An 18-year-old girl riding riding the 49 bus on Mission near Bernal Heights had her face slashed Wednesday evening by one of four assailants, described as two men and two women in their late teens or early 20s, all Hispanic. more ›

After several months of being out of service, much to the chagrin of countless weary Muni Metro passengers, the escalator at the Church Street Muni Station near the intersection of 14th and Church is back in service, in all its shiny, new glory. We're not sure exactly when the plywood barricades were removed to reveal this new mechanical wonder, but the moving steps still smelled new when lazy in-a-hurry SFist utilized them this afternoon. more ›

Well, we can't exactly file it under Knife Crime 2012, but a 23-year-old Oakland woman who was riding the 22-Fillmore near 16th and Potrero got stabbed in the hand with a fork by a troubled man who perhaps just wanted to show her some creepy love in completely inappropriate ways. more ›

According to reports, the man who was killed by an outbound M Muni train on Monday afternoon has been identified as 62-year-old wheelchair-abound Daniel Dillen. The victim managed to somehow get himself down onto the tracks at Civic Center Station and get into the track where a train sliced off his leg. He later died as a result of those injures at a nearby hospital. more ›

Drunk drivers. They're even worse than teenagers. Take, for example, an apparently drunk driver who, after crashing into several parked cars near Polk and Broadway, flipped his penismobile onto the Muni trolly tracks at Green and Embarcadero. more ›

Mayor Ed Lee celebrated 100 years of San Francisco's Municipal Railway today by re-launching Muni's first streetcar, the restored Car No. 1. Joining the Mayor for the dignitaries-only first ride in the century-old railcar are Senator Diane Feinstein, former Mayor Willie Brown (who would rather walk), SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin and members of the Board of Supervisors. more ›

As City Insider reports, the Board of Supervisors are reconsidering Muni's decades-old policy regarding strollers on the bus in an effort to keep families from fleeing the city at the alarming rate we keep hearing about. Although, we'd like to point out that the Chron article to which everyone keeps referring and that keeps getting recycled every year says that there are actually 3,000 more children under age 5 in San Francisco than 10 years ago. It's the school-aged children that we've actually been losing (more than 8,000 over the age of five). But maybe we're just niggling. more ›

Have you noticed that your evening commute on Muni has been just a little more reliable lately? Yeah, we haven't either. But allegedly Muni's on-time performance was up six tenths of a percentage point in the last quarter of 2011, up to a whopping 71.7 percent of the time. So, yes, Muni is still late a little more than a quarter of the time, and usually at rush hour, but they are maybe, just maybe, getting a little better. more ›

A woman in her 60s lies at San Francisco General Hospital with life-threatening injuries after possibly being struck by a 38 L near Howard and Beale on Wednesday night. The incident occurred around 7:45 p.m. "A witness told police the bus was traveling south on Beale Street through the intersection and the woman was standing on an island on Beale Street south of Howard Street," reports SF Appeal. "The witness then saw the pedestrian in the road after the bus passed by the island." more ›

A male pedestrian, who is described as possibly in his 40s, was struck by an inbound 21-Hayes bus near Hayes and Fillmore on Sunday at 10:47 a.m. Witnesses told police he stepped out from between two parked cars and in front of the bus. The man received CPR at the scene and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. more ›

Officers arrived to the scene of an apparent hate crime to find a 26-year-old victim "visibly shaken" after being beaten and kicked on a Muni bus. The incident, which happened in Potrero Hill near De Haro Street and Southern Heights Avenue, happened while the victim was in her seat and another woman "suddenly punched and kicked her several times." more ›

Formerly bespectacled Rachel Maddow loves riding Muni, the MSNBC host told Vanity Fair. She's a big fan of taking the J-Church up to "the top corner of Dolores Park" (a.k.a. "the fruit shelf," where the gays converge because it's arguably the nicest area in the park) and admiring the view. more ›

Crime on Muni is down in almost every category, reports SFMTA director Ed Reiskin — every category except the one that includes your smartphone getting stolen on on the bus, that is. According to police chief Greg Suhr, almost 180 electronic devices were reported stolen in the city in the past 30 days. Which means, on average, six unsuspecting schmucks will see their precious smartphones running away from them in the hands of some opportunistic thug today. (If they haven't already.) more ›

Some say yes. Many say no. According to an op-ed piece in Thursday's Chronicle, the good-intentioned plan, sparked by Supervisor David Campos, stands as "an appealing idea that City Hall is all but certain to adopt." While the plan would help kids get to school, ease parents' drop-off schedules, and possibly alleviate traffic congestion, it would also add another $4 million to $7.9 million dent "for the under-funded transit system facing a $23 million deficit." more ›

On Tuesday afternoon, a cyclist was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries after a Muni bus hit them at Market and New Montgomery streets at around 4:40 p.m. "Police said it appears the male bicyclist was riding parallel to the bus when one of his tires got caught in streetcar tracks," reports SF Appeal. "The bicyclist was thrown under the bus and was run over by its rear wheels." more ›

Attention 14-Mission and 49-Van Ness riders: much needed road repairs are coming to Mission Street starting tomorrow, Saturday March 3rd. While the busiest stretch between 16th and Cesar Chavez will be nice and smoothed-out by the end of Summer, two of the city's busiest bus lines will be running a block East on South Van Ness for the next six months. more ›

Today in the local news beat, ABC7's Dan Noyes has uncovered an unfortunate problem plaguing one Nob Hill bus stop: a local woman has been using it as her own public outhouse with striking regularity. The woman, who goes by the name "Ling Ling", rides the 27 bus up to Leavenworth and Clay Streets every day to do her morning business in the Muni shelter on the corner. Afterwards, she pulls up and transfers to the 1-California and evacuates the neighborhood through Chinatown. more ›

The city's most used (and most loved/hated) light rail line will be taking weekends off starting at the end of this month. As the Examiner explains this morning, Muni will stop running weekend trains on February 24th and every weekend after that for a month and a half while they perform some upgrades around Carl Street and that messy intersection of Church and Duboce. more ›

Mayor Ed Lee today announced the arrival of a "letter of non-prejudice" (whatever that is) from the Department of Transportation which he says is a "strong sign" that the $1 billion+ in federal grant money is on its way for San Francisco's Central Subway. So, yes, by the time today's toddlers are tweens, they may be able to get from CalTrain to Chinatown in just a couple stops. more ›

At around 6 a.m. today, a car drove into the Duboce Portal tunnel. Said automobile is now stuck inside the tunnel, effectively shutting down all underground Muni metro lines. SF Muni shuttle buses are in place between West Portal and Embarcadero until further notice. more ›

Having someone make off with your telephone while playing Angry Birds on the commute home is still a major problem around town, apparently. So today's handy reminder to keep your phone stashed safely in your pocket, especially while seated next to exit doors, comes directly from the SFPD's Mission Station who pulled the following footage of a snatch-and-grab job off of a J-Church train: more ›

Before you take off for the holidays, remember that come New Year's Eve, you can ride Muni for free. For free? For free. Muni travel, including cable cars, is free of charge from 8 p.m. New Year's Eve until 6 a.m. New Year's Day. And who in their sane mind would want to ride Muni on New Year's Eve? Not us. Because we don't like harrowing train and/or bus rides. But many of you will have to rely on San Francisco's semi-reliable public transportation, so... have at it. more ›

In the Tenderloin last night, a 50-year-old man was stabbed and critically injured after loaning his phone to a fellow rider on the 19-Polk. The knifecrime occurred near Turk and Hyde Streets around 9:30 p.m. when the suspect, a 20-something woman, asked to borrow the older man's phone and refused to give it back, Bay City News reports. When the victim snatched back the phone, the suspect promptly stabbed him in the chest and bolted down Turk Street. more ›

Around 5 a.m. this morning, a Muni Metro light rail vehicle struck a pedestrian walking on the tracks in an underground tunnel between the Embarcadero and Montgomery Street stations. more ›

Jerry James Stone, Treehugger writer and occasional SFist scribe, sent out the following urgent Twitter message this afternoon while riding the L Taraval. It seems that he's stuck on the train due to malfunctioning doors. In fact, he's on the train as we speak. more ›