Muni weekend ridership recovery outpaces weekday service

Weekend Muni service is outpacing the recovery of weekday service, transit officials shared Tuesday.

In a presentation to the agency’s Board of Directors, the SFMTA transit performance manager, Alex Hallowell, shared that weekend ridership in the first two weeks of April was up to 67 percent of pre-pandemic levels. Weekday ridership recovery lags at 54 percent of levels recorded prior to March 2020.

Weekends are also busiest for Muni bus routes. The 22-Fillmore, for example, is surpassing pre-shutdown levels by 33 percent on Saturdays and Sundays — weekday ridership is nearing full recovery at 96 percent, Hallowell said.

As a critical route for essential workers, she said the agency prioritized the 22 from the beginning of the pandemic. An augmented 22 route was also added to serve the Mission Bay neighborhood, which was made available after overhead wire system work was completed.

Other routes that have seen an above 50 percent ridership recovery include the 14-Mission and its rapid route, the 24-Disvisadero and the 48-Quintara/24th Street.

In the same presentation, Hallowell shared preliminary bus service performance results along the new Van Ness Avenue Bus Rapid Transit corridor, which opened for revenue service on April 1.

Early data showed a 13 percent increase in ridership on the 49-Van Ness/Mission — the bus route operates in center-running, red transit-only lanes.

Hallowell said weekday travel time was reduced by up to 26 percent in the northbound direction and up to 22 percent in southbound direction. The agency anticipates an increase in travel time savings as bus operators grow more accustomed to the new corridor.

The next major transit project set to open to the public is the Central Subway, which officials say will open sometime in the fall.