On Saturday January 7, the SFMTA Central Subway connection to the T-3rd line opened for service seven days a week. Caltrain riders can transfer at 4th and Brannan toward Market Street and Chinatown. The T-line line will now run between Chinatown and Bayview seven days a week, every 10 minutes on weekdays and every 12 minutes on weekends. The full opening follows a soft opening in November when it ran weekends only as a shuttle service from 4th and Brannan to Chinatown.
The Central Subway project construction had started in 2012 and was originally set to open in 2018. The project cost $1.578 billion for 1.3 miles of passenger service and .4 miles of non-revenue “tail tracks.” The project was conceived as a way to compensate Chinatown residents after the Embarcadero Freeway was demolished after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.
People using the Central Subway (or other Muni routes) to connect to and from regional destinations via Caltrain and BART are slated to get free transfers, but possibly not until 2024, due to delays with the rollout of the next-generation Clipper payment system.
Have you had a chance to use the Central Subway?
thank you Adina for staying on this!
I haven’t ridden the central subway and if I do it’s likely only out of curiosity. It’s much, much faster to just bike there, especially if you factor in that I’d take the J to get there, which is glacial and can involve considerable time waiting at the platform. I wonder how much ridership it’s getting.
It will be very exciting to extend the T to North Beach and the Marina. would get lots of big destinations for tourists and local residents alike!
Why would Caltrain riders transfer at 4th & Brannan when the 4th & King station is closer?
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