Cyclists: Let the Backlash Begin (or Not)
Muni Ticket Agent Arrested After Assaulting Juvenile
So Much For That Plastic Bag Ban
Verizon Droid: Big Deal? Or Just Another Late Arrival Rival?
Feinstein : Will She Or Won't She?
Altered image credit: TwitPic user Brendan (via N-Judah Chronicles)
Over at Duboce and Church this morning, just after 10 a.m., a Muni train came off its tracks, blocking the tunnel at Church. According to Transit 511:
On Wednesday, October 1st, as of 10:09am, there is a non-injury derailment on the N and J Metro lines at the intersection of Church Street and Duboce Avenue. Line diversions and motor coach shuttles are in place until further notice.
Oops.
N-Judah Chronicles has more on today's Muni SNAFU.
Also, no one was injured. So, you know, there's that.
Update: N and J service restored. Whew.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
This is a reminder of what happens when folks keep cut cut cutting the budgets that pay for things like training and maintenance.
the Duboce/Church intersection needs a lot of improvements to make it safer and easier for everyone (muni, bikes, pedestrians, cars, etc). But none of that can happen when the State keeps cutting back on money that all mass transit agencies were promised and rely on to pay for big fixes.
I swear...some days MUNI seems like it belongs to a third-world country.
So that's why I saw a motorized bus picking up people when I passed by on the 18-line.
At least Castro Coffee is safe, I need my crepes.
Sometime when I look at the rails on the street I wonder how the trains stay on them at all.
Plans for improving Duboce & Church are well underway. Preparations are already underway with construction beginning early next year which will replace all the track along Duboce between the Sunset Tunnel and the Market Street Tunnel, Church from Duboce to Market, and that storage yard next to the portal.
In addition to the track, priority signaling will be installed for the trains (cars only have a stop sign, but the trains have signals of their own) the waiting platforms will be replaced and lengthened for two-car trains. Muni's parent agency, the SFMTA, has been working with the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association Transportation Committee to make additional traffic calming and safety improvements while they're tearing the neighborhood up.
Construction isn't going to be pretty, and at some point their will be bus substitutions or single tracking, but life will be a lot better when it's complete sometime around the end of next year.
Jamison
Any thoughts to just blocking off some of the auto traffic? When you say priority signaling how will this work if cars are still using stop signs and can continue to cut off trains?
I was wrong about construction starting next year, I found out after I posted this the project is being held back a year in order to coordinate it with a traffic calming project.
That might help the conflicts with cars at Duboce & Church, but the signal priority is for the trains. I didn't fully understand it, but the trains apparently get to enter and exit the tunnel on a first come, first serve basis without considering which might be running ahead or behind schedule (yes, this is where someone would insert a "they don't run on schedule anyway" remark, but this is how to start solving that problem).