The original Muni Metro, designed by the Louis T. Klauder Company fed the J, K, L, M and N lines into the Twin Peaks and Duboce Tunnels and then into the Market Street subway. This arrangement allowed every Muni Metro rider to reach downtown San Francisco without having to transfer. To make this work, the one and two car trains operating along the Avenues were coupled into longer trains at the two portals

But the Muni subsequently had trouble making the couplings work and rather than fixing the problem, in the mid 1990’s it threw in the towel and abandoned coupling entirely.

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Ever since its passenger rail service began in 2017, SMART has proven to be an extraordinarily expensive operation. The FY20-21 Budget was based upon a projected fare and parking revenue of $2.66 million an annual ridership of 475,000 and a projected annual operating cost of $31.38 million. In other words it was anticipated that every one-way trip would cost SMART $66 and that since fares were projected to average only $5.53 per trip, the taxpayers were to be saddled with paying the other $60.47 per trip.

Thanks to COVID-19, since the FY20-21 Budget was prepared the situation has gotten dramatically worse.

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Getting Caltrain extended to the new Sales Force Transit Center has long been recognized as one of the most important projects in the Region. In fact it was approved overwhelmingly by 69.3% of San Francisco’s voters way back in 1999. Since then, despite being held up for six years by the Lee Administration, City Planning Department and SFCTA, much as been accomplished. The project is now environmentally cleared ready to head into engineering design.

At MTC’s July 22^nd meeting the DTX project was threatened by a weak but aggressively promoted effort to build what could best be described as the “mostly single track, Toonerville Trolley to Tracy” line.

But things are looking up!

In response to this threat San Francisco and the other West Bay Counties came out in force in support of advancing DTX to Period 1 (in line for early funding). Weighing in on behalf of DTX were Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, SF Mayor London Breed, State Senator Scott Wiener, Assemblyman David Chiu, Supervisor Aaron Peskin and other members of the SF Board of Supervisors, the SF County Transportation Authority, the Transbay Joint Powers Board, SaveMuni, SF Transit Riders (SFTR), SPUR, Seemless Transit and many other San Francisco-based groups and individuals.

Speaker Pelosi Makes the Case!

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San Francisco’s Muni Metro Subway was designed to accommodate four and five car trains. Since the 1997 introduction of new BREDA LRVs and the Automated Train Control System (ATCS), the Muni and now the SFMTA have refused to operate with more than two car trains, thereby reducing the carrying capacity of the subway and adjoining Twin Peaks and Sunset Tunnels to less than half their design capacity.

To be able to form at least three and four car trains the MTA would need to restore its previous ability to couple trains together at the West and Duboce portals. It was anticipated that with the incoming Siemen’s LRVs this essential capability would be possible. Last Fall BATWG, Save Muni and others began asking the MTA whether or not the new Siemens couplers had this capability. However, since the arrival and testing of 68 new Siemen’s LRVs, no attempt has been made to either answer our questions or demonstrate this capability.