Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Alice sent in this photo of a very polite N-Judah car.
Once I finally got on the N, we passed another car and I noticed that it had a message for me. Was it apologizing for failing me today?
This certainly isn’t the first time that a Muni car remembered its manners. It’s never too late to say sorry…or is it?
Today was the first time I rode Caltrain from San Francisco to Redwood City. When I saw it reach the station, it looked even better than what I had seen before from a distance.It looked huge, even a little majestic, so I took out my cell phone and took a photo. I’d never realized that Caltrain had different levels; I sat on the second level because I knew that that’s where my son would want to sit. From up above you could see everything and I started to fantasize about taking the train everywhere. I thought when I got home I would tell my son about this exciting public transportation. My route was supposed to be about 30 minutes, which wasn’t enough time to enjoy such a nice trip… but an hour and a half later, I never wanted to ride the train again.
Inside the train they announced to the passengers: “The train has stopped due to a fatality.” In my naïve mind for a moment I thought they meant the engine was ruined and the train was dead. It wasn’t until I saw the paramedics and police arrive that I understood that it was another kind of fatality. I wasn’t upset anymore; now I was in shock.
We weren’t allowed off the train so we all waited for about an hour for them to remove the body and clean everything up. Trying to sit there calmly knowing what had happened, imagining what was going on outside, was almost impossible. Why had he done it? Why had he jumped? Why had he chosen this train, this time and this place? Where did he find the courage to jump and why wasn’t this courage greater than his desire to end his life?
Finally the train started moving very slowly, the authorities wanted to take us at least to the next station since we had stopped in the middle of nowhere. When we arrived, we all got off the train in silence and started to walk, no one said anything and I just thought, “Better late than never.”
He took some photos of some of the more interesting transfers to share with Muni Diaries readers.
If you have more transfers from any era that you’d like to share with Ronald for his amazing collection, please be sure to get in touch.
Take a ride through Muni history, from Ronald …
Above, 1910s to 1930s, from left to right:
1. One of the earliest Muni transfers, dating from the early ‘teens. Note that no line is listed; it likely comes from the A or B Geary, Muni’s first lines.
2. Union Street Line, c. 1916: The “E” Union line eventually became the 41-Union trolley coach line. It was known by its unique single-truck center door “dinky” cars.
3. Van Ness Avenue Line, mid-to late 1920s.
4. Stockton Street Line, 1930s. This was the original “F” line, the F-Stockton. It became the 30-Stockton line in the late 1940s when streetcars were phased out in favor of electric trolley coaches.
Photo by Octoferret
If you took some great pictures featuring public transit in the Bay, be sure to let us know via Twitter, Flickr, or good ole email.
Enjoy these photos and your glorious weekend!
Photo by norcal37
Photo by james
Photo by no_wur_e
Photo by Mary Conley
Photo by sg2849a
When the temperature’s up, you know to look to Muni riders for the latest trends for the season. Our latest trend alert? Heart Shape Glasses. Third photo in the last few weeks now, so that makes it an official trend, right?
Don’t tell Anna Wintour.
Here are the other trendsetters:
By the way, if you want to buy a pair of your own, Urban Outfitters has ’em.
Photo by Art Siegel
Earlier this month, The Bay Citizen found that SFMTA has not been accurately reporting its on-time performance. Today’s interactive chart looks like more data to support the previous report.
According to this report, the top five on-time Muni lines (the 88 being the most on-time):
And the worst? The least on-time Muni lines (the 76-Marin Headlands being the least on time):
You can check out how your line performs in an interactive chart on The Bay Citizen’s website.