Category: News

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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PHoto by Steve Rhodes

How does Mayor Ed Lee really feel about Muni? In the first of a series of interviews with Streetsblog SF, Lee says that implementing the Transportation Effectiveness Project (TEP) is his top priority for Muni during his administration.

TEP contains recommendations of a years-long study that aimed to make Muni more efficient by line changes, bus stop consolidation, and other strategies for each Muni line.

Lee told Streetsblog’s Bryan Goebel:

“The Transit Effectiveness plan and program has to be implemented all the way. There are some fantastic ideas that have been presented, some great policy reflective of the TEP. I would like those things aggressively implemented.

“I also think that they have to quickly come up with financial schemes that would get their revenues up and make sure they’re not losing any money.”

Read the rest of Mayor Lee’s interview at Streetsblog SF.

The new mayor has made some controversial remarks about Muni, calling Muni an embarrassment, then telling the Bay Citizen that the transit system is doing fine. SF Appeal’s Susie Cagle even made a cartoon featuring the new mayor to illustrate Muni’s recent woes. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for Streetsblog SF’s interviews in the coming days to find out what else Lee has to say about our public transit.