The Duboce Triangle is a neighborhood of San Francisco , California , located below Buena Vista Park and between the neighborhoods of the Castro/Eureka Valley , the Mission District , and the Lower Haight .
123-652: The Duboce Triangle is served by Muni Metro and buses. Because of its location east of Buena Vista Heights and Twin Peaks , the area sees less fog than many places in San Francisco. According to the 2010 neighborhoods map of the San Francisco Association of Realtors (SFAR), Duboce Triangle is bordered by Market Street on its southeastern side, by Castro Street to the West and by Duboce Avenue to
246-737: A CPUC regulatory inspection in early November 2017 and car #2006 was the first LRV to enter revenue service on November 17, 2017, following a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Duboce and Church . The first 68 cars were used to expand the Muni fleet to 219 cars and once the fleet reached that total in October 2019, Breda cars would be retired as new Siemens cars are accepted. It is expected that deliveries of cars will continue through 2028. Muni Metro runs from approximately 5 am to 1 am weekdays, with later start times of 7 am on Saturday and 8 am on Sunday. Owl service , or late-night service,
369-489: A Free Muni for Seniors program that provides low- and moderate-income seniors residing in San Francisco free access to all Muni transit services, including Muni's cable cars. Free Muni is open to all San Francisco senior Clipper card holders, ages 65 and over, with a gross annual family income at or below 100 percent of the Bay Area median income level (qualifying income levels are posted on the program's web page). Enrollment
492-466: A currently-abandoned office building and powerhouse . M Ocean View trains loop around Cameron Beach Yard; the last stop for outbound trains is at San Jose and Niagara, one block to the south of Geneva Avenue. The stop does not have a platform; if a passenger needs an accessible platform to alight, the train will proceed across Geneva Avenue to a mini-high platform located at Seneca Avenue. Inbound trains pick up passengers at San Jose and Geneva, which has
615-443: A $ 212 million design and procurement contract and a $ 114 million ten-year support contract with Hitachi Rail in October 2024. The Muni Metro system consists of 71.5 miles (115.1 km) of standard gauge track, seven light rail lines (six regular lines and one peak-hour line), three tunnels, 12 subway stations, 25 surface stations, and 87 surface stops. The backbone of the system is formed by two interconnected subway tunnels,
738-699: A Mission Street subway) and its Bernal Cut to avoid expensive tunneling through San Francisco's hills. Early plans for BART around 1960 considered several different routings for the Peninsula Line (then planned to extend to Palo Alto): the Bayshore Cutoff, the existing Twin Peaks Tunnel , a new bored tunnel crossing diagonally under the Mission District , and a Mission Street tunnel continuing via Alemany Boulevard . By 1961,
861-401: A branch (itself closed on November 5, 1939) of the route 9 streetcar. Route 26 service resumed on September 23, 1944, but was replaced by buses on February 4, 1945, ending streetcar service on San Jose Avenue. Muni's K Ingleside line was extended on Ocean Avenue and Onondaga Street to Mission Street on April 8, 1945, as the ex-MSR line on Ocean Avenue was converted to bus. K Ingleside service
984-428: A character of its own, suitable to its own unique environment". Balboa Park and Glen Park were designed by Ernest Born (who also designed the systemwide station signage) and Corlett & Spackman, with landscape work by Douglas Baylis . Both stations were designed in the brutalist style, with Balboa Park the "smaller and more intimate". It has headhouses on each side of Geneva Avenue, sized to be appropriate to
1107-495: A concrete platform with a wayside lift for accessibility, after proceeding around the yard loop. A housing development is located on the west side of San Jose Avenue on a parcel that formerly housed storage tracks called the Upper Yard. Balboa Park is a major transfer point for Muni buses, with over 13,000 daily boardings by a 2008 survey. Routes 8 , 8BX , 43 , 54 , 88 , 91 Owl , and 714 stop on Geneva Avenue next to
1230-465: A long way towards resolving persistent crowding and scheduling issues. Nonetheless, Muni remains one of the slowest urban transport systems in the United States. In 1980, the M Ocean View was extended from Broad Street and Plymouth Avenue to its current terminus at Balboa Park . In 1991, the J Church was extended from Church and 30th Streets to its current terminus at Balboa Park. In 1998,
1353-519: A loop track around its periphery, with an alighting area adjacent to the BART fare mezzanine in the southwest corner and a boarding area near San Jose Avenue in the southeast corner, plus a stop in the northeast corner of the yard. Some K Ingleside shuttle service was extended to Balboa Park on April 23, 1979, and all weekday service ran to Balboa Park after the line was converted to Muni Metro light rail operation on December 17, 1980. The Metro Rail Center
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#17327732004881476-404: A lower speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h), down from 50 mph (80 km/h), because the brakes were problematic. The ATC system was plagued by numerous glitches when first implemented, initially causing significantly more harm than good. Common occurrences included sending trains down the wrong tracks, and, more often, inappropriately applying emergency braking. Eventually the result
1599-426: A multi-year reconstruction on the surface section of the line until it resumed train service on September 28, 2024. Service only ran until 9pm until October 2, 2021, when it was extended to 10pm on Sundays and midnight on other days to better align with BART's late-night service. J Church service resumed subway service on February 19, 2022. Several further expansions have been proposed. SFMTA has studied extending
1722-465: A new stop for the J line at San Jose and Ocean ; inbound K trains also stopped at a plaza near that intersection. A small accessible platform was built east of Green Yard, next to the northbound track on San Jose at Seneca, to allow the planned through-routing. (Southbound trains were to use the existing alighting and boarding area on the Green Yard loop; a small accessible platform was available on
1845-424: A new train control system that utilizes communications-based train control and infrastructure improvements that would enable longer trains to run in the subway and on some surface lines with greater reliability. As of 2024, the train control system replacement was in the planning stages with a pilot implementation planned in 2025 and with the entire upgrade estimated to be completed in 2029. The SFMTA board approved
1968-469: A number of Muni bus routes. The station complex also includes two rail yards, Cameron Beach Yard and Green Light Rail Center, where Muni maintains Muni Metro trains and heritage streetcars. BART uses a below-grade island platform on the west side of the complex; Muni Metro routes use several smaller side platforms located on surface-level rail loops around the yards. The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad opened in 1863, with Elkton station located near
2091-421: A number of possible improvements to the station area to guide future project choices. Projects recommended by the report (along with those discussed above) included: The 2011 plan for a rerouting of the M Ocean View through Parkmerced assumed that the M would continue to terminate at Balboa Park. Initial plans in 2014 for a 19th Avenue subway had the M divide into two branches, one terminating at Parkmerced and
2214-527: A part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni's light rail lines saw an average of 87,000 boardings per day as of the third quarter of 2024 and a total of 24,324,600 boardings in 2023, making it the sixth-busiest light rail system in the United States . Five services – J Church , K Ingleside , L Taraval , M Ocean View , and N Judah run on separate surface alignments and merge into
2337-636: A recently deceased member of the SFMTA Board of Directors. From June 21, 2014, to June 16, 2018, the historic streetcar fleet was stored at Muni Metro East rather than Cameron Beach Yard, as the latter was needed for LRVs displaced by Green Yard rail replacement work. Construction of a 131-unit affordable housing development on the Upper Yard plot began in October 2020 and was completed in September 2023. The north BART entrances were closed from April 13, 2020, to May 15, 2021, due to low ridership during
2460-401: A shorter but dangerous route through the Muni yard instead. The Westside Walkway replaced the northern half of the path with a concrete ramp that leads to a new set of faregates at the north end of the headhouse, thus providing a shorter and fully accessible entrance from Ocean Avenue and the nearby City College of San Francisco (for which the station is the main transit access). ) The walkway
2583-661: A single east–west tunnel, the Market Street subway . The T Third Street uses a north–south tunnel downtown, the Central Subway . The supplementary S Shuttle service operates within the Market Street subway and Twin Peaks Tunnel . Muni Metro operates a fleet of 151 Breda high-floor light rail vehicles (LRVs), which are currently being replaced by a fleet of 249 Siemens S200 LRVs. The system has 117 stations , of which 63 (54%) are accessible . Muni Metro
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#17327732004882706-594: A standalone Geary subway line, such as in the 2017 20-year Capital Plan, and the planning effort started in 2014 (called the Muni Subway Expansion Project) to extend the M Ocean View in a fully grade-separated right-of-way to better serve the 19th Avenue corridor that had begun preliminary engineering studies in 2018. The ConnectSF report also identified the need to modernize the Muni Metro system. Key improvements that are planned include
2829-514: A temperature of 72 °F (22 °C) inside the car. The Breda cars feature four doors per car, versus three for the Boeing (only the middle two doors of the Boeing cars were available while in the tunnels due to the cars' end curvature). The initial batch of 136 Breda cars were ordered on contracts exceeding US$ 320,000,000 (equivalent to $ 585,281,662 in 2023), for an average per-car cost of US$ 2,350,000 (equivalent to $ 4,298,162 in 2023);
2952-440: Is not automatic. To participate in the program, a qualified senior must have or obtain a Clipper card and submit an application either online or by mail. Like Muni buses, the Muni Metro operates on a proof-of-payment system; on paying a fare, the passenger will receive a ticket good for travel on any bus, historic streetcar, or Metro vehicle for 120 minutes. Payment methods depend on boarding location. On surface street sections in
3075-545: Is one of the surviving first-generation streetcar systems in North America . The San Francisco Municipal Railway was created in 1909 and opened its first streetcar lines in 1912. Five of the current lines were added in the following decades: the J in 1917, the K (including the Twin Peaks Tunnel) in 1918, the L in 1919, the M in 1925, and the N in 1928. The other Municipal Railway streetcar lines, and those of
3198-411: Is provided along much of the L and N lines by buses that bear the same route designation. The cash fare for Muni Metro, like Muni buses, effective January 1, 2020, is $ 3 for adults and $ 1.50 for seniors, and the disabled, and free for youths 5–19. Clipper and MuniMobile fares are lower than cash fares. Their fares are $ 2.50 for adults. For all people under 20 service is free. Muni currently operates
3321-593: Is the only line in the Muni Metro that does not enter the tunnel, instead going through the Central Subway . An additional tunnel, the Sunset Tunnel , is located near the Duboce portal and is served by the N. The interconnected tunnels contain nine subway stations. Three stations—West Portal, Forest Hill and the now-defunct Eureka Valley —were opened in 1918 as part of the Twin Peaks Tunnel, while
3444-577: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake , the URR rerouted the San Mateo line to Mission Street; Embarcadero–Daly City route 26 continued to operate on San Jose Avenue. In 1907, while expanding its streetcar network after the earthquake, the URR hurriedly opened its Elkton shops next to the SP's Elkton station. The shops occupied a parcel bounded by San Jose Avenue to the east, the SP line to the west, Ocean Avenue to
3567-550: The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake . They were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010; a renovation of the powerhouse for community use was completed in 2020, while a renovation of the office building is planned but unfunded. The Balboa Park station complex is centered around an irregular quadrilateral bounded by Ocean Avenue to the north, the Interstate 280 (I-280) cut to the west, Geneva Avenue to
3690-464: The BART system drawn up in the 1950s envisioned a double-decked 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. However, by 1961 these plans were altered; only a single BART route would travel through
3813-668: The Caltrain terminal at 4th and King Street opened in 1998. The T Third Street line opened in 2007, serving the southeastern portion of the city. The Central Subway, with three new subway stations and one new surface station opened on November 19, 2022. The first street railroad in San Francisco was the San Francisco Market Street Railroad Company, which was incorporated in 1857 and began operating in 1860, with track along Market Street from California to Mission Dolores. Muni Metro descended from
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3936-480: The J Church line in 1991. In the early 2000s, BART and Muni began planning renovations to improve the accessibility of the station and its connections to the surrounding neighborhoods. A new BART entrance was completed in 2011, followed by new Muni platforms in 2015 and 2017 and an additional footbridge in 2018. Additional improvements like more elevators and modernized headhouses are proposed. The 1901-built office building and an adjacent powerhouse, were abandoned after
4059-464: The N Judah was extended from Embarcadero Station to the planned site of the new Pacific Bell Park and Caltrain Depot , The extension was briefly served between January and August of that year by the temporary E Embarcadero light rail shuttle (restored in 2015 as the E Embarcadero heritage streetcar line). In 2007, the T Third Street , running south from Caltrain Depot along Third Street to
4182-821: The San Francisco Railway Museum , but have since been scrapped; five were sold to the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority for the modest price of US$ 200 (equivalent to $ 338.8 in 2023) to US$ 500 (equivalent to $ 846.99 in 2023) each; one was acquired by the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society in 2001, but the Society declined to take any more Boeing cars after experiencing several breakdowns. Boeing car no. 1258 has been on exhibit at
4305-591: The Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) in 1868. The line had several stops within San Francisco, including Elkton, located on the east side of the tracks 300 feet (90 m) south of Ocean Avenue. It was primarily a freight station for nearby farms, though it also served the nearby Industrial School as well as residential neighborhoods that were laid out in the 1860s. However, the railroad was not very useful to local residents: high fares discouraged both passengers and freight, and on-street running in
4428-520: The Spanish–American War . Many of the houses in the neighborhood are 1906 flats in the classic revival style, with the earliest house dating from the 1870s (such as the house at 22 Beaver Street built in 1876). A Victorian apartment building at the Northern side of 400 Duboce Avenue which survived the 1906 earthquake, has been described as the country's largest wooden structure to the West of
4551-675: The Western Railway Museum near Suisun City since its acquisition in 2002. The first of four prototypes of the new Breda cars was delivered in January 1995. After delivery of additional cars and training of operators, the cars began to enter service on December 10, 1996. They were the most expensive street railway vehicles built to-date, at a cost of US$ 2,000,000 (equivalent to $ 3,885,423 in 2023) each, and they were assembled at Pier 80. After suffering initial breakdowns and despite facing complaints of noise and vibrations,
4674-566: The 175 cars from the first two phases, 44 additional cars, and surplus 30 cars were contracted in 2021. Siemens has named the new Muni cars the S200 SF while the SFMTA refers to them as the LRV4. They operate at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour (80 km/h). The S200 SF is 75 feet (23 m) long, 8 feet 8.32 inches (2.65 m) wide, 11 feet 6 inches (3.51 m) high (with
4797-542: The 1960s, BART decided to use the Ocean View Branch right-of-way for part of a rapid transit system. The San Francisco portion of BART, including Balboa Park station, opened on November 5, 1973. Both streetcar facilities were replaced by modern yards in the 1970s and 1980s. Muni Metro service to the Balboa Park complex began with the K Ingleside line in 1979, followed by the M Ocean View line in 1980 and
4920-490: The BART station entrances. Routes 29 and 49 stop on Ocean Avenue at I-280 and at San Jose Avenue. Routes 714 and K Bus stop on San Jose Avenue. The Commute.org Brisbane-Crocker Park Shuttle and the SamTrans Daly City Bayshore Shuttle also stop on Geneva Avenue. The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad (SF&SJ) opened through San Francisco on October 16, 1863, and was merged into
5043-544: The Boeing LRVs they replaced) that some homeowners, claiming that the exceptional weight of the Breda cars damaged their foundations, sued the city of San Francisco. The Breda cars are longer and wider than the previous Boeing cars, necessitating the modification of subway stations and maintenance yards, as well as the rear view mirrors on the trains themselves. Furthermore, the Breda cars do not run in three car trains, like
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5166-450: The Boeing cars used to, as doing so had, in some instances, physically damaged the overhead power wires. The Breda trains were so noisy that San Francisco budgeted over $ 15 million to quiet them down, while estimates range up to $ 1 million per car to remedy the excessive noise. To this day, the Breda cars are noisier than the PCC or Boeing cars. In 1998, federal inspectors mandated
5289-549: The Breda cars have been blamed for reduced train capacity, as multiple cars are not able to be coupled together as intended. Muni originally ordered 35 cars from Breda in 1991, and exercised options to add another 116 cars throughout the 1990s, including an option to purchase another 15 cars in 1999. The fleet had 151 LRVs in 2014, all made by Breda. The double-ended cars are 75 feet (23 m) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) wide, 11 feet (3.4 m) high, have graffiti-resistant windows, and contain an air-conditioning system to maintain
5412-562: The Bredas gradually replaced the Boeings, with the last Boeing car being retired in 2002. Residents along streetcar lines complained the new Breda cars would screech during acceleration and deceleration and their 80,000-pound (36,000 kg) weight, 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) heavier than the Boeing cars, was blamed for vibration issues. At one point in 1998, 12 Breda cars were unavailable for service due to door problems. Faulty couplers on
5535-604: The COVID-19 pandemic. Thirteen BART stations, including Balboa Park, did not originally have faregates for passengers using the elevator. In 2020, BART started a project to add faregates to elevators at these stations. The new faregate on the BART platform at Balboa Park was installed in August 2021. In 2012, Muni released the Balboa Park Station Capacity and Conceptual Engineering Study , which analyzed
5658-583: The Central Subway as an above-ground light rail line or subway through North Beach, and into the Marina district, with the possibility of eventually terminating in the Presidio. Starting in 2017, the SFMTA, in collaboration with other city agencies, began its ConnectSF process to plan its vision for future transit expansions that would follow its then under construction projects such as Van Ness BRT and
5781-542: The Central Subway. The final report on transit from the ConnectSF program was released in 2021 and identified two major corridors for Muni Metro expansion: a subway line along the Geary Boulevard and 19th Avenue corridor connecting to Daly City, and the extension of the Central Subway to Fisherman's Wharf that had already undergone preliminary analysis. The Geary/19th corridor would replace earlier efforts to plan
5904-491: The Central Subway; the next firm order of 151 cars would replace all of the Breda vehicles and an option to purchase up to 85 additional cars, funding permitting, to accommodate projected ridership growth through 2040. A grant of $ 41 million from the California Transportation Agency awarded on July 2, 2015, allowed Muni to purchase 40 additional Siemens light rail vehicles. Upon awarding
6027-587: The Department budgeted $ 3 million from a 2012 parks bond, bringing available funding to $ 11 million. The next month, the city announced that it would receive $ 3.5 million in state funds for the project — enough to complete renovations of the powerhouse. The city accepted the grant in December. A groundbreaking ceremony for the $ 14 million powerhouse renovation was held in March 2018. The powerhouse restoration
6150-601: The Embarcadero–Sunnydale portion of the T Third Street on January 23, 2021. N Judah and K Ingleside light rail service resumed on May 15, 2021, with the K and T again interlined, along with S Shuttle service now converted to supplementary. At that time, some stations were converted to new wayfinding signage based on international standards, with compass directions like "westbound" replacing older "inbound"/"outbound" directions. M Ocean View light rail service resumed on August 14, 2021. The L remained served by buses due to
6273-737: The Geneva Office Building (later Friends of the Geneva Car Barn and Powerhouse) was formed with the intention of instead renovating the buildings for community use. Muni completed initial stabilization of the structures in 1999. In March 2004, control of the buildings was transferred to the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. Over the next 11 years, the department and the Friends spent $ 3.98 million on repairs, design, and other work related to
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#17327732004886396-606: The K Ingleside was cut back to City College Pedestrian Bridge . The K was returned to the loop on May 20, 2017, while the J remained on San Jose Avenue until November 18. The steel deck beams were lifted into place on July 16, 2017. The renovations were completed with the opening of the Eastside Connector on November 30, 2018. The opening of the Muni Metro East facility on the T Third Street line in 2008 reduced storage needs at Geneva Yard. The Upper Yard
6519-573: The K and M lines were through-routed to avoid the yard loop. The Geneva Yard car barns were demolished in January 1983. In 1972, Muni began planning a long-proposed extension of the J Church line along San Jose Avenue (a section of which was built along the former Ocean View Branch through the Bernal Cut) to Balboa Park. The extension was intended to provide transit service to the Outer Mission, allow J Church and N Judah trains to access
6642-616: The K track connected the J alighting area to the fare mezzanine. This allowed J and K trains to lay over separately so that irregular operations on one line would not impact the other. In 2002, BART released the Comprehensive Station Plan , which indicated a need for improved entrances and access at the station. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the Balboa Park Area Plan in May 2009, setting
6765-583: The Mission District made the ride slow. After the SP opened the faster Bayshore Cutoff in 1907, the original mainline through San Francisco was reduced to a minor freight branch (the Ocean View Branch ) with minimal passenger service. SP passenger service on the Ocean View Branch was limited to a few daily locals after 1907, and just one daily round trip after June 1919. The SP was allowed to temporarily discontinue passenger service on
6888-508: The Mission Street tunnel and reuse of the Ocean View Branch was favored, with a station at Ocean Avenue. The plan was approved by voters in 1962. Early BART plans referred to many stations by the cross street, but most stations were ultimately named for the surrounding neighborhood or city. The BART Board approved the name "Balboa Park" (after the nearby municipal park ) for the station at Ocean Avenue in December 1965. The station
7011-580: The Mississippi. From 1970 to 1984, the neighborhood was home to Scott's Pit , the first lesbian biker bar in the city. 37°46′05″N 122°25′59″W / 37.768°N 122.433°W / 37.768; -122.433 Muni Metro Muni Metro is a semi-metro system (form of light rail ) serving San Francisco , California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni),
7134-455: The Muni Metro was closed on weekends. At the end of the service day September 19, 1982, streetcar operations on the surface of Market Street were discontinued entirely, the remaining PCC cars taken out of service, and weekend service on the five light rail lines was temporarily converted to buses. Finally, on November 20, 1982, the Muni Metro subway began operating seven days a week. At the time, there were no firm plans to revive any service on
7257-686: The North. A 2006 definition by the city mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services puts the neighborhood's northern boundary further north at Waller Street (thereby including Duboce Park ), while still excluding the San Francisco Mint building near Market Street. The name Duboce originates from Victor Duboce , a lieutenant colonel of the First California Volunteer Infantry regiment in the Philippines during
7380-618: The SF&;SM bought land on the southeast corner of San Jose Avenue and Geneva Avenue to construct its main facilities. Construction began on July 14, 1900. A office building along San Jose Avenue—designed by Reid & Reid —opened on April 22, 1901, followed by an adjacent powerhouse in 1903. The SF&SM and the Market Street Railway were both absorbed into the United Railroads (URR) conglomerate in 1902. After
7503-407: The aegis of a single municipal corporation, which then began phasing out much of the streetcar network in favor of buses. However, five heavily used streetcar lines traveled for at least part of their routes through tunnels or otherwise reserved right-of-way , and thus could not be converted to bus lines. As a result, these lines, running PCC streetcars , continued in operation. Original plans for
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#17327732004887626-478: The branch in November 1928 during a construction project. This became permanent in March 1930; freight service on the line continued. The tracks were abandoned north of Ocean Avenue (up to 23rd Street) on August 10, 1942, and south of Ocean Avenue (to Daly City) after a 1956 excursion train. The Southern Freeway was constructed partially on the abandoned right-of-way in the 1960s; the section through Balboa Park
7749-428: The buildings. Additional stabilization and seismic refit of the structures was begun in 2004 and completed in 2006. The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 31, 2010, as Geneva Office Building and Power House . The city gave the Friends of the Geneva Car Barn control of the building in 2014, but reclaimed it in 2015 when the group had difficulties raising funds. In June 2017,
7872-401: The carbarn. The URR was renamed as the Market Street Railway in 1921, and purchased by the city-owned San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) in 1944. The merger and the impending end of World War II (which had limited the availability of rubber tires) prompted the conversion of many streetcar routes to bus or trolleybus. Route 26 had previously been discontinued in 1938 and soon replaced by
7995-475: The carhouses via San Jose Avenue rather than a roundabout route via the K Ingleside line, and allow future through-routing of the J and M lines. Construction on the extension began in January 1989, but was delayed by the earthquake later that year . On August 31, 1991, J and N streetcars began using the extension to access the yards, thus providing revenue J service to Balboa at limited hours. Full-time revenue service began June 19, 1993. The extension included
8118-525: The city on the lower deck, 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 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 1979–80, even though
8241-534: The city to Embarcadero Station in the heart of the Financial District . Three lines—the K Ingleside , the L Taraval , and the M Ocean View —feed into the tunnel at West Portal, while two lines, the J Church and N Judah , enter at a portal near Church Street and Duboce Avenue in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood. The N Judah enters and exits the tunnel at Embarcadero. The T Third Street
8364-528: The contract, Muni officials cited several lessons learned from the prior Breda contract, including not buying enough cars, dictating too much of the design, lax reliability requirements and a failure to account for maintenance costs. The US$ 648,000,000 (equivalent to $ 834,001,687 in 2023) contract for 175 cars (the first two phases) was signed by Mayor Ed Lee in September 2014, making the cost of each car approximately US$ 3,700,000 (equivalent to $ 4,762,047 in 2023). Muni ultimately purchased 249 vehicles:
8487-441: The difficulty in running a hybrid streetcar and light rail system, with five lines merging into one, led to scheduling problems 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 did take steps to address these problems. Newer, larger Breda cars were ordered, an extension of the system towards South Beach — where many of
8610-530: The east side of the yard adjacent to San Jose Avenue. J Church trains exit the yard there onto tracks on San Jose Avenue (with a separate stop at Ocean Avenue ), while K Ingleside trains continue around the loop and exit where they entered. A second Muni rail yard, the Cameron Beach Yard, is located south of Geneva Avenue and east of San Jose Avenue. It includes a maintenance building, a storage shelter for historic streetcars, open storage tracks, and
8733-552: The existing T Third Street line at 4th and King station . Muni estimates that the Central Subway section of the T Third Street line will carry roughly 35,100 riders per day by 2030. Originally set to open in late 2018, the subway opened with weekend-only shuttle service on November 19, 2022. Full service as part of the T Third Street line began on January 7, 2023. Additional shuttle trains signed "S Chase Center" will operate between Chinatown and UCSF/Chase Center for events at Chase Center. On March 30, 2020, Muni Metro service
8856-543: The fleet; these 30 had been rejected by MBTA after suffering numerous breakdowns. In 1982, the Boeing cars averaged only 600 miles (970 km) between breakdowns; by 1988 this had improved to 1,800 to 2,000 miles (2,900 to 3,200 km) between breakdowns. In 1998, Rudy Nothenberg, president of the Public Transportation Commission, said the Boeing cars were "impossible to maintain and [...] have many, many design flaws;" that same year, Muni
8979-410: The initial 100-car order arrived in San Francisco in 1978; Boston had been running the cars since 1976 and by 1978, MBTA was already returning 35 cars for manufacturing defects. After receipt of the first cars, MBTA forced Boeing to make 70 to 80 modifications on each car. Boeing ended up paying US$ 40,000,000 (equivalent to $ 214,175,439 in 2023) in damages to Boston. The purchase price for each car
9102-805: The introduction of the T Third Street were implemented on June 30, 2007, when the K and T trains were interlined, or effectively merged into one single line with route designations changing at the entrances into the subway (T becomes K outbound at Embarcadero; K becomes T inbound at West Portal). The Central Subway runs between Chinatown station in Chinatown and a portal in South of Market (SoMa) , with intermediate stops at Union Square/Market Street station in Union Square and Yerba Buena/Moscone station in SoMa. A surface portion runs through SoMa to connect to
9225-586: The modern site. Passenger service on the line (later the Southern Pacific Railroad Ocean View Branch) ran until about 1922. Electric streetcar service at Balboa Park began in 1892 with the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway , which built a still-standing office building designed by Reid & Reid there in 1901. The United Railroads conglomerate built its Elkton shops on an adjacent parcel in 1907. In
9348-632: The municipally-owned traditional streetcar system started on December 28, 1912, when the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) was established. The first streetcar line, the A Geary, ran from Kearny and Market Streets in the Financial District to Fulton Street and 10th Avenue in the Richmond District . The system slowly expanded, opening the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1917, allowing streetcars to run to
9471-404: The need to transfer at West Portal and Church stations. In November 2020, the SFMTA that announced some rail lines such as the N Judah and T Third would likely return in early 2021, followed by a gradual return to full operation. Kirschbaum said the agency was reconsidering its approach to maintenance after the botched attempt to reopen in August, and that it might take 5 to 8 years to fully address
9594-578: The new cars had a mean distance between failures (MDBF) of 3,300 mi (5,300 km) shortly after being delivered; by August 2019, the MDBF had improved to 8,000 mi (13,000 km). Siemens publicly unveiled a full-size mockup of the S200 SF in San Francisco on June 16, 2015. The first car was delivered from the Siemens plant in Sacramento to San Francisco on January 13, 2017. A test car passed
9717-482: The new dot-coms were headquartered — was built, and the underground section was switched to Automatic Train Operation (ATO). The Breda cars, however, came in noisy, overweight, oversized, under-braked, and over-budget (their price grew from US$ 2.2 million per car to nearly US$ 3 million over the course of their production). In fact, the new trains were so heavy (10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) more than
9840-446: The north side of Geneva Avenue, leads to a below-street-level fare control area in a mezzanine over the middle of the BART platform. Additional entrances from the south side of Geneva Avenue (via an underpass) and from San Jose Avenue at Geneva Avenue (the Muni entrance) also lead to the fare control area. From the two paid areas in the mezzanine, stairs and escalators connect to the platform. An accessible ramp from Ocean Avenue runs along
9963-416: The north, and Geneva Avenue to the south. The SP line was used to deliver materials to the yard. On September 16, 1909, the SF&SM yard was renamed Geneva Yard. The powerhouse, damaged in the earthquake, was rebuilt in 1910. In 1917, during a violent strike of URR operators, strike-brakers were temporarily housed in the office building. A wooden staircase was constructed from the second floor directly to
10086-410: The older Twin Peaks Tunnel and the newer Market Street subway, both controlled by automatic train operation systems to run trains with the operators closing the door to allow the train to pull out of a station. This ATO system was upgraded in 2015 to replace outdated software and relays . The tunnels, 5.5 miles (8.9 km) in total length, run from West Portal Station in the southwestern part of
10209-424: The open BART platform with improved connections between Muni and BART. In September 2016, Muni began construction of its section of the project—a longer high-level deboarding platform to replace the mini-high platform on the west side of the yard. This work was coordinated with rail replacement in the yard and widening the pedestrian walkway to San Jose Avenue. The J Church line was rerouted onto San Jose Avenue, while
10332-406: The option of 15 additional cars was exercised on a contract worth US$ 42,300,000 (equivalent to $ 77,366,920 in 2023), making the last batch of 15 cars US$ 2,600,000 (equivalent to $ 4,755,414 in 2023) each. By 2011, the fleet of Breda LRVs was only able to manage a mean distance between failures (MDBF) of 617 mi (993 km). With the Breda cars growing increasingly unreliable and
10455-407: The other at Balboa Park. A 2016 update to the plan called for the J Church to continue on San Jose Avenue at Balboa Park and take over existing M service as far as San Francisco State University station . In March 2018, BART released preliminary plans for the next round of modifications to the station. The project would include modern headhouses on both sides of Geneva Avenue, an elevator connecting
10578-525: The other seven— Castro Street , Church Street , Van Ness , Civic Center , Powell Street , Montgomery Street and Embarcadero—were opened in 1980 as part of the Market Street subway. Four stations, Civic Center, Powell Street, Montgomery Street, and Embarcadero, are shared with Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), with Muni Metro on the upper level and BART on the lower one. Above ground, there are twenty-four surface platform stations. Two stations, Stonestown and San Francisco State University , are located at
10701-471: The pantograph locked down), and weighs 78,770 pounds (35,730 kg), making it comparable in size and weight to the existing Breda cars. The expected maximum capacity is 203 passengers per car. They are expected to have the same coupling device as the Breda cars; however, the new Siemens trains can couple up to five cars at a time. The new S200 SF vehicles are projected to be able to run 59,000 miles (95,000 km) between maintenance intervals. Initially,
10824-521: The platform area. Faregates closest to an unmanned Muni staff booth open automatically if a passenger has a valid pass or transfer that cannot be scanned. Muni's fare inspectors may board trains at any time to check for proof of payment from passengers. All cars are also equipped with Clipper card readers near each entrance, which riders may use to tag their cards to pay their fare. The cards themselves are then used as proof of payment; fare inspectors carry handheld card readers that can verify that payment
10947-551: The platform level, and the interplay of light and shadow among the geometric forms of the mezzanine. As Muni began transitioning from aging PCC streetcars to the Boeing USLRV in the 1970s, Elkton shops and the old car barn in Geneva Yard (which had been Muni's only rail yard since 1956) required modernization. Elkton Shops was closed on May 30, 1977, and replaced with a new facility. This Metro Rail Center included
11070-469: The portals in time to combine into longer trains. 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 criticism had been something of a feature of life in San Francisco, and not without reason. The Boeing trains were sub-par and grew crowded quickly. And
11193-461: The privately owned Market Street Railway , were converted to buses in the 1920s to 1950s, but these five lines were retained as streetcars because of their private rights of way. The system was converted to light rail, with larger US Standard Light Rail Vehicles , in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This included the opening of the Market Street subway as well as an extension of three lines to Balboa Park station . An extension along The Embarcadero to
11316-406: The south and west of the city, passengers must board at the front of the train and pay their fare to the train operator to receive their ticket; those who already have a ticket, or who have a daily, weekly, or monthly pass, can board at any door of the Metro streetcar. Subway stations have controlled entries via faregates , and passengers usually purchase or show Muni staff a ticket in order to enter
11439-417: The south end. Muni J Church and K Ingleside trains loop around the outer edge of the yard. Trains enter from Ocean Avenue and drop off passengers at a high-level platform (which is connected to the BART fare mezzanine and the path top San Jose Avenue with a ramp) on the west side of the yard. They lay over on a pair of tracks on the south side of the yard, then pick up passengers at a high-level platform on
11562-720: The south side of Geneva Avenue to the pedestrian underpass and the platform, an elevator connecting the north side of Geneva Avenue to the Muni platform level and fare mezzanine, platform canopies and seating, and new interior finishes and public art. In 2022, the SFMTA begin planning the M Ocean View Transit and Safety Project , a MuniForward project intended to improve reliability of the segment between Junipero Serra Boulevard and Balboa Park station. Initial proposals released that September did not call for substantial changes at Balboa Park. A series of revised proposals were released in May 2023, August 2023, November 2023, and January 2024, all with changes at Balboa Park. The final proposal
11685-430: The south, and San Jose Avenue to the east. The BART platform—a 700-foot-long (210 m) island platform —is located below grade on the west side of the complex. It stretches from Ocean Avenue to slightly south of Geneva Avenue. The northern third of the platform, plus a small section at the southern end, is in an open trench; the remainder is under Geneva Avenue and the headhouse structure. The main entrance, located on
11808-565: The southern edge of the city, opened as part of the Third Street Light Rail Project . Limited weekend T line service began on January 13, 2007, while full service began on April 7, 2007. The line initially ran from the southern terminus at Bayshore Boulevard and Sunnydale Street to Castro Street Station in the north. The line ran into initial problems with breakdowns, bottlenecks, and power failures, creating massive delays. Service changes to address complaints with
11931-533: The southwestern part of the city, while the rest are located on the eastern side of the city, where the system underwent recent expansion as part of the Embarcadero extension and the Third Street Light Rail Project . However, many of the stops on the system are surface stops consisting of anything from a traffic island to a yellow-banded "Car Stop" sign painted on a utility pole. All subway and surface stations are accessible to people with disabilities. Because
12054-409: The southwestern quadrant of the city. By 1921, the city was operating 304 miles (489 km) of electric trolley lines and 25 miles (40 km) of cable car lines. The last line to start service before 2007 was the N Judah , which started service after the Sunset Tunnel opened in 1928. In the 1940s and 1950s, as in many North American cities, public transit in San Francisco was consolidated under
12177-507: The stage for a number of transit and pedestrian improvements to the station complex. Three projects – the Westside Walkway, the Eastside Connector, and new Muni boarding and alighting platforms – were prioritized and funded. As constructed, the BART station only had direct access from Geneva Avenue; a non-accessible pathway on the west side of the station was the only official route from Ocean Avenue, though many passengers took
12300-490: The subway was served only on weekdays until 1982. The K Ingleside line began using the entire Metro subway on weekdays on June 11, 1980, the L Taraval and M Ocean View lines on December 17, 1980, and lastly the J Church line on June 17, 1981. Meanwhile, weekend service on all five lines (J, K, L, M, N) continued to use PCC cars operating on the surface of Market Street through to the Transbay Terminal , and
12423-534: The surface branches, eastbound trains were combined at West Portal and Duboce Portal, and westbound trains split at those locations. Two-car N Judah trains and one-car J Church trains (each 10TPH) combined at the Duboce Portal, while two-car L Taraval trains (10TPH) alternately combined with two-car M Ocean View and K Ingleside (each 5 TPH) trains at West Portal to form four-car trains. However, this provided suboptimal service; many inbound trains did not arrive at
12546-461: The surface of Market Street or return PCCs to regular running. However, tracks were rehabilitated for the 1983 Historic Trolley Festival , and the inauguration of the F line , served by heritage streetcars , followed in 1995. By the late 1980s, Muni scheduled 20 trains per hour (TPH) through the Market Street subway at peak periods, with all trains using the crossover west of Embarcadero station to reverse direction. To allow for high frequencies on
12669-579: The surrounding residential neighborhoods. Original plans called for a bus parking deck over the platform, but a late decision to omit it (Woods Division in the Dogpatch neighborhood was built instead) allowed for the north and south ends of the platform to be in open air. The walls of the platform area are covered with linear precast concrete forms, with five patterns repeated eightfold to generate "an apparently infinite variety". Other elements praised by architectural critics included overhead power conduits on
12792-433: The system expanding with the construction of the Central Subway , Muni requested bids for a new generation of light rail vehicles. Muni prequalified CAF , Kawasaki and Siemens to bid on the request while Breda was disqualified based on a ranking of potential bidders. The contract was awarded to Siemens for the purchase of up to 260 cars to be delivered in three phases: the initial firm order of 24 cars would accommodate
12915-609: The system uses high-floor vehicles, while operating as a streetcar, the vehicles are not accessible to people with disabilities that impact their mobility. A select number of stops, typically located near major intersections, are equipped with ramps or lifts , for people with disabilities. Muni Metro has two rail yards for storage and maintenance: Notes Muni Metro first operated Boeing Vertol -made US Standard Light Rail Vehicles (USSLRV), which were built for Muni Metro and Boston 's MBTA . Boeing had no experience in making LRVs, and has not made another since. The first cars of
13038-534: The system's vulnerabilities. Among the most urgent issues was replacing the track ballast in the Twin Peaks Tunnel , which was meant to be replaced during a maintenance project in 2018 but was instead reused at that time. City supervisors harshly criticized the mistake, which SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin blamed on a "culture of fear" he was working to correct since becoming the agency's leader in 2019. The surface-only (from Market Street to Balboa Park) J Church route resumed service on December 19, 2020, followed by
13161-408: The tunnel was completed in 1978. The K and M lines were extended to Balboa Park during this time, providing further connections to BART. (The J line also saw an extension there in 1991, which provided yet another BART connection at Glen Park .) On February 18, 1980, the Muni Metro was officially inaugurated, with weekday N line service in the subway. The Metro service was implemented in phases, and
13284-484: The west side of the station to a secondary fare control area at the north end of the north paid area. An elevator on the north side of Geneva Avenue connects to the south paid area and the platform. A Muni Metro rail yard , the Curtis E. Green Light Rail Center, takes up the rest of the block. The east half is occupied by a maintenance building and the west half by open storage tracks, with an administrative building at
13407-434: The west side of the yard loop, north of the main alighting area.) However, although some weekday J and M service was through-routed from 1995 to 1998, full through-routing was never implemented. Instead, J trains shared the revenue loop around Green Yard with K trains, using the same boarding and alighting areas. J trains were diverted onto an inner track between the accessible platform and the boarding area; an underpass under
13530-488: Was US$ 333,000 (equivalent to $ 1,555,586 in 2023). The federal government offered to provide 80% of the funds for design and production of the USSLRV in exchange for a commitment to keep the cars in service for at least 25 years, but the cars, as-delivered, were prone to jammed doors, defective brakes and motors, leaky roofs, mechanical breakdowns, and were involved in several accidents. Muni Metro added 30 more cars to
13653-553: Was a spectacular service crisis, widely referred to as the "Muni meltdown", in the summer of 1998. During this period, two reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle —one riding in the Muni Metro tunnel and one on foot on the surface—held a race through downtown, with the walking reporter emerging the winner. After initial problems with the ATC were fixed, substantial upgrades to the entire Muni transit systems have gone
13776-586: Was approved by the SFMTA Board in February 2024, with construction expected to begin in 2026. The inbound boarding island to be rebuilt and lengthened near its current location, with an accessible mini-high platform added at the south end; pedestrian access will be via a crosswalk from the west sidewalk. A new outbound transit island will be added on the south side of Niagara Avenue, with a mini-high platform north of Niagara. The office building at Geneva Yard
13899-480: Was closed, and the main yard increasingly dedicated to Muni's historic streetcar fleet . On December 2, 2010, Muni and the Market Street Railway nonprofit organization opened a 6-track shelter at the yard to house 24 historic streetcars. The $ 10.1 million structure forms the primary storage and maintenance area for the historic fleet. On October 25, 2011, the yard was renamed Cameron Beach Yard after
14022-447: Was completed in 1964. As part of the highway, pedestrian ramps were built at Ocean Avenue to allow passengers on highway express buses to transfer to local transit. Electric streetcar service began with the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway (SF&SM) on San Jose Avenue on April 27, 1892. It was followed in December 1895 by a Market Street Railway spur on Ocean Avenue, branching off their Mission Street line. In 1900,
14145-470: Was cut back to Phelan Loop on October 10, 1952; however, Geneva Yard was retained as the yard for the remaining streetcar system. The southern portion of the Elkton lot, as well as the parcel across Geneva Avenue to the south, were used for bus storage. Even before the Ocean View Branch was abandoned, several proposals for rapid transit aimed to use the Ocean View Branch route (usually in conjunction with
14268-515: Was designated a San Francisco Landmark by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1985. After being damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake , the office building and powerhouse were red-tagged and abandoned. In 1998, Muni planned to demolish the structures to create a parking lot; the agency dropped the plans the next year due to community opposition and the intervention of mayor Willie Brown . The nonprofit group Friends of
14391-496: Was made. In subway stations, riders instead tag their cards on the faregates to gain access to the platforms. Balboa Park station Balboa Park station is a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station and Muni Metro complex in the Mission Terrace neighborhood of San Francisco, California , located near the eponymous Balboa Park . It is an intermodal hub served by four BART routes, three Muni Metro lines, and
14514-468: Was named the Curtis E. Green Light Rail Center in 1987. Green had become after Muni's general manager in 1974 – the first African-American to lead a major transit system in the US – and retired in 1982. A second Muni Metro line, the M Ocean View , was extended to the station complex on August 30, 1980; it usually looped around Green Yard, but used the Geneva Yard loop at times. For some time beginning in 1982,
14637-505: Was only able to supply 66–72 working cars for rush-hour service instead of the required 99 cars, resulting in system delays. Despite the shortcomings of the USSLRV design, these cars constituted the entire light rail fleet until 1996, when new Breda -manufactured cars were put into service, replacing Boeing cars as they were accepted for service. By 1998, the 136-car Muni Metro fleet consisted of 57 Boeing Vertol cars and 79 Breda cars. Two Boeing cars were preserved for potential donation to
14760-430: Was opened on April 15, 2011. In September 2014, Muni began construction of an accessible 1-car-length high-level platform on the east side of the yard, adjacent to San Jose Avenue, to allow level boarding for all inbound J and K riders. This platform replaced a narrow, non-accessible boarding area on the south end of the yard loop. The J and K lines were rerouted onto San Jose Avenue during construction. The new platform
14883-416: Was opened on April 27, 2015, with both lines immediately rerouted back to the loop around the yard. The K stop at the northeast corner of the yard was permanently closed on April 25. Red-painted bus lanes were added on westbound Geneva Avenue between Delano Avenue and I-280 in March 2016. On May 31, 2016, BART began construction of the Eastside Connector project, a northward expansion of the headhouse over
15006-546: Was replaced with buses due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The SFMTA reopened rail service on August 22, 2020, but returned to bus substitution three days later, citing malfunctioning overhead wire splices and the need to quarantine control center staff after a COVID-19 case. During this brief time, routes were reconfigured to improve reliability in the subway: Advocates with local nonprofit Senior and Disability Action criticized this route configuration, expressing concern over
15129-485: Was sandwiched between I-280 and Elkton shops, a sliver of which was taken for construction. Construction of the station was 60% complete by mid-1970, with work expected to be finished the next year. The San Francisco portion of BART, including Balboa Park station, opened on November 5, 1973. Rather than having a single architecture firm design every station, BART had a number of architects (mostly local) design one or several stations each "so that each station will achieve
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