M Ocean View

History

The M Ocean View line began operation in 1925 with the outbound terminus at the intersection of Broad Street and Plymouth Avenue in the city's Ocean View District, where streetcars used a wye to turn around. Service along this route was replaced by buses in 1939, but rail service was shortly restored in 1944. While many streetcar lines were permanently converted to buses after World War II, the M Ocean View remained a streetcar line due to its use of the Twin Peaks Tunnel. On August 30, 1980, the line was extended to Balboa Park BART station. The line was partially converted to modern light-rail operation with the opening of the Muni Metro system in 1980. Eureka Station in the Twin Peaks Tunnel was originally a stop in regular service, but the station was closed in 1972 and replaced, ten years later, by Castro Street Station when the Market Street Subway system opened.

St. Francis Circle Project

In May 2010, the San Francisco MTA began a major project to reconstruct and replace the rail junction at St. Francis Circle. The MTA decided to discontinue all M Ocean View rail service for the duration of the project. Passengers were required to take K Ingleside trains (which temporarily terminated at 14th Avenue) or L Taraval trains and transfer to temporary shuttle bus service at West Portal. Full M Ocean View service was restored on Sept. 4, 2010.

Route description

The line runs from the Embarcadero Station in the Financial District to Geneva Avenue and San Jose Avenue near City College of San Francisco in the Balboa Park neighborhood. The downtown portion of the line runs through the Market Street Subway, which it shares with the four other Muni Metro lines. It continues through the much older Twin Peaks Tunnel, along with the K Ingleside and L Taraval lines, emerging at West Portal Station. From there, it follows West Portal Avenue to the Saint Francis Circle, where it then takes its own right-of-way to 19th Avenue. The portion of the line on 19th Avenue between where it joins 19th near Eucalyptus Drive and Junipero Serra Boulevard is a right-of-way separated from the street. This section has two stations with high-platforms, one at the Stonestown Galleria on Winston Drive and the other at San Francisco State University on Holloway Avenue. It continues on 19th Avenue past Junipero Serra to Randolph Street. At the end of Randolph, the M uses Orizaba Avenue to get to Broad Street and takes that to San Jose Avenue. The rest of the line follows San Jose Avenue to Geneva Avenue, where the line loops around the Metro yard there on the corner opposite from Balboa Park Station.

The M Ocean View line stops at large stations for the downtown section of the route and on 19th Avenue and at smaller stops on the rest of the line. Most of the smaller stops are nothing more than a sign on the side of the street designating a stop and a few others are concrete 'islands' in the middle of the street next to the tracks that provide access for wheelchairs. Muni bus routes provide service to all stations and other systems with access to the stations are noted.

19th Avenue Transit Study

M Ocean View moves at only 8.5 to 9.5 miles per hour (13.7 to 15.3 km/h) during afternoon commute hours over a 2-mile (3.2 km) distance along 19th Avenue/Highway 1. The slow speed is attributed to stopping the train at multiple busy street crossings. In addition, the majority of riders access 19th Avenue stops from the west side of 19th, since Stonestown Galleria, San Francisco State University and Parkmerced are all located west of 19th. In order to access the stops, which are located in the median of 19th Avenue, pedestrians cross three lanes of traffic and a turn lane. In San Francisco, 55% of severe and fatal pedestrian accidents occur on 7% of its street miles, which includes the 19th Avenue/Highway 1 corridor. In response, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority commissioned a study, published in 2014 to explore options to facilitate pedestrian access and improve travel times.

The option that has been selected is the full subway alternative. The M Ocean View and K Ingleside will remain underground along West Portal Avenue. The current West Portal station will most likely have to be redesigned as a two-level station with the K and M lines on the lower level and the L line on the upper level. The K/M lines will remain underground through Saint Francis Circle with the K line branching off and coming to the surface on Junipero Serra Boulevard just south of Saint Francis Circle. The M line will remain underground along the current right of way with a possible station at Ocean Avenue in Lakeside Village. The M line will continue underground with new subway stations at Stonestown, SF State, and Parkmerced. The line will end at Parkmerced with a long tail track which may connect to a future Daly City BART extension of the M line. The expected cost of this project is expected to be approximately $3 billion.

Operation

The M Ocean View begins service at 5 a.m. weekdays, 6 a.m. Saturdays and 8 a.m. Sundays, with the end of service occurring around 12:30 a.m. each night. It operates a headway of 9 to 12 minutes during the day, and 15 to 20 minutes at night. There is no late night service along the entire M line, however part of the L-Owl diesel bus line runs from West Portal Station to Market Street and Steuart Street, near Embarcadero Station, and the 91 Owl line operates on 19th Avenue. On Sunday mornings only, there is a M-Owl diesel bus line that runs on surface streets from Market Street and Steuart Street to Balboa Park between the times owl service stops and the underground subway stations open.

Station and stop listing

inbound to outbound