It's old news, but the J-Church is once again the "worst performer" of the Muni light rail. Even though it has the lowest ridership, apparently it spends the most time interacting with other traffic. Average speed on the route: a crawling 11mph. Percent on time: a mere 64.9%.
Bevan Dufty is again introducing legislation requesting the City Controller to audit the J. For their part, Muni plans to use Federal stimulus money to fix rail cars and train operators. Muni spokesperson Kristen Holland also said the MTA will adjust the schedule this fall -- presumably to reflect the reality of late cars and therefore improve their "on-time" rating.
[SFE: J-Church line called worst performer in City]
[SFGate: Pilot project will try to ensure J-Church line runs on time]
[Photo: 30Sanchez]
5 comments:
Sigh. I think the J-Church has the lowest ridership because we've all stopped counting on it to get to where we need to go. I'm tired of seeing predictions of 49 minutes for the next train when it's supposed to come every 10 or 20 minutes.
Too often, we are forced to drive, walk a long way to BART, or take a taxi in order to arrive at our appointments on time.
I'll second that sigh. The J is no fun for anyone...
About two years ago my then two year son pulled on the stop chord when he was looking out the window. When the train stopped nobody got off the train so the operator came out and yelled at everyone on the train. I told him it was a mistake, my son didn't know any better being two and all. So the operator proceeded to yell at my son. I'm still stunned to this day. What if somebody thought they had a stop and accidently pulled the cord?
I'm a strong advocate of public transportation. That being said, here are the reasons I no longer ride the J-Church Muni:
1. It's faster (even given a 15 minute walk down the hill) to take BART
2. It's way more reliable to take BART (I'm so over waiting 40 minutes for a J tram, only to have 3 come right in a row)
3. I'll never forget a muni driver refusing to pull up to the handicapped platform so that I could get my 2 week old son onto the tram without having to take him out of the stroller and get someone to get the stroller for me since I had had a c-section and wasn't supposed to be lifting heavy objects. Regardless, how does using the handicapped platform in any way take away from others with a more visible handicap from using it?
Late to the party, but seconding never taking the J because of unreliability. I walk to Bart everyday to commute downtown, even though the J is only 2 blocks from me.
I'm sure the bureaucrats at Muni haven't bothered to tether low ridership to horrible service.
That's your tax dollars at work, folks!
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