Three Muni bus routes will see a reduction in service starting Feb. 1 as San Francisco’s transportation agency faces a budget crisis that could exceed $300 million by the start of the 2026–27 fiscal year.
For the last 18 months, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has been addressing service changes by removing some bus frequencies from one route and adding them to another route to resolve crowding and new travel patterns. Now, the agency is starting to reduce frequencies without adding service elsewhere. Transit officials described these as “modest” changes to better match service with revenue resources.
Between 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. the SFMTA will reduce frequencies on the 24-Divsadero, 38-Geary, and 43-Masonic. The SFMTA wrote on its website that the three routes do not have “significant crowding” during midday but will monitor the routes after the changes take effect.
“We’re just slowing down a little bit in order to make sure that we are matching to our revenues and not creating any additional challenges as we look at our big year three problem,” said Julie Kirschbaum, the agency’s director of transit at the time when she presented the service changes last November to the SFMTA board. Kirschbaum is now the interim head of SFMTA.
SFMTA will run one-car train service on the K-Ingleside and M-Oceanview to save costs on cleaning and maintenance of trains.
Other Muni service changes will also take place next month.
On the rail side, the SFMTA said they will run one-car train service on the K-Ingleside and M-Oceanview to save costs on cleaning and maintenance of trains.
The SFMTA will drop the 7:15 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. morning trips that begin at Geary Boulevard and 33rd Avenue on the 1X-California Express.
Additionally, the agency will bring back the 30X-Marina Express service. Two trips will leave at 7:15 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. from Beach and Divisadero streets. There will be no afternoon or evening service.
Sean Kennedy, the agency’s chief planning officer, said last month that the SFMTA received feedback from Salesforce and Bay Area Council that about 20 to 25 percent of employees who work at the tech giant live in the Marina neighborhood. The goal is to encourage more employees to return to the office by restoring the service.
As the SFMTA continues to face a budget crunch in mid-2026, the Muni Funding Group, established by the agency and Controller’s Office, will continue to meet his month with a focus on finding multiple new revenue resources for the agency.
In October, SFMTA staff presented the group with worst-case scenarios regarding cutting and reducing Muni service citywide if the agency cannot close its budget gap.
The agency is also warning about potential summer service reductions. Kennedy said that the SFMTA will begin outreach sometime in late January or early February on what Muni service could look like in June.