Reader Mail: Cryptic Talk of an “Intentional Slowing of Service on Route 1”

questionmark.jpgEarlier today I got two Reader Mails that have to be the oddest things I’ve heard in a while from people during their morning commute. Read and be prepared to be bewildered. First email is from Reader Margaret:

Hey there,
This morning on the N Judah heading downtown, around 8:20am right around the Chruch and Duboce stop, our female driver made an annoucement along these lines (forgive me as I don’t remember the specifics):
“To my regular riders, they’re intentionally trying to slow down service on this Route, Route 1. The management knows about it. If you want to see it fixed, call the media and have them investigate.”
Have you heard anything about this?
Thanks!

And, here’s an email from Reader Shari, also on the same train, it seems:

Hi Mr. Dewar,
As a resident of the Outer Sunset I do enjoy your MUNI updates. Today I was taking the N to Civic Center, as I do four days a week, and I got stuck with a driver who is regularly slow and runs late. Today, as we got to Duboce and Noe, she announced that the reason we were having to stop for extended periods involved something called “Run One.” She said that it involved intentionally sending more people onto that particular train and slowing it down. She also stated that the media and MUNI were aware of what was going on and that patrons could discover the meaning behind this by seeking out these sources. She said nothing else on the topic.
I’ve searched online and found nothing. I don’t know if she was just acting crazy or if something was going on, but I would like to find out as it made me 10 minutes late to an important law school class and if someone was behind it, I want to know who it was and why they did it.
I figured you might be someone who could confirm or deny the truth of the driver’s statement. I’d really appreciate your insight.

Given how the MTA has made swiss cheese out of the Transit Effectiveness Project by half-assedly implementing cuts (but not the associated service increases) and whatnot over the past few years, you could almost imagine some genius that could come up with an idea like this, but that is supposition, not a fact. Without any supporting documentation, we don’t know what to make of this cryptic statement via the PA system.
I did a little searching and found nothing either. So, I’m going to attempt to contact Muni on Thursday morning and see if I can get a response. Considering that I never got any of my questions about the bus shelters answered, this may require me to use the amplification of the SF Gate Transit Blog to get some attention.

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4 Responses to Reader Mail: Cryptic Talk of an “Intentional Slowing of Service on Route 1”

  1. Natalie says:

    Weird. Maybe when you call them you could also ask why they’ve started running outbound L lines along the N/T route on the Embarcadero. It’s pretty obvious they are changing Ns to Ls because unfortunately thy show up on nextbus and Routesy as N cars. Several times in the past two weeks I’ve left work to catch an N train at Folsom/Embarcadero just to find out that the train that was supposed to come in 5 mins was an L. I’ve ended up waiting an additional 10-15 mins for an N.

  2. Dennis says:

    Any news on the “Route 1”? It has been quite a week with each evening trying to catch a N Judah Outbound at Embarcadero Station between 5:40 – 6:10 impossible. I will concede Wednesday night because of the Giant’s 6:15 game but still no excuse for a 20 minute delay while L Taravals are continuously coming through Outbound with a large number of T’s and N’s going to Mission Bay.
    I have asked the inspector all week why some can not be turned around at Embarcadero on evenings when there are no N’s in sight only to have them walk away back to their booth. I have asked other waiting N passengers to speak up but seems there are content with what we have which is pathetic service. Called 311 at times – no long term solutions.
    Nonetheless, thanks for this site!!

  3. Greg Dewar says:

    @dennis: no news yet. commute times in the evenings have been getting worse. one Loyal Reader reported taking 2 hours to get from EMB to the Outer Sunset. That’s unacceptable.
    So long as people accept declining service and higher fares, the Muni Death Spiral continues. And, so long as people accept politicians who make them feel good, but are not qualified to serve in office like so many people at the Board, the MTA and the Mayor’s office are now, then you can’t expect things to get better. People have to stop voting for international do nothing resolution makers and get people in who just want the damn system to work properly for everyone. We are the owners!

  4. @makfan says:

    It is so annoying. I don’t accept the crappy service, but I have voted repeatedly for people who say they are going to work on MUNI, only to have nothing happen.
    Also, when your commute takes 2 hours instead of 45 minutes, I’m sure they will be happy to write you a fare evasion ticket if your transfer expires along the way.

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