Just two days after reopening, Muni forced to shut down its trains again.
After three days of rough rides on San Francisco’s lightrail system, it’s back to the buses for Muni Metro riders.
The city’s transportation chief late Monday once again closed Muni Metro — two days after a muchanticipated reopening — following equipment failures and an employee in the transit system’s control center testing positive for the coronavirus.
“Apologies for failing to deliver the service San Francisco deserves,” Jeffrey Tumlin, the city’s transportation director, said Tuesday.
But apologies weren’t enough for Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who called the failed reopening “unconscionable” after five months to get the system in top shape.
“This is inexcusable, and I am despondent over that,” he said. “It is a sordid tale that The City That Knows How bungled this. It’s miserable —
and I hate saying that.”
Five months after it put the brakes on Metro service, Muni resumed lightrail service on Saturday. The system struggled a bit over the weekend then collapsed on Monday morning, forcing commuters onto shuttle buses and, later, prompting Tumlin’s message that buses would replace Muni Metro for the foreseeable future. No date has been set for resuming Muni Metro service.
Tumlin laid out the problems in detail, placing the blame on a supplier and COVID19. Two new overhead wire splices had broken in the past few days, in spite of months of preparations to reopen the rail network and crews’ dedication to fixing a huge backlog of deferred maintenance. Problems with overhead wires have dogged Muni for years — a similar breakdown choked the subway for 13 hours in 2019, ultimately forcing Tumlin’s predecessor, Ed Reiskin, to step down.
Worse yet, a worker in the Transportation Management Center had contracted the coronavirus. Muni’s contacttracing protocols meant that multiple controllers would have to quarantine themselves, preventing the agency from operating its rail system safely and efficiently, Tumlin said.
So, the agency will replace its trains with bus shuttles — again.
Tumlin and his top staff had shut down Muni Metro in April, fearing these scenarios, he said. They also slashed bus service from 68 lines to 17, in large part because too many bus operators were calling in sick during the shelterinplace period.
Muni had decided to restore Metro rail service — starting last Saturday — as more of the city’s businesses reopen and ridership creeps up to about 150,000 a day from about 100,000 in April after Muni cut back service. Lightrail trains can carry more passengers than buses, making it easier to get some socially distant elbow room, and along much of their routes, they’re able to avoid rising car traffic on the streets.
Although Muni resuscitated some of its bus lines during the ensuing months, roughly 40 of them could vanish longterm, unless the cashstrapped agency finds an outside source of revenue. With riders no longer commuting — or gingerly avoiding transit for fear of pathogens — and sales tax revenue sinking, the agency expects to lose $568 million over four years.
Its repair costs have ballooned to $110 million, suggesting that more equipment breakdowns could plague the agency down the line.
Given those challenges, Tumlin saw the risk in reopening the subway, which he’d also reconfigured by modifying some routes and limiting the underground portion to twoand threecar trains.
Still, many transit enthusiasts welcomed the decision. For two days, they gleefully tweeted photos of clean, nearempty trains rolling through the tunnels and city streets.
Tumlin said he decided to close Muni Metro after learning that as many as 100 recent splices may have been made using material that didn’t meet standards and was prone to breaking once the full system was operating. Muni has found a new supplier and will replace all recent splices while the trains are stopped.
The sudden shutdown, announced about 9 p.m. Monday, disappointed many riders — even those who said they’ve become accustomed to being let down or left waiting by Muni.
With Muni riders heading back to the buses, many had to contend with a new raft of problems — namely, that some buses weren't running.
Patrick Batt, a 74yearold resident of
Ingleside, found out the hard way when he tried to catch a K Ingleside shuttle at Ocean Avenue and Dorado Terrace, with no luck. After waiting 40 minutes, Batt called the city’s 311 complaint line and spoke with an operator who could not get through to Muni's control center.
While on the phone, Batt walked nine blocks to Ocean Avenue and Frida Kahlo Way, where he caught the 49 bus, then transferred to the 24 to get to his shop in the Castro.
“Apparently it’s a communication problem aggravated by a service problem,” Batt said, adding that he’s in good shape and didn’t mind the walk so much as the absence of information. “Good thing I’m mobile. Imagine if I walked with a cane or walker.”