Name: SF’s Muni Metro to roll out big changes in August, but reopening carries risks
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SF’s Muni Metro to roll out big changes in August, but reopening carries risks

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateIn San Francisco, a city where it’s difficult to move a bus stop without causing an uprising, the head of transportation has taken on a much greater challenge: He wants to reinvent the subway.When Muni Metro restarts Aug. 22 after an unprecedented five-month shutdown, it will have modified rail routes and fewer trains running in the tunnels each hour. San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency hopes this leaner model will make the system more reliable. But he’s also operating under intense pressure from COVID-19, a fickle public and the stop-start uncertainty of the economy.“It’s a really big change that we’re doing very quickly,” Tumlin said in an interview. “The sort of change that would normally take five years.”Transit activists are excited. Some riders are wary. Tumlin is bracing for runaway success or possible disaster. Since Muni lost so much revenue during the pandemic, it has little to spend on repairs. The agency can’t afford another subway meltdown.When the lines reopen in August, one-car trains will no longer enter the subway. Officials will instead limit the underground portion of the system to trains with two or three cars, a strategy to relieve stress on the train control system and encourage social distancing.That means the J-Church and K-Ingleside lines will run only on city streets, since the short platforms along their routes can accommodate only smaller vehicles. The subway will include two-car N-Judah trains, a combined T-Third and M-Ocean View to circle from the southeast to the west side neighborhoods, and a high-frequency S-Shuttle between the West Portal and Embarcadero stations.Additionally, the agency will combine the L-Taraval and K-Ingleside into a west-side line from the San Francisco Zoo to Balboa Park, turning West Portal Station into a transfer point for riders heading southeast or downtown.The new configuration “allows San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to do more with less,” Tumlin tweeted this month.Faced with and workers calling in sick as COVID-19 surged, agency staff had to redesign the system to support essential workers and people who don’t own cars. Muni closed the subway when shelter-in-place orders clamped down, and staff spent weeks creating a plan to reopen — not knowing whether students would return to school or commuters would go back to the office.New rail service plan allows to do more with less:Better reliability:- Only N enters Duboce portal; only M at West Portal - Only Shuttle turns back at EmbarcaderoBetter capacity:- Only 2-3 car trains in subwayBetter frequency- 2-3 car Shuttle backbone of system — Jeffrey Tumlin (@jeffreytumlin)Muni will also restore several bus lines on Aug. 22, including the 7-Haight-Noriega, the 45-Union-Stockton and the 48-Quintara, and the agency will extend other lines such as the 54-Felton.Tumlin said at a board meeting Tuesday that the agency has begun enforcing parking meters and will soon start collecting transit fares, which it had waived through much of the pandemic. And the agency is adding new on various streets, designating space for buses to move faster.The plan is ambitious and risky, already drawing applause from advocates and criticism from older riders who resent having to make transfers on Muni Metro.“We are cautiously observing and being optimistic,” said Cat Carter, head of the grassroots advocacy group San Francisco Transit Riders, adding that she supports any that historically plagued Muni — and no one wants to be stuck in a crowded subway with the ever-present threat of coronavirus.Still, Carter warned that Muni riders have little patience for transfers, particularly if they have to wait outside in the cold.Gwyneth Borden, who chairs the SFMTA board, acknowledged that people might have anxiety about returning to Muni Metro, given that operators can’t open the train windows.Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.“Yet people so far prefer rail service to bus service,” she said. “People are just more enamored of trains than they are of buses. That’s just the human psyche.”Tumlin said in an interview that the first couple weeks of the rollout might be rough.Nonetheless, he said it’s time for Muni to think differently. For years, its antiquated train control system struggled to process five surface lines erratically arriving at three subway portals — Embarcadero, Duboce and West Portal — which left trains stalled for long periods outside the tunnels. When trains entered the streets and got tangled in traffic, they caused backups throughout the underground portion of the system.Innovation comes with perils, especially on a system so critical to a functioning downtown. Tumlin noted that his predecessor, Ed Reiskin, after an infamous breakdown choked the subway for 13 hours.TransportationIt could happen again. Although Muni staff took advantage of the five-month closure to fix and upgrade old equipment, the agency will have to defer maintenance for the next couple of years to cope with its financial losses. Tumlin’s budget staff expects to hemorrhage $568 million over four years and lose up to 40 bus lines unless it finds an outside revenue source.For now, he said, Muni is paying rent with a credit card, which hasn’t checked its aspirations.Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateIn San Francisco, a city where it’s difficult to move a bus stop without causing an uprising, the head of transportation has taken on a much greater challenge: He wants to reinvent the subway.When Muni Metro restarts Aug. 22 after an unprecedented five-month shutdown, it will have modified rail routes and fewer trains running in the tunnels each hour. San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency hopes this leaner model will make the system more reliable. But he’s also operating under intense pressure from COVID-19, a fickle...

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Rachel Swan covers transportation for The Chronicle. She joined the paper in 2015 and has also reported on politics in Oakland and San Francisco.  Previously, Rachel held staff positions at the SF Weekly and the East Bay Express, where she covered technology, law and the arts. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/author/rachel-swan/

Rachel Swan

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SF’s Muni Metro to roll out big changes in August, but reopening carries risks

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