Asides, Muni / SFMTA, San Francisco, Service Updates

Full Muni Metro Service To Be Restored On March 24

Posted by Eric ⋅ 21 March 2008 ⋅ 9 Comments

Full Muni Metro service to be restored on March 24. Regular Muni Metro riders have no doubt already noticed the prominent signs that have been posted in subway stations, but for those who ride the system less frequently: after two long years, the Metro improvement project is finally coming to a close. Full subway service on the K, L, M, and T lines will be restored to the usual 1:00 am time, and all bus substitution bridges will be discontinued. The first day of full service is Monday, March 24.
[Municipal Transportation Agency]

Discussion

9 thoughts on “Full Muni Metro Service To Be Restored On March 24”

Run the Metro 24 hours a day like any modern city.

Posted by Seven | 21 March 2008, 4:12 pm
Most modern cities don’t run metros 24 hours a day…

Posted by fs77 | 22 March 2008, 11:53 am
The Subway in New York runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. What’s San Francisco’s excuse?

Posted by Surf | 23 March 2008, 6:25 am
Not to say I wouldn’t be thrilled with 24-hour rail service, but it’s not happening any time soon. Muni Metro is not a true subway system in any case, since it’s basically built on the relic of an old streetcar network. When there’s little traffic at nighttime, the owl bus doesn’t really do too badly on the surface of Market Street. Arguably, the Twin Peaks Tunnel is nice, in order to skip over the hilly section of the L-Owl route, but passengers can request stops over the hills, so you’re basically scraping together some extra nighttime service there.

BART’s excuse for not running 24 hours is lack of track, and the night hours are needed for maintenance. So BART doesn’t have the long list of weekend service changes every week that the NYC subway has, but then again, no 24 hour service either. I’m not entirely convinced that the track restrictions prevent BART from running even a couple hours longer, or from offering a meager hourly nighttime skeleton service. But when BART has been operated throughout the night (e.g. after the earthquake, or recently, when the Bay Bridge has been shut down for seismic retrofits), it still hasn’t been extremely popular, though arguably it might get more popular if people began to rely on it. Lack of demand is a big hurdle.

SF isn’t nearly the 24-hour city that NYC is. Really, the vast majority of the city shuts down around 9 or 10 pm along with most of the Bay Area, with only a few select areas showing significant activity past then. So, not to say I wouldn’t like to have 24-hour trains, but there are many reasons stacked up against it.

As to Seven’s first comment about all modern cities having 24-hour subway service: that’s actually far from true. Around-the-clock service is something that many subway systems contemplate, but ultimately strike down. In London, the Tube runs on a similar schedule to BART due to similar track limitations, with final runs shortly after midnight. In Paris, the Metro is a bit better, usually running till about 1 am on weekdays, and till about 2 am on weekends. Berlin does have substantial all-night service; Chicago has 24-hour rail service, but only on its Red and Blue lines. NYC is lucky to have such extensive 24-hour subway service, but it’s more the exception than the rule.

Posted by Eric | 23 March 2008, 8:35 am
To add to what others have said – I’ve ridden Metros in dozens of major cities in the world, and NYC is one of the ONLY major cities to run 24 hours on most lines. Most major cities have FAR worse 24 hour transit service than San Francisco, believe it or not. Try getting home in Barcelona or Paris at 3am – you pretty much have to take a taxi.

Posted by Chris | 23 March 2008, 4:47 pm
Life would be better if BART went just one hour later. Even if it just did the core stops (SF/Oakland/Berkeley) with bus transfers timed at the endpoints, it would be nice to be able to leave SF a bit later and not have to try to figure out where the late night transbay busses are.

Posted by MikeD | 24 March 2008, 11:50 am
Much of the NYC is four-tracked so the express trains can pass up the local trains, which I’m guessing is how they route the overnight service around sections that need to be worked on?

Something which I’ve never heard if BART has considered is extending service by an hour or two, but only doing so on Fridays and Saturdays to accommodate the late night weekend crowds. Has this ever been considered?

We aren’t a 24 hour city, but we also don’t all go to bed by midnight on the weekend and I suspect a ridership would build up as people learned they could rely on BART to get them home on any given weekend after midnight. Perhaps it could even get some drunk drivers off the road.

Just the extra half hour Muni Metro runs at night until 12:30-ish has meant the difference between taking Muni and having to walk after concerts and shows for me.

Posted by Jamison | 26 March 2008, 11:51 am
Bars in California close at 2am, so the Muni Metro should run until at *least* 2:30 so people can get home without driving. Yes, NYC has the greatest subway in the world, with 24 hour service, and it’s the only system in the world with four track express service.

Posted by Surf | 29 March 2008, 8:06 pm
P.S. Chris, the NYC Subway has 24 hour service on ALL lines. I know, I live in NYC (moved to NYC from L.A., but love SF, and plan on settling in SF when I return to California from NYC. Been in NYC For almost nine years now.)

Posted by Surf | 29 March 2008, 8:11 pm