Way back in the heady days of 2006, when Muni actually wanted to know what riders thought about things like the frequency of buses during rush hour, the SFMTA launched the Transit Effectiveness Plan to study what would - well, make Muni more effective. Unfortunately, the whole thing was short-turned when the agency figured out they were broke in 2008 and instead of using the plan's recommendations to improve service, the TEP was used to decide which routes would get service cuts like those we saw a year ago. Today, however, the agency has decided to bring back the recommendations from the Transit Effectiveness Plan, whether or not they actually have the money for it.

From the Chronicle:

Now Muni is dusting off the recommendations, beginning a required environmental review process that could take up to two years and restarting community meetings to discuss such controversial proposals as consolidating bus stops to speed service and stringing new overhead wires so Muni can change routes.

But before we get all excited about community meetings and Nat Ford maybe not wanting to break up with us (Sidenote: does this relationship seem abusive to anyone else?) we should point out that Muni has so far only allocated $17 million of the estimated $167 million needed to to re-shape Muni according to the plan. While Ford thinks the agency is in a good position to compete for funding, there's not a lot of wiggle room within the agency to shift service from lines with fewer riders to the busiest lines - those service cuts were already made around the time we lost the 26-Valencia (may she rest in peace). So where's the rest of the money going to come from? MuniDiaries suggests (only partially in jest) more crackdowns on backdoor boarding and playing ball with the driver's union, but at the moment we're inclined to think this round of the TEP could end up just as stalled as the last one.

[Chronicle]
[MuniDiaries]