SFMTA Discovers Broken Shear Pins On New Muni Streetcars
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Muni officials on Wednesday evening reported a dangerous problem on the relatively new fleet of Muni streetcars being operated in San Francisco.
The alarming find on the streetcar, which have only been in operation for a couple of years, has sparked an investigation.
KPIX 5 has learned that many of those newer train cars are now out of service.
Early Wednesday evening, SFMTA officials confirmed that a shear pin broke off on a Muni train last Friday. The pin is one of the things that help connect the Muni train cars together. There were no passengers on the train involved in the incident and the cars did not separate.
But the discovery has prompted Muni to check all of its newer trains. The initial inspection revealed a second shear pin that had broken on another train.
As a result, the newer trains are only being used on the J Church line. That's because its the one line where the trains are not coupled together.
The SFMTA unveiled its new fleet of Muni trains to much fanfare in the fall of 2017. The trains were billed as needing less maintenance and having a better braking system.
The agency plans to continue replacing its fleet with these updated cars over the next few years.
Muni is planning to hold a meeting Thursday to discuss the problem.
