Happy 100th birthday to SF Muni!

December 27th, 2012

Tomorrow, the SF Municipal Railway celebrates its centennial. Take a look at the Market Street Railway‘s website for details on all the festivities. Car One will be in regular service on Market Street, and rides are free systemwide all day!

Santa Clara VTA light rail: 25 years later, very low usage

December 27th, 2012

Today’s Mercury News tells the story of how the Santa Clara VTA light rail system has consistently missed ridership targets while costing taxpayers more than expected in subsidies. The system only has 32,000 daily boardings, less than one-quarter of Muni’s light rail boardings – due largely to sprawling land use throughout the region that favors automotive commutes, but also slow speeds through the downtown “transit mall” and suburban lines. This should be a lesson to regional authorities considering where to build mass transit: build where the demand is!

MTC to waste $218 on an office building

December 12th, 2012

While transit projects around the region get cut, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is currently stuck with the bill for a new office building, far in excess of what is needed for such an organization. Joyce Roy of the Oakland Tribune says it’s not too late to junk this boondoggle.

John King: Study extending subway to North Beach

December 10th, 2012

John King of the Chronicle reports favorably on the option to extend the Central Subway to North Beach, perhaps using the Pagoda Theater site as the entrance. We agree! Let’s at least find out what it would cost and how quickly it could be built without spending decades debating alternatives.

On time rate, service rate improve after half year slide

October 19th, 2012

Muni’s on-time rate is finally on the move upward again, at least compared to last month, to 58.4%, but that’s a large slide from March’s 63.2%. Muni’s voter mandated on time rate is 85%.

Hours of service are also up, 95.7%, compared to 93.9% 6 months ago. Muni’s voter mandated hours of deployed service is 98.5%.

Contributing factors to service improvements include reduced driver unscheduled leave, currently at 9.4%, and a newly graduated batch of bus drivers.