{"id":5947,"date":"2018-06-14T04:26:44","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T04:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/?p=5947"},"modified":"2023-07-12T21:09:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T21:09:44","slug":"first-impressions-of-the-new-muni-metro-trains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/local\/first-impressions-of-the-new-muni-metro-trains\/","title":{"rendered":"First impressions of the new Muni Metro trains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mrericsir\/41886203975\/in\/dateposted-public\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1746\/41886203975_e94a71d72f.jpg\" alt=\"New Muni Metro train in service\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-f56f613f wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mrericsir\/41886196335\/in\/dateposted-public\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1733\/41886196335_c896554051_m.jpg\" alt=\"New Muni Metro train in service\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mrericsir\/42737413482\/in\/dateposted-public\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1755\/42737413482_489edc9678_m.jpg\" alt=\"New Muni Metro train in service\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This evening I&#8217;d planned to take Muni Metro home from work as I often do, but there was an unexpected twist: as I got to the platform level, one of the new trains was pulling in. Finally I&#8217;d get to ride one! Unfortunately for me it was going in the opposite direction I was headed, so I only took it one stop just for fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some background: The new trains cars are <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Siemens_S200\">Siemens S200<\/a> light rail vehicles (LRVs) which are slowly replacing the 90&#8217;s era Breda LRVs. The Breda&#8217;s weren&#8217;t always the most reliable, especially their door mechanisms. With the new subway line opening (maybe) next year Muni thought it would be a good idea to start ordering new train cars sooner rather than later, and to have narrowly-defined reliability requirements in the contract. So that&#8217;s how we wound up with these new Siemens S200 train cars. Muni calls this new fleet &#8220;LRV 4&#8221; for some reason they haven&#8217;t explained as far as I know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In my brief ride today, here&#8217;s a few things that immediately stood out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The exterior is a little boxier looking than the current Breda LRVs but otherwise looks pretty similar. The color scheme is nearly identical.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These are <em>very<\/em> quiet trains, which has been par for the course in major European cities for a while but is new to SF.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The seating arrangement is more like a typical subway with benches along the walls rather than two-across bus-style seating. This should leave more standing room during rush hour.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Onboard audio cues sound different and may take some getting used to.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Clipper card readers have a new design.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the biggest difference? This one&#8217;s impossible to ignore:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mrericsir\/42787400821\/in\/dateposted-public\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1751\/42787400821_fa5d8415a0.jpg\" alt=\"New Muni Metro train in service\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the middle of the train is a live display with the destination, the next couple of stops, and the transfer points for the next stop. Hopefully they keep this up to date as bus routes change. There&#8217;s also an argument to be made that &#8220;Cable Car&#8221; should be more specific since there are multiple lines. But that&#8217;s all nitpicking, overall the new display is a massive improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s all I have for now. In the future I may have some deeper impressions to share, particularly on street level stops when the stairs come down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;d like to try the new Muni Metro trains <a href=\"http:\/\/sftransitriders.org\/lrv4\/\">SF Transit Riders has a live map of their locations here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This evening I&#8217;d planned to take Muni Metro home from work as I often do, but there was an unexpected twist: as I got to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","slim_seo":{"title":"First impressions of the new Muni Metro trains - MrEricSir.com","description":"This evening I'd planned to take Muni Metro home from work as I often do, but there was an unexpected twist: as I got to the platform level, one of the new trai"},"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1302,91,576,38,23],"class_list":["post-5947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","tag-lrv4","tag-muni","tag-munimetro","tag-photos","tag-san-francisco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5947"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9908,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5947\/revisions\/9908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}