Almost two-thirds of canceled MUNI service to be restored Saturday

SAN FRANCISCO — Nearly two-thirds of MUNI transit service that was cut in May because of a city budget deficit will be restored this coming Saturday, Municipal Transportation Authority officials touted this week.

Late evening service, 30-minute Owl line headways and additional trips on busy lines that were eliminated during a round of deep service cuts that went into effect May 8 will be brought back into operation starting this weekend.

All community service lines, including the 35-Eureka, 37-Corbett and the 52-Excelsior, will see late night trips restored. Owl service that ran once every 45-minutes will now provide service every half-hour on routes that operate 24-hours a day.

MUNI will also restore daytime service on heavily traveled routes such as the 14L-Mission Limited and 1-California routes. Both lines, along with several others, saw the elimination of several bus trips that resulted in longer wait time for passengers.

MUNI officials said this week that the restoration of service was made possible after operating efficiencies the MTA budget and additional funding from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.

On Wednesday, the union representing MUNI operators asked state labor officials to block the service restoration from going into effect arguing that the agency engaged in unfair labor practices when implementing the changes.

MUNI said they would go ahead with the planned service restorations Saturday.

For a complete list of MUNI routes that will see service changes, go to: http://www.sfmta.com/cms/malerts/MunitoRestoreServiceSeptember42010.htm

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