Muni Diaries

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.

Photo by Michael Renner

Deja vu time: Muni chief Nathaniel Ford is a front runner for an exec position to run airport authority in Washington D.C., reports the San Francisco Chronicle. As SF Examiner rightly pointed out, Ford was rumored to be a candidate to run the Washington metropolitan transit authority earlier last year. The Examiner’s Will Reisman also mentions that some folks in the Washington media world are critical of his lack of experience in aviation matters.

How will this affect our commute? The Chronicle reports:

Ford should hear whether he has the new job around March 1, [SFMTA chairman Tom] Nolan said. If it’s a go, Nolan said Ford plans to remain as head of the San Francisco transportation agency for 45 days or longer.

His possible departure comes at a crucial time for Muni, the Bay Area’s busiest transit agency with nearly 700,000 boardings every weekday. The agency faces a $1 billion-plus budget shortfall over the next 20 years without deep spending cuts and/or new sources of revenue.

Management recently began contract negotiations with Muni operators, who, under voter mandate, are losing their guarantee of being the second best-paid in the nation. Last year, Muni cut service an unprecedented 10 percent and has yet to fully restore the lost service.

Will there be a job opening soon at SFMTA? We’ll keep you posted.