SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener announced a master plan to expand the city’s subway system of the San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI).
There are currently two lines that run under the Market Street area and BART’s line that runs from Market to the Mission and Daly City. The city is currently constructing a third subway line, which has been deemed the Central Subway Project, and is slated for completion by 2017. The line will connect Chinatown to the South of Market area.
In a recent Facebook post, Wiener stated, “San Francisco needs more subways, and we should always have one under construction… Today, I’m introducing legislation calling for a Subway Master Plan. San Francisco and the Bay Area are growing by leaps and bounds, and we have enormous congestion on our streets. We need to move more transit underground and provide efficient transit to all parts of San Francisco. building subways is expensive, hard and time consuming. But with political will and a can-do attitude, we can get it done.”
Wiener also stated potential areas for subway expansion, which include extending the Central Subway to reach North Beach and Fisherman’s Wharf. Another plan indicates expansion to the western and south eastern San Francisco areas, and potentially expanding to more destinations along
BART by adding a second transbay tube, which would connect the East Bay to Mission Bay. Wiener also mentioned a downtown rail extension of Caltrans, and a high speed rail from Mission Bay to the future Transbay Transit Center.
According to Wiener, the city is expected to have an additional 150,000 residents by 2040, creating significantly more auto traffic and difficulty with congestion of public transportation on surface streets. These expansion plans will be reviewed by the Board of San Francisco’s land use and transportation committee in the coming months.
