Rescue Muni

Yesterday morning, a SUV drove into the Muni Metro tunnel at the Duboce and Church portal, delaying AM commute service for more than two and a half hours as police worked to extract the vehicle and Muni workers made minor repairs to the tunnel.  This is the second private automobile driver to enter the Duboce and Church portal, halting service; the first was a drunk driver in October 2010.

Yesterday’s driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI, failure to obey a stop sign, and driving on train tracks.

In 2008, a private car drove into the Metro tunnel at West Portal, causing a similar disruption.

Update: The N-Judah Chronicles has some thoughts on an appropriate punishment, and asks you for ideas.

As all T-Third riders know, despite the City spending over $600 million on the T-Third line, it runs far slower than it could and is no faster than the buses it replaced, according to an editorial in today’s Examiner. The Examiner calls for MTA to apply common-sense changes to the service to allow it to run faster.

One obvious change would be to reverse the design decision to put the section around Oakdale into mixed traffic, and instead mark a dedicated mass transit lane on the whole length of Third Street. Also, several areas with very low speed limits (e.g. the Islais Creek bridge) need to be looked at again. And if/when the Central Subway is ever built (it’s delayed AGAIN) the Fourth and King intersection absolutely must be redesigned to reduce the massive delays that every T and N rider experiences today.

Last summer’s King Street train collision was the result of a fatigued driver that was using his cell phone for phone conversations and to download from the Internet. The 45 year old driver had a record of two other at-fault accidents, and according to a Muni spokesman, the driver is no longer on the Muni payroll.

There were big delays again on the K, L, M, and T (now part of K) lines this morning due to broken overhead wires. Lines are fixed now but check the Nextbus map before you go.

At this writing there are no live alerts on the MTA website (see Washington Metro for an example of how other agencies handle live alerts).

Today’s Chronicle quotes a Caltrain commuter on the N: “It’s like I woke up and the nightmare was over.” Meanwhile the K and T lines are through-routed, as planned long ago for the Third Street line, and the new 20-Columbus is running to North Beach.

Is service better? Check Nextbus before you ride, and let us know what you think.