The S Shuttle is a light rail service on the

Muni Metro Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni Metro served an average of 15 ...

system in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. The service began in 2001 as the S Castro Shuttle, an effort to reduce crowding at

Castro station Castro station is a Muni Metro station at the intersection of Market Street, Castro Street, and 17th Street in The Castro district of San Francisco, California. Station layout and history The station consists of two side platforms next to the ...

. It was briefly discontinued in 2007 when the

T Third Street The T Third Street is a Muni Metro light rail line in San Francisco, California. It runs along the east side of San Francisco — primarily in the median of Third Street — from to the Market Street subway. It is interlined with th ...

line was opened. Service was extended to

St. Francis Circle station St. Francis Circle (also signed as Sloat & St. Francis) is a light rail stop on the Muni Metro K Ingleside and M Ocean View lines, located in the St. Francis Wood neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It opened around 1907 when the Unite ...

in 2013, but cut back to West Portal station in 2016. In 2020, it was changed to full-time service as part of a reconfiguration of Muni Metro service. The designation of S Shuttle is also given to trains at other hours and locations, most commonly to those which run service before and after

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

and Golden State Warriors games to provide additional capacity to Oracle Park and

Chase Center Chase Center is an indoor arena in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The building is the home venue for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and occasionally for the University of San ...

respectively.

History

S Shuttle crossing over near West Portal, June 2017

After the installation of automatic train control in 1998, the maximum Muni Metro frequency through the

Market Street subway The Market Street subway is a two-level subway tunnel that carries Muni Metro and BART trains under Market Street in San Francisco, California.Castro station Castro station is a Muni Metro station at the intersection of Market Street, Castro Street, and 17th Street in The Castro district of San Francisco, California. Station layout and history The station consists of two side platforms next to the ...

while using only a small amount of rolling stock. The service began on April 2, 2001, running only at rush hour on weekdays, with headways between 7 and 12 minutes. A variety of service changes took place with the introduction of full service on the

line on April 7, 2007. The new line was routed through the subway to Castro station, replacing the S Castro Shuttle; changes were also made to the J Church,

N Judah The N Judah is a hybrid light rail/streetcar line of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California. The line is named after Judah Street that it runs along for much of its length, named after railroad engineer Theodore Judah. It links downt ...

, and several bus lines. (The S Castro Shuttle designation continued to be used for extra service to

AT&T Park Oracle Park is a Major League Baseball stadium in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Since 2000, it has been the home of the San Francisco Giants. Previously named Pacific Bell Park, SBC Park, and AT&T Park, the stadium's curren ...

game days.) The changes were unpopular with the public; the Muni Metro changes caused severe delays in the

Market Street subway The Market Street subway is a two-level subway tunnel that carries Muni Metro and BART trains under Market Street in San Francisco, California.the Caltrain station when they previously did not. On June 30, 2007, Muni reversed several of the changes. The J, N, and S were restored to their previous routes, while the T was interlined with the

K Ingleside The K Ingleside is a light rail line of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California. It mainly serves the West Portal and Ingleside neighborhoods. The line opened on February 3, 1918, and was the first line to use the Twin Peaks Tunnel ...

line. The revived shuttle ran on 10-minute headways using three trains. On October 4, 2013, Muni began a pilot of S Shuttle service, which included the first three-car train on Muni Metro since the 1990s. The three-car train and a two-car train ran between Embarcadero and

with only six morning round trips and one evening round trip; the last morning trips ran through to 23rd Street on their way to the Muni Metro East facility. However, the three-car set proved unreliable, and perennial rolling stock shortages caused the shuttles to be frequently cancelled in favor of branch line service. On November 7, 2016, Muni changed the service to a pair of single-car trains running between West Portal station and Embarcadero. The revamped service, which was modeled after similar Hillway shuttles on the

line, ran during weekday morning rush hours. Although it nominally switched back at West Portal, service often instead used a more reliable crossover at Taraval and 19th Avenue station. By 2019, the SFMTA described the S Shuttle as an irregular route meant to supplement other Muni services. On March 30, 2020, Muni Metro service was replaced with buses due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Rail service returned on August 22, with the routes reconfigured to improve reliability in the subway. S Shuttle service frequency was increased, as three other lines no longer entered the subway; two- and three-car trains operated between West Portal and Embarcadero on 6–9 minute headways. Rail service was re-replaced with buses on August 25 due to issues with malfunctioning

overhead wire An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipm ...

splices and the need to quarantine control center staff after a COVID-19 case. K/T and N subway service resumed on May 15, 2021, with S Shuttle service operated to supplement. operate between and for events at Chase Center.

Station listing

References

External links

SFMTA – S Shuttle
{{Muni Muni Metro lines Castro District, San Francisco 2001 establishments in California