San Francisco Transit Faces ‘Devastating’ Cuts

Like other transit operators around the country, San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency faces steep service cuts without additional funding, reports Dan Brekke for KQED.

According to Brekke, “The service reductions that the SFMTA said could be needed to help reduce future annual deficits topping $300 million include reducing the frequency of many busy bus and train lines, ending service on bus routes with the lowest ridership and mothballing the city’s historic cable cars and trolleys.”

The news comes after a transit funding proposition failed to win out over a competing measure. “SFMTA Executive Director Jeff Tumlin told the Muni Funding Working Group on Wednesday that his goal in outlining the draconian service-reduction scenarios is to show the importance of coming up with a politically viable revenue solution that can get on the ballot in 2026.”

Other options for reducing the agency’s expenses include reducing fare discounts and subsidies. All of these steps, Brekke points out, would likely lead to a drop in ridership and “compromise Muni’s efforts to equitably serve a ridership that’s 38% low-income and 70% people of color.” Julie Kirschbaum, SFMTA’s director of transit, said the loss of transit service would slow the city’s overall economic recovery.