After an 18-hour train ride on the
Coast Starlight from Portland, OR, I arrived in Richmond, CA with
only a 30 minutes delay. Richmond station is conveniently located to
transfer directly to BART into San Francisco, but not too many people
seem to do this, at least not when I did it. The platforms lie side
by side, but of course, you need to buy a ticket for BART (4.30 USD),
whereas I think the Amtrak ticket to Richmond is about the same price
as one to Emeryville, from where Amtrak provides buses across the Bay
Bridge to several downtown destinations. But I wanted to get on an
urban rail system as quick as possible and mix with the late morning
commuter crowd...
San Francisco and the Bay Area is, of
course, a rail enthusiast's paradise with so many different types of
trains serving the region. I only stayed for four days (2-5 Aug
2012), however, as unlike the other places visited on this trip so
far, I already came to S.F. on my 2008 tour. So, as nothing much has
changed since then, this visit was more of a leisure stopover with
less extensive train riding than elsewhere. I did, however, take
another close look at BART and the Muni Metro, but my comments will
be more a list of impressions of various types:
BART
- although showing some signs of age,
it is still one of the most efficient rail systems in the U.S.,
especially when it comes to capacity and travel speed.
- it has sufficient printed materials
available at all stations: maps, schedules, how-to-ride guides, bus
connections with good maps, so in this respect it is probably the
best U.S. system.
- the visual displays in stations could
be modernised, now there are only led-indicators showing all sorts of
messages, next minutes to different trains (including number of cars,
useful to encourage people to use the entire platform or move to the
centre in time) and finally the next train approaching. Parallel to
this, the minutes left for the next trains are almost continuously
announced acoustically, which I find sometimes a bit annoying, but it
is helpful.
- information onboard the trains,
however, is not so good: there are no visual next-station indicators,
and the stations are announced 'live' by the driver, resulting in
often difficult to understand messages (again, this sort of message
is not required for the regular commuter, but for the occasional
rider, so it should be clearer and thus preferably pre-recorded).
- chances are high, however, that
pre-recorded messages will not be understood either, because some of
the trains are really loud, they seem to be badly insulated and you
can hear clearly as the wheels negotiate their way across the
switches. Hopefully the new trains on order from Bombardier will show
some significant improvements in this respect.
- for me personally, as a tall person
with back problems, the seats on BART trains are simply horrible.
They are much too low and too soft (or sat through after many years
of carrying overweight passengers...). I spotted a view cars showing
a “new seats inside” batch on the outside and was hoping that
this would be good news for me, but the new seats only have plastic
instead of the former textile upholstering to allow easier cleaning,
but they didn't do anything about the soft cushion. So again, let's
hope the new trains will have better seating (I know, what is good
for some is not so comfortable for others).
- a good thing to point out is that
trains are scheduled to provide cross-platform interchange at
MacArthur (southbound) and 19th Street/Oakland (northbound) and that
this is indicated as such on system maps! This is especially useful
at times when there are no direct trains from Richmond to San
Francisco.
- The alignment of BART routes is
generally very good, allowing high speeds. There is, however, one
location where you think that this is the NYC Subway, that's the
triangular junction in Oakland, and although different directions are
on different levels (southbound on the lower), trains crawl over many
switches in these extremely tight curves, with the accompanying noise
described above. Apparently some property owner did not want to give
up his site when BART was built, so millions of passengers have to
suffer for 200 years because of one stubborn neighbour!
- as many sections are above ground,
the train windows are darkened to keep out the sun, but as a result
of this, the underground stations appear very dark from the train,
and signs such as station names are hard to distinguish. At Powell
station, they have already installed new signage, with illuminated
signs, so at least the station name is easily readable through the
train window.
- The four busy stations in downtown
San Francisco, which are located below the respective Muni Metro
stations, have a rather low ceiling and rather inconspicuous designs.
I therefore prefer the underground stations in Oakland and Berkeley,
or the vaulted mezzanines at 16th/Mission and 24th/Mission. To change
from BART to Muni Metro, there are no direct escalators or stairs
between the two levels, instead you need to get up to the mezzanine,
get out of the zone-based BART fare system and then pass through the
“Metro” fare gates to descend one level to Muni Metro's trains.
On some escalators from the BART level to the mezzanine you can enjoy
a view of the Muni platform.
- I don't like the operation of the
southern section towards SFO Airport and Millbrae. It is rather
confusing and a very bad service for Caltrain passengers. If you live
along the southern part of the Peninsula along the busy Caltrain
route, and you want to get to the Airport, you can change from
Caltrain to BART at Millbrae, but on weekdays, you have to go to San
Bruno and then take a train in the opposite direction to reach the
airport. If you fly on weekends or weekday evenings, you're lucky and
have a direct train from Millbrae.
- even 40 years later it is still
difficult to understand why the Caltrain route wasn't converted and
fully integrated into BART anyway. But with the new high-speed route
sharing an upgraded Caltrain route, this will never happen.
MUNI METRO
Of all light rail systems I have seen,
Muni Metro features the starkest contrasts:
- if it wasn't for the short trains
(one or two cars only), Muni Metro looks like a metro in the subway
portions, and even the stations appear to be proper metro stations,
with platforms some 100 m long (where the short trains appear a bit
lost like on some German Stadtbahn or underground tram systems!).
Unlike Boston's Green Line, trains operate swiftly through the
subway, although only one train is permitted inside a station at one
time, I think.
- except for the relatively new Third
Street line to Sunnydale, which has high-floor platforms throughout
and a reserved right-of-way, the surface sections are of the most
pathetic streetcar alignments one can imagine. The locations where
people get off and on do not even deserve to be called 'stops', as
only exceptionally one would easily identify them as such. Many are
simply signed by an area of yellow paint on a lamppost or traffic
light pole on the side of the street, probably with the words “car
stop” and the line letter on it. You can find them at almost all
road intersections. There may also be a stop ID, so you can call and
ask for departure times or use your modern phone app. A few stops
have some sort of platform, and a few have a short high-level
boarding platforms for wheelchair users. Unlike in other cities I
have been to, I didn't see these platforms being used, probably
because many areas served by Muni Metro are too hilly for wheelchair
users anyway. In some places, these mini-high platforms are located
somewhere between stops. On the western surface branches, there are
only two proper light rail stops/stations, Stonestown and SF State
University, with a full-length roofed high platform and with a
segregated route between them, too.
Otherwise, most sections are on
street, which wouldn't be that bad, if it wasn't for the countless
STOP signs which force trains to come to a complete halt even without
a boarding stop. I think that if you want to provide serious public
transport, you need to give these roads priority over crossing
streets! I suppose they place all these “STOP All Ways” signs to
avoid that cars speed through residential areas, but at the same time
they slow down trains. STOP signs also contribute a lot to emissions
as cars and buses continuously brake and start accelerating again,
and that's when they throw out most exhaust fumes! And for train
passengers, this stop-and-go ride is simply unpleasant, I guess for
the driver, too.
- also for the safety of passengers, an
upgrade of the surface routes is urgently needed. Street-boarding
should be forbidden worldwide by international laws! Several stops
can probably be eliminated.
- unlike many other transit agencies,
Muni doesn't seem to hand out schedules for individual lines, nor
trains nor buses, at least I didn't see any. I guess there is a
timetable, but trains appear rather at random, typically none for a
long time and then several in a row. Interestingly, in the
underground stations, there are real-time displays where you can see
where the next trains with their line letter are currently located.
As on BART, the next trains are also announced acoustically in the
subway, but along the surface sections, you just hope that a train
will be coming, only a few stops are equipped with next-train
indicators. I could not see a criterion for the choice of stops,
theoretically the busiest stops, but Balboa Park with three lines
starting there did not have one, at least not in the area I hardly
identified as the boarding spot!
- while BART makes all sorts of printed
info available, Muni has non at all. This may be a result of changing
competences or simply negligence. In the downtown area, there a many
maps on street level and even new fancy bus stops with maps and
next-bus indicators, but those maps seem to be produced by the
Metropolitan Transit Commission, the 511.org, and includes all
transport modes, which is very good. Even the “temporary”
Transbay Terminal is equipped with all sorts of displays and maps,
much nicer than most bus stations in Europe. But once you get beyond
the downtown area to areas less frequented by tourists, information
levels decrease to zero. But even in the city centre, things
sometimes get rather pathetic. Yesterday I wanted to get off the bus
(the stops are even announced both visually and acoustically!), I
pressed the button as soon as I heard the name, but the driver didn't
stop. I walked to the front and he let me off at the next corner. I
walked back to check where the stop actually was, but was pretty
surprised that the only sign of a bus stop was a yellow bar painted
on the road surface and the curbside and the numbers of the stopping
bus lines painted on the sidewalk! No further comment, just
embarrassing and pathetic! How much does it cost to erect a stop pole
with basic information? I start wondering whether I am too demanding?
Muni doesn't distribute a bus map,
instead they refer you to the Tourist Office, which has a free and
good map including transportation!
STREETCAR F-Line
The only properly signed Muni line is
the Market Street – Embarcadero heritage streetcar line F. It has
proper platforms at all stops, even with elevated sections (I never
saw anybody use them). But also with the F-Line you need to be
patient. I'm not sure it does have a schedule, in any case, trams
come rather irregularly and the crowds of tourists don't help to make
it faster. On some sections, trolleybuses share the lane used by the
streetcars, but they are often held while streetcar passengers are
boarding.
By the way, Muni has just introduced
boarding through all doors on buses and streetcars to speed up the
procedure, but many people still pay cash and have to get in through
the front door. I didn't see any ticket inspections, which would be
the result of this open system. Underground stations, however, are
equipped with fare gates, but with passes (like the Muni Passport for
tourists) one has to walk through an automatically opening door (I
guess there must be a bit of abuse with this!).
And the bus fleet is rather old, both
diesel and electric trolleybuses. I did not see any low-floor buses
(and this is 2012!), while AC-Transit, which serves the East Bay
cities like Berkeley and Oakland boasts an almost completely renewed
bus fleet.
CABLE CARS
Although some people use the cable cars to climb up the hills to their homes, I wouldn't include them in a public transport review, I consider them rather a tourist attraction. It's fun to ride them, but I always feel pity for the regular passengers who hardly get on board amongst all these tourists.
SAN FRANCISCO Fares
The different modes in the SF area are
not integrated when it comes to fares. BART operates a distance-based
fare system, ranging from 1.75 to 11.05 dollars for a trip from
Pittsburgh to SFO Airport. Ticket machines are not too intuitive.
Basically you need to introduce as much money as you want and the
fare is then deducted at the end of your trip. Later you can add more
money to the same ticket, but it kept mine when it went down to zero.
If you just want to ride the train and not get out of the stations,
you can do that for a 1.75 fare, and BART even offers such excursion
ticket for 5 USD when you get out at the same station.
On Muni a single ride costs 2.00. For
tourists, a special Muni Passport is available at the Tourist Office
at Powell station. It costs 14 USD for one day, but only 21 for three
days, and just 27 for 7 days! This pass is also good for the cable
cars which otherwise cost 6 USD for one ride (if you manage to get on
during this busy tourist season!).
If you stay longer and want to ride
anything around the Bay Area, get the new Clipper smartcard, which is
increasingly being implemented on all modes, including ferries, and
just deducts the required fare from the value you added. But as of
now, it was not available from (old) ticket machines, so you need to
find a location where it is sold. It doesn't save you money, but at
least you don't have to worry about different fares and exact change
etc.
LINKS
