Recap of Muni's May 2021 Service Changes

Saturday, July 17, 2021

On May 15, 2021, another round of service changes was put into effect that mostly increased service coverage across the city. One of the biggest news from May was the restart of Muni Metro rail service in the subway on the N Judah between Ocean Beach and Caltrain Depot as well as on the K/T Ingleside/Third Street between Balboa Park and Sunnydale. Historic streetcars on the F Market/Wharves also came back for the first time since before the pandemic, now running from 7am to 9pm.

Muni Metro Hours and Supplemental Metro Bus Shuttles

As has always been the case, the Muni Metro Subway opens up for train operations later than the first few early morning light rail line trips to and from downtown. The same is true in the late night as of the writing of this post, partly as a result of Bart's early closing time at 9 p.m. which forces Muni Metro rail service through the subway to also close early at 9 p.m.

The N Judah Metro Bus Shuttle has the more straight-forward operating pattern. On weekday mornings from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. before the subway opens, the N Bus runs between Ocean Beach and Caltrain Depot and also from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. after the subway closes. On weekend mornings from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. before the subway opens, the N Bus runs between Ocean Beach and Caltrain Depot and also from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. after the subway closes.

The K Ingleside and T Third Street Bus Shuttles are not interlined and have a more convoluted operating pattern. On weekday mornings from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. before the subway opens, the K Bus is not running, meaning passengers at or near Balboa Park Station will either need to take the J Church light rail line from Balboa Park Station and transfer to a L Bus at Church & Market or take the M Bus from Balboa Park Station and transfer to the L Bus at West Portal Station. On weekend mornings from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. before the subway opens, the K Bus runs between Balboa Park Station and Embarcadero Station.

Every night, the K Bus runs only between Balboa Park Station and West Portal Station after the subway closes from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. This means passengers will have to transfer to an L Bus at West Portal Station at this time to continue downtown.

On weekday mornings from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. before the subway opens, the T Bus runs between Embarcadero Station and Sunnydale and also from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. after the subway closes. On weekend mornings from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. before the subway opens, the T Bus runs between Embarcadero Station and Sunnydale and also from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. after the subway closes.

36/52 Special

Besides rail service, there were also changes and new additions to bus service. A new, temporary loop route called the 36/52 Special was launched to connect Midtown Terrace and the hilltop communities with Forest Hill Station and Glen Park. There are three buses, usually 30-foot Orion VIIs, that operate both the clockwise and counterclockwise loop and they only layover at Forest Hill Station.

To understand how the scheduling works, let's track the progress of just a single bus that begins its trip on the hour serving the clockwise loop. Starting at Forest Hill Station, the bus follows the 52 Excelsior route along Laguna Honda, Woodside, Portola, Duncan, Diamond Heights, and Diamond before arriving at Glen Park Bart Station. At this point, the bus will continue along the 36 Teresita route along Monterey, Foerster, Teresita, Reposa Way, Myra Way, Woodside, and Laguna Honda to Forest Hill Station. This section of the loop should have taken about 30 minutes to complete. At this point, the bus will continue along Laguna Honda, Clarendon, Panorama Drive, Marview Way, Skyview Way, Cityview Way, Panorama Drive, Olympia Way, Clarendon, Laguna Honda back to Forest Hill Station. This section of the route should have taken about 10 minutes to complete serving Midtown Terrace and is only operated by buses that began their trip on the clockwise loop. Adding up the duration of the previous two portions of the route, we are now about 40 minutes into this particular bus's trip.

The operator takes about a 5 minute layover here at Forest Hill Station before leaving to do the counterclockwise loop. This time, instead of first following the 52 Excelsior alignment to Glen Park Bart Station, the bus would follow the 36 Teresita alignment. Just like before, the bus should be back at Forest Hill Station after about 30 minutes, at which point the operator takes a longer, 15 minute layover. In total, the combination of a clockwise loop run, a short layover, a counterclockwise loop run, and a longer layover takes roughly 90 minutes to complete. Since we assumed the bus to have started this cycle at the top of the hour, we are now back at Forest Hill half past the hour.

One takeaway from this is that buses beginning on the clockwise loop leave Forest Hill Station on the hour and half past the hour while buses starting with the counterclockwise loop depart at a quarter and three quarters past the hour. Passengers at Forest Hill Station going to Midtown Terrace should wait at the bus stop across the street from the Muni Metro Station Headhouse. Passengers at points along the regular 52 Excelsior route going to Midtown Terrace should board buses going in the direction of Glen Park Bart Station and those along the regular 36 Teresita Route should board buses going in the direction of Forest Hill Station. If the destination on the buses are signed correctly, a trick to identifying buses running the clockwise loop is to look for the phrase "via Diamond" on the front destination sign. Otherwise, passengers can take any bus in any direction, all of which will eventually arrive at Forest Hill and either get off to wait for the clockwise loop bus serving Midtown Terrace or stay on if you are already on the appropriate bus.

8 Bayshore Short Line

The 8AX Bayshore 'A' Express was reintroduced on January 23, 2021 to run on weekdays only from 5 a.m. to 7p.m. at an approximately 8 minute frequency during the previous round of service changes to supplement the regular 8 Bayshore. With the May 2021 round of service changes, the 8AX became the 8 Bayshore short line running everyday from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at an approximately 10 minute frequency. While this change shortened the span of service on weekdays by two hours and increased the combined 8/8AX frequencies from every 4 minutes to every 5 minutes along San Bruno Avenue, we gained service on weekends as well as increased service along Geneva Avenue. Between the 8 Bayshore long and short lines, this resulted in a combined frequency of approximately every 5 minutes between City College and Stockton & Pacific.

Reduction In Route Frequencies Only After 7 p.m.

With the May 2021 service changes, we saw a decrease in frequencies on several routes. The following route frequencies were decreased from every 10 or 12 minutes to every 15 minutes every night after 7pm: J Church, 15 Bayview-Hunters Point Express, 22 Fillmore, 28 19th Avenue, 29 Sunset, and 44 O'Shaughnessy.

The following route frequencies were decreased from every 15 minutes to every 20 minutes every night after 7pm: M Ocean View Bus, 12 Pacific, 55 Dogpatch.

The following route frequency was decreased from every 20 minutes to every 30 minutes every night after 7pm: 37 Corbett.

The following route frequencies were decreased from every 12 minutes to every 15 minutes on weekdays only after 7pm since their weekend frequencies after 7pm were already every 15 minutes or worse: 30 Stockton, 43 Masonic, 45 Union-Stockton, and 48 Quintara-24th St.

The following route frequency was decreased from every 15 minutes to every 20 minutes on weekends only after 7pm: 48 Quintara-24th St.