4:28 PM: True informs us that regular L Taraval service resumed as of 4:06. Apparently, the issue was a “split switch,: which is “when the switch–which directs the train from one track onto another–does not stay in the correct position and the wheels of the train go onto the wrong track.” True says that the MTA’s suspects crap from the storm washing into the switch area contributed to the issue.
And, while we’re at it, NextBus seems to be back online, too. No word yet on what washed into NextBus’ ISP to cause them to go out of service.
2:43 PM: Not really related to what we’re talking about, but since this is already a Muni post, what the hell? MTA spokesperson Judson True says that the L Taraval’s derailed between 35th and 36 Aves at 2:05 today. No one was injured, and the cause for the derailment is still unknown.
L riders will be taking a bus between 22 and the zoo.
1:06 PM: MTA spokesperson Judson True says NextBus is “down because of a problem with NextBus’s Internet Service Provider on the East Coast. All NextBus customers–not just Muni–are affected. No ETA yet on getting it fixed.” Somebody at NextBus is really wishing they hadn’t thrown out those AOL CD-ROMs right now.
10:23 AM: City employees are reporting major Muni delays this morning, and NextBus, the system the SF MTA relies upon to provide Muni riders is not in operation today. This might be a good place to leave you the Muni complaint form.
After a tip from the Muni Alerts twitter, we gave NextBus a call to see if they had any idea when their system, which serves a lot of agencies, might be back online. After all, reliable Muni arrival times seem more important then ever when one is standing in the rain, right? Unfortunately, all we could reach was a voicemail that told us to speak clearly when we left our message.
A call to 311 gave us a bit more information — the representative to whom we spoke said that locally, NextBus was down because of the storm, and that NextBus’ website is down for other reasons. He offered to check his Muni schedule for me — I chose the N Judah stop closest to my house (far Outer Sunset). After checking with his supervisor, he told me that Muni was having major delays today and that I would be better served to walk the 5 blocks up to Noriega to catch the 71, as “I don’t see any Ns coming for a while.”
We’ve emailed MTA spokesperson Judson True to get more details on both the delays and on the state of the NextBus union, and will update when we hear from him.
