The N Judah is a Muni Metro light rail line in San Francisco, California, so named as it runs along Judah Street for much of its length, named after railroad engineerTheodore Judah. It links downtown San Francisco to the Cole Valley and Sunset neighborhoods. It is the busiest line in the Muni Metro system, serving an average of 41,439 weekday passengers in 2013. It was one of San Francisco's streetcar lines, beginning operation in 1928, and was partially converted to modern light-rail operation with the opening of the Muni Metro system in 1980. 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.
Route description
The line runs from the Caltrain depot in the Mission Bay district to Ocean Beach and the Great Highway in the Sunset District. From the Caltrain depot at Fourth and King Streets, it runs along King Street and the Embarcadero, passing by Oracle 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 Street, past UCSF-Parnassus Campus, on Irving Street, 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.
Operation
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. It operates at high frequencies, mainly between 7 and 12 minutes, and mostly utilizes two-car trains during Muni Metro hours of operation. Service is provided by overnight Owl buses on the N Owl route during the hours that rail service is not running. On weekends, N Judah Bus service runs from 5am until the start of rail service. 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
On January 10, 1998, Muni opened the Muni Metro Extension to 4th and King/Caltrain. It was originally served by a temporary shuttle service, the E Embarcadero, which ran between Embarcadero station and 4th and King/Caltrain. On August 22, 1998, the E Embarcadero line was eliminated and the N Judah line was extended in its place. A variety of service changes took place with the introduction of full service on the T Third Street line on April 7, 2007. The N Judah was cut back to Embarcadero station; the surface section on the Embarcadero was served only by the T Third Street line, plus the J Church line at peak hours. The changes were unpopular with the public; they caused severe delays in the Market Street subway and forced N Judah riders to transfer to reach the Caltrain station when they previously did not. On June 30, 2007, Muni reversed several of the changes; the J Church and N Judah were restored to their previous configuration. On December 5, 2009, the N Judah was cut to Embarcadero on weekends as part of widespread service reductions. Weekend service was re-extended on October 15, 2011. After concerns from riders of constant overcrowding of the trains on the N Judah line, Muni debuted an express bus route called the NX Judah Express on June 13, 2011. Starting off as a pilot program, the NX was intended to relieve overcrowding during rush hours every ten minutes. It follows the western end of the N Judah route from Ocean Beach to 19th Avenue, then operates nonstop from there to the Financial District where it stops at Bush and Montgomery Streets. In September 2016, Muni began running a pair of one-car shuttles between Embarcadero station and Carl and Hillway during morning rush hour to reduce crowding on the inner section of the line. A study after one month showed the shuttles had increased capacity on the inner part of the line by 18% and reduced the number of passengers unable to board overcrowded trains by 63%. In March 2018, the SFMTA board voted to shorten rush-hour headways from 7 minutes to 4 minutes, but to only use one-car trains on weekends. The changes were to take effect in the summer. On March 30, 2020, Muni Metro service was replaced with buses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rail service is expected to return in August 2020, with the routes reconfigured to improve reliability in the subway. N Judah service will not be substantially changed, however.
Future plans
Future plans, according to the SFMTA Rail Capacity Strategy, include a new subway tunnel which connects to the Market Street subway to 9th Avenue. Additionally, the N Judah line will be rebuilt to run three car trains. Further plans include a non-revenue L Taraval to N Judah connector, which may run on 46th Avenue.
