The N-Judah Chronicles

Bomb Scare on the N

Posted by Greg Dewar at 4:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yeah, They Did.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just got word from Greg that there is some sort of police activity on Carl near Cole. As a result, trains are blocked in both directions with no estimate on when it will clear. Time to think of alternative routes...

UPDATE: The alert can be found here.

It seems that the outbound trains are switching back at Duboce & Church and the inbound trains are switching back before Carl & Cole (my guess would be the switchback near Hillway) The ever familiar "motor coach shuttles" will bridge the gap.

Posted by Mason Powell at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

A quick video I put together, made in about 20 minutes on iMovie....it is a bit rough but I went with "get it up quickly" vs. "spend too much time away from work making iMovies." If I have time this weekend I'll probably give it a little polish (my iMovie skills are a bit limited right now).

Enjoy and have a safe holiday.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

DSCF4238

And here I thought yesterday's annoyances were bad...this morning I started getting a steady stream of emails about Today's Intergalactic All Star Super Muni FAIL:

Reader Corey writes:

Apparently there were a couple folks on the tracks in the subway this morning between Civic Center and Powell. They managed to shut down the entire metro system. I got to Powell at about 8:10 and there was zero service until almost 8:35, when they started moving trains (slowly) inbound. When I finally got off at Folsom, there were about 5-6 trains sitting idle on the tracks on Embarcadero waiting to enter the tunnel, it looked like there was still no outbound service. Any more news?

and Reader Christina's note came a few moments later with more MUNI drama:

This morning while I was transferring between the 22 and the N Judah, I saw no less than 6 or 7 inbound N Judah trains lined up in a row, waiting to get into the tunnel at Church and Duboce. At first there were only 4, and I was kind of amazed at how ridiculous that was. But then more and more kept showing up! The line stretched all the way back to the park. There was a Not In Service shuttle bus hanging around, and two employees in yellow vests as well, but they didn't seem to be directing traffic or anything. Any idea what's up?

I took a few pictures as well - I'll send them your way in a few minutes if you'd like.

and finally Reader Tangobaby wrote in, live on the scene:

I hate muni. Where is my f'ing unicorn already?!!

If you have any info about the jackass in the tunnel today, let me know because I'll be standing at the corner of church and market for a looong time!

Oddly enough, the MUNI TroubleAlert didn't mention any of this at all. What's the point of a TroubleAlert if it doesn't alert one to trouble?

UPDATE: More reports of another MUNI FAIL today from Reader Brandon who writes:

Hi Greg, Not only was the line backed up at the tunnel, around 8:00am there was a huge backup at 9th and Judah. Apparently the MUNI light wouldn't turn green for whatever reason (I personally think it was because the driver didn't move up enough to activate it but I'm not sure if that's how the light system works.) Anyway, instead of just going through the green light like the train used to, the driver decided to sit. I was stuck on it for at least 10 light cycles before I finally got off and took a bus to Forest Hill, which was also having it's own problem. There were 3 more N's stacked up behind the one I left. So, I ended up being an hour late to work. By far my worst MUNI day since I've moved here a year and a half ago.

Sigh. See, this is why I tell people a blog about MUNI literally writes itself.

UPDATE (again): SFist has some coverage of the Other Side of Today's Day of Fail.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Several Loyal Readers emailed me this story in today's Chronicle, detailing the settlement between a victim of a horrible accident on the N Judah line and the city. $2 million dollars will be paid to the victim, which to me seems to be miniscule given the tremendous amount of suffering this woman had as a result of the accident.

Once again we see a troubling trend at MUNI - half-baked ideas to "cut the budget' or avoid the investments up front in things the system needs, only to pay many times more out in settlements later on (not to mention the death and destruction as well).

I take no pleasure in my early attempts to bitch, complain, discuss, and otherwise talk to death this topic, but I think it's time to ask the Big Paid People at City Hall to get it together, use those chess club brains of theirs, and plan a bit more intelligently for the future.

We're already paying the price of the half-assed spending of the 90s, where we deferred maintenance and killed spending for training, and we'll continue to pay dearly (in lives and money) if we keep this up.

Many people are running for Supervisor this year. Maybe the next time one of 'em bugs you for a vote, you should ask them what they're going to do that's different. And if they either give you more soft-headed rhetoric or a slack-jawed "duh?", don't elect 'em.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)