News, Views and Analysis from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments
With the arrival of MUNI's new Siemens LRV4 light rail cars, we thought we'd take a look back at the green and cream colored streetcars that rolled around San Francisco for the good part of four decades. Read More
The City of San Francisco is celebrating a major milestone with a once-in-a-generation new light rail train now in service, as shown in the above video from our partners at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (Muni). Muni reports:
These… trains are more comfortable, reliable, and rider-friendly. They include a new seating configuration that will provide wider aisles for more capacity, better customer signage, quieter cars and improved design that will reduce delays. This new car represents the first of more than 200 vehicles that will add more train service that will reduce congestion, improve service frequency and overall service for hundreds of thousands of daily riders.
So: as the nine-county Bay Area’s transportation financing agency, did MTC help pay for these new vehicles? The answer is: yes, mostly, and then not exactly, and then mostly again… but… it’s complicated.
GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: Esoteric transportation finance wonkery to follow. Read More