Lmst

My favorite #Muni bus drivers will soon be rotating onto new routes. I am surprisingly sad about this.

i love #MUNI

Have a good day, everybody. Love you.

~ a fellow passenger to all on the N train as she stepped off at her stop (civic center)

❤️

#sfba on #MUNI today 🚉

#MUNI’s J line is coming up short on running enough trains to the #NoKings march. :-(

The 7yo and I spent the afternoon on #MUNI and #BART.

A teal and cream-colored historic streetcar labeled “F Market” with a destination sign reading “Fisherman’s Wharf” is parked on streetcar tracks in San Francisco. The car has an American flag and another red-striped flag mounted on each side. A rainbow pride flag hangs from a pole on the right, and another vintage streetcar is visible further down the tracks in the background. Trees and urban infrastructure frame the scene under a sunny blue sky.

A child is descending a stairway that is painted in alternating yellow and white stripes. The child is in silhouette, holding a toy in one hand. The stairwell is flanked by metallic walls that reflect the yellow stripes, creating a distorted mirror effect. The lighting is bright at the top of the stairs, casting the lower area into deeper shadow.

What’s the best or most common way to refer to San Francisco’s Muni Metro, the light rail portion of Muni (lines J, K, L, M, N, and S). In particular a term that distinguishes it from Muni busses and streetcars.

“Best way to get there is to just take ________”. The tram? The light rail? Metro? Muni Metro? The subway (if using the part of it in the Market Street Subway)?

#sf #sfba #SanFrancisco #muni #transit

As an SF homeowner with a driveway I think this idea is absolutely fantastic.

#MUNI should do this immediately.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/driveway-property-san-francisco-20359267.php

👀 Getting lost at Powell no more! BART & Muni are testing new wayfinding signs to help riders better navigate the station — with clearer directions, improved lighting & accessible design. 📷 Details via
@thevoicesf
: https://thevoicesf.org/powell-bart-station-tests-new-wayfinding-signs-to-help-better-guide-riders/ #BART #Muni #SFTransit #Accessibility

We caught the "Roger Rabbit" train this AM: a vintage car that was originally in service in Los Angeles. #MUNI

A vintage red and orange streetcar is emerging from a tunnel onto a set of streetcar tracks. The streetcar has a rounded front with the route sign reading “MARKET CASTRO” above the windshield. The vehicle number “1061” is prominently displayed on the front, below a stylized winged emblem. The streetcar is equipped with overhead trolley poles connected to electric wires above.

Boat tram!

#muni

Had to hop on #muni boat boi!

An operator in a neon yellow safety vest drives a vintage vehicle, with a green traffic light visible in the background. The interior is wooden and orange, showcasing a steering wheel and controls. The scene is set against a backdrop of buildings and clear blue sky

#ThreeGoodThings #3goodthings
1) Walked or took the #MUNI #metro everywhere today. Pleasant change of pace.
2) The place I work seems to be moving in a good direction.
3) Heard from a former work colleague who thoughtfully sent the kiddo photos of #fungi. (Fungi, bugs, and moss are the way to the kid’s heart.)

(Geminiで要約)
サンフランシスコ市営鉄道（ #Muni ）のヴィンテージ路面電車（ボートトラムを含む）が、2025年5月23日から夏の運行を開始しました。これらの路面電車はFラインで運行され、J-Churchラインの一部でも時折運行されます。運行は10月13日までの毎週末に行われます。
路面電車の位置を追跡できるライブマップも利用可能です。特に注目すべきは、1912年製の #Muni 初の路面電車である1号車が修復を終え、季節運行に復帰したことです。 #Muni
https://sfist.com/2025/05/23/munis-boat-tram-and-other-vintage-streetcars-begin-their-summer-return-to-service-today/

America’s most-improved regional rail line

Twenty-five years or so of traveling to the Bay Area for work and for family have not left me in the habit of handing out compliments to rail transit there. Between the limited route maps of Bay Area Rapid Transit and Muni Metro and the horribly expensive construction costs of projects like San Francisco’s 1.7-mile, $1.6 billion Central Subway, public transport around the Bay has too often served first as a lesson to others.

More recently–especially since Google moved its I/O developer conference to Mountain View in 2016–I’ve gotten acquainted with and also unimpressed by Caltrain’s commuter-rail service on the peninsula, run with trains hauled by aging, loud and polluting diesel locomotives. But this week’s I/O trip introduced me to a reinvented rail line that the rest of the U.S. should envy.

Between last May and this May, Caltrain completed a lengthy modernization project to string electric wires over 51 miles of track from San Francisco to San Jose and buy electric-multiple-unit, double-decker trainsets from the Swiss manufacturer Stadler.

So instead of waiting for my ride south from Milbrae to groan its way up to speed on Monday night, this train (packed with Giants fans on their way home from that night’s game) quietly whooshed out of the station. That faster acceleration from every stop helped my entire trip from SFO to Mountain View, starting with BART from the airport, take less time than just last year’s Caltrain ride from Milbrae to Mountain View.

Bunking down in an Airbnb four blocks from that station for the next three nights provided another reminder of how much better electrified trains are: I didn’t hear the roar of diesel engines, leaving just train horns at the nearby grade crossings.

Less obvious but also appreciated: the immense drop in air pollution at and near stations as well as onboard train cars.

My return trip up the peninsula Thursday morning, one of four northbound departures from Mountain View between 8 and 9 a.m., was as great as the ride down. Other passengers seemed to agree about the usefulness of the service, with the train looking as crowded as Monday night’s. Caltrain’s fare date for April showed a more than 50 percent jump in ridership compared to a year ago, outpacing growth at every other transit agency in the region.

(Bonus: the fastest train WiFi I’ve enjoyed to date.)

Outside the U.S., this is not that special–fast, frequent, electric-hauled trains are the default for regional rail service across Europe. But in most of the States, the best you can get outside a subway’s service area is a diesel engine, hopefully built in the last 15 years, hauling passenger cars. This trip to the Bay Area reminded me that we don’t have to accept that level of sluggish, noisy and dirty service as good enough.

We can, however, do better than Caltrain in electrifying regional rail lines, since that organization wound up spending $2.44 billion on this upgrade. Delusional NIMBY lawsuits, Trump adminstration unhelpfulness, and the pandemic aren’t its fault, but Caltrain can’t blame anybody else for an unnecessarily conservative infrastructure design and a botched proprietary train-control effort. And it still needs to raise station platforms to train-door levels to speed boarding and alighting.

A recent report called Momentum, written by veteran NYC transit reporter Nolan Hicks for New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management, provides a must-read playbook for other transit organizations about how to avoid design mistakes like Caltrain’s and electrify and accelerate their routes at lower costs.

Commuter-rail managers should read it. And if they find themselves needing to head south of San Francisco on their next trip to the Bay Area, they should take a ride on a line that may make them feel bad about their own service.

#BART #BayArea #Caltrain #catenary #commuterRail #diesel #electricMultipleUnit #electricTrain #electrification #EMU #GoogleIO #Muni #overheadWire #pollution #regionalRail

A Caltrain electric-multiple-unit train showing its pantograph touching the overhead wires in Mountain View on a morning in May of 2025.

A young family got on the J this morning and were clearly confused about where they needed to get off to get the cable car. Three people immediately offered to help them, and answered their questions about rail vs busses, and coached the young kid on how to ring the bell.

I heard the mom musing as she got off “wow people here are so friendly. No one in Seattle talks to you.”

Nice work, SF

#SanFrancisco #MUNI #PublicTransport

Hello. Keeping myself occupied. As I was on a buzzed dusting spree. I could not sit still watching Warriors.

These two photos are of a few I rescued from the garbage. They may not be much, but to me, it was like gold. The tenant passed away years ago. The photos were going to the trash. The backs of the photos are dated May 1979.

#MUNI #SanFrancisco #bus #public-transportation #1979