The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni ) is the primary public transit system within San Francisco, California. It operates a system of bus routes (including trolleybuses), the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable car lines, and two historic streetcar lines. Previously an independent agency, the San Francisco Municipal Railway merged with two other agencies in 1999 to become the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). In 2018, Muni served 46.7 sqmi with an operating budget of about $1.2 billion.[4] Muni is the seventh highest-ridership transit system in the United States, with rides in, and the second highest in California after the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Operations
Most bus lines are scheduled to operate every five to fifteen minutes during peak hours, every five to twenty minutes middays, about every ten to twenty minutes from 9 pm to midnight, and roughly every half-hour for the late night "owl" routes. On weekends, most Muni bus lines are scheduled to run every ten to twenty minutes. However, complaints of unreliability, especially on less-often-served lines and older (pre-battery backup) trolleybus lines, are a system-wide problem. Muni has had some difficulty meeting a stated goal of 85% voter-demanded on-time service.[5][6]
All Muni lines run inside San Francisco city limits, with the exception of several lines serving locations in the northern part of neighboring Daly City, and the 76X Marin Headlands Express line to the Marin Headlands area on weekends and major holidays. Most intercity connections are provided by BART and Caltrain heavy rail, AC Transit buses at the Salesforce Transit Center, and Golden Gate Transit and SamTrans downtown.
Bus and cable car stops throughout the city vary from Metro stations with raised platforms in the subway and at the more heavily used surface stops, to small shelters to signposts to simply a yellow stripe on a utility pole or on the road surface. 70% of stops are spaced closer than recommended range of 800 – apart.[7]
Name and logo
The system is popularly known as "Muni", a shortening of the "Municipal" in "San Francisco Municipal Railway" (and not an acronym).[8] Muni's logo is a stylized, trademarked "worm" version of the word muni.[9] This logo was designed by San Francisco-based graphic designer Walter Landor in the mid-1970s.[10]
Announcements
To cater to the large Hispanic and Latino American and Asian American populations in San Francisco, bus announcements are in four languages: English, Spanish, Cantonese and Tagalog.
Route names
Bus and trolleybus lines are identified by a number and a route name that typically incorporates the street on which the route operates its longest segment, though it is occasionally a destination or landmark. For example, the 1-California line runs the majority of its route along California Street. Rail lines have letters as well as a name designation (J-Church, K-Ingleside, L-Taraval, M-Ocean View, N-Judah, T-Third), and the three cable car lines are typically referred to by name only (Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde and California).
Fares
Except for cable cars, cash fares are $3.00 for adults; $1.50 for seniors over 65, people with disabilities, and Medicare card holders; and free for low- and moderate-income seniors, youth aged 18 and under, and people with disabilities residing in San Francisco. Clipper card and MuniMobile fares are $2.85 for adults and $1.40 for seniors and people with disabilities.[11] Proof-of-payment, which fare inspectors may demand at any time, is either a Clipper card, MuniMobile, Muni Passport, or paper transfer. One fare entitles a rider to unlimited vehicle transfers for the next 120 minutes.[12] Cable cars are $9[13] one way, with no transfers, unless the rider has a Muni Passport or a Muni monthly pass. As of August 2025, monthly passes cost $86 for adults ($104 with BART privileges within city limits),[14] $43 for low-income residents ("Lifeline Pass"),[15] or $43 for seniors and people with disabilities.[16]
Special services
Muni operates 14 express lines, 5 Rapid lines, and 12 Owl lines, which run between 1 am and 5 am. For San Francisco Giants games, additional "baseball shuttles" supplement N Judah and T Third service to Oracle Park.[76]
Express lines only run during peak hours; during mornings they run towards downtown (the Financial District) and during the evening they run away from downtown. All express lines have an "X", "AX", or "BX" following the line's number. Some lines are divided into A and B Expresses. The B Express line is shorter and has stops that are closer to downtown, while the A Express makes stops further away from downtown and will make few or no stops in the area where the B Express stops. The 8 Bayshore, as the 8X Bayshore Express, was the only Express route that ran daily until April 25, 2015, the date when it was no longer an Express route.
Rapid lines (having an R following their route number) are limited-stop services. They stop at only a subset of the stops of their corresponding "standard" line—typically every third stop and at transfer points.
Cable car system
Muni also operates the San Francisco cable car system, a heritage streetcar system descendant of a larger network of manually operated
Statistics
The longest Muni line is the 24.1 mi a nighttime-only route that blends several other routes together, while the longest daytime route is the 17.4 mi. The shortest route is the peak-hour only at 1.4 mi, while the shortest off-peak route is the at 1.6 mi. The steepest grade climbed by Muni vehicle is 23.1% by a diesel-electric hybrid bus on the line, 22.8% by a trolleybus on the line and 21% by a cable car on the Powell-Hyde line.[77]
The busiest Muni bus corridor is the Geary corridor. The two major routes that operate on the corridor, the and, travel 6.5 mi in the east–west direction along the Geary corridor, and has an average speed of only 8 mph,[78] taking over 50 minutes to travel from the Richmond District to the Transbay Terminal when operating on schedule.[79] As of 2015, the corridor has a total of 55,270 average daily boardings,[80] making it the second busiest transit corridor west of the Mississippi after the Los Angeles Metro Wilshire transit corridor.[81]
Governance
Since the passage of Proposition E in November 1999, Muni has been part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), a semi-independent city agency created by that ballot measure. The agency, into which Muni, the Department of Parking and Traffic, and the Taxicab Commission were merged, is governed by a seven-member Board of Directors appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Board of Supervisors. The acting Director of Transportation of the SFMTA since August 15, 2019 has been Thomas Maguire, appointed by the SFMTA Board as the interim replacement for Director of Transportation Edward Reiskin.[90][91][92] On April 29, 2019, Director Reiskin announced that he would step down at the end of his contract in August 2019.[93][94] On November 13, 2019, the agency announced that Jeffrey Tumlin would take over as the new director on December 16, 2019.[95]
History
Early years
Muni has its origins in the period following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Until then the city had been served by several commercial horsecar, cable car and electric streetcar operators. Many of these had been amalgamated into the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR) company. In 1909, voters approved a municipal rail line down Geary. Three years later in 1912, the city declined to renew the franchise that bestowed cable car operator Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway the privilege of operating on Geary Street. The route was converted into a municipal electric streetcar line,[98][99] the first line of Muni. (In 1912, the average speed of the city's public transit was approximately 8.5 miles per hour[100] – slightly faster than the average speed of 8.1 in 2007.)[101]
System expansion
Muni Metro and rail service
Several proposals for Muni Metro and rail service expansion for Muni are undergoing planning and construction. In addition, several projects are underway to improve the effectiveness of existing lines, many as a part of the Muni Forward initiative. On February 19, 2016, Muni released a Draft Rail Capacity Study,[175] which outlines proposed system improvements through the year 2050 and beyond. This three-tier proposal consists of enhancements that will improve system efficiency and expand the system; estimated cost is $9–16 billion. The ConnectSF planning project, a cooperation between several city agencies including Muni, identified candidate corridors for future subway and rapid transit corridor expansion.[176] The transit strategy report from the project concluded that two new corridors should be developed: the Geary Boulevard and 19th Avenue corridor and an extension of the Central Subway to Fisherman's Wharf.[177][178]
See also
- Key System
- Market Street Railway Company
- San Francisco cable car system
- Trolleybuses in San Francisco
Further reading
- Perles, Anthony, with John McKane, Tom Matoff, and Peter Straus, The People's Railway: The History of the Municipal Railway in San Francisco. Glendale: Interurban Press, 1981. ISBN 0-916374-42-4. A detailed, illustrated history of Muni from its inception through 1980.
External links
- NextBus for Muni, a GPS system that predicts vehicle arrival times.
- Market Street Railway
References
- Mayor Lurie, SFMTA Board of Directors Name Julie Kirschbaum SFMTA Director of Transportation San Francisco Office of the Mayor, February 18, 2025^
- Muni's History San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, retrieved July 6, 2014^
- Joe Eskenazi. The Muni Death Spiral