Getting Nowhere Fast
Thursday, January 5, 2006 at 11:01pm 6 comments (last by Jamison)
There are a couple different ways I can get to work riding Muni (the San Francisco Municipal Railway) and starting 2006 so horribly sick for several days, I've opted against the transfering to an overcrowded bus which makes a lot of sudden stops.
There's an alternative options which at first glance seems ideal. Instead of taking Muni Metro from Castro Station to Powell Station and getting on a bus, I just stay on the train for two more stops to Embarcadero Station and transfer to the N-Judah which goes the four additional stops to the Caltrain Terminal two blocks from my office. I'm pretty much guaranteed I'll be able to sit down on the N-Judah.
So wouldn't I just do this all the time?
If you have to ask, you've never spent 15-20 minutes waiting at Embrcadero Station as every other line arrives and departs while not a single N-Judah train is even shown on the map of the tunnel.
Currently out of the five Muni rail lines which run below Market Street to Embarcadero Station, but it's only the N-Judah which does not terminate there and continues the four additional stations to the Ball Park and the Caltrain Terminal in Mission Bay.
(Three two-car N-Judah trains "NN" backed up behind other trains)
The problem with this situation is that the N-Judah is probably the most over crowded and easily delayed line. In Cole Valley it runs down narrow residential roads where a diver double parked to pick up someone or something can throw off the entire lines schedule so by the time it finally reaches Embarcadero Station its running nothing close to every 10-15 minuets and 2 or even 3 trains will arrive back to back.
Yesterday the wait was only about 5-10 minutes, but long enough to see more than one train from other lines arrive (two J-Church trains back to back) as the automated voice announced for each "the next train is going out of service, do not board."
Today it was closer to 15 minutes, and as the clock ticked closer to 9:30am (I was running very late because it took 15 minutes to get on at Castro Station this morning) I could easily pick out who in the waiting crowd was getting worried they would not make Caltrain's 9:37am train as they grew more anxious and upset.
By the time the next N-Judah arrived, the Caltrain riders were no longer worried, they had a half hour before the next train would leave, though for many that look of worry was now a look of anger.
Once on board a woman in her forties sat beside me and seemed in good humor as she told me she always plans on an extra 20 minutes "because the N is always late" but was considering upping it to half an hour.
I wonder how many commuters would like to take Caltrain if they did not have to deal with Muni's chronic delays.
This seems so easily solved as well if Muni did not seem so disinterested in it's riders and their needs. It doesn't seem like it would take much effort to decide if there was not an N-Judah that would make it, run the next available inbound train all the way to Caltrain in enough time for everyone to board.
Is it really that hard Muni?
6 Comments
Jamison Saturday, January 7, 2006 at 8:38am
Firstly, yay for Duboce Triangle! This is a great neighborhood to live in.
I would be very scared to depend on the 22-Fillmore, given how often it gets delayed and it's not uncommon for "every 20 minutes" to turn into 30 or 40.
Ideally you could just get on the N-Judah in Duboce Triangle, but I've tried that and it's just not realistic given Muni's current performance, though for the trip home at night, there will often be an N-Judah waiting for you at Fourth & King as you leave Caltrain.
Your best bet for Caltrain from Duboce Triangle is from Castro Station where you can take a K, L, M, and sometimes S-Castro Shuttle inbound to Powell and transfer to the 30 or 45 bus line down Fourth Street to Caltrain. Because of the redundant lines on both corridors it means (ussually) frequent service.
Adam Levin Saturday, January 7, 2006 at 5:04pm
Has anyone ever considered organizing a strike/boycott of MUNI? I know some people are dependant on it, I know I am, but I feel MUNI takes advantage of its customers on a daily basis. I have heard rumors of MUNI drivers getting paid upwards of $20 an hour with amazing benefits. Have you ever been on a bus when the bus driver stops and pulls over and goes into the corner store and buys a snack while letting the bus run? I know I have. Why does it seem like MUNI has no management but is instead run by the drivers who decide to take out buses and trains at their leasure and drive around town.
Jamison Saturday, January 7, 2006 at 6:22pm
If you haven't read it already read "The Downward Spiral", SPURs detailed look at reforming Muni and regarding drivers their concern is making better use of their time and not cutting their benefits.
Muni's problem is not the drivers. Yes, there are some bad drivers, but there are some good ones as well. The drivers aren't the ones making service cuts, fair hikes or causing busses to bunch up.
Muni should not have to be forced into improving service by boycotts, propositions or the Board of Supervisors. Muni should be trying to save money and improve service without outside intervention.
I see an overarching problem in the way Muni is funded which discourages quality service. Muni saves money when they cut service, so why not cut service when there's a budget deficit? Because they care?
Muni is funded from a number of sources and rider fares are only a small percentage compared to other sources which remain steady no matter how many fare hikes or service cuts they make.
I believe if you change the funding model so that Muni receives funding based on actual ridership, we'd see a Muni offering better, faster service and trying to keep fares as low as possible.
Together rider fares (about 28% FY2006) and the City funding from the DPT (30% FY2006, this is money raised for Muni through parking fees excluding taxes for special projects and specific stuff like that) make up a slight majority of Muni's budget.
If the City provided that funding on a matching basis for ridership, cutting service would not be a way to save money. Muni would need to increase ridership to make more money and that would mean better more frequent service (Caltrain receives higher percentage of funding from rider fares and facing a deficit added 10 more daily trains, up to 96 from 86, to bring in more money)
If Muni needed to make us happy to bring in money, everything else would sort itself out.
Matt Sunday, January 29, 2006 at 7:31am
I think the management is out of their wit to enforce stricter rules and regulations on the drivers and the actual demand of service. Take the 1 California as an example, on a given Sunday, a stream of five buses comes streaming down the hill after a roughly 20-minute wait at Van Ness/Clay. None of the vehicles except maybe the first two are packed.
The California Cable Car line should limit the service to daytime peaks as its ridership doesn't appear to be tourists, at whom the cable car target. As to Adam Levin's comment, I do not know how much MUNI drivers are paid. But for a fact I know that MUNI pays cable car drivers at least $60 per hour. These drivers are the ones from the workforce who have achieved considerable seniority. The outrageous overtime shifts of these cable car drivers could bring in a whopping $400 into their bulging pockets on a holiday like, say, Christmas.
Sometimes I think privatization might be the solution. If you look at some of the most efficient, well-run public transit systems in the world, like Tokyo and Hongkong, the local government does not interfere with the operation. To ensure on-time performance, the Hongkong transit agency mans the busiest bus-stops on the main throughfares to keep track of arrival time.
MUNI is deprived of such internal watch-dog system. Drivers are left unpunished for the poor on-time performance and laziness. Management is responsible for the not implementing the game plan to tidy up the incompetent staff.
MUNI still has a long way to go.
Mike Friday, February 17, 2006 at 12:09am
I usually take the 30 or 45 to get to Caltrain. I most often try to take train 314 (the 7:11 baby bullet) and have only missed it once. I know it is nice to get a seat on the N, but I find the 30/45 combination more reliable to get to the trains on time, at least in the morning hours.
My strategy is to take K L or M to Powell and check the signs as I leave the train to see if any N-Judah trains are in the subway yet. If one is coming soon, I may wait for it. However, I have gotten bunched up at Embarcadero once or twice, and I have also been delayed once due to a crash along Embarcadero that blocked the N tracks.
I don't like 22nd Street station, and from my location the transit options are much worse than at 4th/King.
Now that there is more daylight, I have been walking from home to 4th and King a couple of times per week, taking train 324 instead. There are 3-4 blocks on Market that aren't much fun, but the exericse is a good thing and I don't have to check my watch 10 times!
Jamison Friday, February 17, 2006 at 12:17pm
that walk down Fourth street is really only about 12-15 minutes too. I've figured out that if I leave Powell Station and can't see a trolley bus coming through the Stockton Tunnel (the trolley poles are pretty easy to spot) then walking I'll make it to Fourth and Brannan (where my office is, and only one stop before Caltrain) before a bus passes me.
Nick Saturday, January 7, 2006 at 3:46am
I am going to be moving to San Francisco soon. I'd like to live in the Duboce Triangle area, and the other night I decided to take a look at the Muni map and see if I couldn't figure out a way to get on the Baby Bullet without going all the way up Market and transferring to a bus at Powell.
I noticed that the 22 Fillmore comes right by the Church St station before turning left on 16th and heading pretty much straight for the 22nd St Caltrain station. (It stops three blocks short.) And it does it without transfers, and in an advertised time of 20 minutes. And all the Baby Bullets stop there before heading south.
Now, I have seen the 22nd St station, and I know that this is not an ideal solution this time of year, or at night. (This "station" is literally in a ravine under a freeway. It's open-air, and quite poorly lit at night. Plus, you have to climb a bunch of stairs to get to the street level.)
Other than that, though... Is there anything I'm overlooking? Do you ever use this route? If not, why not?
I asked a friend who lives in the area and takes Caltrain, and he said he doesn't go to the 22nd street station because there's no coffee there. A fair answer. :-)