SF’s J Church Will Return Underground Through the Subway
The Muni Service Network proposal for early 2022, and the next steps for the J Church and 48 Quintara, were unanimously approved by the SFMTA Board of Directors on Tuesday, December 7, 2021. On Tuesday, December 21, SFMTA staff will return to the Board of Directors to outline a phased service change implementation schedule currently slated to begin in February 2022.
SFMTA will restore five routes in full – 6 Haight/Parnassus, 8AX Bayshore A Express, 8BX Bayshore B Express, 28R 19th Avenue and the 43 Masonic – and four routes with some changes – the 2 Clement, 10 Townsend, 21 Hayes and 31 Balboa. Two routes will remain temporarily suspended – the 47 Van Ness and the 3 Jackson. These routes largely overlap other routes that are or will be in service. Instead, improvements that were approved December 7 will help to reduce crowding and wait times on high ridership Muni lines in the same neighborhoods.
The 2022 Muni Service Plan was developed in part through an extensive outreach process. Meetings, open houses, office hours, community pop up events, emails and phone calls with community members helped identify the need to prioritize connections to food hubs and groceries, hospitals and services, and essential jobs for people with disabilities, seniors and lower-income communities.
The 8AX Bayshore A Express and 8BX Bayshore B Express were not initially slated for restoration because the 8 Bayshore was already in service. But staff added the 8AX/BX to replace the 8 Bayshore during peak periods after engagement from communities in Visitacion Valley and Potrero neighborhoods. The 8 Bayshore will run less frequently along the Geneva and San Bruno corridors, but Visitacion Valley and Potrero communities will have much-needed express service downtown, which will also help reduce crowding on the 8 Bayshore.
Throughout the COVID-19 emergency and recovery, the SFMTA prioritized restoring service to these, and other neighborhoods identified in the Muni Service Equity Plan.
Additional route changes will be implemented as recommended on routes like the 5 Fulton, 12 Folsom/Pacific, 23 Monterey, 57 Parkmerced and others. Many of these changes will increase capacity, reduce wait times and crowding, restore service and prior connections and provide new connections.
Next Steps for the J Church
The J Church will go back into the subway, with some caveats to preserve subway efficiency and avoid the logjams that notoriously plagued the subway pre-pandemic.
J Church frequency will be reduced to every 15 minutes and the Board asked SFMTA to monitor subway capacity as usage increases to reevaluate J Church Metro tunnel service if a threshold of delays is reached.
Accessibility upgrades at the intersection of Market and Church streets will also move forward and staff will study the possible use of historic street cars to provide one-seat service on the J Church to Embarcadero using existing surface tracks as an alternative to running the J Church in the subway tunnel.
Next Steps for the 48 Quintara
Near-term, the 48 Quintara will stay on its current route via Clipper Street. However, SFMTA will move forward with construction necessary to accommodate buses on Douglas Street and then reroute the 48 Quintara to Douglas in the outbound direction (the inbound direction will stay on Clipper Street).
For details of the approved 2022 Muni Service Network proposal, please visit the 2022 Muni Service Network webpage.
Read more at SFMTA.
