into that and write back to you on that. supervisor avalos: just to be absolutely clear, the line should be picking people up. >> yes, the rail lines. supervisor avalos: the rail lines, exactly. >> you also, supervisor wiener, asked about the n and the f. commissioner wiener: you answered it. it was about whether they should pick people up and you answered that. i appreciate that. >> one of the things, also, just as an aside to that, that we, for reasons of reliability, we have looked at whether or not we could move n line runs and i did it briefly for a couple of weeks with some of them while we fixed green yard to m.m.e. and that would take some of the stress off of the j line in terms of pulling in, pulling out. the trade-off for us is in terms of having the n service further away from the end point drives up the operating cost a bit. so. commissioner wiener: another question, and we discussed this briefly the other day, the possibility -- this could be a good thing or not a good thing, of having the j, instead of going into the tunnel, having it go up market street, having it make a right on church on to market and if that were something that could improve the reliability of the line, and i have no idea if it would, but if that would -- if that would in terms of avoiding the pinch point of getting into the subway and making the subway flow faster and if we can make market street run faster, i'm just curious about what your thoughts are on that idea. >> let me make a couple of general comments. in terms of first the subway and what -- i would be concerned with putting the j on the street each though there are plans to change traffic flow on market street. that's a major project. but if you look at the running time from 17th and market on the surface versus church and dubois and the subway is much faster and there isn't a capacity problem in the subway. i mean, the signal system which has been very closely scrutinized, as you know, over the last several months, has been working effectively and, in fact, it due to be upgraded. so the throughput has been pretty good. and i'd be happy to -- i'm not sure on the surface right now with the vehicles we have, the f line cars on both the numbers -- i'm not sure what the advantage would be for j line riders but, again, i am happy to take a look at it, but just so you understand, right now, the capacity for us in the subway is not a -- is not a problem. >> but i do want to say that i know you've been doing a lot of work to try to make the hardware of the subway work better in terms of the switches and the tracks and we talked about that quite a bit and i really just want to commend you and the organization for really making some positive changes to reduce some of the problems we have been seeing so i know that a lot of us are very happy that you've been so focused on this. so thank you for doing that. supervisor avalos: i like that idea of the j church turning down market street. it's very intriguing to me and i think there needs to be some kind of redundancy from the undergrounding so i think it's worth exploring and i do appreciate that question. does that require overhead wires if you were to do that on market street? >> i'm sorry, what? supervisor avalos: the j church? >> no, i think the other issue that would be worth looking on that is the different kind of vehicle on market street, as well, if that's -- for a variety of reasons, especially not just capacity with single park train. commissioner wiener: one last question. i know you're familiar with what we call the cut, the bernal cut of san jose avenue between st. mary's park and glen park, that area of the stretch of the j where it goes a long period of time for a big run without any stops, it's not like on church street where there's a stop every couple of blocks. if there were to be in-fill development in that area to increase the ridership in that portion of the line, could that possibly justify increased service on the line? in other words, if there were increased demand leading to increased service and a more reliable line overall? >> happy to take a look at it. again, i'm always anxious to add service and, you know, again, we've got, obviously, i don't want to -- right now i think the biggest constraint on the rail system no matter where it is is vehicles right now. it's not the train control. as i said, in september, we scheduled 114 vehicles. it's -- in my opinion, it's at least 10 or 11 below what we need, both lines like the n are very heavily traveled and i would also like to have more ability to put kind of shuttle trains into the subway to pick up heavy areas in between, which we're not able to do right now. so that would be -- but in terms of looking at where we might be able to get more ridership, yeah. commissioner wiener: great. those are the questions that i have, and unless supervisor avalos has questions, perhaps we could open it up to the public to comment. >> thank you. commissioner wiener: thank you very much for the presentation. so, i have a few cards here and i'll call them and then if there's anyone else -- i assume there may be others who want to comment -- if you could just line up and then just state your name before you speak. everyone has two minutes. you'll hear a soft bell at 90 seconds meaning you have 30 seconds left and then a loud one at two minutes, meaning you should finish your sentence and then we'll move to the next person. so we'll start with mr. sossner and mr. planhold. those are the two cards i have. >> good afternoon, again, supervisors. howard frasner. first i have to say, a list of probable or expected improvements, that looks like a good list, a few less stops and signals and one has to comment, first, on changing signal lights. this city is a transit-first city but when we have to move cars, we find a need for transit light. when we have to move muni, who needs a transit light, we put stop signs in and that's not good and it has to change and one way to change it is to make the four-ways two-ways and that might help a little bit. what i forgot to say before and it applies to mission and the j, there are streets in san francisco that have double signs for double parking and i don't know if that applies to these two but it should if it's screwing up the muni and that would make it -- give the p.c.o.'s another hammer, a chance to get this thing done. the other ones that are not on the list, prepurchase of fares. that's very good. that's one no one's mentioned yet but coming from outbound, starting in bark darrow, the m and the j take about the same time to get to balboa station. if j's all screwed up and delayed, maybe the m's should work as a j and the same way the j could work as an m. that would take flexibility in m.o.u.'s and discussions with the union but could help a lot. so i'm really glad we're beginning to nibble on these lines. it's the way to make them better. the unfortunate thing, when you're running every 10 minute, the turnback really denies people further out any service. i would also offer one little trifle caution. when you change the timing on the j, you might affect the other, the k, l and m also. my -- i use the k, l or m, and i notice that j follows n's or n's follow j's and that's because of the switch. if you regularize the schedule on the j's, you screw up and have to work the switch more times which hurts the other cars, this is a complex system. just be careful. commissioner wiener: thank you very much. mr. planthold? >> i'm bob planthold. i've lived on either of two j line stops for 20 years and was also in the tapcac. i think we need better understanding of the on-time performance statistics. here's why -- midday, recently once, noon time, i had to wait 20-plus minutes for an inbound j on the surface. that means three runs. two runs were missed, and yet was it, they all three were late or were two totally missing? how do we determine? similarly, there was one thursday at 4:00 p.m., had to wait 20 minutes for an outbound j on church and 14th street. was it three runs late all that sequential distance or were two totally missing? how do we know what 76% on time or not. >> regarding the slide on page four, there's a suggestion i made regarding auto zone tracks, there's a religious institution on church and 29th where often people double park waiting to pick up kids for kindergarten or religious services and they often overlap into the street car lane. i said why can't b.p.t. simply paint a white line to say this is where you cannot be and that hasn't happened. i support some of the suggestions for improving on-time performance like better p.c.o. and especially the left-turn signal for church at 16th for the 22. i need to call attention to a communications deficit on turnbacks and that is, because i sit up front, i sometimes hear central control tell an operator to switchback, but neither central control nor the operator ever asks, they never ask, does anybody in a wheelchair need the ramp? so i've been on street cars that were turned back at glen park where there is no ramp. that means if somebody was on there, they would have to dead head back to san jose randall, get off, across, and head back again. i've been on street cars where after we were all forced to get off on glen park on a sunday morning, i had to wait 43 minutes, not five minutes. central control needs to ask those questions. the expectations people all in wheelchairs board up front. if something happened in the subway, they could be in the back and hidden. that communication is lacking. commissioner wiener: thank you. >> my name is janet tarlove. i own a business in glen park and glen park is particularly well served by public transportation. the exception is the link between b.a.r.t. and the other buses in the area and the j church, the station at that location is very unsafe and inaccessible. and the glen park community plan outlines a solution to that which i think would be worth considering which is a street level stop. i think supervisor wiener was alluding to that in his remarks. and just another note regarding the merchants providing the customer service for muni, our own experience in that was not particularly positive so i just wanted to put that out there. we were really charged with holding these very valuable tickets, the transit tickets, and counting them every day. it was a lot of work. some days we would sell $5,000 worth of ticket and we, in the end, decided that it was impeding our ability to serve the customers who were there for our regular services. so i just wanted to share that experience with the committee. thank you very much. commissioner wiener: thank you very much. >> my name is raymond and i graduated from mission high in 1999. i graduated from berkeley and we started an organization on campus called the neighborhood division project and we get youth from different neighborhoods to do community service for each other's neighborhoods so this year the youth leadership council have decided to focus on j church as an issue, to mobilize people from different neighborhoods to improve the service of the j. personally, i'm very frustrated with the j because, for example, last monday, when i was supposed to conduct the meeting with the group of youth leaders, the j was 25 minutes late and i was late to the meeting, but the good thing is that these leaders were able to organize amongst themselves, but i do want to see improvements in j. i've been -- i live in san francisco for 30 years and i'm frustrated. i don't know what to do, you know. my solution is that you tell us what we can do and we'll be there to to anything, what we can do in our capacity. i'm learning. thanks. commissioner wiener: thank you. >> i'm alexandria edwards from neighborhood project. thetivity for me. commissioner wiener: point the microphone closer to your mouth? >> right there? the difficulty with the j for me is that it's always late, seeing as though i live in china town, that i have to catch the j to get to school. and it's a convenient route for most of the teenagers that attend mission high school. and it causes truancy. like, many students are late so we have to make announcements over the intercom, taking away class time. already they're late. it's already a truancy problem, then we have to take out a little more class time to make an announcement about it or talk about it during class, taking away a lot of class time, causing bad grades, as well. and another problem with the j is that it's the routes are sometimes messed up because of around 30th street, it's kind of like -- they do a lot of construction over there so, like, they have to go off the track or something's wrong with the headway and it's a lot of confusion for many of the people who board the j around the 30th street but after 30th going to glen park area, it's, like, it's not as many people on the j, so some solutions when we had a conversation with -- o.k. -- is that the j could possibly add more cars. they could add more cars to the j to just to run back and forth during rush hour with the 30, going from 30th back down to downtown, were some solutions we thought about. thank you for your time. commissioner wiener: thank you. >> if y'all want to line up in the middle, you don't have to walk quite as far to speak each time. line up between the rows of seats. there you go. >> hi. my name is calari meredith. i'm a 10th grader and go to the downtown high school. i'm the vice president for the neighborhood vision project. the only issue that i have with the j, with the j church, is its punctuality. just like what my friend alex says, it's like, better, like, if they add, like, like an extra car or two so it could be four of them. because it's only two at the time and a lot of people, you know, like it be really crowded. but, another -- like, another part of it is that, like, when it says it's supposed to be coming, like, at a certain time, is that it actually doesn't, like, because last tuesday, like, i was -- like i was supposed to be at my gym like at 7:00 and i had to wait like 50 minutes for the j church to come so i had to -- so i had to kind of think, like, what should i do? should i walk or something? but, you know, it's like -- and then -- and then with that said, it's like, it came, like, like 10 minutes before it said it was supposed to come, like. i mean, i just -- i mean, me, myself, personally, i just think that it's like better if, like, if the, like, if the muni system was to, like, make more -- make more cars, you know what i'm saying, so it could, like, it could, like, fit a lot of people, because it's like, it gets, like, really frustrated and a misconduct against the blackhawks. bertuzzi hit forward ryan johnson in the head just five minutes into this game. we'll have highlights for you a little later on "sportscenter." updating the action in the dayton region, the two notre dame, the one tennessee with a trip to the final four on the line. johnson with the follow. more from the lady vols, and more from taylor spani, getting the three to go. lady vols continue to play catch-up in this basketball game. it's something you can see live right now on espn. the fighting irish with the lead, 49-41, with 11 minutes to play in the second half. it's a 25-game win streak on the line for the lady vols. tennessee a perfect 3-0 all-time against notre dame in the ncaa tournament. we'll keep you posted. on campus, tennessee introduced its new head coach cuonzo martin. he takes over for bruce pearl who was fired for recruiting violations after six seasons in knoxville. 39-year-old martin said he did his homework about possible and/or future vols penalties before he left missouri state. for more, let's welcome in andy katz. why is tennessee a good fit for cuonzo martin? >> well, cindy, i have to refute a little of that from cuonzo. because there's really no way of him knowing. they just have no way of knowing what the committee on infractions is going to do to tennessee in june. they're anticipating that it's going to be directed much more at bruce pearl because they fired him in advance, so they're hoping that more of the penalty is sticking to him and his staff. a lot of these times, that's what the schools do. they try to get rid of the players involved and hope that the ncaa will come down a little less lenient. in talking to a number of people that have been on the committee of infractions, they can see the transparency in that. so i think it's a little premature for him to say that and for the a.d. to say that because they don't know. there could be some sort of institutional penalty, loss of scholarships that still could come down on tennessee. but as for martin, he did do a great job in missouri state the last three seasons. very well respected. has a tremendous story as a cancer survivor. and i think he'll do a fine job at tennessee. it's just unknown as to what will occur in terms of the ncaa at this juncture. cindy: another hire made today. georgia tech opting to go with brian gregory from dayton. he only had one losing season. what can yellow jackets fans expect out of gregory? >> well, i don't mean to be negative nick here, but this is an odd hire, because it the problem with the j first is sometimes that sometimes it is not so we have to wait for most of my friends. they get late to school and they call their parents. they are calling. i also do after school program and when i have to go back to the home i have to wait for a long time. it is not valuable in the given schedule. so my solution for this is they should have a scheduled time set and they should manage the time so it should be available for everyone. >> thank you very much. >> my name is aaron thomas. i ride the j but i wake up at 6:30 sometimes because i don't know what time it is going to come. i stay on 29th street. i am thinking i will be late. i already got in trouble for truancy. the j will be coming like 30 minutes. sometimes it be switching. solution they need to add more cars. that would be good. >> thank you. >> i go to mission high school and i am in the 10th grade. the problem for me and the j is since i live in hunter's point it is a long rout to go to school. when i go on the j i go to glen park. monterey to glen park. and the j, to me, runs every 20 or 30 minutes. a solution to me is getting the j to run more fredwently. not more cars but to get it to run more frequently. thank you. >> my name is ryan. i am a sophomore. i used to ride the j to school to go to mission, because i am a transfer. i think the problem with the j is it is not precise. it will say five minutes but it could come in like 20 or 25 minutes. i don't know what they do to predict the time but i think they need to sharpen their predictions. that is all. thank you. >> thank you. >> supervisors, i am the president of new mission terrace improvement association, the neighborhood between glen park and balboa park station. at a recent district 11 council meeting a representation was made to the neighborhood that some trains could be switched back from out of bounds to inbound. i want to make it clear and the letter will explain that this is unacceptable. basically improving the service for the patrons. at the expense of the patrons in district 11 does not make it. once we have put the major dent in public transit. there is no ada accessibility. if i want to shop in glen park at canyon market or if i want to go there for breakfast or to the library or to the bookstores, i am going to walk or take the j line and walk up that miserable, fifthy staircase. the idea of serving one part of the patronnage at the expense of the other won't make it. if we can make improvements on the line that is another. from my understanding that the f line operators pulling out via the j line are supposed to carry the folks. most do. but the few that don't make quite an impression. and if there is an opportunity to work with the sfmta at training, in an opportunity to make sure these operators know what the community interest is i look forward to the opportunity. i think i can do it without venting. the idea is community of interest. if the people on either side of the j line see a way to improve it i don't want to tell the people on church street they should take away stop signs or consolidate stops. historically there were many more stops on church street. i want to thank you for the presentation. >> hello. i live in mission terrace. and i take the j church four times a week. and basically in the morning between 8:00 and 9:00 i have never seen every 10 minutes. usually it is every 20 minutes at best. and i have been on switchbacks. when they switchback at 30th street you have to get off. usually you are not told until the stop is coming up. then you have to pile out. many times it has been raining when you have to pile out. there is no bus stop with an overhead there to protect you from the rain. so, you know, you are just standing out there. usually there are a lot of people standing out there. several times i have even just walked down to mission street to catch a mission street bus to catch a mission street bus to get ho