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ROUTES See Also: List of San Francisco Municipal Railway lines The Muni Metro system consists of seven lines: Current Routes
Proposed Routes THE SYSTEM ]] These lines run in mixed street traffic and, for the most part, stop at street corners like a traditional streetcar (a few high-platform stations have been built at selected intervals to accommodate disabled passengers) until they enter or exit the subway ( Twin Peaks Tunnel and Market Street Subway ). Most lines have stretches where they travel in exclusive or semi-exclusive lanes, separated from auto traffic. Three lines, the K, L, and M, enter the subway at its southwestern end, appropriately named West Portal, in the "inbound" direction (towards downtown). The K and M originate at the Balboa Park station, whereas the L runs from 46th Avenue and Wawona Street ( SF Zoo ). The K and T lines are not operationally separate lines and are best described as interconnected: upon entering West Portal Station, the K changes signs and becomes the T; in the "outbound" direction (away from downtown), the T changes signs to K upon entering the Market Street Subway. The K/T, L, and M lines serve the following stations through the Twin Peaks Tunnel: The J and N lines, running above-ground, enter the subway at this point, via a portal located at Church Street and Duboce Avenue. The five lines continue through the Market Street Subway and serve the following stations:
At this point, the J, L, and M lines terminate, while the N and T lines continue out the northeastern portal of the subway on the Embarcadero . The N terminates at King and Fourth Streets, next to the Caltrain station, while the T line continues onward down Fourth Street, Third Street, and Bayshore Boulevard to the county line. The F Market & Wharves , an all-surface line running historic streetcars, has not been designated as part of the Metro system by Muni, despite the fact that its route designation is similar to that of the Metro lines. The Metro designation originated with the construction of the Market Street tunnel, where F trains cannot go. However, the F trains travel over the J line to the storage facility in the Balboa Park neighborhood when not in use, using a section of track between the F and J lines on 17th Street between Noe and Church Streets. F trains are occasionally seen in service on the above-ground sections of the J line, and in service as training cars on other above-ground lines. Metro LRVs also have destination boards for the F Market, and can be operated on F Line tracks when needed, although these occurances are extremely rare. OPERATIONS Passengers can transfer from Muni Metro to Muni buses and vice versa, as well as to and from the F line historic streetcars; however, passengers must use the front door on these other vehicles. Passengers can also transfer to Cable Cars at Powell and Embarcadero stations, though an extra fee must be paid to ride this popular tourist attraction. Four of the downtown subway stations shared by all six lines are also stations on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, and some of the lines also have surface stops at or near the Glen Park and Balboa Park BART stops. While passengers can transfer at these stations, the two systems have different fare regimes and a new fare is usually required when transferring. The monthly MUNI pass, dubbed the FastPass, may be used on BART within San Francisco. VEHICLES line.]] The first vehicles on the Muni Metro were those of the Boeing-Vertol -manufactured US Standard Light Rail Vehicle , a project done for Muni and Boston's MBTA . Boeing-Vertol had virtually no experience in building rail vehicles and later left the market in the wake of the problems which came out building the USSLRV. In fact, 31 of Muni's cars were originally made for MBTA and were rejected due to their poor quality and proneness to mechanical failures. The LRVs made up the entire fleet of the Metro until December 1996 when their replacements, the Breda -manufactured LRV2 arrived. Larger in size and more reliable (though seen by some living near Metro routes as louder than their predecessors), the LRV2's became the mainstay of the fleet by the start of the 21st Century with the last Boeing replaced in late 2001. Because some stops on the Metro system have high platforms and others do not, both the Boeings and the Bredas have variable-height entranceways. Upon entering a car at a street-level stop, the passenger must walk up a few stairs; when the train enters a tunnel or approaches a high-level stop, the stairs rise up to the level of the car floor. This change is signaled by a piercing whistle (Breda) or bell (Boeing). HISTORY In the middle of the 20th century, San Francisco was served by a number of public transit railways. There were two modes: cable cars, driven by traction from underground cables, and streetcars, powered by overhead electric catenaries. The Cable Cars still run in San Francisco today; the streetcars were the ancestors of today's Muni Metro. San Francisco is thus one of the few North American cities whose light rail system has operated continuously since the streetcar era. It was at this time (the 1950s) that the original plans for the BART system were drawn up; these plans envisioned a double-decker subway tunnel under Market Street (known as the Market Street Subway ) in downtown San Francisco; the lower deck would be dedicated to express trains, while the upper would be served by local trains whose routes would spread south and west through the city. After construction of the tunnel had begun, however, these plans were altered; only the lower deck would be used by BART, and only a single BART route would travel through the city, while the upper deck would be served by the existing Muni streetcar routes. The new tunnel would be connected to the existing Twin Peaks Tunnel . The new underground stations would feature high platforms, and the older stations would be retrofitted with the same, which meant that the traditional PCCs could not be used in them. Hence, a fleet of new Light Rail Vehicles was ordered from Boeing-Vertol , but were not delivered until 1980, even though the tunnel was completed in 1978. In February 1980, Muni Metro was officially inaugurated, with weekday N line service in the subway. The Metro service was implemented in phases, with all five lines running in the subway on a full-time basis by November 1982. In the mid to late 1990s, San Francisco grew more prosperous and its population expanded with the advent of the Dot-com Boom , and the Metro system began to feel the strain of increased commuter demand. Muni-bashing had always been something of a civic sport for San Franciscans, and not without reason: the Boeing trains were sub-par and grew crowded quickly, and the difficulty in running a system that was half-streetcar and half-subway with five different routes merging together into one, led to scheduling chaos on the main trunk lines, with long waits between arrivals and commuter-packed trains sometimes sitting motionless in tunnels for extended periods of time. Muni Meltdown Recent expansion In 1998, a four-station extension of the trunk line was built from Embarcadero station to the planned site of the new neighborhoods and the new downtown baseball stadium, AT&T Park . Perhaps even more important, however, was the mere fact that it was built: it represented the first new light rail tracks laid in the city since the three-mile extension of the J Church line in 1993, and its success heralded more expansion in the wings. Future expansion Federal funding has been secured for a new project dubbed the Central Subway that will increase ridership by 4,000 riders per day. This line will head north and west from the Caltrain depot before passing underground into a new subway tunnel. It will stop at Moscone Center , then pass under the current Metro tunnel before turning north with stops at Union Square , where transfers will be made to the Market subway at Powell, and Chinatown . Though the line would be relatively short, it would provide service to areas of downtown currently somewhat isolated from the Metro network, and perhaps a springboard for, or discontinuance of, future expansion. Planners hope that the Central Subway will be completed by 2016 at a cost of $1.4 billion. No further projects have been settled upon as of yet, though there are several areas in the city that would benefit. One route under particular study is the Geary Street Corridor, which would run west from the Central Subway through the densely populated Western Addition, Japantown, and Richmond neighborhoods north of Golden Gate Park . The 38 Geary bus, which covers this route today, is the most heavily used in the system. SEE ALSO
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