S.F. Muni Metro shutdown snarls commute S.F. MUNI

A blown transformer at the Van Ness Muni Station in San Francisco caused the shutdown of the Metro subway system Monday evening.

Muni officials said the transformer blew at about 6 p.m. as a result of rain damage from Sunday's storm. Subway service had not reopened late Monday, but light-rail vehicles were running on surface lines in the western part of the city.

Also, cars on the F-Market line, which runs above ground, had been turned around at 11th Street for a time because of an earlier accident at Market and Dolores streets. The line was reopened at 8:35 p.m.

The subway shutdown affected 40,000 to 50,000 rush-hour commuters.

"We're looking at why it happened and why it held up for much of the day," John Haley, director of transit operations for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said of the transformer failure.

On top of the shutdown, a crash involving a woman in a wheelchair and an F-Market car near Market and Dolores streets at about 5:30 p.m. added to the evening commute snarl.

The woman was on the street when she was hit by the car and dragged 570 feet, Haley said. Passengers alerted the driver. She was taken to San Francisco General Hospital with what police spokesman Officer Carlos Manfredi described as life-threatening injuries. He said the wheelchair was pulled from beneath the light-rail vehicle and urged anyone with cell phone images of the incident to contact police.

Supervisor Scott Wiener, who was observing the shutdown, said, "Muni's infrastructure is aging and deteriorating, and we have not been taking care of it as well as we should have been."

Timothy Simpson, 28, who lives in the Duboce Triangle, was on his way from Third and Evans to the Castro when the trains stopped. He got off at the Embarcadero Station and caught a shuttle to Market and Church.

"I'm a little frustrated," he said.