The existing #30-Stockton is heavily patronized. The mis-labeling of the Union Square Stn. may reduce the ridership until word gets around about the block-long tunnel to the periphery of the Powell Street Stn.

Central Subway Overview
Geary – O’Farrell Annex Stn. near Union Square

The documentation that I’ve found on the web is paltry and underwhelming. I’m afraid that the Central Subway may turn out to be San Francisco’s version of New York’s Second Ave. Subway.

It appears that Maryland did not have an application in for 2010 New Starts funding for either the Red or Purple lines. MTA has been disappointingly cagey about the entire thing, save for putting up all those “Red Line goes here” or whatever signs.

-m

If you would look at Swiss construction sites which are more comparable to a subway, you might look at the new crosstown line in Zürich (Durchmesserlinie, http://infra.sbb.ch/durchmesserlinie (site in German language), which includes a 5 km long tunnel, with some very difficult sections under the Limmat river, a new 4-track station, and a more than 1 km long access viaduct. The whole 11 km long project has an overall construction time of 9 years, and costs CHF 2bn (which is approximately USD 2bn), of which the Canton of Zürich pays one third, and two thirds are federal funds.

The project Has several problems -
1) The FTA wants some assurance that SFMuni can afford to operate the T-Third extension from Fourth+King to Chinatown. The line is at LEAST one to two stations short on its northern end. That shortness means that cuts in bus service may not save enough money.

2) BART is reportedly not happy about the deep tunnel under Market St.

3) The deep tunnel routing does NOT make a connection to the Market Street Subway. The closest stations (Powell + Union Square) would be a couple of blocks apart.

4) Reportedly the tunnel does not save all that much time over a prioritized, surface run (e.g. a transit mall on Stockton, rail hump on Fourth).

P.S. I’ve been keeping an eye on the St. Gotthard Tunnel. The Central Subway completion date, some say 2016 others 2018, seems way too far out when compared to what the Swiss are doing with their super-tunnel. The project managers need to lay out a time-line for the project and give us some assurance that this is not another boondoggle like the Oakland Airport Connector. The pork that I’m smelling seems more putrid than barbecued.

P.P.S. I’m not anti-LRT. I’m anti-stupid-tunnels that are in the wrong place or are too short. Did anybody think about running a tunnel from Fort Mason to just south of Stockton + Sacramento ? It may seem crazy but with a transit mall on Stockton from the current tunnel to Market St. the new tunnel could surface in the middle of the old one. That would keep the new tunnel at or above the water table and simplify the engineering.

I thought you guys were PR-friendly.