METRO's "transit backbone" still offline; buses back in service
Barry Klein passed along and highlighted some information on METRO in this Chronicle story that ran in Thursday print editions:
Because of continuing electrical outages on the region's HOV-lane system, Metro cannot operate normal park-and-ride service today, the transit agency announced Wednesday.
Park-and-ride service will continue on an abbreviated schedule, with buses leaving on the hour and half-hour from 5:30 to 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Buses will continue to operate in the main lanes.
MetroRail is under testing but because of continuing traffic-signal outages, Metro will have to continue running buses down the MetroRail corridor.
MetroLift will resume normal operations today.
Metro has been running normal local service since Wednesday, but because many traffic signals are down around the city, Metro asks that customers remain patient if their bus arrives late.
More info on METRO operations can be found here.
It's rather a good thing that METRO has such a large fleet of buses, no?
On the other hand, it seems rather less of a good thing that the Danger Train runs down busy streets, at grade, mixes with vehicular traffic, and is dependent upon traffic signals having power (instead of a segregated system with its own infrastructure, including power, if we are determined that we must have rail in our relatively low-density city). We make the point about the follies of at-grade light rail frequently here (which seems to make some METRO fans -- including some who pose as professional journalists and neighborhood/transit "advocates" -- frown), but here's one more illustration of the problems that can result when the pursuit of world-class-ness is poorly conceived. Again, thank goodness for the large fleet of buses!
Just for fun -- leave us your over/under on how many days total that you think the Transit Backbone will be offline.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/19/08 09:17 AM | Print |
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