Author: jeff

Photo by SFist

Last week, many of you (and us) received unsolicited texts from NextBus with weird alerts that seemingly applied to Seattle. No one could make head nor tails of the messages, and instead were left three texts closer to our maximum allotment.

Muni Diaries commenter Kathryn wrote NextBus to complain, and received this response back:

First, thank you for taking the time to get in touch with us at NextBus to let us know about the problems our SMS Texting service caused you. We sincerely apologize to you and we want you to know that we’ve taken a number of steps to not only correct the problem but to insure that it will not happen again.

What happened? On Thursday, February 24th, due to a glitch in our SMS texting system, many who had utilized our NextBus SMS texting system in the past had a series of text messages sent to them. In most cases three texts were sent out. As soon as we became aware of the problem, we immediately shut down our texting system so that our engineers could troubleshoot the issue and fix it. Our primary concern was to insure that those receiving the messages didn’t incur additional texting costs or use up their monthly texting limit. We also fully understand how annoying it is to receive unsolicited texts.

What have we done? The first thing we have done is completely deleted the texting database of all telephone numbers. In other words everyone has been “unsubscribed” from our system. We’ve also re-configured our SMS texting system that provides our real-time transit arrival predictions; the telephone numbers of those who use our SMS texting system in the future will not be saved in any way, shape or form. For those riders who “subscribe” to our system to have transit “alerts” sent to them by SMS Texting, you will receive your alert and one additional text the first time you subscribe. This additional text will inform you that you have subscribed.

Again, we apologize for all of the annoyance and inconvenience we caused you.

The Support Team
NextBus, Inc.

Glad they got it under control.

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Photo by Troy Holden

For all you M Fast Pass holder who haven’t done so already, March 1 (next Tuesday) is the date you’ll have to to switch to Clipper if you want to continue to buy the pass. More info about the switchover at SFMTA’s website. One bonus: you can dress up your new Clipper card with our Fast Pass Clipper Card holder.

In Muni news this week:

• Muni chief Nathaniel Ford eyeing D.C. post (SFGate)
• Driver salaries fueling deficit (SF Examiner)
• Frustrated Clipper Card users to receive new customer service location (SF Examiner, SFAppeal)
• Mayor Lee Must Make SFMTA Act Quickly on TEP Implementation (Streetsblog SF)
• Another Reason MTA Head Nat Ford Might Want to Flee SF: Tax Troubles (SF Appeal)
• Mayor Lee Rides Muni Occasionally (The Bay Citizen)
• New low-floor Muni buses bring some passengers down (SF Examiner)
• SFMTA to repair Muni rail segment over the weekend (KGO, SF Appeal)
• Muni faces possible fines over numerous safety violations (see our summary)
• SFMTA to repair Muni rail segment (ABC7)

Enjoy these photos and your weekend! Will there be snow?

Photo by mtarlock

Photo by Ariel Dovas

Photo by librarygroover

Photo by carlosgomez

Photo by joemud

On the heels of an 18-month investigation, the California Public Utilities Commission alleges that our very own SFMTA is in violation of federal, state, and local safety regulations. SFMTA, of course, denies the allegations, but the case is headed to administrative law court for a judge to decide whether the agency stands to have fines of $20,000 per day and other penalties levied against it. Muni has 30 days to respond to the state’s allegations.

One of the trouble spots, to no sane person’s surprise, is Church and Duboce. Just yesterday, however, right before we started seeing the reports of the CPUC’s investigation, we received an email from SFMTA noting
planned rail maintenance work for this weekend.

San Francisco Business Journal lists the other major allegations, and the SF Examiner also has a story up.

While we certainly agree with the need for SFMTA to be within regulations, we’d hate to see the already fiscally challenged agency slapped with heavy fines. We’ll do our best to follow up on this case, and report it back here on Muni Diaries.

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