By Rachel Dovey.
An underground light-rail tunnel, a streetcar expansion and solar panels on bus yards are among the projects outlined in the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors’ $21 billion, 20-year capital plan. The document is more wish list than blueprint, or, as the S.F. Examiner puts it, “a plan to perhaps plan, which would then be followed by another plan.”
The light-rail tunnel would house the M-Oceanview train line, which the agency would like to run underground, and stretch between West Portal and Parkmerced. Total project cost, including a 19th Avenue redesign, is estimated to be around $2.5 billion, according to the Examiner, and it hasn’t been approved yet.
Another $80 million could go toward expanding the F-Market and Wharves historic streetcar line to Fort Mason. The E-Embarcadero streetcar could also receive its own track loop and terminal, to the tune of $10 million. The news will likely be welcome to streetcar enthusiasts, especially because Muni scrapped several of its historic cars — the Boeing Vertol LRVs, which turned out to be lemons — last year.
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