>New Orleans Perley Thomas #952
will initially be operated as a two-man car, until the door control
wiring can be reconfigured. It is now receiving ADA and wheel work.
>More on CNG
the performance deficits I have heard about involve steep hills, and I
would assume will be solved eventually...however, MUNI should NOT the
the Testbed (PLEASE!). Probably they will appear first on lightly used
community service lines.
>Muni after the earthquake
After the '89 quake service was intermittent, especially on electric
service. Both PG&E and Hetch Hetchy lines suffered failures, and
virtually all trolleybus service was halted til late that night. Metro
lost power for some hours, but limited service was restored the
following morning (although power for station lighting did not return
for some time). There was limited trolley bus service the next day,
altho prominent gaps remained where power was from PG&E feeders rather
than HH feeders. Diesel bus service was not heavily affected except as
congestion and confusion reigned, and there were some manpower problems.
Obviously, after The Big One, there would be much more persistent
problems with electric lines, but diesel service would continue to
operate, as limited by: generator power at diesel division, diesel
deliveries to divisions. Overhead lines are quite resilient, and would
probably survive with minor damage (other than external mechanical
damage), so once power was restored, some electric service could be
restored. Muni Metro's structures would probably not be seriously
affected, although the train control system might cease operation...
>Metro reassignments
doing this on the fly requires at least one really SHARP supervisor, who
really knows what is going on and how to fix it, this person has to
KNOW who/what/when at all times. However, on the downside, the
schedules would go out the window (I know, I know, but WE have them),
and operators would basically operate without a schedule (personally, I
think this is fun, but, it doesn't help service). Relief points would
have to move into the subway, and operators would have to be notified as
to what and when for their relief. Perhaps what would help with
bunching would be ordering the first car/train to skip or express to
their schedule, and relatively infrequent reassignments (as is done
now). Investigating the reasons for service delays, and making actions
to reduce delays would be helpful. Of course, having ACTS work as
advertised would be nice too.
>F-Line and Traffic
running time from Transbay to Castro at evening rush is 29 minutes.
Traffic on Market St has been very heavy lately, and is delaying F-Line
cars. However, the F is generally a far pleasanter and civilized ride
than Metro, and taking the incremental load off Metro, may allow tunnel
service to improve.
>Leaders and Followers...and a few other terms
Leader - the vehicle that is supposed to be in front of you.
Follower - the vehicle that is supposed to be behind you.
Not Out - a vehicle not in service due to equipment or operator
Late Pull Out - a vehicle entering service late
Up - early...as in `My leader is missing, so they moved me up 3'
Take (number) - same as Move Up
Hot - early...usually referring to being early without authorization
(this is a violation of muni rules, and you can be written up for it)
Down - late
(numbers) - assumed to be minutes...see `Up' or refers to time...42
could be 8:42PM
(location) - refers to supervisor at that `corner' - intersection
Drag - operate slowly, either on purpose or not, esp. when it causes
bunching
Switch - to not operate to scheduled terminal
Deadhead - to not operate in service (for a portion of the route)
Skip Stop - not necessarily every other stop, may be only requested
stops or avoiding heavy stops to get back on schedule.
Dog - to operate in a manner that causes (usually the follower) other
operators to work harder.
Playing Games - any or all of the entries here
Hide - hide
Kill - refers to ways to get back on schedule from being `Hot'...killing
a light, etc.
RDO - Regular Day Off, your weekend, or can refer to working on your day
off.
>Express bus service on 3rd St LRT
ummmm...why not just improve the 15 Line and add 15-L and/or 15-X
service on a (semi) private lane with efficient bus bulbs, etc...that
way you could provide all the transit benefits of 3-LRT for a few (tens?
of) million, and then you could take the remainder of the budget and
either spend it on real muni capital improvement projects or just drop
it on the 3rd St corridor and call it what it is: welfare.
>Metro terminal capacity and Manually Controlled Switches
Boston has a loop. Despite the expense, Metro should have had a
loop...on top of all other considerations, you can operate through a
loop without ANY switches...where a two track turnback requires a
minimum of 4 (and maybe a diamond crossing), and a multiple pocket
turnback requires a minimum of 6...and if the computer fails?, or the
switchmotor fails? A failure of ONE switch in the MMT can block the
entire system (and does, until they use the old diamond).
Manually controlled switches can be far faster than system controlled
switches, simply because they replace the distance and time safety of
the system with the switchman. However, humans can be fallible and the
tendency is for manual switching to be replaced by some sort of
automatic system.
>bribing Cable Car operators to do their job
how about instructing them on what their job is, enforcing that they are
required to do it, and disciplining and firing those who don't do it?
Robert Parks
22-Fillmore
back from vacation Saturday 1121am