Geary Subway

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The Geary Subway is a proposed rail tunnel underneath Geary Boulevard in San Francisco, California. Several plans have been put forward as early as the 1930s to add a grade separated route along the corridor for transit. San Francisco Municipal Railway bus routes on the street served 52,900 daily riders in 2019, the most of any corridor in the city.

Contents

Background

A 38R Geary Rapid bus, January 2021. Muni route 38R bus at 15th Avenue, January 2021.JPG
A 38R Geary Rapid bus, January 2021.

The Geary Street, Park and Ocean Railway began operating cable cars on Geary starting in 1880. [1] San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) acquired the corridor as its first streetcar line, opening in 1912. The agency's A Geary-10th Avenue, B Geary, C Geary-California, and D Geary-Van Ness lines traversed the street. Rail service ended in 1956 and trips were replaced with buses. [2] By 2008 the 38 Geary and 38R Geary Rapid constituted Muni's most heavily used bus line in the city with over 50,000 passengers per day. [3]

Proposals

Early plans

By the 1930s, Geary was the city's most congested transit corridor. City Engineer Michael O'Shaughnessy proposed a streetcar subway under the road as far as Larkin Street. [2] A report in 1935 recommended a tunnel under Geary as well as subway routes under Market Street and Mission Street for removing operations from the surface. The Geary route included 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of tunnel under Geary Street starting at Hamilton Square in the west, turning north under Montgomery Street and surfacing at Washington Street onto Columbus Avenue — it would have connected with existing surface tracks at its ends. This route was projected to cost between $13.6 million and $16 million (between $302 million to $356 million in 2023 adjusted for inflation [4] ). [5] Voters suffering from the Great Depression did not have a desire for such a municipal expenditure. [2]

Marin Line of Bay Area Rapid Transit

A Plan for Rapid Transit in San Francisco Consonant with the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (1960) (4007760726).jpg
A Plan for Rapid Transit in San Francisco Consonant with the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (1960) (4007760726).jpg
Envisioned master plan for rapid transit in San Francisco. Bay Area Rapid Transit initially intended to establish additional routes in the city. This map from 1960 included a Geary Subway.

Part of the original plan for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system was a line beginning Downtown and running under Post Street before turning north to run across the Golden Gate Bridge. The subway tunnel would connect to the trunk line under Market Street near Montgomery Street and briefly surface near Maple Street and Post before entering another tunnel in the Presidio of San Francisco. [6] When Marin County pulled out of the transit district, some plans called for a subway only extending to the Richmond District, but these were soon scrapped.

One of the Four Corridors

In 1989, the city of San Francisco approved Proposition B, a ballot measure that approved a half-cent sales tax for transportation. The expenditure scheme that was included in the proposition prioritized the planning and implementation of transit expansion along four transit corridors, including Geary Boulevard. [7] Subsequently, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) conducted a study, titled the Four Corridor Plan, to determine the details of the transportation improvements along the corridors outlined in Proposition B. The study called for a subway-surface rail line along Geary, running on the surface as far east as Laguna Street and underground to either the Financial District or South of Market. [8] When the tax was extended in the early 2000s, the project was changed to focus on implementing bus rapid transit features along the corridor. Dedicated bus lanes were opened along Geary as a result of COVID-19 pandemic service changes in early 2021. [9] [10]

New BART plans

In 1995, the San Francisco Municipal Railway hired Merrill & Associates to study the possibility of building a new BART subway beneath Geary in conjunction with adding light rail on the surface. The estimated cost of construction as far as Park Presidio Boulevard was $1.4 billion in 1995 ($2.8 billion in 2023 adjusted for inflation). Projections from this study put BART ridership at 18,000 daily boardings, and the alignment would allow for a further extension to Marin. These plans were dropped, according to former Senator Quentin L. Kopp, due to merchant and resident opposition, citing potential blight similar to that caused by Market Street subway construction two decades earlier. [11]

Ongoing studies will determine whether the corridor may one day be served by future BART service. The Geary Subway may be constructed as an extension of the second Transbay Tube. [12] [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco Municipal Railway</span> Public transport agency in San Francisco, California, USA

The San Francisco Municipal Railway ( MEW-nee; SF Muni or Muni), is the primary public transit system within San Francisco, California. It operates a system of bus routes, the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable car lines, and two historic streetcar lines. Previously an independent agency, the San Francisco Municipal Railway merged with two other agencies in 1999 to become the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). In 2018, Muni served 46.7 square miles (121 km2) with an operating budget of about $1.2 billion. Muni is the seventh-highest-ridership transit system in the United States, with 142,168,200 rides in 2023, and the second-highest in California after the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muni Metro</span> Light rail system in San Francisco, California

Muni Metro is a semi-metro system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni's light rail lines saw an average of 75,500 boardings per day as of the fourth quarter of 2023 and a total of 24,324,600 boardings in 2023, making it the sixth-busiest light rail system in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F Market & Wharves</span> San Francisco heritage streetcar line

The F Market & Wharves line is one of several light rail lines in San Francisco, California. Unlike most other lines in the system, the F line runs as a heritage streetcar service, almost exclusively using historic equipment both from San Francisco's retired fleet as well as from cities around the world. While the F line is operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), its operation is supported by Market Street Railway, a nonprofit organization of streetcar enthusiasts which raises funds and helps to restore vintage streetcars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L Taraval</span> Light rail line in San Francisco, California

The L Taraval is a hybrid light rail/streetcar line of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California, mainly serving the Parkside District. Since 2021, the line has been suspended and replaced by buses until the end of 2024 for an improvement project along Taraval Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M Ocean View</span> Light rail line in San Francisco, California

The M Ocean View is a light rail line that is part of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California. Named after the Oceanview neighborhood, it runs between San Jose and Geneva and Embarcadero station, connecting Oceanview, San Francisco State University, and Stonestown Galleria with the city center. The line opened on October 6, 1925.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K Ingleside</span> Light rail line in San Francisco, California

The K Ingleside is a hybrid light rail/streetcar line of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California. It mainly serves the West Portal and Ingleside neighborhoods. The line opened on February 3, 1918, and was the first line to use the Twin Peaks Tunnel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embarcadero station</span> Subway station in San Francisco, California, US

Embarcadero station is a combined BART and Muni Metro rapid transit subway station in the Market Street subway in downtown San Francisco. Located under Market Street between Drumm Street and Beale Street near The Embarcadero, it serves the Financial District neighborhood and surrounding areas. The three-level station has a large fare mezzanine level, with separate platform levels for Muni Metro and BART below. Embarcadero station opened in May 1976 – almost two years after service began through the Transbay Tube – as an infill station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Subway (San Francisco)</span> Light rail tunnel in San Francisco, California

The Central Subway is a Muni Metro light rail tunnel in San Francisco, California, United States. It runs between Chinatown station in Chinatown and a portal in South of Market (SoMa), with intermediate stops at Union Square/Market Street station in Union Square and Yerba Buena/Moscone station in SoMa. A surface portion runs through SoMa to connect to the previously existing T Third Street line at 4th and King station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twin Peaks Tunnel</span> Light rail tunnel in San Francisco, California

The Twin Peaks Tunnel is a 2.27-mile-long (3.65 km) light rail/streetcar tunnel in San Francisco, California. The tunnel runs under Twin Peaks and is used by the K Ingleside, L Taraval, M Ocean View and S Shuttle lines of the Muni Metro system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Market Street subway</span> BART-Muni Metro main line, San Francisco

The Market Street subway is a two-level subway tunnel that carries Muni Metro and BART trains under Market Street in San Francisco, California. It runs under the length of Market Street between Embarcadero station and Castro station. The upper level is used by Muni Metro lines and the lower level is used by BART lines. BART does not run through the whole subway; it turns south and runs under Mission Street southwest of Civic Center/UN Plaza station. The northeastern end of the BART level is connected to the Transbay Tube. On the Muni Metro level, the southwestern end of the Market Street subway connects to the much-older Twin Peaks Tunnel, and the northeastern end connects to surface tracks along the Embarcadero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geary Boulevard</span> Thoroughfare in San Francisco, United States

Geary Boulevard is a major east–west 5.8-mile-long (9 km) thoroughfare in San Francisco, California, United States, beginning downtown at Market Street near Market Street's intersection with Kearny Street, and running westbound through downtown, the Civic Center area, the Western Addition, and running for most of its length through the predominantly residential Richmond District. Geary Boulevard terminates near Sutro Heights Park at 48th Avenue, close to the Cliff House above Ocean Beach at the Pacific Ocean. At 42nd Avenue, Geary intersects with Point Lobos Avenue, which takes through traffic to the Cliff House, Ocean Beach and the Great Highway. It is a major commercial artery through the Richmond District; it is lined with stores and restaurants, many of them catering to the various immigrant groups who live in the area. The boulevard borders Japantown between Fillmore and Laguna Streets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area</span> Overview of transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area, California

People in the San Francisco Bay Area rely on a complex multimodal transportation infrastructure consisting of roads, bridges, highways, rail, tunnels, airports, seaports, and bike and pedestrian paths. The development, maintenance, and operation of these different modes of transportation are overseen by various agencies, including the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the Association of Bay Area Governments, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. These and other organizations collectively manage several interstate highways and state routes, eight passenger rail networks, eight trans-bay bridges, transbay ferry service, local and transbay bus service, three international airports, and an extensive network of roads, tunnels, and bike paths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">38 Geary</span> San Francisco bus route

38 Geary is a bus line operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni). Together with the limited service routes that share the number, the 38R Geary Rapid, 38AX Geary 'A' Express, and 38BX Geary 'B' Express, the Geary Boulevard corridor makes up Muni's busiest thoroughfare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geary Bus Rapid Transit</span> Bus rapid transit project in San Francisco

The Geary Bus Rapid Transit project added bus rapid transit features to San Francisco Municipal Railway bus lines along Geary Boulevard. The corridor serves routes 38, 38R, 38AX, 38BX which combined to serve 52,900 daily riders in 2019, the most of any corridor in the city. The project added transit-only lanes, painted red, along many sections of Geary between the Transbay Transit Center and 33rd Avenue. After the project’s completion, over 75% of Geary corridor now has transit lanes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit</span> Bus rapid transit corridor in San Francisco, California

Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit is a bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, California, United States. The 1.96-mile (3.15 km) line, which runs between Mission Street and Lombard Street, has dedicated center bus lanes and nine stations. It was built as part of the $346 million Van Ness Improvement Project, which also included utility replacement and pedestrian safety features. Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit is used by several San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) lines including the 49 Van Ness–Mission, as well as three Golden Gate Transit routes.

Throughout the history of Bay Area Rapid Transit, there have been plans to extend service to other areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Downtown Rail Extension</span> Planned transit project in San Francisco

The Downtown Rail Extension (DTX), officially branded as The Portal, is a planned second phase of the San Francisco Transbay Transit Center (TTC). When complete, it will extend the Caltrain Peninsula Corridor commuter rail line from its current northern terminus at 4th and King via a 1.3-mile (2.1 km) tunnel. The new terminus will be near the Financial District and will provide intermodal connections to BART, Muni, Transbay AC Transit buses, and long-distance buses. In addition, the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) plans to use DTX and the Caltrain-owned Peninsula Corridor for service on the CHSRA San Francisco–San Jose segment. Because DTX uses a long tunnel, current diesel locomotives are not suitable and the Caltrain Modernization Project (CalMod), which includes electrification of the line and acquisition of electrified rolling stock, is a prerequisite.

References

  1. ↑ "Cable Car Company - Geary Street Park & Ocean Railroad". Cable Car Museum. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "What might have been: Geary". Market Street Railway. October 13, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP) Data". San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Archived from the original on July 19, 2008. Retrieved August 19, 2008.
  4. ↑ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–" . Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Report Backs $52,700,000 Subway Plan". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. July 13, 1935. p. 5. Retrieved January 4, 2024– via Newspapers.com. Lock-green.svg
  6. ↑ "Rapid Transit for the San Francisco Bay Area" (PDF). LA Metro Library. Parsons Brinckerhoff / Tudor / Bechtel. pp. 38–39. Retrieved July 21, 2018.
  7. ↑ "San Francisco Voter Information Pamphlet" (PDF). November 7, 1989. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 17, 2019. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
  8. ↑ San Francisco County Transportation Authority (June 1995). "Four Corridor Plan" . Retrieved May 8, 2018.
  9. ↑ Lazarus, Anthony (June 4, 2021). "SF's 20-Year Drive for a Faster Geary Bus Heads to the Curb". Medium. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  10. ↑ Schneider, Benjamin (May 27, 2021). "Geary BRT Changes Lanes". SF Weekly. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  11. 1 2 Rodriguez, Joe Fitzgerald (October 19, 2019). "BART looking west toward Geary Boulevard in transbay crossing study". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
  12. ↑ Cabanatuan, Michael (June 22, 2007). "BART's New Vision: More, Bigger, Faster". San Francisco Chronicle . p. A1. Retrieved May 27, 2017.
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