A Muni train packed with morning commuters had to be evacuated Wednesday after riders said they were whipped back and forth so violently that many fell down. The train then blew through a station and sped along a shared roadway by a public park before coming to a stop.
The wild ride took place on the N Judah line around 8:40 a.m. as an eastbound train approached the Duboce Avenue and Noe Street station.
Cole Valley resident Sara Kimball takes the N train regularly to her accounting job downtown. She was standing near the front of the second car with her back to the doors as the train traveled through the Sunset Tunnel toward the station at Duboce Park.
“Everything’s fine, and then the train just jerks super hard to the left,” Kimball said.
The sudden force sent her backward, and she smacked her head on a window.
“Everybody flew one way, and then it jerked super heavy back to the right side, and everybody jerked way hard to the other side,” she said.
Grad student Elisabeth Bardon takes the train to the USF campus, where she’s studying marketing and communications. The 24-year-old was standing in the first car and noticed that the train was more packed than on a typical morning.
While in the tunnel, Bardon felt the train was going faster than usual. Soon after came the same movement Kimball described: The cars rocked sharply from side to side, causing people to fall, including Bardon, who said she hit her head (on a pole, she thinks) as fellow passengers knocked into one another and toppled to the floor.
“People were screaming, because everyone was caught by surprise,” Bardon said. “It was pretty violent.”
Then the train exited the tunnel, where it typically stops at the station. But not this train.
“We went right past it at super high speed,” Bardon said.
Kimball said the train whizzed by people standing at the platform and almost hit a car that was crossing the road east of the station.
“It felt like we were a runaway train, and it was just gonna keep going,” she said.
The train eventually stopped on Duboce between two stations. Shocked and panicked riders checked on one another as the harrowing moment passed. Kimball said some people were visibly shaken and emotional.
“The poor girl in front of me just started bawling,” she said. “This is by far the most hardcore thing I’ve ever experienced on the train.”
But the panic lingered, Bardon said, because the doors wouldn’t open.
“Some people were screaming. … Someone was saying, ‘Open the doors!’” she said. “I was screaming, ‘Someone press the [emergency] button!’”
Then the doors opened and people spilled onto the street. Kimball, Bardon, and other riders (opens in new tab) described a strong burning smell coming from the train.
“We all just kind of stood there dumbfounded, like, ‘What just happened?’” Kimball said.
Baron said she saw the operator exit the train, also looking panicked.
“All she was saying was, ‘I tried to brake, I couldn’t brake,’ and she kept repeating that,” Bardon told The Standard, noting that the situation could have been much worse.
“There is a park with children right there,” she said. “If someone had been on the street … if someone had been crossing, that person would have been killed.”
The train later moved to the next station on the line for inspection. Some riders, including Bardon, walked there to wait for the next train. Kimball opted to take an N train back to Cole Valley to work from home.
So what went wrong? Muni has opened an investigation and said that a preliminary review “indicates that the vehicle is mechanically sound and operating properly.”
“We are continuing to investigate the circumstances of the incident and will take any appropriate corrective actions to ensure the continued safety and reliability of our system,” officials stated, adding that they “[have] not received any reports of injuries.”
Kimball and Bardon both said they hit their heads. Bardon said her neck hurts from the abrupt whipping, and she scratched her hand when she and fellow riders toppled over one another. She said she saw an elderly woman who’d been knocked down.
Both said they view the shocking ride as an isolated incident that won’t affect their regular commute on public transit. Still, they’d appreciate some answers from Muni.
“It would just be nice to hear about it from Muni and understand what went on — is this a fluke thing? Is there something wrong with the tracks?” Kimball said. “Since this is our normal commute, it might be a topic of conversation on the train tomorrow morning.”