Muni’s repeated derailments

You’d think that the title of 6th best public transit system in the country would mean something. Or at the very least you’d think that at the point where you’re the 6th best at something, you’re not repeating your own mistakes.

But you’d be wrong.

Today’s Muni Metro derailment sounds awfully familiar. A train suddenly came off the tracks between Castro and Forrest Hill station, and nobody knows how it happened.

Why does it sound familiar?

Because the same thing happened in November of 2009. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the exact same scenario happened in August of 2006.

Allegedly, Muni tried to fix the tracks in 2007, several months after the first derailment. But that didn’t solve the problem.

Obviously, train systems are not a new technology; the basics are old and well understood. There’s no excuse for deferred maintenance and half-assed fixes.