Third Street Light Rail Project

The Third Street Light Rail Project is the construction project that expanded the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California along the eastern side of the city. Construction was finished near the end of 2006, and a weekend-only non-revenue service began on January 13, 2007. Full service started April 7, 2007.Gordon, Rachael. [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/26/BAGCTK5BR51.DTL Third Street seeing streetcars / Test runs for light-rail project begin at last] . "San Francisco Chronicle." July 26 2006. Retrieved July 26 2006.] The new service, as the T Third Street Metro line, replaced most of the now defunct 15 Third bus line, running south from the Caltrain depot at 4th Street and King Street, along Third Street and Bayshore Boulevard to the Bayshore Caltrain Station in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood.

The extension was supposed to connect directly to the Bayshore Caltrain Station when the station was in San Francisco County. However, as part of Caltrain's 2004 CTX project, Caltrain relocated the Bayshore Station to San Mateo County without informing Muni. To complicate matters, this connection has been plagued by cost and design issues. As a result, the initial line's terminus will be at the Sunnydale station on 3rd Street for the time being.

The T-line operates from the Castro Street Station to the Caltrain depot and then along the new extension. The 15 Third bus line was eliminated and the 9X line was extended to replace the 15 in areas not served by the metro extension, including City College and Fisherman's Wharf.

The project was initially budgeted at $667 million. As of July 2006, the budget increased by $120 million.

The Third Street Light Rail Project is the first part of a two-phase plan to expand the Muni Metro system. The second phase, known as the Central Subway, has a planned underground extension that would run north from the Caltrain depot to Chinatown.

Features

As part of the project, the entire Third Street corridor was repaved and received new streetlights. Additionally, trees were planted, sidewalks reconstructed and the pavement on 3rd Street repaved. Stations along the route have a distinctive marquee pole with a sculpture or mobile.

Light rail vehicles (LRVs) operate in an exclusive right-of-way in the center of the street, except in the Bayview business district, to bypass vehicular congestion and increase speed along the line. LRV's will operate in mixed flow with other cars at the 4th Street Bridge and in a 10 block segment in the Bayview Area. The 4th Street bridge did not have enough room for an exclusive right-of-way. In the Bayview business district, parking was maintained on both sides of the street for customers of local merchants.

In addition, transit signal priority has been implemented along the entire corridor. The goal is to allow LRVs to have a green light at every intersection so they can travel from station to station without stopping.

tations

19 new stations were built along the line. They consist of high platforms either built between the tracks or with one on each side, similar to the ones used by the N Judah along the Embarcadero. The stations will be built at the following locations:

*Fourth Street & King Street (Separate from the existing station at Fourth & King)
*Third Street & Mission Rock Street
*Third Street & South Street / UCSF-Gene Friend Way
*Third Street & Mariposa Street
*Third Street & 20th Street
*Third Street & 23rd Street
*Third Street & Marin Street
*Third Street & Evans Street
*Third Street & Hudson Avenue
*Third Street & Kirkwood Avenue
*Third Street & Palou Avenue
*Third Street & Thomas Avenue
*Third Street & Van Dyke Avenue
*Third Street & Carroll Avenue
*Third Street & Gilman Avenue
*Third Street & Leconte Avenue
*Bayshore Boulevard & Arleta Avenue
*Bayshore Boulevard & Sunnydale Avenue
*Caltrain Bayshore Station (future extension)

References

External links

* [http://www.sfmuni.com/cms/msc/const/3rdover.htm Project overview]
* [http://www.sfmuni.com/cms/img/l153img/3rdstlg.gifMap of the extension]