Broad and Plymouth station


Broad and Plymouth is a light rail stop on the Muni Metro M Ocean View line, located in the Ingleside neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The station has two sidewalk extensions which serve as side platforms, with a mini-high platform on each for accessibility.

History

The San Francisco Municipal Railway opened its M Ocean View line on October 6, 1925 as a shuttle service between St. Francis Circle and Broad Street at Plymouth Avenue, where a crossover was located to allow streetcars to reverse direction. From October 31, 1927 to February 27, 1928, through service to Ferry Loop was available. The line was replaced with buses on August 6, 1939, but streetcar service resumed on December 17, 1944; through service to the East Bay Terminal began on June 6, 1948. In 1951-52, Muni acquired a fleet of new PCC streetcars - the first Muni streetcars with a cab at only one end. These single-ended cars required a loop or wye to turn around at terminals, as they could not simply reverse direction. A wye was constructed at Broad and Plymouth; it was put in service on December 6, 1957, with PCC streetcars entering M Ocean View service on December 23.
After a four-year bus substitution from 1974 to 1978 for conversion to Muni Metro, the line was extended to the carhouses at Balboa Park station in 1980. All service was extended to Balboa Park on August 30, but cut back to Broad and Plymouth on October 3 due to track problems on the extension. Weekday service to Balboa Park with LRVs resumed on December 17, though PCC streetcars continued to use the wye at Plymouth Avenue as the weekend terminal. Weekend service to Balboa Park with LRVs began on September 19, 1982. The wye at Plymouth Avenue was removed in 1986; the switches were moved to 17th Street at Noe Street for use during the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival. A crossover, which is only used for occasional short turns, was later installed east of Plymouth Avenue.