Category: reflection

BART Back in the Day

4 comments

zennie-lars-BART

Zennie Abraham of The Blog Report With Zennie62 found this old photo of himself and his friend Lars on the then-new BART back in 1975. He ventured that he and his young friend might be going to San Francisco for the sole purpose of riding the brand-new underground tube.

From his post on SFGate:

BART was new then.  It opened in 1972 and transbay service (under the San Francisco Bay from Oakland to San Francisco) started in 1974.  What was neat about BART at that time was everything was automatic: the doors opened and the train didn’t even have the human operators that are in each one today; it was supposed to be ran by computer. As I recall, the problems didn’t start mounting up until 1976.  But even with that it was a smooth almost soundless ride; the tracks have worn so much that such an experience is a thing of the past.

Ah, old school BART. I love that these kids were stylin’ big time.

Category: BART, diaries, Photos, reflection Tags:

Those strange voices we all know

2 comments

Coming and going
Photo by Flickr user Ric e Ette

The following was sent to us by BART rider Jean

i’m on the bart every so often when i don’t drive to work. i don’t mind riding the trains, but it’s the waiting in the stations that gets me. half the time there’s no where to sit and i know it’s silly, but i just can’t read while standing up. so i just stand around and listen to the bart announcements. “ten car train for richmond in four minutes. eight car daly city train in ten minutes.” and it’s always weird for me to hear the automated announcements because i’m thinking about the man and the woman who have recorded them.

did they record each piece separately and then some computer strings them together? for instance, the guy records, “ten car train for” and then “richmond in” and then “four,” “ten,” “one,” etc. or did they think of every possible train length/destination/time combo and have the guy recite each one? Read more

Category: BART, reflection

Summer Ballet Season on Muni

2 comments

As Light as Air
Photo by Flickr user aussiegall

San Francisco is lucky to have two great ballet companies right here in the city:  The San Francisco Ballet and Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet. However, along with these formidable dance institutions comes summer dance camp. You know it’s summer in the city when the teeny tiny little 14 year olds arrive on the #5 Fulton.

Every summer they arrive after the 4th of July and stay for a few weeks. The girls (and occasional boy) all stay at the vacant dorms at USF, but the ballet companies are all near the Civic Center. So every morning they all get on the bus in the middle of rush hour traffic. The #5 doesn’t get a lot of school kids in the morning so the ballerinas are an unwelcome gaggle of chatterboxes for the morning commuters.

Read more

Category: diaries, reflection Tags:

Muni Video: 1980 Rollsign

3 comments

Octoferret‘s is my favorite Flickr account lately. His photoset of outdated and inaccurate Muni signage was featured here on Muni Diaries last week. And last weekend, while searching Flickr for a photo to embed with another post, I stumbled across the video above. The best part — Octoferret claims to own these Muni relics. Talk about Geek Envy!

I might be a bigger Muni buff than the average Muni Diaries reader. But perhaps you, too, can find a nostalgic, quiet beauty in the video. Either way, enjoy. Parts 2 and 3 are after the jump.

Read more

Category: diaries, reflection Tags:

Confused Riders on the Outbound J

2 comments

i took the J church TO start everything off, but it doesn't really count
Photo by Flickr user dennis

This hilarious-yet-sad anecdote came to the Muni Diaries inbox last week from Muni rider Eric G:

I got on the J at 34th and Judah. For those not in the know, the N sometimes goes outbound to Ocean Beach, then becomes an outbound J. This means it turns onto Church St instead of going into the tunnel.

Of course, this confuses a lot of people. One woman asked me if it would go to Civic Center. “Nope,” I replied.

A few minutes later, a second woman asked if the whole train was going into the tunnel, or just the first half. “This train will turn at the next stop,” I explained.

Thing is, this woman wasn’t just a regular Muni rider. She was a fare inspector. And to make matters worse, she was leading a group of fare inspectors.

I don’t blame her for not knowing. But I think this is symptomatic of Muni not training their employees nearly well enough.

Have you ever been confused about the direction your train was going? Send us all your Muni stories today!

Category: diaries, reflection Tags: ,

The Snake-eating-tail Problem of Muni Fare Increases

2 comments

shattered
Photo by Flickr user eb78

This sad story comes to our inbox from Muni rider kevinas:

I was riding the F line on Saturday morning, going toward downtown. The car stopped in front of DeLessio’s cafe, near Valencia, to pick up passengers. One young man got on and placed a dime in the fare box. The driver told him, “The fare is $2, not ten cents.” The kid said, “That’s all I’ve got.” The driver replied, “That’s not my problem.” The kid got off through the back. Shortly after the car started going again, he trough a rock or some similar object at the car, smashing one of the windows, and covering a terrified woman in broken glass. Fortunately, it did not appear that she was hurt. I briefly considered chasing the kid down and doing my best to whoop the shit out of him. But I thought better of it.

Yeah, we know the $2 fare can seem steep. But smashing a window? What’s that really gonna solve, eh, kid?

Category: diaries, reflection
1 … 32 33 34 35 36 … 42