N-Judah wrecks more than any other Muni train

Anyone who rides the N-Judah regularly will tell you: It’s got some problems. No Muni line carries more passengers every year, and no light rail line gets in more accidents.

Every 13 days on average, an N-Judah train derails or collides with another vehicle. The Ex counted 84 collisions on the N-Judah between 2008 and 2011, way more than the 58 of the next most crash-prone train line, the M-Oceanview.

N-Judah Chronicles author Greg Dewar told the Ex that the dense neighborhoods of Cole Valley and the Inner Sunset  things can wreak havoc on the already overcrowded trains:

“It could be something as simple as a double-parked car, or a vehicle running an intersection where it thinks it has the right of way … Sometimes accidents happen simply from people being stupid.”

It’s not all doom and gloom for the 38,000 daily N-Judah riders, though. The new N-Judah Express bus line shuttles passengers to and from the Outer Sunset, expressing its way from 19th and Judah downtown to Sutter and Sansome.

When the MTA looked at its data from the six-month Nx pilot program, they found ridership increased on the express bus line, and crowding eased at inbound stops closer to downtown, stops where full trains may have previously had to pass by frustrated patrons.

Jesse Garnier

Jesse Garnier is the editor and founder of SFBay. A Mission District native, he also teaches journalism as associate professor at San Francisco State University.