Muni Diaries

And with it, travel on BART from one side of the Bay to the other will stop.

But! Someone thought of what a terrible inconvenience this will be to you, dear BART traveler.

BART will offer lifeline bus service between 19th Street in Oakland and the Temporary Transbay Terminal in San Francisco, but the buses are intended only for those who have no other options. The buses will carry customers from 19th Street Station in Oakland to the Temporary Transbay Terminal in San Francisco (a 2 block walk to the Embarcadero Station) or from there back to the East Bay. There will be no additional charge for the bus. The bus bridge will cause 30 minutes to one hour delays for some customers. During our earlier transbay closure in August, the bus trip took about 20 minutes, but when you factor in walking to/from the bus connection, it took about 30 minutes. Check out our tips page for more details about how to get from the Temporary Transbay Terminal to the Embarcadero Station.

In case you missed that wee itto link in the blockquote, here it is again: Tips for travel during Labor Day transbay shutdown. Regular BART service will resume for the Tuesday morning commute.

This might be a good time to just stay on your side of the Bay. Or, go north, go south, just don’t go too far east or west.

After all, it’s Labor Weekend and Burning Man. It’s the BEST TIME OF THE YEAR IN SF OMG.

Photo by Steve Rhodes

That’s right, that sound that peels paint off the walls and rends your soul from you body when you ride on BART might, might be on its way out.

According to a San Francisco Magazine piece, BART is hoping to address the infamous screeching sound as part of its track replacement this weekend.

The tube is getting new tracks—some were already replaced at the beginning of the month, when BART shut down transbay service for two days—and more will be replaced during a three-day closure over Labor Day weekend.

Replacing the loudest stretches of track in the tube with smooth new rails should make a difference (how much of a difference no one knows for sure, but we hope it will audible after September 7).

SF Magazine compares the sound to “a steel banshee gargling a chainsaw.” That works, but I think of it more as Satan with elongated fingernails of steel scraping a chalkboard that’s attached to your brain. Or something.

In any case, this sounds like good news to me. I expect my nightmares to subside in short order.

Read the full SF Magazine article here.

Photo by Jeremy Brooks