Trees down, trains stuck, and general transit mayhem from last night’s rainstorm

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j-church-tree-down-muni-diaries-by-ongardie

Last night’s rain apocalypse caused a gnarly evening of commute on both BART and Muni. A tree fell on the tracks of the J-Church train in the photo above, blocking both directions. And a power outage shortly after 7 p.m. blocked all trains between Van Ness and Church, reports the San Francisco Examiner.

Earlier that evening, if you were amongst the evening commute crowd on BART, you’ll know that the fallen tree near the Balboa Station between 24th Street and Balboa station caused a BART outage that snowballed into this scene at BART, where riders were scaling the broken escalator:

As of 9 p.m. last night, service was still shut down between Daly City and 24th Street Station, says SFGate. Rescue trains came to get the stranded passengers to free Muni shuttles, reports SFist. In the East Bay, AC Transit buses were also backed up due to a power line falling near a school, reports SFGate.

Got commute updates for your fellow riders? Tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Our email inbox muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com is always open. Stay safe out there, everybody.

Photo by @ongardie. Featured photo by SFist.

Category: News

NextBus prediction for light rail vehicles may be fixed tomorrow

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If you ride Muni’s light rail trains, there’s some good news for you: the NextBus outage could be fixed as early as tomorrow evening for light rail vehicles. Last Friday the SFMTA said that it would take “a few weeks” to fix NextBus outage caused by network upgrades, affecting over 70 percent of buses. This meant that 70 percent of buses prediction times may not show up on NextMuni signs or mobile apps using NextMuni data.

The vehicles affected included 150 light rail trains and about 500 buses.

SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose told Muni Diaries this afternoon that most of the light rail vehicles were upgraded Monday evening: “As of last night, more than 130 trains out of the 150 had been upgraded. The rest will be done tonight.”

That leaves the 500 buses in the fleet still needing upgrading. From the official update on the SFMTA blog:

Over the coming weeks, we will continue replacing and reprogramming outdated vehicle modems on the remainder of the Muni fleet. We will continue to upgrade our rail fleet and move onto the approximately 500 buses that have not already been upgraded as part of the Computer Aided Dispatch and Automated Vehicle Location System (CAD/AVL), also know as the radio replacement project. All of this work is being completed by Muni staff along with our NextBus partners.

Meanwhile, Muni shelter signs have been including apologies such as in the photo above. Are you using bus schedules or just sheer force of will to plan your commute?

We’ll keep you updated on how the fix is coming.

Category: News

Do you knit on Muni?

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knitting-on-muni-by-karlthefag

If you’re a knitter, or if you’ve ever worn a sweater in your life, you’d appreciate this sweet exchange that we found by Ray on Instagram:

I was riding home from work on Muni today, minding my own business, when out of nowhere a stranger (who apparently had been watching me during his commute) walked up to me and exclaimed: “You never drop a stitch, and your tension is perfect!” I was completely flustered by the attention and all I could do was thank him. This is what I was knitting on the rickety ride home.

I hereby resolve to give out more compliments to strangers this year! Head over to his Insta to see the finished product. Pretty cool.

Got other important news for your fellow riders? Tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Our email inbox muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com is always open!

Are you a podcast fan? Hear the brand new episode today on the Muni Diaries podcast! Find us on iTunes and Google Play.

Category: Aww: Cute on Muni

Weekend fail: car driving through Duboce tunnel

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muni-car-duboce-tunnel-by-mikevladimer

Another new year, another driver who didn’t get the memo that the Duboce tunnel is for Muni only. Rider @mikevladimer on Twitter was on the N-Judah when he saw some unfamiliar headlights coming this way in the tunnel going to Cole Valley.

Just last summer another driver made the same mistake, resulting in panicked yelling from Muni workers before escaping out of the tunnel (see this amazingly cringe pic submitted by a rider). Drivers beware: another drunk SUV driver who crashed into the tunnel got community service for the trouble he caused.

Hat tip: Amy at Capp Street Crap.

Category: News

NextBus outage could last for weeks

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next bus broken sign examiner

Updated Jan 10, 2017:

Muni says that NextBus prediction for most of the 150 light rail vehicles have been fixed, which leaves the 500 buses that still need an upgrade. By our calculation, this means about 50% of the vehicles are still affected (versus 70% previously). More details this way.

Original post:

Think this week’s commute was a shit show with all those NextMuni lies? That could be the case for the next couple of weeks, according to SFBay.ca. NextBus, the system which runs prediction times for Muni, had upgraded its wireless network from 2G and now many of the old buses don’t show up on NextMuni at all.

More from SFBay:

The transit agency has been going through an upgrade with the NextMuni system. The system uses AT&T’s wireless cellphone network to transmit the data to the NextMuni screens.

Data had been transmitting through NextMuni using a 2G network, which AT&T had deactivated because the technology is now outdated.

SFMTA officials said the deactivation happened sooner than expected so some Muni vehicles may not show up on NextMuni because they simply do not have the upgraded communications and monitoring system yet.

According to the SFMTA’s blog post, this affects 70% of vehicles and includes all Metro trains.

And it’s not just the signs at Muni shelters that are affected. Because third party transit apps also use NextBus data, you won’t be getting accurate prediction on your phone either.

You might remember seeing the “upgrading to 3G” signs last summer. As Hoodline points out, the agency should have known about the upgrade for years. “AT&T first noted in an SEC filing back in 2012 that it intended to sunset its legacy system on January 1, 2017.”

The SFMTA says that they are “working aggressively to resolve the issue” but has not given any time estimates other than “at least a matter of weeks.”

So basically, for the next couple of weeks, we will have no idea when the bus is coming most of the time. Meanwhile, the SFMTA suggests that you use the line frequency schedule to figure out your commute. That should be an interesting, if not unfulfilling, exercise?

We’ll keep you updated on the any progress we find out.

Well, this sucks. While you’re waiting for the bus and not knowing when it’s coming at all, maybe the Muni Diaries podcast can keep you company. Find us on iTunes and Google Play.

Photo credit: SF Examiner

Category: News

Transit news: new Muni fleet on Fri the 13th, Chinatown leader wants steel barriers for Muni stop

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vintage-muni_5

Lots of Muni news in the first half of the year, including a lot of hubbub about the Geary BRT. Your fresh transit news this week:

– Chinatown community leader wants Muni stops to be protected by steel bars (SF Examiner). For the next time a car decides to barrel down the street and crash into your Muni shelter.
– New Muni fleet to arrive on Friday the 13th (SFist). Sixty four light rail trains will arrive that day, but won’t be in service until training is complete. The new trains are longer and have fewer seats.
– When should the supes vote for the Geary Bus Rapid Transit project? (San Francisco Chronicle)
– SFFD Rescues Possibly Intoxicated Man Pinned At Waist Between BART Cars In SF (SFist). “Rescuers pushed the train over with inflatable airbags to rescue the man,” and miraculously, he survived.
– NextBus was even less accurate than usual (SF Examiner). Not to worry, we have the most accurate NextBus sign to date.
Photo credit

Category: News
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