Our companion article about Muni in this newsletter reiterated the current need for the SFMTA to cut costs.

The forthcoming APEC conference (scheduled to take place from November 11 – November 17) may offer a way for the SFMTA to avoid having to pay $20 to $25 million a year to keep the low ridership Central Subway running.

Read more here

To conform to security arrangements designed to protect APEC participants coming to San Francisco from all over the world, the Central subway south of Union Square is to be shut down during the conference.  In determining how to deal with this new challenge, SFMTA’s Director expressed himself as “grateful” that it would be possible to return the T-line to its old route along the waterfront leading into the Muni Metro subway under Market Street. This return to the old route would provide a unique opportunity, after the flood of APEC visitors has departed, to determine the effect of the route change on T-Line ridership. If T-Line ridership picked up under its original routing, relative to what is now generated by the connection with the Central Subway, it would add further weight to the argument that the Central Subway should be shut down, at least until the SFMTA’s finances returned to normal. (Is the SFMTA actually going to keep its trains running between Chinatown and Union Square…distance 1/2 mile.  So it would seem).

Shutting down the Central Subway already looks like a practical move because of the high operating, security and maintenance costs required to keep the subway in operation, especially since it has become clear that most people in Chinatown understandably prefer to continue riding their popular Stockton Street buses than descending 8 stories underground for a less convenient train ride.