N Judah
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The N Judah is a Muni Metro line in San Francisco, California, so called as it runs along Judah Street for much of its length, named after railroad engineer Theodore Judah[citation needed]. It links downtown San Francisco to the Cole Valley and Sunset neighborhoods. It is the busiest line in the Muni Metro system. It was one of San Francisco's streetcar lines, beginning operation in 1928[2], and was converted to modern light rail operation with the creation of the Muni Metro system in the late 1970s. While many streetcar lines were converted to bus lines after World War II, the N Judah remained a streetcar line due to its use of the Sunset Tunnel.
The line runs from Caltrain Depot in the Mission Bay district to Ocean Beach and the Great Highway in the Sunset District. It starts at the Caltrain Depot, and runs along King Street and the Embarcadero, passing by AT&T Park. It then enters the Market Street Subway, which it shares with the five other Muni Metro lines. It exits the tunnel at Church Street and, after a brief stretch along Duboce Avenue to Duboce Park, enters the older Sunset Tunnel. This tunnel serves to avoid a hill and contains no underground stations. From the western end of the tunnel, the route goes along Carl and Irving Streets until it turns onto 9th Avenue for one block and reaches Judah Street, which the N runs on for the rest of its route. On Judah between 9th Avenue and 19th Avenue the N runs on a right-of-way that is slightly raised above the surrounding street. There is a loop in the intersection at Judah, La Playa and Great Highway that the N uses to turn around.
The N Judah line stops at large stations for the downtown section of the route and at smaller stops on the rest of the line. Most of the smaller stops consist of nothing more than a sign on the side of a street designating a stop, while other stops are concrete "islands" in the middle of a street next to the tracks that provide access for wheelchairs. Muni bus routes provide service to all downtown stations and other systems with access to the stations are noted.
As with all Muni lines, service begins around 5 a.m. on weekdays, 6 a.m. on Saturdays, and 8 a.m. on Sundays and holidays. Late night service (after 12:55 a.m.) is provided by the N-Owl diesel bus line. This line is generally the same as the daytime N Judah line, except it follows surface streets instead of going through the streetcar-only Market Street Subway and Sunset Tunnel. At the Ferry Portal at The Embarcadero and Folsom, it stays on The Embarcadero to Mission/Don Chee Way, then takes Steuart for one block and then turns onto Market Street, which it follows past all five underground stations served by the daytime N Judah line. It then takes Church, Hermann and Fillmore to get to Haight Street, where it bypasses the steep hill above the Sunset Tunnel, and serves the Lower Haight and Haight-Ashbury neighborhoods. It turns off Haight at Cole, and then rejoins the daytime N line at Carl.
As of December 5, 2009, SFMTA has eliminated the portion of the N Judah line between Embarcadero and 4th & King/Caltrain on weekend and holidays. N Owl service is not affected by this change.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ "Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP) Data". http://www.sfmta.com/cms/rtep/tepdataindx.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
- ^ Nimmo, H. Arlo (2007). Good and Bad Times in a San Francisco Neighborhood: A History of Potomac Street and Duboce Park: San Francisco: October Properties, p. 16. ISBN 978-0981450902
- ^ Major Muni service changes December 5
[edit] External links
- Muni Metro and San Francisco rail map (195KB PDF)
- N Judah route information from the SF Muni Map Project
- The N-Judah Chronicles
- Muni reconsidering N-Judah Caltrain service
- T-Third line causing delays, so officials consider new routes
- September 27, 2007 Meeting on N Judah improvement at Carl and Cole stop
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