The money, awarded last month by the California Transportation Commission, came with rules attached. It's targeted at efforts to manage congestion, including by making transit more reliable, and the funds must be directed toward capital infrastructure.
For leaders of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the timing seemed critical. Faced with a $322 million deficit next year, the agency has paused some projects and trimmed costs wherever possible to avoid drastically slashing service. Despite the obvious strain, SFMTA kept plodding ahead with an ambitious and desperately needed upgrade: a new $700 million renovation of Muni Metro train control.
Jokes about the antiquated technology that runs Muni's subway have long made the rounds among riders. Automated train control surely made sense when San Francisco officials installed it in 1998, enabling computers to evenly space trains as they rolled underground between Embarcadero and West Portal stations, and later, in the Central Subway from Moscone Center to Chinatown-Rose Pak Station. Yet the software, stored on floppy disks that have to be loaded each morning, has passed its expiration date. Because automated train control transmits signals via loop cable wires, communication is slow and easily disrupted.
Once Muni Metro trains emerge from subway tunnels onto surface streets, they are controlled by drivers, rather than computers.
Out-of-date technology became a preoccupation and a source of embarrassment at SFMTA, provoking former director Jeffrey Tumlin to publicly lament it. Even as Muni unveiled a new fleet of trains with scalloped seats and blinky door sensors, the system's essential wiring was deteriorating.
"We have to maintain programmers who are experts in the programming languages of the '90s in order to keep running our current systems," Tumlin told KQED journalist Priya David Clemens during an interview in 2023. Everyone acknowledged the problem. But the floppy disks remain.
Ultimately, SFMTA seeks to replace its '90s-era automatic train control with a communications-based system that uses wireless connections, "precisely" tracking every light rail vehicle not just underground, but throughout the city's 74-mile network, agency spokespeople said.
"In the new system, every train will connect to a computer when it leaves the yard," said Julie Kirschbaum, who succeeded Tumlin as SFMTA director of transportation this year. With that line of communication established at the start of service, staff at SFMTA will be able to detect problems right away, preempting backups.
Over the past several months, the agency has made meaningful strides toward implementing its new train control. Last October, the agency's board approved a $212 million contract with Hitachi Rail to manufacture the system and "tailor" it to the built environment in San Francisco, a process the company began in February. SFMTA will deliver the project in phases, beginning with a stretch from Embarcadero to Mission Bay that includes high-volume stations near Chase Center and Oracle Park.
Kirschbaum expects the full 74-mile rail network to be governed by communications-based train control between 2032 and 2034. She and others touted the $41 million state grant as a major step, and say it will give SFMTA flexibility to finish critical repair work and pursue other funding for transit service.
"We're excited that the California Transportation Commission recognized what an innovative and transformative project this is," Kirschbaum said, noting that smoother, on-time Muni service is crucial for commuters who have to link up with BART or other transit.
Creating that seamless network isn't easy in a moment of austerity. Kirschbaum said her agency will continue "trying to attract as much grant funding as we can."
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