By Bradley Dunn
Our Muni yards are critical infrastructure that support San Francisco’s transit. Every year, people board our vehicles 200 million times. Every vehicle that provides that service starts and ends its day in a Muni yard. These yards are critical to supporting the city’s economy, emergency response and environment. But many of our major Muni Yards are over 100 years old. This week, give feedback to help the SFMTA build a new modern Potrero Yard with housing by attending workshops on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, December 8, 2018 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. These two workshops will present the same materials to give members of the public two opportunities to participate.
Originally built for streetcars in 1915, Potrero Yard supports buses that people board 104,000 times every day. Potrero Yard provides service to some of our busiest lines like the 5 Fulton and the 14 Mission. Over the last several years we have increased service by 10 percent, the largest expansion since the 1970s and replaced our entire bus fleet, making our fleets the nation’s cleanest and most modern.
Now we need to invest in the yards that serve that new fleet. Muni’s operators, maintenance and other frontline staff do incredible work to keep buses on the road taking San Franciscans where they need to go. A modern facility will protect these workers and let them do even more to serve the people of San Francisco. Without rebuilding these yards, we will not have enough space to store and maintain the buses needed to provide the service San Franciscans will depend on in the coming years.
At more than 100 years old, Potrero Yard presents several problems for our operation. First, it wasn’t built to modern seismic codes. Second, the yard has antiquated maintenance facilities. The low ceilings at the yard prevent the use of bus lifts needed to safely and effectively maintain our new low floor buses. Without bus lifts, rooftop maintenance is done outside in the elements. The yards maintenance pits are slower and less safe than doing repairs with bus lifts. Slower maintenance means more waiting, more crowding and less reliability for our riders.
By modernizing Potrero Yard, the SFMTA can maintain its status as a transit innovation leader. Rebuilding Potrero Yard is necessary for the agency to lead our conversion to 100% battery-electric buses by 2035 and would be an environmentally friendly LEED Gold Facility that would reduce our resource use. The facility would be the first in the nation to potentially include housing on top of an active bus maintenance facility. Furthermore, the new facility would be built to modern seismic standards to help prepare San Francisco’s transportation system for an earthquake.
At the upcoming workshops on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, December 8, 2018 - 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., members of the community will give the project team early feedback on critical elements for this project, like height, how the building will interact with the surrounding neighborhood and community benefits. The small group discussions will help ensure that community feedback is incorporated at this early stage of the project.
Published December 05, 2018 at 11:54PM
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