Urban Action 2012

Map 4A: N-Judah current transit stops La Playa & Judah to Irving & 4th Map 4B: N-Judah reimagined transit stops on the same route is converting the J-Church Muni Metro line into a Historic Street Car line.

The J-Line has the lowest ridership of all of the LRV lines in San Francisco at 16,695 daily boardings (SFMTA, 2007). The level of ridership on the J-Line could be accommodated by a Historic Street Car. The J-Church has almost 2,000 less daily riders than the existing F-Market & Wharves Historic Street Car (SFMTA, 2007). The low level of ridership is most likely a result of the J line’s close proximity to the Mission Street Tunnel of the BART subway system and the Muni Metro Market Street Tunnel. For half of its surface operation, the line runs within a half of a mile from the BART subway, and within one third of a mile from the Market Street Subway. For the other half of its surface operation, the J-Church runs directly adjacent to the BART subway line from 30th Street until the J-Church’s terminus at the Balboa Park BART Station.

The portion of the J-Church line that runs in the Market Street Tunnel could be rerouted onto the surface of Market Street. Inbound on Church Street the train could make a right turn on to Market Street instead of continuing north on Church Street and entering the Duboce Tunnel. The J-Church not entering the subway would free up capacity in the tunnel. The increased tunnel capacity could be used by the N-Line. The J-Line could use the tracks used by the F-Line on Market Street. Since it would no longer need to use vehicles capable of subway operation, the J-Church could use refurbished historic street cars that already exist within Muni rolling stock. The LRVs that the J-Church is currently using could be used by the N-Judah in order to increase trip frequency. Though this solution has the most potential effect in increasing the capacity of the N-Judah, its implementation would be highly politically constested because adding sixteen thousand daily transit trips to Market Street would greatly decrease its Level of Service (LOS) for all modes. The decrease in automobile LOS would most likely be the most political. This option is low cost as it would only require adding track to allow the J-Church to turn on and off of Market Street, and reassigning existing rolling stock.

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