Scroll down for the update on how you can take the fight directly to MUNI’s leadership!
Loyal Readers: It’s time for N-Judah riders to take a stand and do what we can to Save the N-Judah. For some time now, I’ve been hearing many N-Judah riders report the fact that during peak times, the N-Judah no longer completes its route to Ocean Beach, but instead arbitrarily drops people off early, without warning, and turns around.
This has to stop. Now.
And it won’t stop unless people start mobilizing and taking action so MUNI stops with the excuses and starts doing the job right. Today I’m going to suggest a start — flooding MUNI and the Mayor’s Office and the Board of Supervisors with our grievances.
Here’s how it will work. If you, or a friend or neighbor, has the experience of having the N-Judah crap out on them midway through the ride, send MUNI an official complaint via their Black Hole Complaint Form, then immediately post a copy in the comments section of this post as well. And, for added impact, CC a copy to the The Mayor’s office and the supervisors who represent the N.
Obviously there’s a limit to how effective this sort of thing can be, but it is a start. We simply can’t MUNI ruin our N-Judah line like they have and get away with it.
Since playing nice doesn’t seem to get the attention of these folks, it is time to turn up the volume and let MUNI and our elected officials know, we’re tired of excuses – we just want the N to work!
Hopefully, by CC’ing your complaints to the comments section, we can hold MUNI accountable by shining light on the complaints so they can’t just bury them like they usually do. If you have other constructive suggestions or ideas, feel free to email me at any time!
URGENT UPDATE: Thanks to one of our Loyal Readers who serves on the Citizen’s Advisory Council for MUNI, I got ahold of copy of Thursday’s Meeting at which Mr. Nate Ford and Mr. Ken McDonald will be discussing issues related to the T-Third line’s integration with existing operations.
I am doing my best to re-arrange my schedule to be there and let ’em know in person what we think of what seems to be official policy ruining the N-Judah’s reliability. If you are as ticked off about MUNI’s foibles and would like to take the message directly to the folks in charge, why not stop by?
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first action recomendation to riders. REFUSE to get off for surprise short turns. Tell operator you are not getting off @ 19th. Do not let him/her leave cab. This was done in NY–it got management’s attention.
The problem is I presume the reason they are turning them around is they feel they have a shortage of trains in the eastern part of the line, or on some other line. So the Peters in the outer sunset are robbed to pay the Pauls in the rest of the city.
So really, only Ed Jew is going to be on your side, the rest will realize it actually benefits their constituents, alas.
My stop is 23rd/Judah so if this happens I can tolerate it but would not like it. (This is a popular stop since it meets the 71-Noreiga) Much worse going out unless you know you have to trek up to 19th, and completely untenable for those at the further stops.
@Brad: I see your point, but the fact is if MUNI is not running properly, in the end NO ONE benefits. What’s to say they’ll not cut off most of the N’s to save the stupid T line?
They do a great job of talking at MUNI and making up stuff, but they sure don’t deliver. It’s almost as if they want us all to clog the streets with cars. Or bikes.
Hmm, last night my outbound N stopped short behind another stalled N at the 9th/Irving stop. Our driver announced that she was letting us out, since she didn’t know when we’d be moving again. Nobody on the first train seemed to know why they were stopped, they asked if we’d been told anything (nope). I didn’t realize trains were being turned around early, I assumed a train had broken down. I’m not sure which is worse.
It seems to me that our commutes are all being extraordinarily affected by the N these days. My commute from 12th & Judah to Embarcadero used to take about 25 – 35 minutes. It now takes an hour or more. I am consistently late to work. Perhaps if we all got our employers, who do business, create jobs and tax revenue in San Francisco to lobby the Mayors office and the Chamber of Commerce and MUNI to fix this, we will have more of an impact. Go talk to your employee relations person, or if you are lucky enough to have a government affairs team, go talk to them.
This morning on the N: multiple shuttle buses inbound (don’t take them, they’re slower than molasses), bunching, and angry drivers (at least on the N Judah that carried me downtown).
My evening commute from Mission Bay to 20-ish and Judah used to take 45 minutes, now it’s an 80 -minute trip.
Sorry I can’t make it to the meeting, Greg…speak for us dedicated riders/readers, if you can.
@Jeff: I am doing my best, I think I can make it there in time for public comments and hope to do so. My only regret is that I can’t get a “You Want the N Judah WHEN?” shirt in time for the meeting.
N is the most busy of the streetcar lines. So they won’t cut it to the bone. I had not realized the N cuts were to supply the T-Third, obviously that helps nobody on the N.
Turning around trains is a complex thing. For example, imagine that Ns only went from 19th to Civic Center, but came twice as often? Those of us in the outer Sunset would scream but the ones getting the train twice as often would be very happy, since even if they are going past Civic Center, trains in the subway are frequent enough to make this a short transfer.
(Of course making the N go twice as often would mostly be a matter of drivers since most Ns are 2-car.)
Of course the real way to improve it would be to implement timed lights along the route and maybe virtual right of way (you get a photo-ticket if the muni has to brake for you) from 9th to the subway. Frequency improvements are nice, but I would actually rather the trip not take so long from the outer sunset to downtown more than anything.
Mr. Ford will not be able to make tomorrows meeting. I’m not surprised given the problems Muni was already facing before MacArthur Maze collapse put even more stress on the system.
@Jamison: thanks for the heads up…very frustrating but once again indicative of how even a “small” accident can totally frak up the system.
God help us when Moderate Mayor’s ill-prepared team and MUNI’s bumbling and the MTA’s appeasement of bikes comes home to roost during the Big Quake.
The thing is that this big costly computer system that MUNI invested in didn’t cover the fact that one day that MUNI would add more lines to the system. I say this because when I was down in the Embarcadero station watching the tv screen that tells the letter and the number of cars that are in the tunnel it had the T-line marked as a K-line.I could suggest a way to keep this system running smoother than it is. But I don’t get paid the big bucks that Ford gets to do this.
This is not about N-Judah, but T-Third. I just submitted the following complaint through the Muni website:
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T-Third train, traveling towards downtown was delayed for more than 10 minutes before the 2nd and King platform. After multiple complaints from passengers the driver opened the front door to leave people out.
I walked to a 2nd and King platform. A 2 car S-Shuttle train was still at the platform. Behind the T-Third train (car #1542), which I left, there was one or more trains.
I approached a Muni employee in the “Mobile Response Unit” uniform at the beginning of the platform and asked why was the S-Shuttle train at the platform for more than 10 minutes. I expected to hear about technical problems or an accident. The employee replied: “That’s because it’s a shuttle train”. When I told him that there were several trains delayed behind it, the employee just shrugged his shoulders.
This conversation made an impression that Muni personnel considers leaving a shuttle train at 2nd and King platform during a baseball game for more than 10 minutes a normal practice, despite the delay it causes on the T-third line. It is clearly unacceptable! Since baseball games happen regularly during the summer season, Muni should make sure that additional service it provides for the baseball fans does not cause major disruptions to other Muni riders.
I would appreciate any information about the measures Muni plans to take to avoid such delays in the future.
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