A track-switching problem caused headaches for commuters on Muni Wednesday morning, with trains slowed to a crawl, bus shuttles trying to fill in gaps, and lots of San Franciscans late for work.
The problem occurred between Church Street and Van Ness, and because of the problem, all N and J trains entering the underground tunnel were being forced to turn back at Church and Duboce, while other trains (KT, L, and M) were proceeding normally — if slowly — through the tunnel.
UPDATE: Trains are proceeding slowly through the area between Church and Van Ness stations in the inbound direction, but resuming normal speed after VN. https://t.co/2qxpTyU2FJ
— SFMTA (@sfmta_muni) March 4, 2020
As the Chronicle reports, the same problem with track-switching had been reported earlier Wednesday morning and was supposedly fixed. But then it was not.
Commuters, naturally, are pissed, and matters were made worse by conductors apparently not communicating what was going on as trains sat idle for extended periods. Sound familiar?
Yep! Sat on the N from Stanyan and the conductor let a train full of people just wait.... no announcement. Then no clear plan or direction from crew. Stuff happens but ya failed this morning Muni.
— Lindsay Welch (@opalandindigo3) March 4, 2020
Lmao train eta went from 10 mins, to 7, to 8, to 6, then just jumped to 42
— Sammy Nwabueze (@Dizzzy415) March 4, 2020
Now it's counting down from 40 lol did the train just disappear? @sfmta_muni 🙃🙃
No. We were in the tunnel between WP and FH for 30 mins with no info. Passengers tried the intercom but only got garbled responses we couldn’t hear. Never heard recorded announcements at FH.
— Chad Burns (@thebestchadever) March 4, 2020
How did every train just get delayed?!?...20min was just added to the J. It’s amazing how bad the city is at pretty much everything.
— theoj (@amderson_john) March 4, 2020
Per the Chronicle, "It was unclear how long the problems would persist."
