Rebuilding the Network

I’m writing this letter on November 19, the day the Central Subway opened for service and one of the most extraordinary experiences of my career. I started the day at 6 a.m. at the Chinatown-Rose Pak Station, where the Chinatown community was out before dawn to attend a Daoist blessing of the station and hear from political leaders who’d supported the Central Subway from its very beginning – including former mayor Willie Brown. Chinatown organizations then ushered the first 300 riders onto the very first trains to officially serve the Chinatown station. Meanwhile, dedicated Muni riders had gathered outside the station to be ready for the station’s historic opening to the public at 8 a.m. 

It was incredibly satisfying to see the collaboration, problem solving and team spirit of staff from throughout the SFMTA who supported our customers during opening weekend. They exemplified the culture we’re working to create at this agency.

The launch of Central Subway weekend service was a tremendous success. It made me feel so proud – and so honored to lead the SFMTA.

I wanted to bring that sense of excitement and pride to my introduction to this annual report, which covers our agency’s major accomplishments during the 2022 fiscal year, from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022. The theme of the report is rebuilding because that is truly what we were doing. We were emerging from the pandemic, adding transit service, and assessing which of the innovations we made early in the pandemic should continue and which should be allowed to fade away. At the same time, we were rebuilding our staff, which had been totally depleted because of staffing shortages and wave after wave of COVID-19.

But the whole time we were rebuilding, we were also attaining major milestones. In April, we opened the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit corridor, which transformed Van Ness Avenue into a boulevard that rivals the most impressive transportation thoroughfares in cities around the world. And although the Central Subway will go down in the record book as having opened in Fiscal Year 2023, 2022 was the year when we checked off the final items on the check list so that service could finally begin in November, benefitting Chinatown, the Bayview, downtown San Francisco, South of Market and beyond.

I want to express my deep gratitude to the staff of the SFMTA for their loyalty, dedication and tireless work to make San Francisco a better place to live. This annual report just begins to scratch the surface of the projects, programs and services they have made a reality.