or worse at the intersection. The axing of the 15 north of Caltrain is so poorly thought out it is a crime. The fact that we spent $650m for a streetcar that runs slower than the bus is so sad in so many ways. The one thing that does work is the new 9X service. Of course, we could have run that bus longer hours without spending $650m on red and black concrete embracing rails that carry people that miss their bus.

transit troublemaker

Thu, 17 May 2007 18:07:33 -0800

polite platitudes. Nowhere did I hear anything about cleaning up the perrenial mess at Embarcadero. While I would like to believe the claim of 128 Bredas available for service I don't think they can sustain that without some serious change of culture at Green (the barn).

Paul

Thu, 17 May 2007 15:21:29 -0800

I dropped by the meeting to hear. Nat Ford sugar coated it say "it (T-Third) was a challenge" and "it hasn't gone as well as we would have liked". In other words, it was hard and it was an abysmal failure. Most T-Third riders saying it takes much longer than before with the 15 line. Nat Ford said they were bringing in schedulers from other parts of the country to help. This pretty much says what I knew all along - the current Muni guys screwed everything up, now they are getting help to fix it. Hopefully soon.

andrew

Thu, 17 May 2007 12:36:15 -0800

Rescue Muni has a detailed report with photos (thanks Dan) at www.rescuemuni.org.