It's been a while since we've heard any news on the Muni Metro Subway Expansion project.
San Francisco is exploring plans to dig a new subway tunnel between West Portal and Parkmerced and also south out to the Ingleside neighborhood, after roughly $960,000 to finish a study of the project was accelerated by Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee on Tuesday morning.
That study was initially slated to take place some years from now, Yee said, but may now start within months.
Quite a bit of study was conducted in association with planned developments, that's a lot of new residents who'll need to get around, eventually sketching out a plan which would bring four-car trains to Parkmerced to accommodate the crowds.
But the project has languished since the SFMTA board made it a priority in 2017.
The ball has since been sitting in the Board of Supervisors' court; up to our elected leaders whether they want to prepare for the City's future transportation needs... or not.
Yee told the San Francisco Examiner that Parkmerced and other neighborhoods he represents will soon see thousands of housing units built — at Parkmerced, at San Francisco State University and perhaps by Stonestown Galleria — necessitating more transit for perhaps 20,000 new residents as well as thousands of current ones.
While most of the M-Oceanview and K-Ingleside corridors have already had preliminary subway layouts and conceptual station designs developed, conceptual engineering work did not include plans for undergrounding into the Twin Peaks tunnel.
With the Board of Supervisors' support, planners can continue developing and evolving the plan to address that concern.
The vision at last check would put the K and M lines in a new subway under West Portal, eliminating the trains which backed up on West Portal Ave and allowing trains up to four-cars long.
The L-Taraval would continue to enter and exit the subway at the existing West Portal Station; free from competition with the K and M lines. It also creates a point for L trains entering the tunnel can be held for a moment to allow a K or M to pass by or to even out bunched trains.
