Muni Metro Capacity Study

Muni Metro is one of only a handful of “legacy” systems in the country, meaning much of the system’s origins date back over a hundred years to the first era of urban streetcars. In the 1970s, when BART was constructed, Muni’s streetcar lines began running in the Market Street subway, and Muni Metro was born. San Francisco has changed dramatically since then and will certainly continue to change over future decades.

San Francisco’s ConnectSF Transit Strategy identified a need to modernize Muni Metro to serve future needs. To that end, the SFMTA formed the Muni Metro Modernization Program, which seeks to address and coordinate multiple Muni Metro improvements.

Some improvements are clearly defined, while others still need to be developed through the Muni Metro Capacity Study.

In 2023, the city approved a Housing Plan to add over 82,000 units of housing for 150,000 people by 2031. Though some of this growth may take longer to realize, we need to be prepared with a vision to accommodate this growth to help the city meet its housing affordability, climate, and equity goals and continue to provide fast, frequent, reliable Muni Metro service.

It is equally important to put forward a clear assessment of the challenges and tradeoffs to any potential changes to Muni Metro, so that these can be carefully considered and addressed in future projects the SFMTA may decide to pursue based on the findings of the Muni Metro Capacity Study.

Opportunity for Critical Funding

The Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant provides an opportunity to obtain as much as $1 billion to fund investments that will help reduce crowding and pass ups on Muni Metro.

This grant is also an opportunity to address SFMTA's State of Good Repair (SOGR) backlog by funding SOGR investments that can improve capacity, such as replacing a traction power substation that can only power two-car trains and is at the end of its useful life with a new one that can power longer three-car trains.

Ideas Under Consideration in the Study

The Muni Metro Capacity Study is exploring the following ideas and may recommend implementing some of these strategies over the next several decades:

• Longer trains: Longer, three car trains where feasible, would expand capacity to prevent overcrowding and pass-ups, but may require lengthening station platforms, consolidating some stops, and/or closing some intersections.

• Transit signal priority and preemption: Improving signal timing to give Muni Metro more green lights would keep transit moving quickly and reliably, but people walking, biking and driving may have to wait a bit longer while trains pass. Transit signal pre-emption could also include using crossing gates to physically stop cars from crossing the tracks when it is Muni Metro’s turn to go.

   

• Additional transit lanes for on-street Muni Metro and other transit priority improvements: This would help prevent trains from getting stuck in traffic but would require removing some general travel lanes or on-street parking. Other improvements to help trains move faster and easier include adding traffic lights with signal priority to places where there aren’t any right now and consolidating closely spaced stops.

• Modern accessible stations: These are Muni Metro stops that are easier for everyone to use, especially people who might have trouble with stairs, like people with wheelchairs, walkers or strollers. But it would require building new boarding islands that could mean removing some general travel lanes or on-street parking.

  A related idea we’re exploring in the Study is to use new trains with lower floors than our current trains. Low floor vehicle floors are 14 inches off the ground whereas our current train floors are 36 inches off the ground. Using low floor trains would mean modern accessible stops could be built lower to the ground. However, subway platforms would have to be lowered as well, which is costly and would disrupt service during construction, or low floor trains would have to run on-street only.

The Study also explores an additional operational strategy that could be useful in the future to boost other capacity strategies:

• Service restructuring: This strategy involves changing one or more lines by combining all or parts of lines, shortening lines, or removing lines from the Market Street subway. Some forms of service restructuring would improve capacity by allowing space in the subway to be used for longer, three-car trains. This would help prevent potential future crowding, but some riders may need to transfer, and transfers would need to be improved to be reliable, accessible and safe.

  Service restructuring is largely an operational strategy that could be useful in the future to boost other capacity strategies. The Study looks at the impact of combining service restructuring with other strategies, but that doesn’t mean we have to pursue service restructuring. We can keep exploring this strategy as we monitor ridership increases and consult more with the community before we take action.

After the Study is complete, individual proposals identified through this effort would undergo broader public engagement efforts prior to bringing them forward for approval by the SFMTA Board.

Study Timeline

Late 2023 – early 2025: Study capacity options in consultation with technical experts and public representatives.

Early 2025 – mid 2025: Draft Study recommendations and conduct outreach to share findings with the broader public and gather feedback to refine the recommendations.

Mid-2025: Finalize the Study recommendations, document in a final report, and present to the SFMTA Board of Directors.

Public Outreach and Engagement in the Study

Public input is an important aspect of the Muni Metro Capacity Study. The Study will incorporate public feedback into the Study’s recommendations. The Study report will include a summary of feedback received and how it has been used to shape the final recommendations, along with suggestions for how to possibly address key challenges and tradeoffs identified through outreach.

There are several ways the public can provide feedback on the Study.

• Any member of the public can email us with questions, comments, ideas and concerns.
• 2023-2025: An informal Community Working Group representing a broad cross-section of Muni Metro stakeholders meets every few months to discuss and consider the strategies and tradeoffs we are exploring in the Study, and how best to balance these to develop a future vision for Muni Metro. Read more about the Community Working Group.
• 2024: Multilingual focus groups representing a wide range of Muni Metro rider demographics were convened to solicit feedback on strategies under study. All focus groups included people who ride each Muni Metro line, and people of different ages, abilities, income and education levels.
• 2025: At-large public outreach to share and seek feedback on our draft recommendations.