G-Geary: Northern Subway in San Francisco

Many of San Francisco Municipal Railway's first established rail lines were along the Geary Street corridor; this major East-West axis in received early and heavy transit investment with the A-Geary-10th, B-Geary, C-Geary-California and D-Geary-Van Ness all in operation one hundred years ago. The corridor's current service (the 38-Geary cluster of busses) boasted over 55,000 daily boardings in 2007 — as real estate in eastern San Francisco continues to soar skyward, the western parts of this corridor are densifying and are ripe for the return of train service.

The G-Geary first phase subway connects Rincon Hill to the Financial District, Nob Hill, the Tenderloin and Japantown; the second phase extension continues with rail service to Western Addition/NoPa and the Richmond district.

This is a dream for rail service on the Geary Street Corridor. Stretching from the Rincon Hill, Transbay and FiDi South neighborhoods south of Market Street through downtown, Cinatown, Nob Hill and the Tenderloin to Japantown and the Western Addition, this alignment creates a skip-stop transfer network with the existing Market Street and currently under construction Central Subway. Utilizing an existing undercrossing through Rincon Hill and keeping the line shallow to allow cut-and-cover connection between the new Transbay station and Embarcadero keep the eastern alignment costs relatively low; a tunneling machine would be required only for the deep bore under Nob and Cathedral Hills, a tunnel which would serve three of the most densely populated and still densifying portions of the City of San Francisco, namely the Financial District, Chinatown/Downtown, and Nob Hill/Tenderloin/Polk Gulch.

Phase 1 / Subway

(view phase 1 G-Geary Subway in a larger map _ read methodology for proximal population statistics)


A scheme to provide Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) along the Geary Street corridor is currently in the planning stages, and hopefully opening for service before 2020. Terminating phase 1 rail constuction in an elevated station at Webster allows for vertical loading and unloading of trains from busses below, which with timed transfers which would speed movement from the Richmond District downtown hugely. When ready, phase 2 light rail could replace the BRT.

Phase 2 / Light Rail Transit

(view phase 2 GRx-Geary Richmond Extension in a larger map)