K Ingleside
The K Ingleside is a Muni Metro line in San Francisco, California, mainly serving the West Portal and Ingleside neighborhoods. Opened on February 3, 1918, it was the first line to use the Twin Peaks Tunnel.
Route description
Following service changes on June 30, 2007, the K Ingleside and the T Third Street lines were spliced together in the Market Street subway and Twin Peaks tunnels, resulting in a combined route from the Visitacion Valley neighborhood, through downtown, to Balboa Park. At Embarcadero station, outbound T trains heading through downtown to the Ingleside neighborhood change their signs to the K line; at West Portal station, K trains heading through downtown and inbound to Third Street change signs to the T line. Each train displays its ultimate destination. This system will continue in place until the Central Subway opens, a future route for T Third Street line to Chinatown.Leaving the Twin Peaks Tunnel at the West Portal station, the K Ingleside line follows West Portal Avenue to Saint Francis Circle, where it then runs on its own right-of-way in the middle of Junipero Serra Boulevard to Ocean Avenue. The K then follows Ocean Avenue until it reaches Balboa Park Station, where it circles around the Metro yard at San Jose and Geneva Avenue, with the actual terminal stop alongside the station.
The K Ingleside line stops at large stations for the downtown section of the line and at smaller stops on the rest of the line. Most of the smaller stops are nothing more than concrete "islands" in the middle of the street next to the tracks. Some of these "island" stops provide access for wheelchairs. Muni bus routes provide service to all stations and other systems with access to the stations are noted.
Operation
The K Ingleside begins service at 5 a.m. weekdays, 6 a.m. Saturdays and 8 a.m. Sundays, with the end of service occurring around 12:30 a.m. each night. It operates a headway of 9 to 10 minutes during the day, and 12 to 15 minutes at night.Service is provided by overnight Owl buses during the hours that rail service is not running. The serves the portion between West Portal and Embarcadero, and the serves the portion between Balboa Park and West Portal. The K Owl bus runs a limited number of trips during late nights and early mornings. On weekends, KT Ingleside/Third Street Bus service runs from 5am until the start of rail service. The bus line largely follows the rail line, but it uses surface streets to parallel sections where the rail line has dedicated rights-of-way.
History
Market Street Railway
The Market Street Railway opened a branch – built in just six days – of its Mission Street line along Ocean Avenue to Victoria Street on December 4, 1895 to serve the new Ingleside Racetrack. The line was extended to the Ingleside House shortly thereafter. The 1906 earthquake damaged many cable car and streetcar lines; in the aftermath, the United Railroads – successor to the Market Street Railway – closed many cable cars lines and expanded the electric streetcar system. The URR resumed service on the Ocean Avenue line on May 6, 1906; the line was soon extended to Ocean Beach via Junipero Serra Boulevard and Sloat Boulevard.Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway opened its K line along with the Twin Peaks Tunnel on February 3, 1918. The line originally ran from St. Francis Circle station along West Portal Avenue, through the tunnel, along Market Street to Van Ness Avenue, and along existing tracks on Van Ness Avenue to Pine Street. On June 1, 1918, the J and K lines were removed from Van Ness Avenue and extended along Market Street to a loop at the Ferry Building.The existing URR streetcar service on Ocean Avenue formed a barrier to continued Muni expansion into the Ingleside district. On November 25, 1918, the city and the private URR signed the "Parkside Agreements", which allowed Muni streetcars to use URR trackage on Ocean Avenue as far as Harold Avenue, as well as on Taraval Street, in exchange for a cash payment and shared maintenance costs. The K Ingleside line was extended south on Junipero Serra Boulevard and east on Ocean Avenue to Miramar Avenue on February 21, 1919. On May 18, it was extended several blocks further east to Brighton Avenue, then two blocks south on Grafton to a stub-end terminal at Grafton Avenue.
Every other inbound car on Sundays and holidays continued onto the L Taraval line beginning on April 13, 1919; this ended on October 21, 1923, when the L Taraval line was extended to downtown at all times. Every other inbound car operated to the new East Bay Terminal beginning on January 15, 1939; all cars ran there starting on January 1, 1941. Muni bought the Market Street Railway in 1944; route 12 service was removed from Ocean Avenue on April 8, 1945, leaving just the K Ingleside. On April 21, every other outbound K car was extended on Ocean Avenue and Onondaga Street to Mission Street, providing a direct connection to route.
On January 21, 1951, the crosstown route replaced streetcars on the K and L lines on evenings and holidays. All-rail service returned on May 18, 1952, at which time the trackage on Brighton Avenue was abandoned and replaced with the Phelan Loop at Phelan Avenue near City College. Service past the loop to Mission ended on October 10, 1952, although trackage as far as San Jose Avenue was kept for non-revenue moves to the carhouse.
Muni Metro
Service was diverted to Duboce Avenue, Church Street, and 17th Street on December 2, 1972, due to construction of the Market Street subway. On April 23, 1979, the line was lengthened to Balboa Park BART Station. Initially, only supplemental trips running from West Portal and using newly-in-service Boeing Light Rail Vehicles served the new extension, weekdays only, and most K-line service continued to use PCC streetcars running from downtown to Phelan Loop. The LRV shuttle service ended in February 1980, and PCC-operated service was extended to Balboa Park, but lasted only four months before the weekday service was replaced by a temporary K-L crosstown route using LRVs. Additional changes to the service configuration followed until finally on December 17, 1980, the K line became operated as a through service from Embarcadero Station to Balboa Park, using LRVs, on weekdays only. Weekend service continued to use PCC cars until September 1982 when the Muni Metro became fully operational.From February 2001 to June 7, 2003, K Ingleside service was cut back to St. Francis Circle and replaced by buses on Ocean Avenue for the Ocean Avenue Reconstruction and Improvement Project, a major street repaving and utility replacement project. The Muni tracks and overhead power system were replaced, boarding islands were reconstructed, and accessible platforms built at Ocean and Lee.
Following service changes on June 30, 2007, the K Ingleside and the T Third Street lines were spliced together inside the Market Street subway tunnel, though keeping their respective line designations, resulting in an upside-down horseshoe-shaped route from Balboa Park to Bayshore and Sunnydale. At West Portal Station, inbound K trains heading towards downtown change their signs to the T line; conversely, at Embarcadero Station, T trains heading into downtown change signs to the K line. The trains show the ultimate destination of the spliced lines rather than the intermediate "terminus" of the individual line.
Service on the line was modified from June 25 to August 24, 2018 due to the Twin Peaks Tunnel shutdown. The underground section of the line was closed west of Castro station, while the surface section was through-routed with the J Church line. On August 25, 2018, at the conclusion of the shutdown, Muni began running permanently two-car trains on the K/T line. Because of insufficiently-long boarding islands, the rear car is closed on the Ocean Avenue section of the line. Passengers in the rear car on outbound trains will be forced to move to the front car at Junipero Serra and Ocean station, and inbound K trains will not open the rear car to passengers until passing Junipero Serra and Ocean.
Future plans
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: K Ingleside and L Taraval service will be interlined, running between Wawona and 46th Avenue station and Balboa Park station; no K or L service will enter the subway. T Third Street service will be interlined with M Ocean View service intstead of K Ingleside.Future plans for the K line include an extension on Geneva Avenue from the Balboa Park station to Bayshore Boulevard, with a connection to the T Third Street line and a possible connection to the Bayshore Caltrain station in Brisbane. This has been identified as a Tier 1 level project. Additional plans include a subway with a portal entrance south of Saint Francis Circle on Junipero Serra Boulevard that connects to the existing Twin Peaks Tunnel. This plan will coincide with the construction of the M Ocean View subway project.