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These kind of public transit rumors pop up now and then, but a new Bart line could conceivably be in the works for San Francisco's SOMA district, at least according to reports. If actualized, the line would run along either Folsom or Townsend. Which would be a splendid thing.
While all of this, of course, is hypothetical at this point, the new Bart line idea was cooked up by SPUR (San Francisco Planning, Urban Research Association), who claim, among other things, that the leather district line would create "high paying jobs accessible to residents of the city and region," provide "jobs in a denser format that more efficiently uses space and energy," and "[bring] smart people into contact with one another in a dynamic urban location."
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I think it'd be great to have a complementary BART line running through Rincon Hill, Yerba Buena, and West SoMa .... and I'm cool with denser office building development deeper south into Rincon Hill, but let's preserve Fremont Street between Harrison and Folsom for residential along with most of 1st, Beale, Main, and Harrison Streets. My only concern is attracting neighborhood serving businesses and affordable dining options that are open on the weekends and evenings - too many places are priced for business expensed lunches and dinners, and I have to head elsewhere to get a meal.
I can see the jobs need, but the transit needs seems a little questionable. Is the walk from Folsom to Market really that far?
for those that have difficulty walking, quite far.
How about stopping nearby the ballpark? Then maybe I don't have to curse at Muni for waiting 10 minutes on a packed platform to go home.
No knock, but there's nothing better than when the BART crowd gets off a jam-packed outbound N at Embarcadero after a Giants game, and the rest of us have a relatively relaxed ride home, so I'm also all for this.
F--- the fare inspectors. They check you when you get on the ballpark platform, and sometimes check again when you leave Embarcadero so you can get on BART. Tax dollars my ass.
How about, oh I dunno, paying your fare?
This sounds like just so much apple pie in the sky from San Francisco's number one source: SPUR.
as someone who lives between folsom and harrison, i have to question where this is going to "go".
I mean... underground? Above ground? Where in the world would they put stations?
I think I'd be happier with a muni extension that ran the length of Folsom through maybe Van Ness and meets up with the T/N line at Embarcadro somewhere if we're getting any non-bus options on Folsom.
I've been ordering construction of a South of Market rail line for years, but does anyone listen to me? No. And you all suffer a far poorer quality of life because you don't.
The city plans on turning the area South of Market between the Transbay terminal and Rincon Hill into our own personal Vancouver with some of the highest residential density in town. What kind of realistic transportation options have we cooked up for these new residents? Nothing. Ok, maybe a hypothetical BRT line down Folsom. We need to put a rail tunnel down Folsom or Howard and redirect two of the existing Market Street lines into it. That will both alleviate congestion under Market Street and provide rapid transportation for South of Market residents. We also need to scrap the stupid Chinatown subway and build a real functioning north south subway line that will connect through the Transbay Terminal, Montgomery Street Station, and go all the way to Fisherman's Wharf beneath Columbus Avenue with stops in the Financial District, Chinatown, and North Beach.
A BART line going west Geary-style is the best thing for this city and you all damn well know it.
Absolutely agreed. Get the Van Ness/Geary subway thing going again.
It makes absolutely no sense for all of this transportation on these corridors to be above ground.
Van Ness and Geary are getting Bus Rapid Transit - not rail. All rail money is going to the Chinatown subway. Sorry for you.
Yet above you advocate getting rid of the chinatown subway project. You're making as much sense as usual (read: none).
Travin, it saddens me that your reading comprehension skills have remained so unbalanced. I am opposed to the current Chinatown subway project, not any subway project that might lead to Chinatown. That portion of the city needs to be served by a rail project, just not this subway. There are a multitude of ways that Chinatown and the greater community might be served by public transportation. Duh.
Which is yet another failed idea that will just put more traffic onto our overly congested and over-used surface streets while adding another incompatible transit format into our current list.
What we need is a full subway network. It is the only sensible option for a dense urban environment as basically every other city everywhere else in the world has realized. Our reliance on buses is completely insane for one of the densest cities in the nation.
Put the transit largely underground and we can safely divide the above-ground between cars and bikes with plenty of room for pedestrians. Everyone will win instead of our current shouting matches demanding that we make things anti-car or anti-bike and pro-car (when do we get to give Rob Anderson an official award for Dick of the Year... or is Newsom too hard to unseat there?) as opposed to realizing that most people use, at various times, every available transportation option.
A SOMA BART line really does seem like it would be duplicating service that already exists. We already have a route that really only serves Market and the Mission before continuing southwest, we need to run a route along the Northern or Central portion of the city to provide greater coverage.
"Generic" is right...that Geary line was always part of the plan and the funding for BART...SF just let other areas go "first" for expansion, but we've been paying into BART for some time with the idea one day that temporary fix known as the 38 Geary (going on 50+ years now) would give way to BART service to Ocean Beach.
The only reason they ditched the B Geary line was because they figured it was duplicating the service that was due in about 10 years. Look how well THAT worked out.
I don't think we need bart to the ocean, but an above ground BRT / MUNI train because it would have more stops. Yes it would be slower, but it would be better for the neighborhoods. Bart would be a sprint to downtown.
Also, the central subway extension should continue all the way to the Presidio and link that part of the city to the rest of us. I don't know if its possible, with the landfill and whatever other engineering concerns.
Yeah, I'm not sure who wants/needs to be sprinting to/from Ocean Beach from downtown anyway. Light rail already works well down to the ocean for the N, it's about time Geary (as a much busier thoroughfare) gets the same treatment.
There's a plan afoot to extend the F-Market street car ride to the Marina District through an already existing tunnel beneath Fort Mason. No subway.
Very interesting. A new BART line 3 blocks south of all the other ones...this makes total sense, y/n? What about a BART line going at least partially out Geary? Or running the T and the N all night? If Muni was willing to run all night, many logistical problems would be solved for us service industry peoples getting off work at lonesome late night hours. It would surely be safer and we wouldn't get robbed at 4 am if we could ride Muni.
Suck it up those are the facts.
You could absolutely get robbed at 4am if you could ride Muni.
Yeah, in terms of safety, I'd take the N Owl bus over the second car of a N train at 4 AM any day. They're not gonna run those trains any more than they do the Owl buses, so it won't make your wait in the dark any safer.
wouldn't this just be parallel to the current BART line? i think it'd make more sense for the line to go east-west. like from the richmond to 8th street, and into potrero.
As if BART really needed more urine, feces and cum on the seats.
Thanks, no really.
This is yet another example of why the San Francisco Bay area needs a single unified transit authority to operate all mass transit, just like every other major city throughout the world. This Bart vs Muni vs Caltrans is stupid, unproductive, and a complete waste of everyone's money. It's no way to run a mass transit system.