Saturday, August 22 Marty Frum 8/22: I can tell you right now that MUNI is not following its own announced procedures as to how this line is to operate on the surface. As I far as I know, based on the fliers, they were supposed to open up all doors when stopping at any stop, given that only the first car is staffed. I have witnessed (in the stretch between 9th and Judah & Duboce and Church) in nearly all instances on several sets of N-Judah cars in both directions that the driver of the first car DOES NOT open up all doors on the first and second cars for boarding. People who attempted to board the rear car had to run up to the first door of the first car (and did not always make it). Sometimes people who attempted to get on the second cars were lucky that people already on the cars pushed the bar to open the door for them. Picture this during a weekday rush hour. Is it: * that the drivers have not been trained to do this? * the drivers are forgetting to do this based on habit? * the equipment is not properly working? (I doubt this because even the last three doors of the first car didn't open) * is it perhaps a non-announced job action to protest the fact that there are not two drivers on a two attached LRVs? Whatever it is, it needs to be fixed FAST. As the number that is desinated for passsenger complaints is closed on the weekend, and there is no email address for Emilio Cruz or MUNI management at all, I have sent this to the two most effective destinations in dealing with this sort of thing. Operator #1 8/22: Well, yesterday was the beginning of what could possibly be the worst operational disaster ever to befall a rail transit service in the United States. Although I worked the F-Market, I monitored the blow-by-blow progress throughout the day. First, there were at least one, and possibly as many as four, missing runs on the N-Judah due to no operator. This, despite use of a large RDO list and the biggest-available weekend extraboard list we've had in 2 years. All N-Judah trains were assigned two cars. About 530am, someone (namely myself) discovered that since N trains were now operating to Caltrain, each car's "thumbwheel setting" (the code sent to the ATCS computer on the configuration, line and inbound destination of the train) had to be set to a code which virtually no one knew about. Sure enough, a call to Central Control, with an Alcatel technician sitting alongside the CCO, verified this requirement. Otherwise, N trains would have terminated at Embarcadero/MMT!!!! Management had failed to provide us with this necessary information. ATCS-equipped Boeings were assigned to all lines other than the N. The unconverted cars, fortunately, were kept in the yard. About 830am, an inbound N train suffered an air leak, forcing it to be taken out of service. There goes another train off the line! About 50% of the entries at West Portal, Duboce Portal and Ferry Portal were failed entries, which meant that Breda trains had to be operated in "cutout mode" while Boeing trains reverted to the old cab signal system in cutout mode. Cutout mode means: Operate on sight, no more than 27mph, observing and obeying all switches and signals. Still, train traffic was flowing pretty well until 1000am, when a Boeing broke a pantograph going into the MMT pocket track. The feeder through the MMT was killed, and Central Control reverted to using the trouble-plagued Embarcadero Diamond for a time. However, this set the tone for massive delays in service from which the system was never able to recover until well after 830pm. F-Line cars and Market Street buses were packed all day. There were frequent problems with doors unable to close, or unable to open, in Auto mode. With most operators receiving only two days' training on this 4-year-late, millions- over-budget fiasco, and Central Control staff at their wits' end trying to resolve problems exacerbated by the obsolete radio program we have, it was a nightmare. Management also failed to remind operators that the weekend relief points had changed from all reliefs being made at Embarcadero to the weekday relief points. Later, after finishing my F-Line run, I worked overtime on the N-Judah. I was supposed to make an outbound relief at Church & Duboce at 341pm. My train didn't show up until 500pm! A supervisor stationed at Ocean Beach was headwaying trains to depart the Beach every 15 minutes. Well, by the time I got to Church & Duboce, the trains were stacked four deep on the ramp. I was given orders to switch back to go out to the Beach, so I never did get the ATCS subway experience I wanted. By the time I got to the Beach, it was pull-in time. With regard to Proof-Of-Payment, I had to remind certain passengers who paid cash fare that they must take a transfer/fare receipt. I also spotted a number of passengers with expired transfers and ordered them to pay a new fare, using the "carrot-and-stick" approach by saying that if they did not have a valid transfer and were caught by the SFPD, it would cost them $250 instead of $1.00 (or 35¢). They immediately complied. As far as passengers with valid passes, transfers or tickets boarding through any door, they don't have a clue. They stood at doors waiting for them to open, instead of noticing the "Push To Open" signs at the illuminated buttons. Eventually, they came running up to the operator's front door to enter, wasting everyone's time. At farside stops, I had to open all doors of the train to save time. I did the same thing at some stops with large numbers of passengers. Most other operators did likewise. When I was given orders to switch back, I had an argument with a passenger who asked for a transfer. I refused to give him one, explaining that if he had passed the farebox and inserted a buck, I would have given him one. Since I didn't notice him when he passed the farebox, I asked him if he had gotten on through one of the other doors. He said yes. End of argument. Where was management? Were they stationed at key stops like 9th & Irving or Carl & Cole, to explain the new rules of the ride to waiting passengers? Noooo! They were probably at Embarcadero, wringing their hands. Efforts to add extra F-Line cars to cope with rush hour crowds will probably not happen. Our Division Manager refuses to provide extra service unless ordered to do so by top management. As I mentioned, the 20 or so unconverted Boeings remained in the yard over the weekend. On Friday, I suggested to a middle-level maintenance manager that these cars should be retired immediately, as they are an impediment to subway workings. Replacement service, especially on the J-Church, could be provided by PCCs, for which we have a big surplus of operable cars. He had the same idea, and had suggested the same thing to top brass a few weeks ago. They nixed this idea. Top management has resisted placing PCCs on the J-Line because they are afraid that that would be construed as an admission of failure. I wish I could recommend to riders to take crosstown service to the other side of the park to board Richmond Expresses, but I can't do it because of the shortage of operators. Alcatel is being fined $25,000 a day for each day the system isn't working right. That's nothing compared to the $13 million countersuit Alcatel has filed against Muni. Who will win? There are no winners with this boondoggle, gang! Everyone, from riders and operators to supervisors, managers, top brass and Mayor Willie Brown (who stated that if the system is running right, riders should get from Van Ness to Embarcadero in no more than 15 minutes (!--might as well take the F car!)) and all of San Francisco, will lose.