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Muni Metro Fix-It Week Maintains the Subway Infrastructure By Jessie Liang Track crew removing old rail at the Van Ness crossover  The first Muni Metro Fix-It Week of 2023 was a resounding success in March, and it’s also the first Fix-It Week since the SFMTA launched the Central Subway in early January of this year. Here is a behind-the-scenes video recap . Fix-It Week is the SFMTA’s quarterly effort to optimize work time by closing Muni Metro early for critical maintenance. The SFMTA’s Maintenance of Way (MOW) teams did an excellent job maintaining the subway and preventing future breakdowns.  Fix-It Week helps the Muni Metro get a 20% improvement in speed and about a 20% improvement in reliability in the subway. It takes fewer minutes to take the N Judah from the Outer Sunset to Embarcadero now than it did in 2019.   From March 16 to March 22, 2023, the Muni Metro Subway between Embarcadero and West Portal closed at 9:30 p.m. to provide SFMTA maintenance crews an extended windo

Track Work Through the Years By Jeremy Menzies San Francisco’s unique rail system brings together 150-year-old cable cars, historic electric streetcars of all shapes and sizes and modern light rail vehicles.   Many trades across the SFMTA play a critical role in keeping the system moving. This month we look back in time at the work of one such group, the Track Department. While the lines and technologies of SF’s street railway have changed over the years, some of the base-level work, tools and skills needed to maintain our tracks are the same today as they were over 100 years ago.  A decade before Muni was founded, the United Railroads Company (URR) dominated San Francisco’s transit system. URR owned and operated nearly 400 miles of street and cable car track all over the city. To keep this network in service, their track department was fully equipped to handle any possible construction or repair job.  All hands were on deck for this job outside the Ferry Building in 1912. Here,

SFMTA Retires the Orion, First Hybrid Bus in Cleanest Transit Fleet By Clive Tsuma San Francisco’s first low-emissions electric hybrid Orion bus Muni’s Orion hybrid buses are headed for retirement as we phase in a brand-new batch of El Dorado hybrid electric buses . It’s the end of an era for San Francisco’s first low-emissions electric hybrid fleet that travels the city’s toughest routes. Orion hybrid fleet tackles Muni’s toughest routes starting in 2007 The Orion buses have been a testament to the SFMTA’s commitment to the latest green transportation technologies . Muni, which previously had relied on a diesel bus fleet in coordination with our electric trolley bus fleet,   transitioned to its first 30-foot Orion diesel hybrid-electric buses in 2007. This was the start of the SFMTA’s addition of these lower emission vehicles to one of the greenest fleets in the country , ensuring better air quality city wide. The Orions brought the agency closer to achieving its goal of an al

This Week is Bike & Roll to School Week! By Crysta Highfield Artwork by Ai Yamada, SFUSD student and winner of 2023 art contest, showing a girl bicycling down a road away from the viewer and featuring three cats. Additional text reads Bike & roll to School Week, San Francisco, April 24-28, 2023. Hey. San Francisco! It's time to lace up your shoes, put on your helmets, and get ready to roll for Bike & Roll to School Week ! Every year, our Safe Route to School program puts on this event to celebrate students getting around on their own power, whether by bike, wheelchair, scooter or skateboard, walking , or any other form of active transportation! This year’s celebration is April 24-28, at schools citywide. San Francisco Safe Routes to School is a partnership of city agencies and nonprofits, led by the SFMTA, that helps make walking and bicycling to school safer and more accessible for all San Francisco children and youth and to increase the number of families who

Muni Improvements Draw Increased Ridership By Kate McCarthy 38 Geary buses zip downtown on new transit lanes that improve travel times for Muni riders. As Earth Day approaches and we think about how to encourage more people to take non-car trips, recent Muni improvement projects are drawing increased ridership across the city. While Muni ridership downtown has not yet rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, ridership has gone up on Muni lines where we have improved speed and frequency of Muni service.  Muni is a lifeline for many of our riders: 70% of Muni riders have an annual income of less than $50,000. As we restored and added Muni service after the start of the pandemic, we invested in the routes that serve people who rely on transit and need it most. For example, after we installed transit lanes, increased frequency and re-routed the 22 Fillmore to bring people to their jobs and medical appointments in Mission Bay, ridership increased to 107% of pre-pandemic levels on weekdays and

There’s a Community Shuttle Coming to the Bayview By A new shuttle to serve Bayview’s diverse communities A new community shuttle is coming to Bayview-Hunters Point in January of 2024, and we need your help designing it! The SFMTA is partnering with the California Air Resources Board and nine community-based organizations to launch a dynamic service community shuttle that truly meets your needs. A community shuttle has been a long-desired service for this geographically isolated community, and was identified as a top priority in the Bayview Community Based Transportation Plan . This program builds off of previous community shuttle efforts like the Bayview Moves program. To share your voice, take our survey now or attend one of our upcoming community partner events . A “dynamic service” shuttle is one that doesn’t have a fixed route like a bus line, but instead operates in a “service area.” The shuttle will pick up and drop off riders anywhere within the Bayview area and c

10 Reasons to Love San Francisco Parking Control Officers By Pamela Johnson SMILE, ready for our close ups!  To learn more about the day in the life of a hard working Parking Control Officer (PCO), take a look here . It isn't easy being a parking control officer (PCO) in San Francisco. None of us likes to get a parking ticket, and we sometimes wrongly take out our frustrations on the PCOs who are simply doing their job to keep San Francisco moving. To help you avoid veering off into negativity during your next encounter with an SFMTA Parking Control Officer, we’re providing you with this list of reasons you should actually love PCOs. Keep your favorite reason in mind next time you see a PCO on the street. Instead of getting angry with them, you might even consider appreciating them for dedicating themselves to this tough job rain or shine. Top 10 reasons to love San Francisco Parking Control Officers:  They keep the intersections in the Financial District clear — and pedes