L Taraval
The L Taraval is a hybrid light rail/streetcar line of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California, mainly serving the Parkside District. The line is currently suspended and replaced by buses through the end of 2024 for a road improvement project along Taraval Street. Route description. The line begins at Wawona and 46th Avenue station (near the San Francisco Zoo), which is on a one-way loop on Vicente Street, 47th Avenue, Wawona Street, and 46th Avenue. It runs north on 46th Avenue to Taraval Street, then runs east on Taraval Street to 15th Avenue. The  line then runs south one block on 15th Avenue, then east on Ulloa Street to West Portal station, where it tags along with the other Muni Metro lines towards Embarcadero. Operation. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the L Taraval operates 7 days a week, primarily with train service beginning at 5 a.m. weekdays, 6 a.m. Saturdays and 8 a.m. Sundays and running until 12:30 a.m. Daytime headways are between 6 and 9 minutes. Service is provided by overnight Owl buses during the hours that rail service is not running. The L Owl bus serves the full length of the route , as well as along The Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf. (The Embarcadero section was added on June 15, 2019 to provide Owl service along the F Market & Wharves route.) On weekends, L Taraval Bus service runs from 5 a.m. until the start of rail service; it does not include the section on The Embarcadero. The bus lines largely follow the rail line, but use surface streets to parallel sections where the rail line has dedicated rights-of-way. History. In June 1908, United Railroads (URR) subsidiary Parkside Transit Company laid a single-track line that ran on 20th Avenue from  a existing line on H Street (now Lincoln Way) to Wawona Street, then on Wawona one block to 19th Avenue. A connecting shuttle line running from 20th Avenue on Taraval Street, 33rd Avenue, Vicente Street, and 35th Avenue to Sloat Boulevard (meeting the 12 Ocean line) was opened by 1910. This trackage, which saw irregular passenger service, formed a barrier to continued expansion of the city-owned Municipal Railway into the Parkside district. On November 25, 1918, the city and the private URR signed the "Parkside Agreements", which allowed Muni streetcars to use URR trackage on Taraval Street and on  Ocean Avenue in exchange for a cash payment and shared maintenance costs. Muni's L Taraval line opened as a shuttle from West Portal to 33rd Avenue (on rebuilt URR trackage west of 20th Avenue) on April 12, 1919. It was extended along Taraval to 48th Avenue at Ocean Beach on January 14, 1923; that October 15, the shuttle service was replaced with larger streetcars running through to the Ferry Building. The URR discontinued their Parkside Shuttle in late 1927. The L Taraval was subsequently extended south (turning off Taraval at 46th) to the San Francisco Zoo, the line's  current outer terminus, on September 15, 1937, leaving a two-block spur line on Taraval that was used occasionally for temporary storage. Every other streetcar was routed to the new Transbay Terminal on January 15, 1939; they were rerouted back to the Ferry Building on January 1, 1941, but the Transbay Terminal became the inner terminal for all streetcars on June 6, 1948. The L was partially converted to modern light rail operation as part of the opening of the Muni Metro system in 1980. While many streetcar lines were converted to buses after World War II, the L Taraval  remained a streetcar line due to its use of the Twin Peaks Tunnel. Later changes/COVID-19 impacts. The line was temporarily replaced by buses from June 25 to August 24, 2018 due to the Twin Peaks Tunnel shutdown. On March 30, 2020, Muni Metro service was replaced with buses due to the COVID-19 pandemic in San Francisco. Rail service returned briefly starting on August 22, with the routes reconfigured to improve reliability in the subway. K Ingleside and L Taraval service is interlined, running between Taraval and Sunset and Balboa Park station; no K or L service enters the subway . The forced transfer at West Portal was criticized by disability advocates. Rail service was re-replaced with buses on August 25 due to issues with malfunctioning overhead wire splices and the need to quarantine control center staff after a COVID-19 case. Bus substitution was scheduled to begin in Spring 2020 west of Sunset, then expand to cover the line west of West Portal during the implementation of the L Taraval Improvement Project. L Taraval Improvement Project. The L Taraval Improvement Project, originally called the L Taraval Rapid project, was conceived to increase pedestrian safety and speed up trains. Nine stops  will be eliminated, the roadway upon which the track is laid will be repainted as a transit-only lane, and concrete boarding islands will be installed at some stops, converting the parking lane to a travel lane. From 2010 to 2014, 46 pedestrians were hit by vehicles on Taraval, 22 of which were boarding or alighting from L Taraval trains; by adding concrete islands to stops along Taraval, most of these would be avoided. The loss of parking along Taraval would be offset by moving parking spaces and meters to side streets and by converting side streets to angled parking  to increase density. Islands would be added to Taraval and 46th (outbound), 44th, 42nd, 40th, 32nd, 30th, 28th (outbound), 26th, and 19th. The final list of stops proposed for removal were the stops at Taraval and 35th (outbound), 28th (inbound and outbound) (replaced by a new outbound platform at 28th), 24th (inbound), 22nd (outbound), and 17th (inbound and outbound); and the stop at Ulloa and 15th. A pilot was held in 2016 for inbound stops at Taraval and 26th, 30th, 32nd, 35th, and 40th Avenues; in the pilot, the travel lane between the tracks and parking lane was striped as  a train loading area, with cars to stop at the end of the train to allow passengers to alight safely. Preliminary stop elimination occurred on February 25, 2017, though some plans were amended due to community backlash. The inbound stop at Taraval and 17th was saved, but moved east across 17th, and the inbound stop at Taraval and 15th will be eliminated after the move. In addition, the stop at Ulloa and Forest Side was moved west to Ulloa and 14th to compensate for the loss of Ulloa and 15th. L Taraval Improvement Project construction began in August 2019, beginning  with the replacement of underground utilities. Construction on 'Segment A' of the project, between Sunset Blvd and 46th Avenue, began in September 2019; although this first phase originally was scheduled for completion in summer 2020, work was not completed until July 2021. Bus substitution was scheduled to start for train service covering a superset of the Segment A (from the Zoo to Sunset) in Spring 2020. Bus substitution for both segments of the L Taraval Improvement Project (from the Zoo to West Portal) was implemented following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued after the completion of Segment A , as planned. As part of Segment A work, the original spur track extending west on Taraval past 46th was taken up and replaced; the granite "Belgian block" cobblestones used to buffer the track from the pavement were saved and re-set next to the new tracks. Construction on Segment B was scheduled to begin in late 2019, but the start has been delayed until January 2022. This second phase work will take place from Sunset Blvd to Ulloa St near West Portal. Segment B work is expected to last through 2024. Station/Stop listing. Most stops have no boarding islands ; passengers board from the street.