Updates On Muni's August 2021 Service Changes

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Muni announced on June 24 the initial plan for bringing back additional service in the city starting August.

Increased Late Night Service and Midnight Owl Start Time

One aspect of increasing service is to lengthen the span of service hours. Specifically beginning in August 2021, sixteen bus routes, the K Bus, the N Bus, and the T Bus will run until midnight instead of ending at 10 p.m. as is currently the case. Since all sixteen bus routes plus the three metro bus shuttles are either Owl routes themselves or will be covering portions of Owl routes, Muni's full pre-pandemic Owl network will once again run between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. as was the case before the pandemic instead of between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. as is currently the case. The exception is the L Owl to Fisherman's Wharf which will continue to start service at 10 p.m. For passengers, this means that buses will continue to come more frequently until midnight than the Owl service's 30 minute frequencies. Also important to note is that the 14 Owl frequency continues to be every 15 minutes with the use of 60-foot trolleybuses and the L Owl frequency remains at every 20 minutes with the use of 40-foot buses. Until recently, both the 14 Owl and L Owl only operated with 30 minute frequencies, matching Muni's other Owl routes. Overall, this aspect of the August 2021 service change is definitely positive.

Pre-pandemic Full Route and Route Segment Restorations

A number of bus lines will be restored in two different ways: 1) return to their pre-pandemic routing with little or no route realignments, reductions, or extensions, 2) return to their pre-pandemic routing with larger route realignments, reductions, or extensions.

Routes that fall in the former category of restoration with little or no route changes include the M Ocean View Rail Service, 5R Fulton Rapid, 18 46th Avenue, 28 19th Avenue, 35 Eureka, 36 Teresita, 39 Coit, and 48 Quintara-24th Street. Routes that fall in the latter category of restoration with larger route changes include the 12 Folsom, 23 Monterey, 31 Balboa, 52 Excelsior, 56 Rutland, 57 Parkmerced, 58 Lake Merced, and 66 Quintara.

Routes Restored With Minor or No Route Realignments, Reductions, or Extensions

The 35 Eureka will return to its full pre-pandemic route between Castro Station and Glen Park Bart Station. A slight route realignment for the 35 Eureka is that instead of traveling on Eureka between 21st Street and 23rd Street, the 35 will now use Douglass Street from 21st Street to 24th Street going toward Glen Park Bart Station and Hoffman/Grand View Avenue from 24st Street to 21st Street going toward Castro Station. The route will return to its original routing along Diamond starting at 24th Street all the way to Glen Park Bart Station. This route realignment for the 35 is to serve some stops previously covered by the 48 Quintara-24th Street.

The 48 Quintara-24th Street will also return to its full pre-pandemic route between Ocean Beach and Third Street & 20th Street. Instead of using Grand View Avenue, 21st Street, and Douglass Street to reach 24th Street going eastbound and Hoffman then Grand View Avenue to reach Clipper Street going westbound, the 48 will use its simplified routing along Clipper Street and Diamond Street/Castro Street couplet to reach 24th Street. This change has been in place since the August 22, 2020 service changes. While this does mean that the 48 misses several stops in the hilly Noe Valley neighborhood, an upside is that two 48 buses traveling in opposite directions can avoid getting stuck along the narrow Grandview Avenue which can potentially improve reliability on this east-west crosstown route.

Routes Restored With Major Route Realignments, Reductions, or Extensions

The 12 Folsom will return with the Rincon Hill Route Realignment that shifts the 12 away from traveling on part of Sansome Street and 2nd Street to using the Clay/Sacramento couplet, Main/Spear couplet, and Folsom Street northeast of 2nd Street to better serve Rincon Hill. The southern terminus for the 12 will also be moved from 24 St & Mission St to Caesar Chavez & Bartlett St. Passengers at 24 St & Mission St can still access the 12 by walking four blocks east along 24th St from Mission St to Folsom St.

The 23 Monterey will have its western terminus cut back from SF Zoo at the Great Walkway to West Portal Station with the rest of the route following the pre-pandemic 23 route alignment. This new, temporary change will have the 23 continue on Santa Clara Avenue to Vicente St instead of making a left onto St Francis Blvd to Sloat. The new 23 will use the previous 48 short line layover location along Ulloa St. As noted by SFMTA's director of transit, this change along with several other ones on this list is being done to avoid areas of congestion seen in their respective pre-pandemic routing in order to use limited resources (i.e. bus operators and field supervisors) to serve more areas. In the case of the pre-pandemic 23 routing, the intersection of Portola Drive, St Francis Blvd, Junipero Serra Blvd, Sloat Blvd, and West Portal Avenue caused the 23 to lose up to five minutes on a trip. Also to note, as of the writing of this post, the simplified 23 reroute due to construction at the SFPUC's Southeast Treatment Plant starting on February 22, 2020 along Oakdale Avenue, Industrial St, and Palou Avenue is no longer in place come August 2021.

The 31 Balboa trolleybus route will return in August 2021 with a shortened route between Ocean Beach and Cyril Magnin & Market St at the Powell St Bart/Muni Metro Station. This was recently announced on July 15, 2021 alongside the return of M Ocean View Rail Service in advance of the July 20, 2021 SFMTA Board of Directors meeting when there was planned to be an update on the status of the M Ocean View which SF State University had wanted to know about for the upcoming Fall 2021 semester. Regarding the 31, whether the new, temporary terminus at Powell will have buses use the existing trolleybus overhead contact system (OCS) loop from Eddy St to Mason St onto Turk St or use the energy storage system (ESS) of the New Flyer XT40s to operate off-wire to the stop on Cyril Magnin at Market St remains to be seen.

The 52 Excelsior will return with its original, pre-pandemic routing between Forest Hill Station and Prague St & Persia Ave via Diamond Heights. In addition to the return of the full route, the 52 will be extended from Forest Hill Station to Quintara & 14th Avenue along Laguna Honda Blvd, 7th Avenue, Lawton St, 9th Avenue, Ortega St, 10th Avenue, and Quintara. This is being done to cover the portion of the 6 Haight/Parnassus south of Lawton St since the 6 trolleybus route is still not yet back in service.

The 56 Rutland will return with its full, pre-pandemic routing between Executive Park Blvd and Visitation Valley. Additionally, the 56 will be extended from Visitation Valley Middle School north to Mansell St to connect with the 29 Sunset crosstown route as well as to serve Burton High School. Also starting in August 2021, the 56 will use two buses instead of one bus on weekdays to provide a 20 minute frequency all day instead of its pre-pandemic frequency of every 30 minutes. This additional bus will help support the 56 in the event that one bus breaks down or becomes out of service. Both the extension and the additional bus is in accordance with Muni's Equity Strategy for the 56 Rutland.

The 57 Parkmerced will be truncated into two shorter routes: the 57 Parkmerced and 58 Lake Merced. The 57 will run only between Eucalyptus Drive & Junipero Serra Blvd and Daly City Bart via Stonestown Shopping Center and Parkmerced. The reintroduction of the 57 this upcoming August 2021 originally had the 57 terminate at Stonestown. But based on feedback, the route has been extended slightly up Eucalyptus to connect with the K/T Ingleside/Third Street Rail Line for riders heading to and from downtown. Keep in mind that the pre-pandemic 57 Parkmerced went all the way to West Portal Station to connect with Muni Metro Rail Service to downtown. I feel that part of the reason for not extending this new, temporary 57 all the way to West Portal Station is at least in part to use only two buses on the route running at a 20 minute frequency all day, everyday. If the 57 was extended to West Portal, buses would have had to wait at the messy intersection at St Francis Circle that the 23 Monterey route avoided by having the new 58 Lake Merced route take its place along Sloat. The result may be that an additional bus could be needed to maintain a 20 minute frequency on the route.

The 58 Lake Merced will run only between 19th Ave & Winston and San Jose Ave & Mission, Top of the Hill. The 58 will likely share layover space with the 18 46th Avenue at Stonestown and share layover space with the 14 Mission at the other terminus. Starting at Stonestown, the 58 routing will follow the old 57 alignment on 20th Ave to Eucalyptus, then the 58 will take a left onto Junipero Serra Blvd, left onto Sloat, left onto Skyline Blvd, John Muir Drive, Lake Merced Blvd, left onto John Daly Blvd to serve the Westlake Shopping Center, past Daly City Bart Station, continue along John Daly Blvd until Mission St. It is very possible that the 58 is taking over the 23 route along Sloat west of Junipero Serra Blvd since the 58 is a shorter route and may be able to better absorb the delay caused by that multi-directional intersection more so than the 23, which is a long, crosstown route. The 58 could end up using three buses.

The 66 Quintara will return in August 2021 with its full, pre-pandemic route between Vicente St & 30th St and 9th Avenue & Judah St. In addition to the return of the full route, the 66 will be extended from 9th Avenue & Judah St to Stanyan St & Haight St along Parnassus Ave and Stanyan St. This extension, much like the 52 Excelsior extension to Quintara & 14th Ave, is being done to cover for the 6 Haight/Parnassus to UCSF Parnassus. I want to point out that this new 66 extension is rather interesting since passengers from the Parkside neighborhood can now reach the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park and the Panhandle with a one-seat ride. While having a one-seat ride to destinations around the city is not always so important, in this scenario, passengers in the Parkside area have rather limited transit options that are frequent or reliable enough to get to the eastern portion of Golden Gate Park without making the trip feel like a hassle to make. I want to point out this does not apply to passengers along Noriega St as they have the 7 Haight/Noriega route. The use cases for this new 66 extension apply more to residents in the Parkside neighborhood such as along 30th Avenue.