Is there anything sweeter? We found this adorable old sign from @kjerahus on Instagram, whose great grandfather was a conductor on the California Street cable car:
Sign from my great grandfather’s retirement in 1964. He was a conductor on the California St cable cars for years and worked on trolleys and trains since 1917.
BART operator Kelly Beardsley lets us in on one little secret about driving BART: passengers love pressing the intercom button to chat with him about annoyances big and small, or even to just shoot the shit with him for no reason at all. Our live storytelling show, Muni Diaries Live, is where you can hear stories that are at once both true and unbelievable. Here’s Kelly recounting the shenanigans over the intercom on one eventful BART ride.
I love intercom calls, they always crack me up. You know on BART at the end there’s that little box that says, In Case of Emergency, Call the Operator?” Sometimes people just push it and just chat me up. Like, “Hey, I noticed you just made another transfer announcement at Lake Merritt Station. I don’t usually hear transfer announcements at Lake Merritt Station for the Dublin-Pleasanton bound passengers. Are you going to make a transfer announcement at Bay Fair?” And i’m just like, “Oh I like to mix it up! I like to make sure people get to where they need to go!” And the guy’s like, “Oh that’s really cool, man, so what other places do you make transfer announcements?”
We get stupid calls, we get fun calls, and we get complaint calls like, “Hey! Hey! There’s this girl and she’s got a bike and she’s eating a burrito and she’s in the handicapped seat!”
If you want to hear stories like this and other true and hilarious tales, come to the next Muni Diaries Live show on Nov. 5!
Muni Diaries Live Tickets
Saturday, Nov 5, 2016
Doors: 6 p.m., show: 7 p.m.
Elbo Room
647 Valencia Street, San Francisco
Take Muni there: J-Church, 12, 14, 22, 33, 49, or BART: 16th or 24th St. stations
These subway riders are demanding for less Donald Trump, which is completely reasonable. You may not totally love what they want to replace him with, but at this point, we’ll take it over He Who Rides BART Better Than You.
Thank you to Muni rider Michelle Bird for bringing this excellent video to our attention.
Hear our best Muni stories live on stage! Muni Diaries Live is back on Nov. 5 at the Elbo Room. Tickets on sale now!
Depending on your preference, this is either the best or worst thing you’ve ever smelled on Muni. Those of you who have been or live in the tropics: am I right? Spotted by @chuinonthis on Instagram, these two durian fruits are just chillin’ free on the seat. They’re not even wrapped in layers of newspaper and garbage bags like how my aunt used to smuggle them on the plane.
If you’ve been to southeast Asia, you know that durian is famous for its potent smell. Anthony Bourdain famously said that the scent is “indescribable, something you will either love or despise…Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother.” It’s so bad that Malaysian public transit banned it from its trains.
But here on good ol’ Muni, you can let your freak flag fly, durians included! I’m told that the actual fruit tastes like a lovely sweet custard.
Hear our best Muni stories live on stage! Muni Diaries Live is back on Nov. 5 at the Elbo Room. Tickets on sale now!
Twice a year, we, the hamsters behind the MD machine, bring you Muni Diaries Live: our chance to come together IRL for laughter, tears, and to commiserate over the “Oh, SF” that is our public-transit system.
Wouldn’t you know it, our next show — our 16th one in a lucky seven years — is coming up Nov. 5 at Elbo Room. Get to know our stellar storytellers, who can’t wait to share the best and worst of their journeys from Point A to Point B in the 7×7.
