Light Rail

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) got the mainstream media's attention during the holiday season after reporting that the dismal economy had helped push transit ridership down by 3.8 percent during the first three-quarters of 2009, when compared with the previous year.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors is expected to vote tomorrow to approve up to $217,634 to repair two damaged Muni Metro light rail vehicles. Muni currently has ten LRVs that are out of service due to damage from crashes, roughly one-fifteenth of its 151-vehicle light rail fleet.

Transit advocates and community groups have filed a complaint (PDF) with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), charging that BART has not complied with federal civil rights obligations in its planning of the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC). The move by Public Advocates Inc. on behalf of TransForm, Urban Habitat and Genesis, comes after concerns over the controversial project fell on deaf ears at both BART and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. 

A collision this morning between an M-Ocean View Muni Metro light rail vehicle and a male bicyclist has left the cyclist in the hospital with serious injuries.

Some of you saw the Examiner piece yesterday about SkyTran's personal rapid transit (PRT) project and were probably looking for a response from us (one of you even asked in comments why we didn't touch it), but I've been very leery of the topic since I saw the "Pod People" post over on New York Streetsblog blow up with 227 polarizing and dogmatic comments for and against PRT (Personal Rabid Transit?), before the editors shut comments down. I'm pretty skeptical of anything taken on faith as good or bad, so why get into the fray, especially with a technology that hasn't been proven at scale?

The MTA has released video of Saturday’s Muni collision, which was captured by several platform cameras at the West Portal Station. The footage showing an L train slamming into the rear of a K train, and the immediate aftermath, was in the custody of the National Transportation Safety Board but turned back over to Muni … Continued

Streetsblog tipster Nick just sent us these photos of one of the damaged trains being hauled away following today's Muni collision:

Flickr photo: 2Girls1Queen At least 47 passengers were injured this afternoon when an L-Taraval train collided into the rear of a stopped K-Ingelside train on the platform of the West Portal station. MTA spokesperson Judson True said four of the injuries were “critical,” including to the operator of the L train. At least 20 ambulances … Continued

Multiple injuries are being reported after two Muni light rail vehicles collided this afternoon at the West Portal station. From the Muni Service alert: