This post is taken from Stephen Martin-Pinto's social media. He's running for supervisor for D7 and is a member of the SFFD working in the Richmond district. Please consider donating to his campaign and telling any friends you have about him.
June 7, 2024
"Today 50 passengers and I walked a mile through the Twin Peaks Tunnel after a catastrophic breakdown of MUNI Metro. This revealed a significant gap in SFMTA emergency planning. We were lucky in that there weren't more passengers, passengers in wheelchairs, or the emergency was more severe. While our train was in the tunnel going about 40mph, there was a sudden shower of sparks from above, the smell of grinding metal, and smoke. For minutes, there was no announcement.
Finally, the train operator came and opened the doors to inform us that there was a train malfunction but wasn't sure about what exactly happened. We were told to get off the train, but because the pantograph was lowered, the steps could not be lowered so we had to jump off the train onto the trackway. Everyone helped passengers get off safely and we started to walk 6000 feet to Forest Hill.
There were a few senior citizens with some mobility issues, so another passenger and I remained with them as we walked. What became clear to me was the lack of contingency planning by SFMTA to deal with such a situation. SFMTA should have contingency plans for any incident that can happen anywhere in the system, and it needs to be the driving force behind the planning process.
Failure to plan could be a potential disaster which, during crush loading of a 2 car train, could be extremely disastrous and leave 100s of people in extreme danger. It was clear that SFMTA hasn't really done this, or if they did, hasn't been passed down to the operator level. This is why I say SFMTA needs to be restructured and even broken up.
As a frequent MUNI rider, I need to be sure that transit funding is for MUNI and MUNI only, not SFMTA pet projects. The first priority of SFMTA is to focus on its current infrastructure and bringing it up to code. Get the busses and trains running, keep them clean, make sure they are safe and reliable. And have a plan so if things go wrong, you have an immediate answer."
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