5 PM: According to the SF MTA, Muni’s still experiencing serious delays as a result of a power outage that struck their Central Control late this morning
“As of 4 p.m.,” Muni said is a release sent to media “regular light rail service in the Muni Metro subway continues to experience delays in both directions.”
They explain that “(t)he brief outage required extensive repairs to the subway communications infrastructure. Crews restored communications between the subway and Central Control this afternoon as service continued at reduced speeds for safety reasons.”
According to Muni, 20+ shuttle buses are working to supplement the slowed subway service, which they say is “in the process of being restored.”
2:44 PM: Bay City News is reporting that the cause of the Muni Metro service disruption was a brief power outage in their central control system. The outage, MTA spokesperson Paul Rose says, was reported at 11:56 a.m. and was restored by noon.
The outage caused extensive residual delays in the downtown subway and forced Muni to provide supplemental service via bus shuttles that are taking customers between the Embarcadero and West Portal stations, Rose said.
As of 2:30 p.m., trains continued to go slowly through the subway, and the bus shuttles will be in place until further notice, he said.
The cause of the outage is under investigation, he said.
12:40 PM: A tipster let us know, and 311 has confirmed that Muni’s Metro (that is, the trains) are experiencing serious issues, as “the subway is closed due to computer problems. There are no trains inbound or outbound.”
I’ve left a message at Muni’s media relations number, but a call to 311 confirms our tipster’s account. According to the 311 rep I spoke to, a computer shutdown in the subway means that there are no trains traveling in the downtown underground area, and that Metro service on surface streets is also “very slow because they have to run in manual.”
At the time of my call, the 311 operator said they had no estimate of when this issue would be fixed, nor did she have any details on if Muni would be running shuttle buses instead of their trains.
Needless to say, I shall update when I know more. Until, then, I suggest you take the bus, not a train, to get where you need to go.
What are y’all seeing out there? How is it?
