By Mariana Maguire
Photo: 54 Felton bus serving the Bayview and several other equity neighborhoods from Hunters Point to Daly City BART
The SFMTA will bring back, extend and improve frequencies on several targeted bus routes to continue to support essential trips and physical distancing beginning Saturday, August 22, in addition to restarting modified Muni Metro service. These service changes will also support the city’s economic recovery by providing more connections to neighborhood commercial districts as businesses reopen. With the restart of Muni Metro, we can repurpose Muni buses that had been operating in place of rail lines to add service on other routes.
Below is a summary of upcoming service changes.
L Bus Construction Shuttle
- A bus substitution will continue to provide service from SF Zoo to Sunset Blvd. related to L Taraval Improvement Project construction.
- Eastbound towards West Portal Station: Transfer from L Bus to LK Taraval-Ingleside train at Taraval at 32nd Avenue
- Westbound towards Wawona at 46th Avenue: Transfer from LK Taraval-Ingleside train to L Bus at Taraval at Sunset Boulevard
- Daily Frequency: At most every 10 minutes
7 Haight-Noriega (Newly restored!)
- The full 7 Haight-Noriega route is being restored between Ortega at 48th Avenue to Salesforce Transit Center
- 60-foot buses will replace the 40-foot buses allowing more room for customers to maintain physical distance onboard and reduce pass-ups
- Connections to Inner Sunset, the Haight and Downtown
- Daily Frequency: Between 10 and 20 minutes
12 Pacific Community Shuttle (Extended)
- A modified route will be extended between Jackson at Van Ness to Sansome at Sutter to provide connection to Market Street
- Daily Frequency: Between 10 and 20 minutes
28 19th Avenue
- Weekend service is being added for modified route between Daly City BART and California at 7th Avenue
- Access to transfer points to UCSF, Kaiser and the California Pacific Medical Center
- Daily Frequency: Between 10 and 20 minutes
30 Stockton (Extended)
- The 30 Stockton route is being extended to Crissy Field at Mason in the Presidio, between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. daily. All other times, the 30 Stockton terminal will be at Divisadero and Chestnut
- 60-foot buses will replace the 40-foot buses allowing more room for customers to maintain physical distance onboard and reduce pass-ups
- Connections to Crissy Field, Chinatown, Downtown and Caltrain
- Daily Frequency: Between 10 and 20 minutes
37 Corbett (Newly restored!)
- A modified route will go from Twin Peaks to 11th St at Market via Market Street
- Connections to Castro, Church and Van Ness Muni Metro Stations
- Daily Frequency: Between 10 and 20 minutes
- Service Hours: 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekends
44 O’Shaughnessy (Extended)
- The full 44 O’Shaughnessy route is being restored between Hunters Point and California at 6th Avenue
- Connections to Bayview, Portola, Glen Park and Forest Hill Stations, Golden Gate Park and the Inner Richmond
- Daily Frequency: Between 10 and 20 minutes
45 Union-Stockton (Newly restored!)
- The full 45 Union-Stockton route is returning between Townsend at 4th St to Lyon at Greenwich
- Connections to SoMa, Downtown, Chinatown and Union Street
- Daily Frequency: Between 10 and 20 minutes
48 Quintara (Newly restored!)
- Modified route between 20th St at 3rd St to West Portal Station
- Connections to West Portal, 24th St BART and Potrero Hill/Dogpatch. The route is simplified near Diamond Heights
- Daily Frequency: Between 10 and 20 minutes
49 Van Ness-Mission
- 60-foot buses will replace the 40-foot buses allowing more room for customers to maintain physical distance onboard
- Daily Frequency: At most, every 10 minutes
54 Felton (Extended)
- The full 54 Felton route is being restored from Hunters Point to Daly City BART
- Connections to Bayview, Portola, Excelsior, and Balboa Park and Daly City BART Stations
- Daily Frequency: Approximately 20 minutes
67 Bernal Heights (Newly restored!)
- The full 67 Bernal Heights route is returning from Ellsworth at Crescent to 24th Street BART Station
- Daily Frequency: Approximately 20 minutes
Improving Frequency
- To reduce crowding the following lines will have more frequent service:
- 8 Bayshore
- 9 San Bruno
- 9R San Bruno Rapid
- 12 Pacific Community Shuttle
- 14 Mission
- 19 Polk
- 22 Fillmore
- 24 Divisadero
- 25 Treasure Island
- 28 19th Ave.
- 29 Sunset
- 43 Masonic
- 44 O’Shaughnessy
We may be able to introduce some additional service changes in the fall, but looking further ahead, future service increases depend largely on additional revenue and the potential relaxation of COVID-19 distancing requirements.
The SFMTA’s revenues have fallen while costs of providing service have dramatically increased, largely due to the new physical distancing and cleaning requirements. The pandemic and the financial crisis mean the SFMTA must do more with less. Amid these deep budget shortfalls and public health capacity limits, our staff – especially our operators, cleaning crews, facilities staff, service planners, and COVID response team – have been working hard to restore more routes with resources, including staff, vehicles and funds, stretched thin.
Focusing on our customers, equity and efficiency as we restore service
To provide our customers with the best service we must reduce duplicate service and costly sources of delay. In deciding how service is restored, we are focused on:
- Meeting ridership demands identified during the pandemic; and
- Prioritizing service for people who need it most—our obligation is to serve people that depend on transit.
We have steadily restored service from the 17 core routes that were in place in April to 42 routes by August, retaining or returning full or modified service to:
- All rail routes, with a new reconfiguration to improve reliability and time savings
- Key Rapid lines like the 9R San Bruno Rapid, 14R Mission Rapid and 38R Geary Rapid with high ridership and crosstown service
- Almost all our Frequent Service routes that have high ridership and provide important crosstown connections
- Close to half of our Grid routes – our most common, regular service neighborhood routes – prioritizing those that provide important crosstown service
- Almost all the Owl network – late-night service traditionally from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. but currently operating between the hours of 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.
- And 29 of our 41 equity service routes — the August 22 service changes will improve transit access through all of the neighborhoods identified in Muni’s Service Equity Strategy. These neighborhoods rely on transit service the most based on the percentage of households with low incomes, private vehicle ownership and concentrations of people of color.
We continue to hear about overcrowding and pass ups on specific lines, which is why we are increasing frequencies and adding vehicles and operators to those routes. Because of physical distancing, it now takes three times as many vehicles to move the same amount of people as pre-COVID. This significantly limits the resources available to bring back additional routes. Our August 22 service changes will put close to the maximum number of available operators and vehicles out on the street to serve our customers. At the same time, our budget shortfalls prevent us from hiring more operators and cleaners or purchasing more vehicles.
As with everything else with this pandemic, our service allocation throughout the city beyond August is uncertain. The routes that are not being prioritized to bring back into service in the near term consist of routes that:
- Provide parallel, duplicative, service to our existing network
- Connector, historic and specialized routes, that are important and beloved, but provide shorter service to a smaller number of people
These service suspensions are temporary. Permanent long-term service changes would require additional analysis and public input. We look forward to engaging on these issues with our elected officials and communities.
COVID Rider Reminders
Help the city reduce COVID transmission rate by continuing to stay at home except for essential trips.
Please use an alternate form of transportation whenever possible – walking, biking, taxis or driving – to save a seat on Muni for those who don’t have other options. Our Essential Trips Card program is a cost-effective way for seniors and people with disabilities to use taxis instead of Muni. Carshares and micromobility options are also available. Visit our COVID-19 Developments and Response page for more information on alternative transportation options. If possible, opt to shop local.
If you do need to travel on Muni, give yourself extra time, wear a face covering and practice physical distancing. Remember, your trip may now include transfers and a longer walk, and your fare is good for two hours across multiple buses.
Masks or face coverings are required on Muni. To avoid getting passed up, cover your nose and mouth with face cover or mask, give the operator a friendly wave, and be sure to board by the back door unless you require assistance.
Visit our COVID-19 Developments and Response page for the latest information about Muni routes in service or to explore alternate ways to get around the city. To provide feedback on any Muni service changes please use our Muni Feedback Form.
Published July 20, 2020 at 10:45PM
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