Muni Shuts Down Twin Peaks Tunnel For 2-Month, $40 Million Upgrade

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) - Getting around this summer just got harder for tens of thousands of people in San Francisco now that the Muni tunnel on Twin Peaks is closing for the next 2 months.

Muni trains stopped running through the Twin Peaks tunnel on Monday. That means there's no passenger service between Castro and West Portal. Muni is asking the public to be patient.

For the next two months the only things rolling in and out of the 100-year-old Twin Peaks tunnel will be construction crews.

SFMTA is spending $40 million on repairing two miles of track closing the West Portal station to Castro/Market station, for two full months.

"Clearly when we get this work all done it'll be smoother, safer, quieter and when you add the new trains it will really be a major upgrade," says John Haley, SFMTA Director of Transit.

Haley says the repairs are long overdue.

When construction wraps up August 24, trains will be able to travel at their designed speed of 55 miles per hour, something they cannot safely do right now.

"If you did it now, if we went 55 mph, the fillings would rattle in your teeth. It would be an uncomfortable ride," says Haley.

"It just delays another 20 to 30 minutes to my daily commute to work," says Muni rider D. Zachary Summons.

Muni riders like Summons are being redirected above-ground to take one of three buses, which will slow down the entire system.

"You take a few buses off one line, another off another, so really the whole system is impacted to some degree," says Haley.

Muni has put in place workers like Ken Jones who will get you on the right bus. He says so far things have been smooth.

"If you just take a deep breath we'll help you get where you need to get to in a reasonable amount of time," says Jones. "People were over-prepared -- they were expecting doomsday."