Central Subway (San Francisco)

rdf:langString Central Subway (San Francisco)

rdf:langString Central Subway

rdf:langString Central Subway

rdf:langString A light rail train at an underground station

rdf:langString A test train at Union Square/Market Street in November 2022

rdf:langString Third Street Light Rail Project Phase 2

rdf:langString Weekend service

rdf:langString The Central Subway is a Muni Metro light rail tunnel in San Francisco, California. It runs between Chinatown station in Chinatown and a portal in South of Market (SoMa), with intermediate stops at Union Square/Market Street station in Union Square and Yerba Buena/Moscone station in SoMa. A surface portion runs through SoMa to connect to the existing T Third Street line at 4th and King station. The project was initiated after the Embarcadero Freeway was torn down following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, as activist Rose Pak "almost single-handedly persuaded the city to build" the Central Subway to compensate Chinatown for the loss of the fast cross-town connection. Ground was broken for the Central Subway on February 9, 2010. Tunnel boring for the Central Subway was completed at Columbus and Powell Street in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco on June 11, 2014. Originally set to open in late 2018, the subway opened for weekend public service on November 19, 2022, with full weekday service on January 7, 2023. With the addition of the Central Subway, the T Third line is projected to become Muni Metro system's highest ridership line by 2030. The budget to complete the Central Subway is $1.578 billion. The project is funded primarily through the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program. In October 2012, the FTA approved a Full Funding Grant Agreement, the federal commitment of funding through New Starts, for the Central Subway for a total amount of $942.2 million. The Central Subway is also funded by the State of California, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the City and County of San Francisco.