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N-Judah to Caltrain reinstated
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The N-Judah Muni Metro line will once again be stopping at the Caltrain station at Fourth and King streets as of June 30.
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Two months after the T-Third Metro line began weekday service, Muni has announced it will roll back service changes that left riders stranded and caused disjointed commutes.
The changes — which include extending the N-Judah line to the Caltrain station and introducing a new downtown bus route — will be the second major overhaul in transit services since the $648 million T-Third started carrying weekday commuters April 9.
This time, Muni, which carries 700,000 weekday riders on 1,000 buses, streetcars and trolleys, is attempting to fix the problems created by the first round of modifications. The changes will kick in June 30.
Specifically, the N-Judah will begin servicing the Caltrain station at Fourth and King streets again, rather than turning around at Embarcadero Station.
While the 15-Third bus, which used to carry 30,000 passengers between City College of San Francisco and Fisherman’s Wharf each weekday, will not be brought back, a new bus route called the 20-Columbus will be introduced to fill the gap — or at least part of it.
Additionally, the 10-Townsend will operate on the weekends again, Castro shuttles will be restored, and the J-Church Metro line will stop servicing the Caltrain station.
“We performed a detailed assessment of both the new service we committed to provide and the ability of our infrastructure to meet the new demands,” Municipal Transportation Agency Executive Director Nathaniel Ford said in a statement Monday. “I am committed to improving service systemwide to meet the needs of our customers.”
The initial changes caused a fervor among riders who felt service had been cut rather than enhanced. Some said commute times doubled or tripled because they were forced to transfer more often, while others said they simply could not go where they needed to after buses were altered or canceled.
While only operating on the weekdays for limited hours, the new 20-Columbus bus route will attempt to add service back to the northern part of The City, specifically for elderly residents of North Beach who said they were stranded after the 15-Third bus was canceled. The new line will travel from Van Ness Avenue and North Point Street to Beale and Howard streets.
Muni route changes
Muni will overhaul some of the transit changes made when the T-Third began carrying weekday commuters, which angered riders and caused gaps in service.
METRO SERVICE
» N-Judah line will service Caltrain station at Fourth and King streets.
» J-Church line will no longer service Caltrain station, turning back at Embarcadero station.
» K-Ingleside line will become the T-Third inbound at West Portal station.
» T-Third line will become the K-Ingleside line outbound at Embarcadero station.
BUS SERVICE
» 20-Columbus will travel from Van Ness Avenue and North Point street to Beale and Howard streets. Inbound from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Outbound from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
» 10-Townsend will begin operating on weekends.
Comments from Examiner Readers
11:24 AM MST on Thu., Jun. 7, 2007 re: "N-Judah to Caltrain reinstated"
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4:11 PM MST on Wed., Jun. 6, 2007
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11:28 AM MST on Wed., Jun. 6, 2007
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Examiner Reader said:
I believe the K/T line will work only if Muni is smart enough to keep the 12 trains already on the T-Line added to the trains on the K-Line and run the entirety of the combined line with 2-car trains. The T-Line is always crowded and the K-Line is never on time. They just need enough supervision on both lines to keep it moving, which, hopefully was taken into account. Muni's original plan was to combine the K-Line with the T-Line. I guess they weren't smart enough then to forsee the problems the line has had over the past 2 months. Hopefully this will improve the service in the subway and on both lines, which I use almost everyday.
66 agree | 59 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
According to the previous comment, the new K-T line will help because it will eliminate the T turnaround at Castro. But there were already too many delays before the T line went into service. Service on the new K line will be worse than what it was before the T existed. Also, this is saying that the T has to go all the way to Balboa Park to eliminate the turnaround at Castro. Sounds farfetched, has Muni given a reason for these changes? We need better measurements of Muni's level of service before and after every change. I don't find Muni's "on time" figures very helpful. It would be better to report the time between trains; what percent are 5-10 minutes apart, 10-15 minutes, ... greater than 1/2 hour! etc.
68 agree | 66 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The t-third line increased underground market-st trunk line traffic by 8% (according to the examiner in april). With the t-third turning around at castro if other trains are delayed this can delay the t-third, which in turn delays all the lines behind it. The combined ingleside-third line would eliminate the seemingly disruptive turn-around at castro street. That might reduce some of the delay ripple effect. As for surface delays, Ive noticed that when one line is running extra late and trains stack up they turn one of them around. I've seen this a few times at church st. This is certainly disruptive to the passengers on the train that turns around. However the delay in my experience has been minimal since another train is not far behind. Also I would speculate the delay to future lines is reduced and the traffic on the market street trunk line is reduced. I dont think this will fix things entirely, but it looks like muni is trying to adjust based on what happened since april.
78 agree | 72 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
As an N Judah rider I prefer the N Judah turning around at Embarcadero., as it is already the longest route. If it goes to 4th & King again, every time there is an event at AT&T park the homebound commuters have to wait additional time. They should have the T line turn around at Church & Duboce and have the J continue to 4th & King.
81 agree | 80 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The new "Third-Ingleside" line will never work. The majority of the slowdowns on the Metro lines occur out in the streets, not in the underground (although the underground portion has its problems). These changes mean that the outbound K-Ingleside train, which already has sporadic service, will now be affected by delays which occurred along Third Street. The T-Third outbound, which already has sporadic service, will be affected by delays which occurred along Ocean Avenue. The percentage of each route that is in the streets will increase as will the percentage of trains that have delays. Muni doesn't have useful measurements of how bad their service is, so they won't know if service gets worse.
74 agree | 76 disagree
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