Next Fiscal Year for Muni: $53 Million in the Hole or could even be $103 Million

Muni is a total failure. Word from the City Insider is that Muni will be $53 million in the hole starting the next fiscal year, and could even become $103 million if they don't take any action right now.

Yeah, I've heard this all before. Scare the crap out of the public that their beloved transit agency (cough! Bullshit! Excuse me, a bad coughing spell) that the agency will go broke, so we can bend over backwards to pay more and get less service than the cuts we got on December 5th, 2009.

Who in their right mind would pay more for less service? That's what's going to happen if Muni gets their way.

$5 F-Market fares are totally absurd, especially just yesterday there was a massive MELTDOWN with the Muni Metro for the N-Judah and J-Church lines when they forced passengers to walk to the Church station or find an alternate way to get to work. Many packed themselves on the F-Market line, the only other service other than the metro serving above ground on Market from Van Ness to Castro. If the $5 fare was in effect during this meltdown, the metro would be even more crowded, or people would illegally board the F-Market to at least get a shot at arriving at work slightly late.

How about denying boarding the express buses with the "M" pass? Another stupid idea by the transit agency.

• The 8X-Bayshore express is heavily used by the folks in Chinatown for the short hop to Market street and if the folks need the premium pass, they will have to ride the always crowded 30 and 45 lines.
• And how about the Richmond district express buses? Would anyone pay an extra $120 a year to Muni just to ride it? My answer is a big fat NO. The 1AX, 1BX, 31AX, 31BX, 38AX, and 38BX helps to relieve the crushing capacity on the other Richmond district lines, especially the 38L that gets packed when it reaches Presidio Avenue and the people trying to save money would ride the local and limited lines to save dough in exchange for arriving to their destination about 10 minutes later than the express.

Cable Cars for a premium pass too? WTF? Are the folks at SFMTA so nearsighted that they think the Cable Cars are always for tourists?

• Locals who work or live near the California Cable Car line depend on that line to go grocery shopping and get to their job. The California line may be a moneymaker for the agency as a tourist attraction, but it's for the LOCALS.

Muni needs to think smarter and not raise prices or put restrictions on our passes.

What does it take for Muni to consider TransLink to be a permanent part of the agency?

• They keep saying "well it's still beta" or "we are still testing it" is a bunch of crap. Get the Cable Cars in motion and you have the system fully ready to go.
• This means no waiting to pay the fare box, no more wasting money printing transfers, less mass production of fast passes, less mechanical breakdown of fare boxes and fare gates, and less time spent counting the change and dollar bills collected.

How about more timed transfer points? It works perfectly for BART when you need to go to Richmond or Pittsburg/Bay Point.

• A perfect example of a timed point is at SF State where the 28-19th Avenue passengers can transfer at SF State (19th/Holloway) and quickly transfer to the 29-Sunset for the ride to City College.
• They used to tell you about the timed transfer on the published time schedules Muni did back in the day, but the time schedules on 511 don't even tell you if the stop is a timed transfer point anymore.

I'm ticked at Muni. You can do a better job without giving the royal screwjob to the public.