Transfers That Fit Our Budget

Muni service changes are coming this weekend. Beginning June 21, three bus routes will be trimmed and two others will be combined into one. The changes might be confusing, so in this episode we’ll walk you through them. We hop on board one of the affected buses and visit some of the stops and neighborhoods serviced by the other. We discuss how the adjustments were designed and the transfer options to navigate them. 

SFMTA Chief Planning and Implementation Officer Sean Kennedy and Transit Director Brent Jones appear in the episode. You can find information on these and other changes we’re making to Muni service at SFMTA.com/ServiceChanges.

Transcript

MELISSA CULROSS, HOST: Muni service changes are going into effect on June 21. But don’t worry, you’ll still be able to get to where you need to go on public transit in San Francisco.

BRENT JONES, SFMTA TRANSIT DIRECTOR: Muni’s here to stay. We’re here to provide innovative service.

MELISSA: Welcome to Taken with Transportation, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s official podcast. I’m your host, Melissa Culross, and in this episode, we’re going to walk you through some of those changes. 

You may know that the SFMTA is in a financial crisis, like transportation agencies across the country.  So, we have optimized some of our parking programs, and we have strengthened our fare compliance enforcement to ensure that everyone on Muni pays their fair share. We slowed down hiring last year and have reorganized our structure and staffing so that the agency can run more efficiently. 

We also are trimming Muni service on a handful of bus routes at points where it is easy to transfer to another line. Please know that we always have our customers in mind … and that we’re making other service changes that reduce delays and improve reliability, safety and accessibility.

The best place to begin this discussion about your bus ride is on the bus. So, we climb on board one of the affected routes with Sean Kennedy, Muni’s Chief Planning and Implementation Officer when these changes were designed.

5 BUS ANNOUNCEMENT: 5 Fulton to Transit Center

SEAN KENNEDY, CHIEF PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION OFFICER: So, the 5 Fulton is really one of our premier transit corridors in the city. Really, one of our first Muni Forward projects was on the 5 corridor, as well as our first implantation of a rapid line. We actually had called it the “5 Limited” at the time and then, um, eventually changed that distinction to “Rapids,” and, and we now have six lines that have rapid service on it. So, really exciting. We’ve seen a pretty big increase in ridership based on the Muni Forward work. We saw about a 15%, uh, increase in ridership. Then pre-COVID, we were seeing about 20,000 or so riders a day on the 5 corridor. Most ridership really has shifted now to the 5 Rapid, and, uh, we have less, uh, ridership on a per-bus basis on the local.

MELISSA: So, there are changes coming to this route, specifically the 5 local. Tell us a little bit about those. 

SEAN: So, the 5 local will turn around at Market. The 5 Rapid will continue all the way down Market Street, as it does today. The rapids only run until 7 o’clock at night, however. And so, after 7 at night, the locals will then run all the way downtown. So, we’re not losing that overall connection, there’s no change to frequency for the entire line. Um, there’ll just be this change at Market Street if you’re on a local. If you wanna go all the way downtown, you can go to a 5 Rapid stop at any point along the corridor or transfer to the many other services we have on Market Street once the 5 reaches Market. 

MELISSA: To be clear, as of the production of this episode, both the 5 and the 5 Rapid run to the transit center in the Financial District near the Embarcadero and the east end of Market Street. As of June 21, the 5 will turnaround at Market Street in the Civic Center area as Kennedy describes. Now the question is: How did we decide on this plan for the 5?

SEAN: These changes came with a lot of trade-offs, and we didn’t make these decisions easily. About a little less than 20% of our 5 local ridership will be affected by these changes, um, because those are people that are either getting on or off in the Market Street corridor. But we felt that that trade-off in concert with the 5 Rapid going all the way downtown, as well as the alternative, which was “Do we lose a whole, or eliminate an entire line of service where 100% of people riding the line would be affected?” Uh, we really felt that was, uh, a trade-off that we were willing to make. Although, you know, that being said, any time you have to force a transfer or, or, um, provide another transfer location, uh, it’s not a great set-up. But that’s what’s going to have to be in the near term while we deal with these budget issues.

MELISSA: As Kennedy just mentioned, we do know that transferring might be hard for some riders.

SEAN: We try to provide, uh, one-seat rides and one-seat connections as, as often as possible. But in some cases, uh, you know, transferring is needed, and it does go to why we have such a well-connected network. That’s the whole point of having many options and many connection points, uh, around the city to make different types of trips and, and support all of your trip needs, not just one specific one to downtown. So, this change is really being able to support continued access down Market Street without reducing access or frequency around the, around the rest of the city. One of the big things we heard about these changes when we were first talking about what to do to address some of the budget shortfalls was, “Please don’t remove access” and “Please don’t reduce frequencies.” And this, this, uh, plan, while difficult because it does mean that an extra transfer is needed for some people, it does, uh, mean that we do not have to cut frequencies, and we’re not reducing the number of connections we make as a system. 

MELISSA: And we would never make our customers do something we wouldn’t do. So as for the transfer from the 5 local…

BUS ANNOUNCEMENT: Leavenworth

MELISSA: So, time for us to get off and demonstrate how it’s done?

SEAN: Sounds good.

MELISSA: Alright, here we go.

BUS ANNOUNCEMENT: Doors are opening

MELISSA: The last eastbound stop on the 5 during the weekday will be at Leavenworth and McAllister. Now, you can stay at this stop and wait for the next 5 Rapid, or it’s a short walk … just over a block … to both the boarding island and the Muni Metro stop at Market and 7th. After walking over, we resume our conversation with Kennedy under the canopy at the entrance to that metro stop.

SEAN: If you wanna continue on downtown, you can either get on the 9R, the F line or go down below, uh, in the subway, catch a Muni or BART.

MELISSA: Alright, and then you’re on your way up Market Street. With all of these lines combined, do we have any kind of estimate as to how long people will have to wait for a connection?

SEAN: So, on average, there is a transit service headed downtown Market every two minutes or so. Now, of course, uh, in an individual trip, you might have to wait a couple more minutes than that. But on average, it should be about a two-minute wait.

MELISSA: You also can catch the 7 Haight-Noriega bus at the boarding island on Market at 7th and take it to the transit center. Another bus route that will be shortened on weekdays is the 9 San Bruno, and we’re at the intersection of Market and 11th streets to discuss that change. 

SEAN: The 9 local will turn around here at Market Street. So, there’ll be no changes for the majority of the line. About 87% of the ridership should so see no changes and actually might even see an increase, uh, in reliability along the line because the 9 during 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. hours, um, will no longer go all the way down Market Street. Instead, it will serve this stop at, uh, 11th and Market. That’ll be the last stop for the 9 local. It’ll then turn around. People that want to continue down, downtown or down Market Street, uh, have several options. One: They could wait here at this exact stop, and a 9R will serve this stop. And they can get on that 9 Rapid and take that, um, down Market Street. Or they could walk across 11th Street and go down into the subway, uh, and catch the Muni Metro in the subway. Or they could catch the F line or, uh, several other buses that serve Market Street, including the 7 line. 

MELISSA: Alright perfect. So, if somebody wants to take … somebody had been coming from the Financial District, say, and wants to take the 9 local, they could transfer right here?

SEAN: Exactly. So, they will get on a 9 Rapid on Market Street. And then, they could either transfer here at 11th and Market, or they could get off at any of the other rapid stops along the 9 and transfer to, uh, a 9 local that will also be serving that stop.

MELISSA: Now, the third route that will be shortened is the 31 Balboa. One end of the 31 route is at Ocean Beach, and as of this recording, it runs to CalTrain South of Market. But that’s about to change.

SEAN: The 31 will be very similar to what we did during COVID. So, it will go through the Tenderloin. And then when it hits Market Street at 5th and Market, will turn around and go back through the Tenderloin and out to the Outer Richmond. If, if you’re going to Caltrain or going, really, South of Market on 5th Street, you will then either walk that distance or walk one block over to 4th Street and catch the 30 long or the 45 bus that is going south on 4th Street from 4th and Market, and that will then get you to Caltrain. 

MELISSA: You also could, uh, go downstairs and catch the N, correct?

SEAN: You could go down, down below, catch the N, it’ll and go all the way around the Embarcadero and, and end up at Caltrain.

MELISSA: Very scenic.

SEAN; Correct, very scenic. Actually, there is something I should point out. The 5 and 9 local changes are only in effect when the rapids are in service. And so that means, you know, at 7 at night and on the weekends, the local service will continue all the way down Market Street. That is not the case with the 31. The 31 will be turning at Market Street at all times. There will not be an extension of the 31 during the weekends, for example. 

MELISSA: Those are the three routes we’re shortening, but we’re making one more change that’s kind of exciting. We’re combining two routes into one. We walk over to Hayes Street with Kennedy to talk about the new route because Hayes is on it.

SEAN: The 21 line is going to be merged with the 6 Parnassus line. And so, the 6 will continue to serve Golden Gate Heights and the hospital campus, then come up Masonic and then merge with the 21 line and come all the way downtown, turn around at Market, like the 21 does currently and then head back out to the end of the 6 line. You know, that, that means that the 6 will no longer be on, um, Haight Street. And so, the 7 currently ends at 10, and, you know, we have been using the 6 to cover Haight Street between 10 and midnight. The 6 will now obviously be moved over to the 21, uh, and so, we are, uh, extending the 7’s hours to go from 10 to midnight. So, there will still be, uh, service on Haight Street between 10 to midnight. And the 6-21 will be operating ‘til midnight, as well. 

MELISSA: You know, here we are in Hayes Valley, which is such a vibrant neighborhood, especially this corridor down Hayes Street, and the 21 is so essential to that. This is an opportunity for people who ride the 21 to go even further west.  

SEAN: Yeah, so, you’ll, um, if you’re in, in the Hayes, Hayes Valley area, you’ll now be able to go to the UCSF campus, uh, and uh, uh, really get essentially almost to West Portal. So, it’ll be a good, good, connection point.

MELISSA: Now, we didn’t plan these service changes in a vacuum. We wanted feedback from our customers and the community at large, and so we asked for it. And then we listened. That’s why no lines have been suspended or eliminated and why we haven’t slowed down frequency. We have met SFMTA Transit Director Brent Jones at the Van Ness Muni station to talk about how important the input from our customers was in this case, especially just a few years after the pandemic.

BRENT JONES, TRANSIT DIRECTOR: We’ve spent the last six years trying to build up the Muni service, build back the Muni service. And for us, having to do cuts was a bit counterintuitive for, for years of work that we have been completing prior to that fact. There were no good decisions that we could make. So, we really took the feedback that they gave us in coming up with different solutions for the MTA Board to consider. But for us as a staff that’s built on delivering service and serving our customers, it was very, very difficult to even put those options in front of our board and to actually have to execute them.

MELISSA: And Jones says we want customer feedback all the time, not just when we have to make difficult service decisions.

BRENT: Building a collaborative relationship with our customers regarding Muni service is what’s really important for us. So, in order to partner, we have to hear them and, kind of, meet them where they’re at just to understand how best we can serve their needs in the short term and also in the long term.

MELISSA: So, is it safe to say this is something that we do regularly?

BRENT: This is something that we do regularly, but this is something that we want to double down on. Whether we’re meeting with people once a month or once every two months, we really wanna double up on that and really get that feedback and that collaborative relationship.

MELISSA: And we’ll continue to work with our customers once these service changes go into effect.

BRENT: We’ll be providing information on how best to adjust to the way the new service is working and also be proactive and give us, uh, real-time feedback on what your experience is. We’re starting in a specific place, but we do anticipate being able to make improvements incrementally. And we’re really at a place where, even though we’ve taken some loss to our service, we have already started planning on how to be more efficient with the service that we will be bringing and already laying down a roadmap for how we can build back better.

MELISSA: It’s also important to remember that even though we’ve had to make these changes, and even though we are in a financial crisis, the trains and buses are still running.

BRENT: Muni service is stable. I mean, we’ve spent many years building trust, and we continue to work on growing that relationship with our customers. Uh, what it means to us to have a relationship with our customers is a priority. We want this not to just to just be the SFMTA delivering service. We want this to be the SFMTA and the citizens of San Francisco building a great service together that meets all of our needs.

MELISSA: And public transportation in San Francisco isn’t going anywhere.

BRENT: Muni’s here to stay. We’re here to provide, um, innovative service. And we are always open to how we are doing: good, bad or indifferent.

MELISSA: Thank you for joining us on Taken with Transportation. We’re a production of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and you can find the latest episodes at SFMTA.com-slash-Podcast, as well as Apple, Spotify, our YouTube channel or wherever you listen. I’m Melissa Culross. Be well and travel well.