This morning hopped on the N-Judah to ride in to Caltrain. The driver was in training, and drove very gingerly through the two above-ground stops (Duboce Park and Church St.), and then slowly into the tunnels.
We stopped for several minutes while a train was stuck at the Van Ness platform, which made me wonder why MUNI doesn't have bypass (or express) rails anywhere in the heavily-used Market St. Subway. If a train or any of the five lines (!!) that use the subway fails, it blocks all traffic in that direction. The only switches are at the Embarcadero end of the tunnel.
Turns out that in this country, the only subway line with bypass tracks is New York's MTA.
The training driver overshot an intersection in SOMA trying to gun the Breda through a yellow; the mentor driver got him to stop, but too late, and we sat embarassingly blocking traffic until the lights cycled again.
Everyone sprinted from the MUNI across the street to Caltrain to catch the 8:07: we just barely made it.