As Paul Rose of SFMTA noted in the comments on the Muni Diaries post, ATCS would have made zero difference in this case, which was strictly a mechanical fault. (For once, he’s not blowing smoke up anyone’s fundament.)

The pantograph on the damaged streetcar — which is the proper term for what you call the “electrical harness” — was apparently damaged around 2nd Ave. or Arguello Blvd., but nobody noticed it until the train was entering the Market St. subway at Duboce Portal, and by then it was too late.

Although the damaged streetcar wasn’t blocking the main line of the subway (K/T, L and M), the power surge affected both the main line and the branch that exits at Duboce Portal and carries the J-Church and N-Judah to the surface. Muni couldn’t restore power to the subway until the damaged streetcar was pulled out of the way, sometime after 4pm.

There’s a discrepancy between Koskey’s reporting (to which you linked) and the reports from Will Reisman of the Examiner and others that I was reading Thursday night. She says that service was restored around 5:30 to the main line, which is being generous. (From my own commute experience: at 5:30, the agents at both ends of Montgomery station were turning away passengers. As I recall, Muni didn’t announce that main line service had been restored until well after 6pm.)

Footnote: the CPUC’s complaint about automated train control refers to the Sunset Tunnel, not the main line of the subway. (See its press release of Feb. 2011 at http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/published/News_release/131263.htm for further details.) The main line’s ATCS was installed in the late 1990s, and led to a legendary meltdown of service.

As Paul Rose of SFMTA noted in the comments on the Muni Diaries post, ATCS would have made zero difference in this case, which was strictly a mechanical fault. (For once, he’s not blowing smoke up anyone’s fundament.)

The pantograph on the damaged streetcar — which is the proper term for what you call the “electrical harness” — was apparently damaged around 2nd Ave. or Arguello Blvd., but nobody noticed it until the train was entering the Market St. subway at Duboce Portal, and by then it was too late.

Although the damaged streetcar wasn’t blocking the main line of the subway (K/T, L and M), the power surge affected both the main line and the branch that exits at Duboce Portal and carries the J-Church and N-Judah to the surface. Muni couldn’t restore power to the subway until the damaged streetcar was pulled out of the way, sometime after 4pm.

There’s a discrepancy between Koskey’s reporting (to which you linked) and the reports from Will Reisman of the Examiner and others that I was reading Thursday night. She says that service was restored around 5:30 to the main line, which is being generous. (From my own commute experience: at 5:30, the agents at both ends of Montgomery station were turning away passengers. As I recall, Muni didn’t announce that main line service had been restored until well after 6pm.)

Footnote: the CPUC’s complaint about automated train control refers to the Sunset Tunnel, not the main line of the subway. (See its press release of Feb. 2011 at http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/published/News_release/131263.htm for further details.) The main line’s ATCS was installed in the late 1990s, and led to a legendary meltdown of service.