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Everything You Need to Know About Muni During COVID-19

Muni is down to 17 routes, “Owl” service starts earlier. Everything you need to know.
By - posted 4/13/2020 No Comment

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency recently rolled out a new service plan that will operate 17 Muni core routes from 5 am–10 pm, plus expanded evening-late night or Owl service.

They are making these changes to ensure that the limited resources we have are used to provide service for essential trips on our busiest lines with the highest demand with adequate space for passengers.

Updated 4/13/20 – Read More

The agency has been working diligently and as quickly as possible to develop and communicate this plan and they appreciate everyone’s understanding. Their blog posts on the essential core routes and the expanded Owl service have more details on these changes and the COVID-19 webpage has more information and resources, including updated service maps.

Muni Core Service Plan

Muni service has been reduced to focus on our 17 most-used lines. This core network will provide service within one mile of all San Franciscans. This approach allows Muni to continue to serve San Francisco’s medical facilities and focuses on equity to ensure service for our customers most reliant on transit. The frequency of buses will vary by line so that lines experiencing some crowding will have more frequent service than others. The 17 core routes that will remain in service, with some modifications include:

  • N Judah Bus, L Taraval Bus, T Third Bus, 1 California, 8 Bayshore, 9 San Bruno, 14 Mission, 14R Mission Rapid, 19 Polk, 22 Fillmore, 24 Divisadero, 25 Treasure Island, 29 Sunset, 38 Geary, 38R Geary Rapid (weekdays only), 44 O’Shaughnessy, 49 Van Ness/Mission

Muni Metro Service

Metro subway stations are closed, except for downtown stations remain open for BART service during their operating hours.

Muni Owl Service

Late-night Owl service will begin at a new, earlier time starting every night at 10:00 p.m. instead of 1:00 a.m. All regular Owl routes will operate with the exception of the 5 Fulton and 48 Quintara/24th Street, which will be temporarily discontinued. The following lines will run 24 hours a day or provide special Owl Service:

  • L Owl*, N Owl*, 14 Mission, 22 Fillmore, 24 Divisadero*, 25 Treasure Island, 38 Geary, 44 O’Shaughnessy*, 90 San Bruno Owl, 91 3rd Street/19th Avenue Owl (*Owl route is different than daytime route)
  • See the COVID-19 Muni Owl Service Plan map for route details

Golden Gate Transit: Additional Bus Service

Golden Gate Transit has begun picking up Muni passengers at all Golden Gate Transit bus stops in San Francisco. Stops that were drop-off only or pick-up only will temporarily support local travel for both drop-offs and pick-ups.

  • Financial District service: Routes operate weekdays between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Financial District via Lombard Street, Fisherman’s Wharf and Levi’s Plaza.
  • Civic Center service: Routes operate daily between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Salesforce Transit Center via Lombard Street (and Geary Blvd on weekdays), Van Ness Avenue and Mission Street.

Golden Gate Transit fares will apply, and Clipper customers will need to both tag on and tag off at the end of their trip:

  • Adult Cash: $4.50 / Adult Clipper: $3.60 / Youth/Senior/Medicare/Disabled: $2.25

Visit the Golden Gate Transit website for bus schedules and maps.

Paratransit

Paratransit service continues to operate as normal so that customers can travel for essential needs as defined by the Public Health Order. We ask riders to cancel any non-essential trips. If you are a paratransit customer and you need to cancel a previously scheduled SF Access trip, please call 415.285.6945 as soon as possible.

The SF Paratransit Office will operate with limited capacity during regular business hours (Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:45 p.m.). Teller window hours are subject to change.

During this time, reduced staffing will be available to accept cash payments for monthly taxi debit card allotments only.

New Muni Updates & Related Data

Muni planners routinely modify routes and schedules a few times per year. From planning to implementation, this process typically takes several months. In this case, however, our response must be expedited, so we’ve restructured Muni service quickly and compressed this process into days.

Can I rely on the published schedules for the core routes?

Until they are updated in our systems over the next few days, the published schedules on our website and others such as 511.org that use on this data may be temporarily inaccurate.

We will update the schedules for our tracking and management purposes as quickly as possible. Muni service during this time will operate with attention to vehicle frequency or headways, not specific schedule times.

Will the NextMuni real-time arrival predictions work on the core routes?

On core routes, NextMuni will continue to provide predictions for buses on signs at shelters and by visiting www.nextmuni.com.

Generally speaking, we expect that the NextMuni predictions on the core routes to be accurate. However, some of the core routes are operating differently than normal. For example, the 44 O’Shaughnessy is running between the Bayview and Forest Hill Station only and the T Third bus is running between the Castro and Sunnydale. In these cases, predictions may temporarily be less accurate until all our systems are updated.

The following routes may experience inaccurate predictions: 9 San Bruno, 14R Mission Rapid, 38 Geary, 38R Geary Rapid, T Third bus, 44 O’Shaughnessy, 8 Bayshore.

Again, this should only be an issue only until we update our scheduling systems.

To get more details, visit SFMTA