Rescue Muni

The SFMTA might receive $6.7m out of $15m allocated by the MTC for introducing new riders to the system. Those funds could be allocated to the defunct free youth ride program, which would create a 22-month pilot program to give free passes to 40,000 of the city’s low income youth. The SFMTA would still need to put in $4.4m of the $9m plan.

“With the funds specifically available for the program, it could be up and running by early next year”, said Supervisor David Campos. SFMTA board Chairman Tom Nolan says that the money could be better spent elsewhere in the system, and SFMTA spokesman Paul Rose said the agency won’t make a decision until after the Oct 24th vote.

In India, a new bus rapid transit system has been successful in speeding up service for some of the 33% of commuters who ride mass transit, but has led to opposition among auto drivers. The BBC interviews bus riders who support faster service, and also has a surprisingly honest comment from an auto driver opponent: “You cannot keep a commander-in-chief waiting in traffic while his army is waiting for his orders.”

The Delhi high court will soon rule on whether the project can continue.

Today’s Chronicle highlights a major annoyance for Oakland airport commuters: you can’t use your Clipper card on the AirBART shuttle. Officials in charge say it would cost too much to add a few readers to the buses, despite the fact that BART is spending almost half a billion dollars on an elevated shuttle to the airport to replace them in a couple of years. So riders have to buy paper tickets or pay cash.

After the Bay Citizen blew the whistle on inflated on-time performance stats, the SFMTA has announced that the actual on-time rate is 57.2%, down from July’s 60.2%. Cancelled runs, for example the 113 on Sept 10th, lower the deployed number of buses and trains available for the schedule. To compensate, line managers space out buses and trains, decimating the schedule and driving down the on-time rate.

The three main issues with bus and train tardiness are the lack of available drivers due to a low driver graduation rate versus attrition, tight controls on over-time spending, and one of the oldest fleets in the nation. The SFMTA is in the process of hiring new part-time drivers, a new batch every 6 weeks, to start filling in missed runs, as well as buying new buses and overhauling mid-life buses.

With some of the oldest buses in the nation, the SFMTA has placed an order for 45 40′  low floor New Flyer Hybrid buses at $752,000 each. The new fleet members will replace 13 year old buses that will be in service the summer of next year. On the horizon is the purchase of 60′ articulated trolly buses, which will replace part of the existing 20 year old 60′ fleet over the next 2 years, as well as a $19m overhaul program for the agency’s 80 Neoplan diesel buses.