The all-new Central Subway connects Chinatown with Union Square and SoMA (South of Market) for the first time and is the first subway to run in the immediate downtown area in a north-south direction. Until now these parts of the city were only connected to each other directly by buses.
North-South connection through the city
San Francisco’s public transit system now has four brand new subway stations: Chinatown/Rose Pak, Union Square/Market Street, Yerba Buena/Moscone, and 4th/Bannan Station. These will be incorporated into the existing Third Red Line T timetable. Your route changes from the 4th & King stop. Instead of using the Embarcadero, the T Third line will now serve the new stops: its final destination is now Chinatown.
The new line, which will save holidaymakers and commuters up to 20 minutes of travel time in the future, runs every ten minutes and runs from Monday to Friday from 6:00 to midnight, on weekends from 8:00 to midnight. .
Station with an Austrian art project
An attraction at the new Union Square/Market Street stop is ‘Lucy in the Sky’, a work by Lower Austrian artist Erwin Redl. His light art installation consists of more than 500 light panels suspended across the entire ceiling of the atrium level. The panels keep changing color to display new images.
Works of art can also be admired in the other new stations.
Twelve years of construction
Construction on the new line began in 2010. Costs reportedly totaled approximately $1.95 billion over the past 12 years. The project was funded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the State of California, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the City and County of San Francisco.
Read more about the new Central Metro at: www.sfmta.com/centralsubway (red)
