Muni Bounds Back in September, Hitting Post-Pandemic Ridership Record

Have some place to be in San Francisco? Muni can get you there.

Muni hit a post-pandemic milestone last month, with 555,000 average daily weekday rides, as people flocked to public transit to head to work, school and special events. In all, riders took 15 million Muni trips in September, which translates into 84% of the system’s pre-pandemic ridership.

But the story behind the topline number reveals how San Franciscans and visitors rely on Muni. It’s a tale of growth almost across the board, driven in part by our relentless focus on customers and on service that is critical to the city. All of this is encouraging as we face the worst financial crisis in our agency’s history. 

More and more people are hopping on board our buses, trains, streetcars and cable cars as the city continues to recover from COVID. 

Your weekday routine on Muni

Let’s start with weekday ridership. We recorded more than half a million daily Muni boardings on weekdays. Downtown rail use rose 14% from last year, due, in part to more workers returning to the office. Systemwide rail ridership hit 131,000 average weekday trips.

Rail ridership was up 11%, or about 12,000 more daily boardings than in 2025. All our rail lines reported higher boardings than last year. Here’s how each line stacked up:

•    The J Church was up 5%.
•    The N Judah was up 6%. 
•    The M Ocean View was up 8%. 
•    The L Taraval was up 11%. 
•    The K Ingleside was up 12%.

But the ridership growth trophy goes to the T Third. Ridership on the T line surged 20% from September 2025, driven in part by special events, including the Chinatown Autumn Moon Festival and the Portola festival. Riders turned to the T Third to go to baseball games at Oracle Park and to catch the Golden State Valkyries in their playoff run at Chase Center.

T Third ridership on September Saturdays was up 16% from other Saturdays, while Sunday ridership was 55% higher than a typical Sunday. We’ve improved service on the T Third, as well. Signal timing adjustments have shaved up to seven minutes off the line’s run.

Let us do the driving to Chase Center the next time you take in a game or concert.

Weekends were made for transit

It’s not just the T Third that has seen remarkable weekend ridership. In fact, there were 373,000 average daily weekend boardings across the system in September. That’s 99% of our pre-pandemic system ridership. Weekend ridership recovery has led weekday recovery since the pandemic’s ebb, as more people returned to Muni to get around the city.

It’s not just ridership, however. We measure our success in several ways. “Headway adherence,” the term we use to describe Muni’s reliability, held steady at 85%. That tells us we are getting to our passengers on time. Our most reliable routes include the 28R 19th Avenue, the 38R Geary and the L Taraval.

And the Market Street subway is less delay-prone these days. Moderate delays of 10-20 minutes are down 69%, and long delays of more than 20 minutes are down 63%.

These are a lot of numbers and data points to throw at you, but the upshot is Muni continues its steady climb back from the depths of the pandemic. The data shows how critical the system is to the city. And with more than half a million rides on weekdays, it's clear that thousands of you agree.