Muni riders should expect crowded trains Thursday: report
FILE ART - Muni train in San Francisco.
SAN FRANCISCO - Muni trains may be a little more crowded Thursday morning, as about a dozen of its new trains will be running with one car instead of two.
Muni is calling this a short-term problem and one the agency is working on fixing.
But it means riders might not have as much room as they normally do during the morning commute.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports the source of the problem is with the shear pins that keep the new two-train cars connected. Those pins in Muni's new fleet only last about three months, before becoming unreliable.
Officials said if two train cars became separated, passengers would be safe because brakes would stop the cars.
Regardless, Muni is choosing not to run two-car trains.
The agency tweeted there will be an increase of one-car trains due to equipment availability and they expect “minimal impact on capacity.”
It’s not the first there have been issues with pins. Earlier this year, Muni dealt with pins that failed at least twice and separated cars.
The Chronicle reports that Muni is waiting on a new shipment of pins and says new pins will be redesigned so that the pins don’t have to constantly be replaced.