Rider #1: More tales from the L Travail ... this past week anywhere from 25 to 30 of us have waited at 22nd & Taraval for a MUNI train for a minimum of 30 minutes and as long as 40 minutes between 7:30 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. This happened 3 times this past week and that's just the morning commute story. Because of the morning fog we can't even see down Taraval if the train is coming until it is almost there so it is impossible to make the call as to whether to do a 20 minute fast-walk to West Portal--(aka The Gates of Hell). What is really frustrating is that 4 or 5 trains carrying only a few passengers are heading outbound to the ocean while more and more passengers are waiting to get to work downtown. Why can't they turn back one or two of the cars? (They seem to have no problem turning cars back on the evening commute at 22nd.) Once we do manage to get to the Gates of Hell, it is another saga to get going to Van Ness. Once at Van Ness operators announce to us that if we are in a hurry we might as well take surface transportation. Oh why would anybody be in a hurry at 9:15 a.m. on weekday morning? On mornings waiting for the L to appear out of the fog I imagine a mythical ferry service that will take us from Ocean Beach to the Embarcadero just to avoid the tunnels of San Francisco and the traffic. Of course, that would involve getting to Ocean Beach on what else, the L Travail. But I'm curious as to how many others think this idea might work of having some type of boat service going into the bay from the Ocean side. Rider #2: As a long suffering rider (I depend on the unspeakable J line to get to and from work) I've watched with anger and desperation as service has continued to detoriate on MUNI. The meltdown this past week was foreseeable and should have been avoidable. Nevertheless, I realize that it won't be possible to bring service back to 1980's levels anytime soon. In the meantime, some drastic public relations measures are necessary, and I don't just mean photo ops! People are furious, especially after this past week. My suggestion to assuage passengers is to offer them something for the aggravation and losses they've experienced as a result of MUNI being unable to get them anywhere on time. Specifically, I suggest that MUNI offer a free October FastPass to everyone who has a September FastPass (by now most people have gritted their teeth and bought their new September passes). All during September it should be announced that FastPass holders can get their October pass just by exchanging their September ones. And this should continue for as long as MUNI can't clean up its act and at least keep some kind of schedule, whatever it is. What makes people angriest is that they can't plan when they use MUNI. If you're wondering where to get the money to pay for this, try not printing timetables for the time being. They're works of fiction, anyway!