Last Minute Announcements for Friday: A Meeting about the N and Petitions on the N

Thanks to some Loyal Readers, I was alerted to two early morning events happening along the N Judah line that may be of interest.
First, the Fix Muni Now campaign will be gathering signatures with volunteers from 8-9am at Carl and Cole, so if you are waiting for an N, why not sign a petition, or help gather more signatures? If you can’t make it or don’t want to give up a prized seat on a running N Judah, you can stop by their new headquarters at 305 Valencia and pick some up.
At the same time (sort of), Sup. Carmen Chu is holding some sort of hearing about issues related to the Judah St./La Play area, from 8:30-9:30 in front of Java Beach Cafe. Now, there’s been some crazy talk about trying to get the (very functional) turnaround tracks eliminated. Not only is this completely insane from an engineering standpoint, it’s based on such spurious reasoning that I’m surprised it’s even being mentioned. But there are other issues as well, so stop by if you can.

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2 Responses to Last Minute Announcements for Friday: A Meeting about the N and Petitions on the N

  1. anonymouse says:

    Eliminate the turnaround track and do what exactly with it? If anything, world best practice says they should build a second loop track as backup. In any case, that intersection is a confusing mess no matter what you do with the trains, and in fact, having a train parked in the middle divides it up nicely and makes it easier to cross.

  2. Bob Davis says:

    Sheesh! Just because Muni no longer runs PCC’s out to the beach on the “N” doesn’t mean that the loop should be eliminated. As long as it’s already built, it eliminates changing ends on the trains. Changing ends is usually a routine matter, and it gives the operators some exercise, but every now and then somebody leaves out a step and the brakes release while the operator is away from either end. Back in the 1940’s the Santa Fe Railway had an embarassing experience at Los Angeles Union Station. A crew had uncoupled a set of diesel locomotives from a passenger train and were preparing to run it onto the “engine release” track for a trip back to the roundhouse. But–they cut out the brakes at one end before making sure they were properly set. The engines ran away and wound up with the nose of one unit hanging in mid-air over Aliso St. The message is: if changing ends can be avoided, that’s a “good thing”.
    And–Java Beach Cafe is mentioned. I presume this is the coffee house next to the Mar/Ocean View Motel. When I drive to MuniLand, Mar is where I usually bunk down, and Java Beach is a good source for morning munchies.

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