Major SFMTA service expansion coming August 22

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is launching its broadest and most complex service changes come since the start of the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order.

Come Aug. 22, SFMTA will restore or expand 11 bus routes, increase frequencies on 13 bus routes and return Muni Metro.

These service changes support the city’s essential workers and economic recovery by providing more connections to neighborhood commercial districts. Adding more service on high ridership lines and upsizing some lines to larger buses will help relieve crowding on those lines.

Service hours will be approximately 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily, unless otherwise noted. Owl network service hours will remain approximately 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. daily unless otherwise noted.

A full list of routes and service frequencies are available on SFMTA’s website. 

Focusing limited resources

The Aug. 22 service changes will put SFMTA close to maximizing the number of available operators and vehicles out on the street to serve customers. Due to the need for physical distancing, it now takes three times as many vehicles to move people as before the COVID-19 emergency. At the same time, SFMTA’s budget shortfalls prevent the hiring of more operators and cleaners or purchasing more vehicles. Given these restrictions, these are likely to be the last major service increases tied to the city’s COVID-19 recovery, with exceptions of minor updates, says SFMTA.