Muni in Trouble:  The San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) is currently experiencing horrendous operational and financial difficulties.    Except for slashing service and jacking up fares the San Francisco Municipal Improvment Agency (Muni's parent agency) and City Hall have offered little by way of solutions to these problems.  For this reason dozens of San Francisco neighborhood, environmental, transit advocacy and civic organizations are now focused on how best to save Muni.  Most groups agree that when a transit system is beset with problems it is better to face the matter than to indulge in flights of fantasy, such as seeking salvation from the federal goverment.
 
 
SaveMuni.com: SaveMuni.com is among the San Francisco organizations dedicated to reversing the downward spiral of San Francisco's vitally important public transit system.  We believe that the current Muni problems have been caused partly by the SFMTA's failure to properly manage Muni's 70 existing bus and rail lines, partly by the diversion of money and key staff to an ill-conceived and hugely expensive plan to extend a short piece of subway a third of the way into Chinatown and partly by the down economy.   SaveMuni.com believes that to bring Muni up to standard will require three distinct and separate programs:
 
    o  More attention must be paid to improving Muni's 70 existing bus and rail lines,
 
    o  Muni's capital, operating and maintenance funds must be spent prudently, 
 
    o  New revenue sources must be found. 
 
For more information about SaveMuni.com click on: About SaveMuni.com  
 
 
The Save Muni Summit:  On March 6, 2010, over 60 neighborhood, district merchant, civic, environmental, transit advocacy and social justice organizations sponsored a Save Muni Summit.   The event was a huge success.  During the meeting many important ways of improving Muni were proposed and discussed at length.  A report of the meeting has been prepared.  For a summary of SaveMuni.com's original 39 Muni improvement proposals go to Sidebar and click on "List of Solutions".  For the dozens of additional ideas that were presented and discussed at the meeting, click on 
 
 
For more information about the Summit, click on: Save Muni Summit.  
 

 
 
Finding the Money to Fix Muni:  Unlike many outlying areas, San Francisco is compact built-up city that requires a comprehensive and reliable municipal public transit system.  Therefore, when Muni falters, the lives of the 700,000 Muni riders and 60,000 small San Francisco businesss who rely on Muni are immediately impacted.  Because of its fiscal problems, Muni is currently unable to provide an adequate amount of reliable service to the riders of its 70 existing bus and rail lines.  The funding needed to sustain the existing system is simply no longer available from the municipal, regional, State and federal funding sources of the past.  Unless something changes Muni riders can look forward to nothing but more cuts in service, more attempts to raise fares and a system continually plagued by poor maintenance, unreliability and excessive crowding.   
 
Given these factors there is an immediate need to change the existing way of doing things at the SFMTA.  Need are both judicious cost-cutting and additional funding.
 
1.  Cost Cutting:  There are literally dozens of ways of improving service and therefore revenues without raising costs.  For a listing of some of these ideas, click on "The Solutions" under "Save Muni Summit".  Additional improvement proposals will appear in the "Updated Report to Registrants", which is currently in preparation.
  

2.)  Working Rules:  The Muni driver has a difficult and stressful job.  In addition, as the operator of an expensive vehicle filled with human beings he has a very important responsibility.  He deserves to be well paid.  However, certain of the working rules interfere with the SFMTA’s ability to provide the best possible service to its riders in a cost-effective manner.  These rules need to change.  It would be our hope that working cooperatively with the Muni driver’s Union these changes could be made without undue hardship or hard feelings.

3.)  Revenues:  The funds needed to pay for long-needed Muni capital improvements and address important operational and mainteance programs are available.  But acquiring them will require both smart planning and an exercise of political will. 

          a.)  Transit First:  One obvious way of improving Muni's operational and fiscal condition would be to implement San Francisco's long-neglected Transit First Policy.  By honoring the tenants of this important legislation, adopted way back in 1973, San Francisco’s political leaders could both cut Muni costs and increase Muni revenues.  There are several ways in which the Transit First policy could be implemented to beneficial effect:  Muni vehicles could operate on rigorously-enforced transit-only lanes, at least during morning commute hours.  Several of the 18 northbound traffic lanes entering San Francisco from the South could be converted to bus-only lanes.  Parking fees and taxes could be raised.  A congestion pricing plan similar to what is working successfully in London, Stockholm, Singapore and elsewhere could be implemented. 

 

If San Francisco were to take its long-standing Transit First Policy seriously it would go a long way toward resolving Muni’s current operating and fiscal crisis.

              b.)  The Central Subway Project:  Another available source of funding to cover Muni's unmet needs is the SFMTA's ill-conceived Central Subway Project, dreamed up as a political favor to a Chinatown power broker with nary a thought given to transportation benefit.  The current plan would  reroute the Muni's existing T-Line away from the Embarcadero and the Market Street subway via 4th and Stockton Streets northward into the southern part of Chinatown.  At a $1.58 billion for a mile of subway and a little over a half mile of surface line, the Central Subway Project would soon become known as the first or second most expensive stretch of passenger rail line in the entire world.  Yet according to the Project's Environmental Impact Report (Table S-1), by 2030 the extension would attract only an anemic 18,400 new Muni riders a day. 
 
As indicated above, most of the $386 million in State and local funds earmarked for the Central Subway project could be diverted to help maintain and improve Muni's current bus and rail operations.  By deferring the Central Subway boondoggle and putting the allocated State and local funds to better use, San Francisco officialdom could improve conditions for all Muni riders.   Another advantage of defering the Central Subway would be that with the help of San Francisco's federal representatives, $942 million in federal New Starts funding could be transferred to more deserving San Francisco rail projects, including the long-promised extension of Caltrain into downtown San Francisco.   And lastly, by deferring the Central Subway San Francisco could extricate itself form the virtually impossible task of finding another $252 million in local and State funds to allocate to the Central Subway as required by the Feds, plus an indeterminate additional amount to to cover project cost overruns.  
 
For more information about the Central Subway, click on: Central Subway Project