San Francisco Municipal Railway

San Francisco Municipal Railway
File:Sfmuni logo.png
Overview
Locale	San Francisco, California
Transit type	Bus, trolleybus, light rail, streetcar, cable cars
Number of lines	80
Daily ridership	737,287 (2002)
Operation
Began operation	1912
Operator(s)	San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

The San Francisco Municipal Railway, or Muni as it is commonly known, is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2000, it served Template:Unit square mile with an operating budget of about $700 million. In terms of ridership, Muni is the 7th largest transit agency in the United States. In 2002, ridership amongst all forms of transit totaled 233,015,740 persons, with markedly decreased ridership on weekends.

Muni is an integral part of public transit throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, operating 365 days a year and connecting with regional services such as BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and AC Transit. Many weekday riders are commuters, as the daytime weekday population in San Francisco exceeds its normal residential population. Muni shares some stations with BART, which can lead to confusion amongst visitors. Travelers can connect to San Francisco International Airport and nearby Oakland International Airport via BART.

The Muni network consists of the following lines:

• 54 bus lines (several using articulated buses);
• 17 trolley bus lines (several using articulated buses)
• 6 light rail lines. These lines, collectively known as Muni Metro, run articulated light rail vehicles. The lines include underground, grade-separated, and street-running portions
• 3 cable car lines; see article San Francisco cable car system
• 1 heritage streetcar line known as the F Market

Selected routes and/or alternate routes operate 24 hours a day; during the overnight hours (between 1:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.), most parts of the city are connected by Owl buses that usually operate with 30 minute headways. Muni routes operate on a schedule, and the frequency of service varies at various times of day. Trip planning has been made easier by the implementation of GPS monitoring for some routes through NextBus, allowing more informed ETAs.

Muni offers more frequent service than most other public transit agencies in the United States. Most bus lines are scheduled to operate at 5 to 15 minute headways during peak hours, every 5 to 20 minutes mid-days, and about every 10 to 20 minutes from 9 p.m. to midnight. On weekends most Muni bus lines run every 10 to 20 minutes. However, there have been complaints of unreliability, especially on less-often-served lines and older (pre-battery backup) trolleybus lines. A February 20, 2007, article in the San Francisco Chronicle noted that Muni was not able to meet its modest goal of 75%, voter demanded, on-time service.^{[citation needed]}

All Muni lines run roughly inside San Francisco city limits, with the exception of the 76-line to the Marin Headlands area on Sundays and Holidays, which is a popular hiking and biking destination, the 14-Mission, which runs on Mission Street 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the 28-19th Avenue, 28L-19th Avenue Limited, and the 54-Felton, which run to the Daly City BART station daily. Most intercity connections are provided by BART and Caltrain heavy rail, AC Transit buses at the Transbay Terminal and Golden Gate Transit and SamTrans downtown.

Bus and car stops throughout the city vary from Metro car stations with raised platforms in the subway and at the more heavily used surface stops, to small shelters, to simple signs, to nothing more than a yellow stripe across the tracks, on a utility pole, or on the roadway.

As of September 2005, fares are $1.50 for adults and $0.50 for seniors over 65, youth aged 5-17, and disabled persons. Fares were increased in 2003 in the face of municipal and state budget cuts, and again in 2005. Proof-of-payment (POP) is handled through a transfer slip, either a piece of newsprint-like paper, torn to indicate expiration time (buses and streetcar) or machine-printed on thicker tag stock at subway stations and a few outdoor stops such as San Francisco State University, any of which can be checked by fare inspectors. Frequent riders can get a monthly pass for $45 for adults ("Fast Pass"), $35 for low income residents ^[1], or $10 for youth and seniors. Persons with disabilities who have obtained a Regional Transit Connection discount card may purchase a $10 disabled monthly sticker. Fast Passes are valid on all Muni lines, including cable cars, as well as on BART rides entirely inside San Francisco (between Embarcadero and Balboa Park). Other passes and stickers are valid on all Muni lines, including cable cars, but not on BART (with the exception of BART-Plus^[2] ticket types).

Cable car fare is $5 per trip, with no transfers issued or accepted. "Passports" are folding scratch-off passes that can be purchased by mail, or at various places throughout the city; they are good on all regular-service lines without surcharge, including cable cars, and cost $11 for a 1-day pass, $18 for a 3-day pass, or $24 for a 7-day pass.

Special round-trip fares are set for buses going to Monster Park during football games. They are $7 for adults, $5 for children and seniors, and $3 for anyone with a pass. Riders are given a special pass once they pay the fare, which they can then use on the return-trip from the park.^[3] These fares also increased on September 1, 2005.

Most Fast Passes can be purchased through Muni's official website. They can also be purchased at select locations throughout San Francisco including most Safeway grocery store locations.

Muni operates 16 express lines, 4 lines limited service (semi-express) lines, and 12 Owl lines. During sporting events, additional lines go to Monster Park.

Most of the express lines only run during peak hours; during mornings they run towards Downtown and during the evening they run away from Downtown. All express lines have an "X", "AX", or "BX" following the line's number. Longer lines are divided into A and B Expresses. The B Express line is shorter and has stops that are closer to Downtown, while the A Express makes stops further away from Downtown and will make few or no stops in the area where the B Express stops.

The 14, 28, 38 and 71 lines all have buses providing limited service along their routes. They make fewer stops than the standard line in order to provide for faster travel, but stops are interspersed at greater intervals along the entire line (as opposed to the expresses, which make frequent local stops near the origin and destination, but not in the middle). Some of them run all day long and on weekends, unlike express buses. All limited buses have an "L" following the line's number.

Owl service runs from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. There is Owl service along the 5, 14, 22, 24, 38 and 108 lines, and as bus service along the L and N rail lines, along with a few trips along the K and M rail lines. Two additional lines which combine several daytime lines, the 90 and 91, only operate during Owl hours.

During football games, the special routes 9X, 28X, 47X, and 86 run to Monster Park. Note that these routes are not standard express routes and that the 9X that runs during football games is not the same as the normal 9X route. The 9X, 28X, and 47X follow roughly the same routes as the 9, 28, and 47, respectively, and then continue towards Monster Park. The 86 is a shuttle service that only runs between San Bruno Avenue and the park.

Muni operates about 1,000 vehicles: diesel, electric, and hybrid electric transit buses, light rail vehicles known as Muni Metro streetcars that run both under and above ground, PCC streetcars running on the F Market heritage line, and the San Francisco cable car system which is a tourist icon for the city. Many buses are diesel powered, but more than 300 are zero-emissions trolleybuses powered by overhead electrical wires. The electricity to run all of Muni's trolleybuses and streetcars comes from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park.

In 2006, Muni purchased 86 hybrid electric transit buses from Orion Bus Industries that are diesel fueled but feature very low emissions and 35% reduced fuel consumption due to their regenerative electrical braking.

All Muni lines except for Cable Cars and the 41 Union are wheelchair accessible( ). Nearly all bus lines have bicycle racks, but streetcars, Muni Metro lines, and Cable Cars do not.

The longest Muni line is the 24.1 mile 91-owl, a nighttime only route that blends several other routes together, and during the day the longest route is the 17.4 mile 29 Sunset. The shortest route is the 89 Laguna Honda at .6 miles. The steepest grade climbed by Muni vehicle is 23.1% by a diesel bus on the 67 line, 22.8% by a trolleybus on the 24 line, and 21% by a cable car on the Powell-Hyde line.

The busiest Muni bus line is the 38-Geary, which travels 6.5 miles in the east-west direction along the Geary corridor, and has an average speed of only 8 mph.^[4] Door-to-door, it takes over 50 minutes to traverse the 6.5 mile distance from the originating terminal (in the Richmond District) to the destination terminal (Transbay Transit Terminal).^[5]

Two interesting intersections of note: Powell and Market Streets and California and Market Streets. At these two points, three types of rail gauges come within a few hundred feet of each other: Bay Area Rapid Transit's 5 feet, 6 inch (1.676 m) broad gauge (which is underground in the lower tunnels), Muni Metro's standard gauge (also underground in the upper tunnels), and the San Francisco cable car system's (narrow gauge, Template:3ft6in) (at street level a few hundred feet away to the north of Market Street in both cases). The F Market heritage railway is also present here, at street level on Market Street. The rail lines, however, do not physically intersect.

The F Market and Wharves line uses the same standard gauge as the Muni Metro, and in fact uses the J Church line to travel between its regular route and the storage facility.

Since the passage of Proposition E in November 1999, Muni has been part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA), a semi-independent city agency created by that ballot measure. The agency, which includes the Department of Parking and Traffic and the Parking Authority, is governed by a seven-member Board of Directors appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Board of Supervisors. The executive director and CEO of the MTA is Nathaniel P. Ford, Sr., who previously served as general manager and CEO of MARTA, and before that, as a manager for BART.

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File:Sf muni old logo.JPG

Muni has its origins in the period following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Up until then the city had been served by a number of commercial horsecar, cable car and electric streetcar operators. Many of these had been amalgamated into the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR) company. However the city acquired the still-independent cable car operator Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway and converted the line into an electric streetcar line in 1912.

Muni soon started on a large building program. On December 29 1914, the new Stockton Street Tunnel under Nob Hill opened, allowing streetcars from downtown to go to North Beach and the new Marina District. On February 3 1918, the Twin Peaks Tunnel opened, making the southwestern quarter of the city available for development. On October 21 1928, the Sunset Tunnel opened, bringing the N Judah streetcar line to the Sunset District.

These improvements plunged Muni into direct competition with the URR on the entire length of Market Street. The two operators each operated their own pair of rail tracks down that thoroughfare, which came to be known as the "roar of the four."

By World War II, the Market Street Railway Company, successor to the URR, was in financial difficulties, and in 1944 the Muni acquired its commercial competitor.

During the late 1990s, with aging equipment and allegedly poor management, Muni developed a reputation for declining service. San Francisco residents responded in 1996 by organizing Rescue Muni, a transit riders association. Muni's previous Boeing-Vertol streetcars were criticized as being unreliable, and were replaced by newer Italian Breda streetcars. Muni's previous non-ADA compliant Flyer trolleybuses were replaced with ETI-Skoda^[6] trolleybuses in the early 2000s; the trolleybus manufacturer is now defunct.^[7] Muni's current livery consists of a silver/red motif. More information on the fleet can be seen below.

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As described above, Muni has certain buses that are compliant and non-compliant. This list goes all the way back to 1912.

• Muni acquired 45 streetcars from the W.L. Holman car company in San Francisco. Car 1 is the only surviving car in the class.

• In 1914, Muni acquired 160 B-Type streetcars from the Jewett Car Company in Ohio. Car 130 and Car 162 (undergoing restoration) are the two survivors. Car 130 was converted into a wrecker in 1958 and renumber to car 0131, then repainted blue and gold. Car 162 (along with Car 171) were sent to Orange Empire Railway Museum

• IN 1923, because of the routes and the streetcars in Muni, Muni acquired 20 more streetcars from Bethelem Steel Company as K-Types. Cars # 171, and 178 are the only surviving in its class. Car 171 is at Orange Empire Railway Museum, while Car 178 is at Western Railway Museum.

Eventually, in 1936, Muni wanted PCCs, but couldn't get them because of the city charter, so, in 1939, they seeked an alternative:

• Muni acquired 5 PCC-Magic Carpets double ended with non-patented royalties. They were retired in 1959, and 1003 survives at Western Railway Museum.

After the war, the changed the charter so patented royalties can be acquired.

• They acquired 10 true PCCs, numbered 1006-1015. PCC 1006 ran in the Trolley Festival, but has not run since 1987. Car 1008 is a wrecker replacing car 130/0131. Cars 1007, 1010, and 1015 still run on the F-Line today.

• Eventually, the W.L. Holman cars were retired, and 25 PCCs were purchased (numbered 1016-1040). 1040 was the last PCC car ever built in the United States.

• When the B and K type streetcars retired, Muni needed PCCs, but from St. Louis. They acquired 70 PCCs from St. Louis, numbered 1101-1170. Most of these cars are now back in Missouri as development tools. 1101 still rests in the hand of Gunnar Henrioulle.

• All the PCCs were retired in 1982 after the acquisition of Boeing Vertol cars. The cars were too much problems because they had too much problems, they had Breda cars since 1995.

This list dates back to the 1960s, the day of the GM New Look Buses.

• Muni acquired several buses, numbered 3001-3599? and retired them in 1992. One can still be seen at a lot in Gilroy.

• Muni then acquired 172 Flyer buses in 1984, numbered 4500-4672. They were retired in 2004, and scrapped January 1, 2005.

• After the buses purchased from Flyer, they then went to Flyer again to acquire 102 New Flyer buses, numbered 8801-8855, 8901-8955. They were retired between April 7, 2007 to June 30, 2007.

• In 1990, Muni then acquired 50 buses from Orion Bus Industries, which were 30 feet long and custom-built, numbered 9001-9050.

• During the Muni Meltdown of 1999, 45buses were diverted from AC Transit to San Francisco (Numbered 8001-8045).

• A year later, Muni ordered 135 buses from Neoplan, numbered 8101-8235. Later, in 2002, they acquired 71 more buses from Neoplan, numbered 8300-8371.

• Today, in 2007, in order to retire the New Flyer buses, Muni returned to Orion, and acquired 56 Orion VII low floor buses (bus # 8437 on image) numbered 8401-8456. They then acquired 56 more Orion V high floor, using recycled parts from the old Flyers, and numbered them 2801-2856.

• Muni first ordered 60 articulated buses from MAN AG, numbered 6001-6059. They were replaced with 124 buses from Neoplan (numbered 6200-6299, 6400-6424). They also acquired 22 buses from New Flyer, (numbered 9101-9122) are on the brink of retirement.

• Muni acquired several Marmon-Herrington buses, and were sold in 1978 to Mexico City.

• Eventually, Muni ordered 284 trolley buses from Flyer, numbered 5001-5330. Later, in 1991, they acquired 60 articulated trolley buses (numbered 7001-7059).

• Later, in 2001, Muni ordered 273 trolley buses (33 articulated, 240 40-foots) from ETI Skoda Ostrov. The Flyer buses were retired, although some can still be seen operating on the 22-Fillmore route.

Construction on a sixth light rail line from the Caltrain Depot to Visitacion Valley (and Bayview/Hunters Point) was completed in December 2006. The new line, named the T Third Street, consists of 19 new high-platform stations at street-level, including at least one within walking distance of Monster Park. The line was supposed to connect the Bayshore Caltrain station with light rail, but Caltrain failed to notify Muni about a reconfiguration that it did to the Bayshore station; which would have resulted in a modification to the new light rail line. This will force the light rail line to have its current terminus at Sunnydale Avenue for a few years, but it is hoped that the new Muni line will eventually connect to the Bayshore station in the near future.^[8]

A further underground expansion for the T-line is being planned. Dubbed the Central Subway, four proposed new underground stations at Moscone Center, Market Street and Stockton Street, Union Square, and Chinatown are being studied for a possible target date of 2016. A future extension into North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf or to the Marina District and The Presidio may be built in a third phase. This project is expected to cost approximately USD $1.4 billion.^[9]. A very critical problem with the proposed subway is that the stations will be much narrower and shorter in comparison to existing Muni Metro stations on Market Street; ridership projections reveal that the line will run at near capacity from the start of operations with little or no ability to increase capacity. Some activists have criticized these long-term plans as catering to the needs of visitors at the expense of city residents, asserting that Muni's resources would be better spent on a seventh light rail line running along (or under) Geary Boulevard into the densely populated Richmond District. Currently, a bus rapid transit ("BRT") line is being planned for Geary Boulevard, possibly as a precursor to a light rail line.

Expected smaller changes to service include rerouting the 22 Fillmore and extending either the 30 Stockton or 45 Union-Stockton into Mission Bay when the area becomes developed, and a new E Embarcadero historic streetcar line is expected to begin operation along the Embarcadero from Fisherman's Wharf to the Caltrain station at 4th and King Streets in 2007, with a possible future extension into Mission Bay.

Additionally, there are plans to expand trolleybus service in several parts of the city. Several extensions to existing trolleybus lines are planned, including 14 Mission service to the Daly City BART station, 6 Parnassus service to West Portal Station, 33 Stanyan service across Potrero Hill to Third Street, 45 Union-Stockton service to the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio and 24 Divisadero service into the former Hunters Point shipyard. Other expansion plans include electrification of some diesel bus lines, with the most likely lines for conversion being the 9 San Bruno, 10 Townsend and 47 Van Ness. Electrification of the 10 Townsend line would likely be joined by an extension of the line across Potrero Hill to San Francisco General Hospital. Other lines that may be electrified are the 2 Clement, 27 Bryant, 43 Masonic and 71 Haight-Noriega.^[10]

Overall, the Muni system is not expanding. However the average speed of Muni vehicles has been slowly declining over the years due to increasing vehicular congestion. Therefore, Muni has launched plans to make its transit vehicles move faster through the city. The Transit Effectiveness Project launched in May 2006 to take a comprehensive look at the entire Muni system to see where service can be improved or streamlined to provide faster and more reliable service. 25 years have passed since the last comprehensive review and travel patterns have changed, traffic congestion has increased, operating costs have risen and on-time performance has dropped. Automatic passenger counters will help to provide an accurate picture of where riders get on and off. In addition, bus rapid transit is currently being proposed on the Geary and Van Ness corridors.

The main logo on trains and buses is a stylized, trademarked "worm" version of the word "MUNI."^[11] This logo was designed by legendary San Francisco-based graphic designer Walter Landor in the mid-1970s.

Muni is short for the "Municipal" in "San Francisco Municipal Railway" and is not an acronym; thus, when it is written in plain text, only Muni (not MUNI) is correct. However, many San Franciscans, including some of those who work for Muni, write it MUNI, and so this has become widely accepted. The Muni Metro is often called "the train" or "the streetcar" along with many others.

"Muni" in popular usage usually refers to both the streetcars and the buses as in "Do you know where the nearest Muni stop/station is?" Some natives believe it is a usage error to refer to Muni as "the Muni"; when used, it generally refers to the Muni Metro.

Some people use the term streetcar or trolley for cable car or vice versa. The terms actually have distinct meanings; if one asks a driver for directions to the trolley when one really wants a cable car, one may receive the wrong directions. There have also been observed uses of the term bus for light rail vehicle, indicating that the term bus may be becoming generic in current local usage.

The F Market & Wharves line is referred to by Muni as a "historic streetcar line" rather than as a "heritage railway." One could reasonably argue that the cable cars are also a "heritage railway."

All Muni routes, except the cable cars, have two parts to the name, and are most often referred to by both. For example, the "1-California." The word(s) on the end refer, in general, to the street encompassing the plurality of the line. This does not mean that the line runs solely on that street (e.g., the 1-California runs on Sacramento and Clay Streets east of Pacific Heights). Bus and trolleybus lines have number designations, rail lines have letters and the three cable car lines are typically referred to by name only (California, Powell/Hyde, and Powell/Mason), but Muni maps abbreviate their names to C, PH, and PM, respectively. Direction on bus, trolleybus, and rail lines is identified as "inbound" or "outbound". Generally speaking, the inbound direction is toward downtown and the outbound direction is away from downtown. Inbound and outbound directions for crosstown and neighborhood lines is less intuitive.

Express bus lines run to downtown in the morning and from downtown in the evening, with the exception of the 9X San Bruno Express. All express bus lines have an "X" suffix to the numeric part of the line name, to identify it as an express route (except for the 88-BART Shuttle, which has a short express portion; nevertheless, it is identified on the official Muni Map in red, the express color). If there is an additional letter before the "X," it identifies the location of the local zone, in decreasing distance from downtown (i.e., "B" will have its local stops and terminus closer to downtown than "A"). Thus, the 1BX-California "B" Express has a local stop zone along California Street in Pacific Heights and Inner Richmond, farther east than the 1AX-California "A" Express's Outer Richmond local zone.

Limited stop bus lines run along the most congested routes, and stop only at the major intersections and transfer points along the way, covering most or all of the route and not deviating from it. Limited buses on most lines run in both directions at commute times, and some run on weekends as well. On trolleybus lines, the limited buses are diesel, allowing them to pass local buses. All limited bus lines have the one-letter suffix "L" added to the numeric part of the line name as well as the suffix "Limited" to the end of the name. For example, the 38L-Geary Limited follows the same route as the 38 Geary, but with more widely spaced stops.

• Perles, Anthony, with John McKane, Tom Matoff, and Peter Straus, The People's Railway: The History of the Municipal Railway in San Francisco. Glendale: Interurban Press, 1981. ISBN 0916374424. A detailed, illustrated history of the San Francisco Municipal Railway from its inception through 1980. Currently out of print, but used copies are frequently available through booksellers specializing in transportation and railroads.

• List of San Francisco Municipal Railway lines
• Muni Metro
• AC Transit
• Caltrain
• Bay Area Rapid Transit
• Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
• SamTrans
• Key System

• SF Muni Web site
  • Page on historic streetcars
  • Muni Short Range Transit Plan
• Muni transit schedules
• Route map in PDF format (1.12MB)
• Route map in GIF format (1.7MB)
• 511.org SF Bay Area transit information
• Prototype easily scrollable Muni map; much easier to read
• NextBus for Muni, a GPS system that predicts arrival times for select routes (light rails, all trolleybus lines, 9, 14L, 38, 38L, and 71).
• Pictures of Muni at nycsubway.org
• Rescue Muni
• Market Street Railway
• SPUR report on long-term health of Muni
• sfcityscape.com
• Geary Bus Rapid Transit
• Van Ness Avenue Bus Rapid Transit
• Transit Effectiveness Project to improve service on all routes
• The N-Judah Chronicles