Higer Customer Satisfaction, Stronger Economy. It's Simple.

Last Thursday evening, we Muni riders experienced a classic Muni Meltdown. Upon entering the station at Montgomery, we heard:
Next Train - LL - two minutes
Two minutes passed. Nothing.
Then another announcement: Next train - NN - two minutes; followed by NN - two minutes.
Groans erupted.
A steady stream of trains were heading into Embarcadero, but none seemed to be coming out. Another few minutes passed, and still no trains appeared on the outbound platform. I've seen Muni meltdowns before and this was a classic symptom. I went up to the booth and asked the worker, "Is there a problem with the trains?"
He pointed to the traffic screen, apparently not noticing that there were more than a dozen trains queued up at Embarcadero. "Next train in two minutes."
"It's said that for past ten minutes," I protested.
"No problem," the agent said. He turned away and picked up the phone. I swear he wasn't talking to anyone.
I headed for the F train.
The F train driver, seeing the river of people emerging from underground, immediately understood that there was a problem and began allowing passengers to board in the front and the back. He, apparently, was the only Muni employee with a back up plan when problems erupt.
It took about 45 minutes for us to get to the Castro, but the irritiation was diminished by the good humor of our driver. He joked, cajoled step standers, complained about traffic, and generally improved what was a bad situation.
When I got to the Castro, I bumped into my friend Jesse, just emerging from the Muni tunnel.
"You took the train!?" I exclaimed.
"Man, it was practically empty," he said. "Everybody's taking the F today."

Here's the thing:
I figure that there are maybe two or three reasons that trains get backed up at Embarcardero. (Including the hilarious, "We don't have drivers for the trains" excuse I heard a few weeks back.) Why doesn't Muni have a standard backup plan in place. It could be something as simple as an announcement:
"Trains are backed up for the next 15 minutes. Go ahead and grab a beer at the House of Shields and then come back."
Irritation levels drop, the local economy is boosted, the platform becomes less crowded and we all arrive home at the same time anyway. How hard is that.