Hmmm... another Friday afternoon commute of agony. Had to walk home today, because the tunnel was inexplicably shut down (again) during evening rush hour. I think I'm going to start a database of Muni Metro shutdowns and doing some data-mining to find patterns. Some friends who work for Muni told me that the afternoons are always worse than the mornings, and actually had an answer for me about WHY.
The problem is one of line and yard management. In the morning peak, each yard sends out the service with a team of line-management pros (they called these people by their official titles but I don't remember those). The problem is, when Muni balanced their budget they had to cut something so they eliminated a lot of the line management folks in the afternoon shifts. Those are the people who make sure that the vehicles aren't bunched together and are leaving the yards at the right time. Without that, the drivers just sorta "wing it".
So finally, I think I understand why the afternoons are worse than the mornings. How many times have YOU sat in the tunnel watching the next-train sign show that it's going to be N, J, N-N, J, K...
Any chance we can get that line management back by, oh, pulling staff off the outrageously expensive Chinatown subway project?
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