page_title: Central Subway
section_title: Cost
hierarchical_section_title: Central Subway / Cost
caption_attribution_description: Congresswoman Pelosi signs the Full Funding Grant Agreement with Senator Mark Leno, Supervisor David Chiu, and Mayor Ed Lee to secure $1 billion in federal funding for the next phase of the Third Street-Central Subway line.
context_page_description: The Central Subway is an extension of the Muni Metro light rail system under construction in San Francisco, California, from the Caltrain commuter rail depot at 4th and King streets to Chinatown, with stops in South of Market and Union Square.
  The subway is the second phase of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's Third Street Light Rail Project. The first phase opened to the public as the T Third line in 2007. Ground was broken for the Central Subway on February 9, 2010. Tunnel boring for the Central Subway was completed at Columbus and Powell Street in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco on June 11, 2014. Originally set to open in late 2018, the Central Subway is projected to open to the public in late 2021. With the addition of the Central Subway, the T Third line is projected to become the most heavily ridden line in the Muni Metro system by 2030.
  The extension will serve major employment and population centers in San Francisco that are underserved by rapid transit. SoMa is home to the headquarters of many of San Francisco’s major software and technology companies, and substantial residential growth is projected there.
context_section_description: In 2000, the estimated cost of the Central Subway project was $530 million. By 2001, the cost had risen to $647 million and completion was projected for 2009. When construction began in 2012, the cost had reached $1.6 billion. When the main contract for Central Subway construction was awarded in May 2013 to  the lowest bidder, Tutor Perini, the $840 million contract was up to $120 million over the budgeted amount, which took up nearly two-thirds of the entire project's contingency.
  Due to the capital cost ($1.578 billion for the 1.7 mile light rail line), the Central Subway project has come under criticism from transit activists for what they consider to be poor cost-effectiveness. In particular, they note that Muni's own estimates show that the project would increase Muni ridership by less than 1% and yet by 2030 would add $15.2 million a year to Muni's annual operating deficit.
  This position is countered by the fact that, unlike new rail construction projections in low-density areas in America, the Central Subway would augment access to the densest portions of Chinatown and the northern Financial District. Current transit access to these areas is provided entirely on the surface through small blocks that feature intense pedestrian activity and narrow streets with multi-modal street congestion. Other, lower-cost rapid transit options were explored, such as bus rapid transit (BRT), but were rejected in part because these conditions do not support the basic features of efficient BRT operations.
  Compounding these conditions is the fact that many Chinatown residents are transit-dependent and do not own cars, helping rationalize funding for a subway. The high-ridership Muni bus lines serving Chinatown (e.g., the 1 California and the 30 Stockton) are typically extremely overcrowded, making service for customers  more excruciating as excessive boarding activity slows travel speeds or exacerbates overcrowding until no more riders can be accepted and buses are forced to pass customers at successive stops, effectively denying them service.
  In October 2012, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced it would provide $942.2 million for the project under its New Starts program after indicating it would approve the grant in January. This award included the recognition that better, more comfortable service for an already intensively-used transit corridor, particularly for low-income residents as in Chinatown, justifies the investment even if it does not attract a high percentage of "new" riders the way a new rapid transit investment might somewhere that is not already served by extremely slow, uncomfortable high-ridership local service.
caption: Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Mayor Ed Lee, and other dignitaries next to a poster-sized reproduction of the FTA Grant near Union Square (May 11, 2013)
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