Photo by Troy Holden
Coming on the heels of Tuesday’s Central Subway groundbreaking ceremony, here’s a gripe about another of MTA’s recent new products, the T-Third. Muni rider Frankie has the following to say:
The T Line may be the worst thing Muni has ever planned. Coming home everyday at 5pm waiting at the Carroll station can be maddening! Eight times out of ten, the train takes half an hour to forty minutes at RUSH hour! Some trains will not even stop at Carroll but will stop at Williams. Or some trains in the other direction (on the way to Bayview) will end their destination at Williams and then return downtown. Wasn’t this line suppose to be serving the Hunter’s Point/ Bayview better? This line is only serving the Bayview/Hunter’s Point symbolically. The 15 line is sorely missed. The T-line was a HUGE waste of money. Not to mention how SLOW these trains are as well. Couldn’t some of the N Judah trains continue to Sunnydale as well? SF Muni has ALWAYS been notoriously unreliable and the T-Line is the perfect example. I’m sure I am not the only one who despises the T-line.
So, T-Third riders, let’s hear it: How has Muni’s newest toy fared for you?
Related posts:
I have only taken the T line twice, and that was one of the slowest rides I have ever taken. I am sure for those who have to rely on it to get to work, that it has to be absolutely frustrating and problematic to trust.
[Reply]
I work at UCSF Mission Bay and I feel like it’s faster to walk there than ride the T.
[Reply]
I live in Dogpatch, and I always take the T-train downtown and to the ballgame. I have to say, I have never had a problem with the T-train. I mean, other than the time this happened: http://www.munidiaries.com/2009/07/08/muni-trip-turned-muni-strip/
HA!
[Reply]
jeff Reply:
February 10th, 2010 at 11:40 am
you call that trouble? :P
[Reply]
I despise the T line. I have ridden this piece of shit line since it opened and somehow or another the launch kinks haven’t been worked and have only gotten worse. Anyone suffered through the ride down King St? You know, the one that 30 MINS to go 4 blocks? The one that makes the slowest left/right turns in the history of turning?
I gave up on this line awhile ago when the weather was better. It takes 30 mins to walk from Dogpatch to SOMA – and 40 mins on the T. I was completely miserable once the rain started up and I was back on the T.
Have you ever had the misfortune of trying to get home and miss the train…only to see NextMUNI display next train times of 41 and 58 minutes? What a joke.
And why only one car? Is ridership that low? If it is, I have a feeling I know why – NO ONE WANTS TO RIDE THIS DAMN TRAIN B/C IT SUCKS!
I feel for the Bayview residents that are stuck on this line now instead of the much more efficient 15. The 15 was money. The T is an old, soiled Big Mac wrapper.
You know what the T really needs? Higher fares and reduced service. I guarantee that’s the prescription to all that ails it.
Nice work MUNI, you really nailed us…I mean it…you really nailed *it*.
[Reply]
Ever since January first it has all gone from bad to worse in the South Beach area. I have lived down here since the ballpark was not yet even a dream; and at first I was stoked to invite the T into my hood. Even though it is only one car, even though it is always packed, even though when it says it is arriving in 3 minutes it really means 9, even though some guy pulled his erect penis out at me one of my first times on it. At least I could hold my breath and hope an N came instead. Now though the honeymoon is over. The N does not even got past the Embarcadero anymore on weekends, which means if you want to take the bus from your house on a saturday night you might as well forget about it. I hate being completely dependent on that bus.
Of course I’m not sure if the T LINE is as big a waste of money as the chinatown tram is going to be though. I can not believe this is what muni is wasting its money on when there are SERIOUS problems with every aspect of its infrastructure.
[Reply]
I live near the panhandle and have worked in the bayview for three and half years and was really excited to hear about the opening of the T back in the day. Oh my god. It truly is horrible. A flight to LA is faster than my commute on the T. It would take me an hour and a half to get to my stop at Third and Williams, but I’d have to allow two hours if I wanted to make sure that I got there on time. I’ve since opted to make my way to the 24 and ride that to the end of the line and then just walk to work. That’s about an hour commute, but coming home, if I don’t feel like waiting at night for the 24 at 3rd and Palou, then, again, 2 hours getting home. Bonus — I’ve never read more in my life.
By my math, only about a third of the T Trains predicted by nextmuni are real. I only start walking to the stop once it’s exactly 3 minutes till the next train, and then I run. If it says 4 minutes and I leave work, there’s a good chance that train won’t come for another 20 or 30 minutes. I simply don’t understand how this train can be so terrible. And it’s not like it was good at the beginning — the 2 hour commute is an IMPROVEMENT. Everyone says it, but it’s true. The 15 was a million times better.
That’s not to mention how much it sucks simply riding the T. I can’t tell you how many fights I’ve seen… one time, I got on the T and there was a big clump of human hair on the floor, that I later learned had just been pulled out of someone’s head. I completely agree that this “T invigorating the bayview… oh sorry, Sunnydale” bullsh*t is for press releases only. The transportation to the bayview is appalling. But didn’t they have free wi-fi on the 10 at one point?
Sorry, guess this has been building up for a while. For someone who actually has to take public transportation to the bayview every day, it’s kind of a sore issue.
[Reply]
DopeAndyRooney Reply:
February 10th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
I would retweet this if I could
[Reply]
Oh, and I remember the time when I tried to get home from the ballgame and it took an hour. Sorry, more like those 50 TIMES! That $5 cab ride was some of the best money I’ve ever spent. Let’s see – $4 for round-trip MUNI ticket vs $10 cab ride x my hourly rate x the square root of pi = the T blows!
I shit you not, a horse drawn carriage would be faster, cheaper and much more efficient than the T. I can say that since I remember what it was like during the Gold Rush period.
(twitter: @dopeandyrooney)
[Reply]
I moved to Dogpatch several weeks ago. My first morning I took the T train to work downtown: 45 minutes from door to door. It’s like 3 miles. Starting on morning two I have biked every day: 13 minutes door to door, and bike lanes almost the whole way.
[Reply]
I live in the Dogpatch and work in Civic Center. I’ve been riding the T since it’s inception. While it has gotten better, (I believe MUNI actually thought it was a joke at the begining) it is still pretty bad. I often (around twice a week) wait 25 minutes for a train at Civic Center and often watch a T coming on the new handy dandy easily readable maps only to have an S show up in it’s place. Or having waited 15 to 20 minutes for a real T train only to find out it is turning around at Embarcadero. I often have to ask the driver if they’re going down 3rd. Why? Because they’re headed inbound on a train that says “K Ingeleside.”
There are five places they can turn around a T off the top of my head and only two effect me. I feel sorry for riders going further down 3rd. They must get kicked all the time.
On game days it is far worse. If you are on a T, creeping up to Caltrain, I will garuntee that the N ahead of you will be allowed to pull up to the platform, unload it’s passengers, backup and cross over to the other tracks, and head back to the ballpark before the MUNI supervisors running the intersection will let the T turn left onto 4th. I’d win that bet 4 out of five times. You want to know how I figured that out? A MUNI driver pointed it out to me claiming the ballpark pays them to do it.
The frustrating thing is every time I go back to NYC and see well their system is run. In the 45 minutes MUNI takes to get me effectively a mile and a half, MTA can take me all way from Midtownton the ferry terminal and halfway to Staten Island.
[Reply]
The real reason there isn’t a second car on the T is because Muni doesn’t trust the residents of Bayview/Hunters’s Point on a train with no driver to supervise the “wild” kids. Just a hunch.
And why the hell is the T-line being expanded to Chinatown. You’ve got to be kidding me!
There are enough ways to get to Chinatown by Muni already. Another symbolic improvement.
More grandstanding gestures by SF politics that won’t address the real issues on Muni and
another missed opportunity to actually improve the existing system.
What about those free riders on Muni? I see people getting on the T-line–ON THE FRONT CAR!!– and not even pay. And the driver will say NOTHING!!!! Not even a polite “tickets please.” It’s you own damn fault Muni.
[Reply]
It’s really sad to see that the T line is such a dismal failure. I remembered all the stories about the initial kinks but hoped they’d work out a bit. Clearly, they haven’t.
The posts here make me wonder what an average work commute via muni is in the city, though… My commute is about 1 hour in the morning and an hour and a half on the way home- I take the 29 and the 1. Even when I’ve lived/worked elsewhere, my commute was usually an hour to work. I imagine that to be the norm if only to console myself. Is that the case? Who lives/works in the city and has a longer commute than that?
[Reply]