SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: Transit/Transportation News

[OhioGuy]

It's April Fools' Day and that means the Van Ness bus lane is actually finally open! (not a joke on this day)

CBS San Francisco: San Francisco Van Ness Avenue’s Bus Rapid Transit Lanes Open After Years Of Construction

ABC7: Bus Rapid Transit finally coming to San Francisco's Van Ness after 5 1/2 years of construction

A couple photos I took early last week.

[M II A II R II K]

Towards a Seamless Bay Area

https://transitcenter.org/towards-a-seamless-bay-area/

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- The introduction of the Clipper Card in 2002 was intended to help. For the first time, riders could use the same payment card for rides across the region. But the technology alone wasn’t enough to solve the problem. To this day, riders whose trips require them to use multiple agencies still face a penalty – interagency transfers are only sparingly accepted, and most agencies don’t coordinate their schedules, creating long waits between transfers. And each system uses its own maps, intimidating all but the most intrepid commuters. — The advocacy group Seamless Bay Area has been working diligently to change this. In 2019, it released a Vision Map, which depicted what a fully integrated system could look like. In this dream scenario, a rider could pay one fare to zip all the way from San Jose to San Francisco to Santa Rosa, never needing to think about which “brand” of transit they were using.

- After several years of advocacy from Seamless and their allies, that vision is inching closer to reality. A bill now moving through the California State Legislature, SB917 (2022) aka the “Seamless Transit Transformation Act,” directs the Bay Area transit agencies to develop an integrated transit fare structure by 2024, create a plan to coordinate schedule and service standards, and develop a single regional transit map and standardized way-finding system. ​​SB917 stipulates that these policies would become mandatory in order for agencies to receive state transit funds. — By presenting integrated transit as something both irresistible and achievable, and building a broad coalition in support of the vision, Seamless was able to break through a longstanding bureaucratic morass. With the Bay Area’s infamous housing costs continuing to push people further from employment centers and ridership slow to recover from the pandemic, the initiative could be the key to bringing back riders, and making transit a viable option for tens of thousands more people.

- “Our goal is a world-class, integrated, higher ridership, public transit network that expands people’s access to opportunity, and makes transit the most convenient and competitive way of getting around and that brings many more people to our region,” says Ian Griffiths, Seamless Bay Area’s policy director and co-founder. --- Seamless developed a multi-pronged strategy that involved building a broad, diverse, grasstops and grassroots coalition. “What we’ve tried to do is bridge the worlds of research and thought leadership and like action [with] community groups. And I think there’s a need for that type of advocacy,” said Griffiths. — Seamless worked with organizations like LUNA, Latinos United for a New America and Bayview-Hunters Point Community Advocates to learn about barriers to transit access in the region. They found that the lack of coordination between agencies and costly fares for multi-agency trips were a barrier to transit for many Bay Area residents.

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[M II A II R II K]

BART Disruption Highlights Need for Second Transbay Tube

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2022/04/12/bart-disruption-highlights-need-for-second-transbay-tube/

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- It may have been temporarily forgotten, but before the pandemic, the entire economy of the Bay Area–not to mention hundreds of thousands of daily commuters–were regularly held hostage to BART service disruptions. Many of those are the result of being forced to rely on a single set of tubes to cross between San Francisco and Oakland. --- The region is currently planning for a second set of tubes that, ideally, would have four tracks, as seen in the diagrams above: two to carry conventional trains and a second pair in BART’s wide gauge to build in redundancy and increased capacity. As this editor has experienced firsthand, medical emergencies and people entering the trackway are not situations unique to the Bay Area. Travel to Paris, New York, London, or other cities with robust transit systems, and these kinds of problems cause delays, yes, but trains can be rerouted so the entire system doesn’t come to a screeching halt. And major breakdowns can be handled and repairs made without stranding the whole city. Until the Bay Area gets some redundancy, its entire economy is skating on proverbial thin ice.

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[38 Geary]

• Video Link

• Video Link

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

BART Disruption Highlights Need for Second Transbay Tube

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2022/04/12/bart-disruption-highlights-need-for-second-transbay-tube/

Immersed tube is the way to go just like the original crossing. It's likely more seismically stable, has fewer clearance concerns and constraints and can be prefabricated close by at Alameda.



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[38 Geary]

Some Central Subway updated photos:









https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2021/11/29/san-francisco-central-subway-project.html
https://www.rtands.com/passenger/sfmta-central-subway-revenue-service-update/

[38 Geary]

First Caltrain Electrics Arrive
The Peninsula's railroad just got its first modern railway equipment... its old belchy diesels will not be missed
By Roger Rudick
Mar 23, 2022



Caltrain took a major step forward with its $2.4 billion electrification project last weekend, with the delivery of the first electric train set, spotted above on Caltrain’s yard tracks between College Park and San Jose Diridon stations.

...

The new trains may look familiar to anyone who has spent time in Europe. Although these units were constructed in Utah, the design is a derivative of the KISS family of electric multiple unit commuter trains by Stadler Rail of Switzerland. The European version has been running since 2008 (Streetsblog has ridden them in Switzerland and France and found them to be fast, smooth and comfortable–as unlike Caltrain’s current fleet of museum-piece diesel trains as one can imagine).


]

...

That said, the agency will start doing the first live tests of its overhead electrification wire in a few months. “We expect to have Segment 4 energized by June, after which the AEM-7 will be used for testing purposes,” said Lieberman.

...

Either way, once the testing is completed with the AEM-7, Caltrain will be ready to start running its new Stadler trains under the new wires. The Stadlers have already been tested under their own power at the federal testing center in Colorado, so they should be fine.

...

Electrifying a major commuter rail system in California is a major step towards eliminating emissions from the transportation sector. Caltrain’s electrification project is partially funded by the overall state rail modernization project, also known as California High-Speed Rail.

Unfortunately, Southern California is still not on board. Around the same time Caltrain was getting its first electric trains, its sister commuter rail agency in Los Angeles–Metrolink–was boasting about buying yet another generation of polluting diesel locomotives (sorry, “biodiesel”/renewable diesels). But just like “clean coal” and other green-washing monikers, the truth is renewable diesel’s biggest selling point is probably that it allows entrenched fossil fuel interests to continue refining fuel, resulting in negligible reductions in emissions when the entire fuel production process is factored in. Meanwhile, Southern California politicians, including Assembly leadership Anthony Rendon and Laura Friedman, are still actively blocking California train electrification funds. As previously reported, Rendon and many Democrats take money from oil companies.

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2022/03/23/first-caltrain-electrics-arrive/

[M II A II R II K]

Planning begins for a subway to the west side of The City—but is it a distant dream?

https://www.sfexaminer.com/fixes/planning-begins-for-a-subway-to-the-sunsetand-beyond/

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- Imagine hopping on a subway downtown and arriving in Japantown, Golden Gate Park or the Sunset District in as little time as it takes to ride BART from the FiDi to the Mission District. That fever dream took one tiny step closer to reality on Tuesday morning when the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) board directed planners to begin working on a “strategic case” for a Geary-19th Avenue subway. --- It’s the first official move in what would likely be a multi-decade quest to provide underground rapid transit to the northern and western parts of The City. The proposal could also dovetail with more regional transit moonshots, like a second train tube under the Bay and the fully approved extension of Caltrain and high-speed rail tracks into the Salesforce Transit Center. In a presentation to the SFCTA board, which consists of the 11 members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, planners provided the most detailed map yet of where this new subway line might go.

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[Busy Bee]

I could have saved them a bunch of time and just given them the same map I drew 15 years ago.

[M II A II R II K]

One month after its debut, this is how S.F.'s Van Ness BRT is performing

https://www.masstransitmag.com/bus/news/...is-is-how-sfs-van-ness-brt-is-performing

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- One month after its long-awaited debut, Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit has led to notable travel time savings and attracted more riders, according to performance figures from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

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[dktshb]

Originally Posted by AndrewK

The J has been highly reliable since it became a streetlevel-only route (I take it almost daily). Pre-pandemic when it went into the subway it had constant delays due to having to fight for space underground with the N, K, L, and M, and sharing a subway entry/exit tunnel with the N. Not only has service improved on the J significantly in its current truncated form, it has also aided all other lines which use the subway (subway delays are down 75% versus pre-pandemic, due to both the J and L staying above ground).

Yeah, I wish it terminated at Market permanently and those who want to continue downtown get on at Church and Market. One transfer is not bad. Too many lines come down Market. Same for the L Line at West Portal once that starts up again.

Also, good news about the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit actually improving things and it will get better as the signal preemption improves. This still should have been a subway IMO.

[38 Geary]

Nothing flashy (ie Geary/19th Ave Subway and Marina/Presidio extension) but still much needed.

SFMTA releases the Muni Metro Modernization program
May 4, 2022

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) released the Muni Metro Modernization program, an overarching framework for how SFMTA can achieve it's ideal vision for transit service.

The program
The program uses a multifaceted approach. As a foundation, making state of good repair upgrades and replacing aging systems through the Subway Renewal Program are already underway. San Francisco's Muni Metro subway system moves the highest volumes of customers through the core of the city.  And it operates on infrastructure that was constructed between 50 to 100 years ago, much of it original.

SFMTA says it is well-documented that Muni Metro has been plagued with service reliability problems for decades. The Subway Renewal Program lays out a systematic approach to capital upgrades over the next 10 years, targeting strategic repairs, replacing and enhancing the most critical systems. This work will improve the subway’s resilience and prepare it for the demands of the future. Much of this work over the next 10 years include things that customers never see, but are essential to keeping the system safe, efficient and reliable.

Another major project that will increase the Muni Metro network’s capacity, and reduce wait times and crowding on Muni Metro trips is the Train Control Upgrade Project (TCUP). SFMTA says TCUP possesses the greatest potential of any single investment to significantly improve system efficiency. The outdated centralized train control system is under constant pressure and is increasingly operating beyond the capacity for which it was designed nearly three decades ago.

While SFMTA says it has learned operational and service lessons throughout the pandemic, it is continuing to improve its ability to measure the health of the subway. Using data dashboards to monitor subway travel time, queuing, average daily subway delay and maximum trains per hour, SFMTA is improving its ability to make informed decisions about subway operations and service. Following the successful pilot of the J Church surface-only route, SFMTA is looking for ways to increase adaptability and improve responsiveness to changing travel patterns.

In addition to improving subway infrastructure and performance, the Muni Forward program will focus on improving surface rail through capital improvements that will increase the reliability and performance of the line segments operating outside of the subway. Customers will continue to feel the positive impacts from the Muni Forward program with more reliable surface rail service that translates into a more reliable subway.

https://www.masstransitmag.com/managemen...ses-the-muni-metro-modernization-program

[Pedestrian]

^^Ballot initiative coming to give them more money they swear will be spent on infrastructure and not raises for staff. But I'm pretty sure I've been hearing about the Train Control Upgrade Project for decades now.

Sorry, but the first thing I want to see them do is collect a fare from every passenger.

[38 Geary]

This to me has always been a no brainer. It's time to get it done.

S.F. could one day have a Geary subway. Here’s what it would mean for the west side
Ricardo Cano
May 11, 2022

Rail on Geary has been a dream since before BART’s inception.

BART originally planned to build a line from downtown San Francisco through most of the Richmond and up north to Marin County through a lower deck added to the Golden Gate Bridge, but the idea never materialized. Decades later, San Francisco planners highlighted the Geary corridor in the 1995 Four Corridors Plan that called for surface rail on Geary and expansions on three other major roadways.

Now, the possibility of rail on Geary has again been revived, if only faintly, with a new study by the County Transportation Authority that will examine a potential subway that runs east-west on a portion of Geary and north-south on 19th Avenue.

The study, expected to be finalized by the middle or end of 2023, will be the launching point of what will likely be a decades-long attempt to bring rail to two of the west side’s oft-congested corridors and could coincide with other ambitious Bay Area transit projects under the planning pipeline, such as a second Transbay Tube.

City leaders view a Geary subway as a transformational project that could link riders to major city job centers and attractions, such as UCSF and Golden Gate Park, and connect San Francisco’s west side neighborhoods to the rest of the Bay Area’s rail network while adding more housing density.

A conceptual rendering by the CTA illustrates a potential alignment that would connect the subway from Salesforce Transit Center in Transbay and cover part of Geary Boulevard from Van Ness Avenue to the Inner Richmond before snaking under Golden Gate Park and down the 19th Avenue corridor to BART’s Daly City station.



Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who requested the study, said building a subway would aid plans to transform Stonestown Galleria’s parking lot into 2,900 residential units and allow San Francisco State to expand its campus and build more student housing. She envisions a subway that would host a Stonestown station where riders could directly access the development through an underground concourse similar to the one at the Powell Street station that connects to Westfield Mall.

“Imagine our conversations around access to Golden Gate Park if we had a subway stop there under the (music) concourse. It would be completely different,” Melgar said at a recent CTA meeting in reference to the car-free JFK Drive debate that city supervisors settled last month. “I am excited about this.”

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a proponent of building more rail in San Francisco, said the project would have to come with more housing development on the corridors and surrounding blocks of the subway to justify the investment — likely costing billions of dollars and several years of construction.

...

Now is the time to study a Geary subway with BART and Amtrak planning for a second Transbay rail crossing, said Tilly Chang, executive director of the County Transportation Authority.

“One of the reasons why we need to look at the Geary/19th Avenue subway is because if it is a BART Transbay link, the BART link cannot go right into the existing BART corridor in San Francisco because it’s already at capacity,” Chang said. “So it has to go into a new line.”

If realized, the project would give San Francisco’s west side its first north-south rail line and make public transit more appealing, said Supervisor Gordon Mar, who represents the Sunset. The city’s Muni system is oriented around downtown travel, and Richmond and Sunset residents looking to travel to the Peninsula by transit must first take a bus or train eastward to a connecting BART station.

More than 75% of the 345,000 trips originating or ending in the Sunset District are taken by car, according to a recent study, with transit making up only 11% of trips.

“It’s become clear that there’s a need to provide more convenient and affordable transportation options for residents as really the best way to get them to move away from driving their cars, especially driving alone,” Mar said.

Planners are adamant the Geary corridor will need rail transit to keep up with future demand, even as the pandemic depressed transit ridership and changed travel patterns in San Francisco.

Before COVID, Muni’s 38-Geary lines transported more than 55,000 riders each weekday — similar to Caltrain’s total pre-pandemic daily ridership — and were bursting at the seams. They remain among the Muni system’s most popular lines.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-Geary-17163707.php

[38 Geary]

https://www.vta.org/projects/bart-sv/phase-ii

VTA approves 1st major contract of Downtown San Jose BART extension
MAY 6, 2022 / 11:16 AM / CBS/BAY CITY NEWS SERVICE

SAN JOSE – BART took a step farther to reaching downtown San Jose and Santa Clara Thursday when the Board of Directors of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority unanimously approved the first major contract to building a BART extension into the heart of Silicon Valley.

VTA spokesperson Bernice Alaniz said Thursday the first contract package for the tunnel and trackwork, in the amount of $235 million, has been awarded to Kiewit Shea Traylor, a joint venture. It is a progressive design-build contract.

VTA is building the BART extension to Santa Clara County. The first phase of the extension brought trains to Milpitas and San Jose's Berryessa neighborhood in late 2019.

The second phase is a six-mile-long extension from the Berryessa BART Station to downtown San Jose and, ultimately, Santa Clara.

The contract approved Thursday will be carried out in stages, Alaniz said. It will include investigation of innovations, engineering and design, open book cost estimates and the work schedule.

The first stage of activities is anticipated to begin this month and last through approximately December 2023, setting the stage for major construction which includes boring the tunnel under downtown San Jose.

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/new...ntract-downtown-san-jose-bart-extension/

[38 Geary]

Nice progress here. With hybrid WFH here to stay for the foreseeable future, investing in lines that service essential workers seems to be the way to go.

Muni Ridership Hits 67% of Pre-Pandemic Levels on Weekends, 54% on Weekdays
4 MAY 2022/SF NEWS/JAY BARMANN

Much as BART has seen a return of riders a bit moreso on weekends than during commuting hours on weekdays, the SFMTA is reporting a similar pattern on Muni buses and trains — though one bus line is now at 133% of its pre-pandemic riders.

The recovery of public transit use has been especially slow, in the Bay Area and other metropolitan areas. Though now a full two years and change into this global pandemic, with much of daily life similar — though not completely the same — as it was in the first two months of 2020, our buses and trains are looking a little more normal again, plus a lot of masks.

SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin tweeted some figures on Tuesday — what appears to be a slide-deck presentation, perhaps for the SFMTA board — showing how ridership is recovering now that we are a full year after the revival of many Muni lines — and nine months since the M trains restarted up and most of the light-rail Muni Metro system came back alive. (Some bus lines only just restarted this spring, and the J-Church only returned to downtown tunnel service in February.)

Through the first two weeks of April, the SFMTA reports ridership steadily rising to 67% of pre-pandemic levels on weekends as of mid-April, and 54% of pre-pandemic levels on weekdays. The trajectory of the graph suggests that bus and light-rail ridership will potentially be fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels by year-end.

"COVID rearranged SF's travel patterns, revealing [the] geography of Essential Workers," Tumlin writes, referring to the ways in which the SFMTA has tried to respond by beefing up frequencies of buses particularly on lines serving essential workers.

One line that received such expansion is the 22-Fillmore, though a project making the expansion of that line a major agency priority dates back to the middle of the 2010s. Starting in January 2022, the 22-Fillmore started servicing Mission Bay — letting off its last passengers not far from the Chase Center. And the SFMTA simultaneously launched the new 55-Dogpatch line, which overlaps part of the 22-Fillmore route along 16th Street, but now services the Dogpatch neighborhood near the discontinued 22-Fillmore route.

And as a result of increased frequency on the route, the 22-Fillmore now has surpassed the rest of the Muni system in terms of ridership recovery, showing 133% of pre-pandemic levels as of April.

And other "workhorse" bus lines, including the 14-Mission and the 5-Fulton, are showing decent ridership recovery as well, particularly on weekends.

Tumlin says that this is in part due to investments made during the pandemic in frequency and reliability on these lines, and in creating more transit-only lanes.

https://sfist.com/2022/05/04/muni-riders...demic-levels-on-weekends-54-on-weekdays/

[38 Geary]

Funding influx for ferry projects in the USA
Strategic Partnerships’ Mary Scott Nabers outlines how cities, public transportation agencies and other organisations are improving ferry services across the USA with the help of federal funding



By Mary Scott Nabers
13 May 2022

Not everyone knows that the USA federal government’s infrastructure bill includes a $1.6 billion funding allocation for projects related to ferry services. Private-sector contractors should take a moment to check out some of the upcoming projects designed to amplify ferry services throughout the USA.

In California, public officials are pursuing well-funded initiatives to improve ferry operations along the Pacific Coast. Recently, the city of Berkeley and California’s Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) completed a joint feasibility study related to local ferry services. The study examined a $93 million project with the objective of building new pier and ferry facilities in Berkeley. The project is moving into the design and permitting stages, and solicitation documents are soon to be made publicly available.

Nearby, WETA is partnering with the Port of San Francisco and other local agencies to carry out work on the joint Mission Bay Ferry Landing project. The first phase of this project included marine clean-up work, which is now completed. The second phase carries a budget of $58.8 million for design and construction work.

https://www.cruiseandferry.net/articles/funding-influx-for-ferry-projects-in-the-usa-1

[38 Geary]

^ Some info on the Mission Bay Ferry Landing.

The Mission Bay Ferry Landing will provide critical regional ferry service to and from the fast-growing Mission Bay neighborhood and surrounding Central Waterfront communities. It will also connect communities across the Bay to water recreation and maritime activity on the San Francisco waterfront.

The new ferry landing is within a half mile of approximately 11,000 new housing units, 7 million square feet of new office and commercial space, over 1 million square feet of new retail space and 70 acres of public open space. Additionally, the terminal is planned within one block from the T-Third line and Central Subway, which is underway for extension to San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood. The terminal will be an easy walk to the Golden State Warriors Chase Center, the UCSF Mission Bay hospital and campus, and to San Francisco’s related life sciences community.

Mission Bay Ferry Landing will provide capability to berth two ferry boats simultaneously and it is estimated that the ferry landing will have the capacity to handle up to 6,000 passengers per day. The ferry landing is essential to alleviate current regional transportation overcrowding and provide transportation resiliency in the event of an earthquake, BART or Bay Bridge failure, or other unplanned events. Ferry service will reduce our community’s carbon footprint and the landing is designed to accommodate the expected sea level rise.

The Port of San Francisco and Water Emergency Transit Authority (WETA) are leading the project with the support of other City and regional agencies.

https://sfport.com/projects-programs/mission-bay-ferry-landing

[38 Geary]

Nice project here.

Construction to begin on 16th Street bus lanes
Riders are excited, but business owners are concerned
By Benjamin Schneider Examiner staff writer • May 5, 2022 3:30 pm

The most transformative — and potentially disruptive — transit project since the opening of the Van Ness bus rapid transit line is set to begin construction.

On May 9, construction crews will break ground on the second phase of the 16th St. Improvement Project, adding bus-only lanes and other transit improvements between Church Street and Potrero Avenue, with the goal of speeding travel on the 22 Fillmore and other lines by 25%.

Business owners along the popular restaurant and nightlife corridor are wary, especially in light of the long and arduous Van Ness project about a mile north. But bus riders are excited to experience improved service on one of Muni’s busiest lines.

“I think it’ll be great,” said Travis Perry, who commutes on the 22 from the Mission to Harmonic Brewing at the Chase Center. “Whatever makes it quicker to get to work, I’m fond of.”

The $16 million construction project, scheduled to last through the summer of 2023, will see a westbound bus only lane installed between Potrero and Church, and a short eastbound bus only lane between Bryant and Potrero. Other measures to improve bus speeds include the elimination of stops at Harrison and Guerrero, new “bus bulbs” for quicker boarding and additional traffic signals.

Other aspects of the project include the improvement of the overhead traction wires that power the 22 bus, new street trees and minor underground sewer upgrades. The red bus lanes will be one of the final elements to be installed, an SFMTA spokesperson said. The project will benefit the 22, 33 and 55 buses, as well as UCSF shuttles.

The 22 has seen the strongest post-pandemic recovery of all of Muni’s lines, linking essential workers to booming employment hubs like UCSF’s Mission Bay campus and Chase Center. On weekends, the bus carries a whopping 130% of its pre-pandemic passenger load.

But business owners, who are still recovering from the pandemic, are worried about how construction will affect incoming deliveries, as well as delivery workers picking up food orders.

“The main concern is deliveries,” said Art Herzallah, owner of Freekeh and the Pork Store restaurants on 16th Street. “Uber drivers aren’t going to want to come to pick up food, and Costco drivers aren’t going to want to come drop off.”

...

Herzallah has attended several community meetings related to the project. He said SFMTA told them that construction would proceed in block by block increments, with each section taking about six-to-eight weeks.

SFMTA and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development have convened a working group to develop a marketing campaign for the 16th Street merchants, and to provide technical assistance to businesses. The agency said not every block along the affected corridor will see significant construction, and on those that do, it’s working hard to ensure no outdoor dining parklets are removed.

Several people waiting for the 22 at 16th and Valencia said they hadn’t heard of the construction project. When the project was described to her, Mullane Luigi replied, “Dope… I’d like to see more bus and bike lanes throughout The City.”

https://www.sfexaminer.com/fixes/construction-to-begin-on-16th-street-bus-lanes/


https://www.sfmta.com/projects/16th-street-improvement-project-phase-2

[creamcityleo79]

My husband and I were in San Francisco last weekend and we rode MUNI the whole time. Our hotel was on Van Ness and we were able to use the new Van Ness BRT quite a bit. The service is wonderful. It's very very quick and you never have to wait long before another bus comes. Even though, it was on the weekend, we never had to wait long for any bus/train the whole weekend...and we went all over the city during that time. For someone who doesn't use public transit often (except when visiting Chicago or NYC), the system was easy to navigate and it was really convenient. Just some thoughts from a first-time MUNI user.