Commuters angry after San Francisco light rail tracks blocked twice in one day

Commuter chaos: San Francisco light rail commuters were snarled when two separate incidents blocked light rail tracks during the morning rush hour. At 8:30 AM, SF Muni’s Twitter reported that the busy “N Judah” light rail line was disrupted by a motor coach that got disabled on top of the tracks. The stalled coach bus disrupted service during the busy morning rush hour period, and was cleared one hour later at around 9:30 AM.

At apprpoximately the same time (9:30 AM), a train on the “T Third” line was involved in a collision with an SF Muni bus. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a MUNI bus made a left turn in front of a moving train. As a result, two light rail operators and two passengers were injured. Light rail service was replaced by shuttle buses and disrupted for well over an hour before being restored at 10:40 AM.

The incidents drew the ire of several delayed MUNI light rail passengers on social media, with some passengers reporting regular delays throughout the week and waits of over 45 minutes for trains. One passenger, who gave up on taking the train altogether demanded that MUNI refund their Uber fare.

Get rid of all the dead weight @sfmta_muni staff. Muni is a disaster, especially the #NJudah line. 40+ minute delays during rush hour are routine. If you can’t get this shit fixed we’ll find a mayor who can. Increase N train service. Double the number of NX, 7X, 6, and 43 buses!

— Gina B (@jigglesfrog) September 29, 2018

This is the third delay on the N this morning alone!!

— Moxxxie (@missmoxxxie) September 28, 2018

@LondonBreed – will I be reimbursed for my $20 surge priced Uber trip? Fire Ed Reskin. Now. His inability to enact required infrasturucture improvements and overall incompetence begs for new leadership. This stalled train was the first after another stall. We’re going nowhere.

— Bob Wu (@bobwu22) September 28, 2018

Future Surrey LRT could be plagued by frequent delays

Once again, this incident highlights a major, fundamental flaw of the proposed street-running light rail system endorsed by TransLink, the Regional Mayors’ Council, and the City of Surrey. The proposed Surrey Light Rail Transit system will run at street level on segments of 104th Avenue, King George Boulevard and Fraser Highway.

Light rail trains can be blocked at any time by vehicles that become stuck on the tracks or get hit by other trains. Light rail trains can also be blocked by protests.

SkyTrain for Surrey has called for the cancellation of the Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT project, the conversion of the Surrey-Langley LRT into a SkyTrain extension of the Expo Line, and the construction of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on King George Boulevard and 104th Avenue (instead of an LRT).

With BRT’s ability to detour around accident areas, and SkyTrain’s ability to simply pass overhead, a rapid transit system built on SkyTrain and BRT would not be subject to total disruptions.

Surrey residents expect their future rapid transit system to be a trustworthy and reliable service. A street-running LRT system will not deliver one.