Muni Metro was notoriously unreliable pre-pandemic. Trains were on time less than 50% of the time – significantly lower than even Muni’s bus service.

In response to this and pandemic-induced service constraints, Muni Metro returned last winter with the J Church no longer entering the subway, running only on the surface between Balboa Park and Church and Duboce. This has contributed to dramatic improvements in travel times and reliability, with a six minute improvement in J-Church travel times from 30th Street to Embarcadero, despite the new transfer at Church, and a net 28% percent reduction in West Portal - Embarcadero travel times.

Now, the SFMTA is threatening to return to the pre-pandemic configuration with all of its associated travel time and reliability issues in order to assuage concerns from a minority of Muni Metro riders. Because so many lines run together in the Market Street subway, however, changes to the subway are not isolated to just one line — they impact every Muni Metro rider.

Pre-pandemic, there were over 163,000 daily Muni Metro riders, but less than 10% of them rode on the J Church, with the N Judah alone carrying almost three times as many riders. The pandemic has only exaggerated this difference: while Muni Metro is currently carrying about 56% of pre-pandemic ridership system-wide, only about 36% of J Church ridership has returned. We can alleviate the concerns of the minority of Muni Metro riders who object to having to transfer to the subway without reintroducing the issues that made the system so unreliable before the pandemic.

Many riders prefer a one-seat ride to a transfer, even if there is no difference in travel time. We support studying running historic streetcars (such as those that run along the F-Market) or buses along the J-Church and having them continue along the surface down Market Street toward the Embarcadero. This option provides the best of both worlds – improved reliability Muni Metro-wide while preserving a one-seat ride downtown.

Right now, there are valid issues with the transfer added by the surface-only route, but we can address these without fully returning to pre-pandemic subway unreliability. Riders are rightfully concerned that the transfer intersection is unsafe due to high car traffic speeds and long pedestrian crossings. To alleviate this, we support increased pedestrian space – including pedestrian bulb outs and re-closing northbound Church street to car traffic with an extended sidewalk – as well as better pedestrian crossings, including longer crossing times. Long term, we would love to see the curb lanes on Church become a pedestrian plaza similar to Jane Warner plaza, making the intersection not only a more pleasant place to transfer but a place for people to thrive.