Muni subway service delays clear after rebooting floppy disk system
A software issue with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s aging Market Street subway train-control system hampered underground service at downtown stations for about an hour Friday, bringing the agency’s continued reliance on floppy disks back into the limelight.
SFMTA officials said just after 9:30 a.m. Friday that riders traveling between Van Ness and Embarcadero stations would experience congestion and slow-moving service. During the disruption, the agency arranged buses to carry passengers through Market Street while BART honored Muni fares in both directions between Balboa Park and Embarcadero stations.
Erica Kato, an agency spokesperson, told The Examiner that the delay was cleared just before 10:30 a.m. after SFMTA officials finished rebooting the 26-year-old system. Bus shuttles remained temporarily to provide supplemental service, and the agency said it was continuing to monitor its system in case the issue reappeared.
The SFMTA initially started planning to overhaul the floppy-disk-based control system in 2018, expecting completion to take a decade, agency officials told Ars Technica earlier this month. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the project to a potential 2030 launch at the latest, with the agency saying its project timeline is dependent upon hiring a contractor by early 2025.
