Bus Report #543

Last night the Central Subway folks invited a few of us down to their office to learn a bit more about the project. Thank you everyone at Central Subway, the meeting was very informative.
I don't know that I can give the best recap of the night, but their website is very informative so I'd like to mention it here and hope people go check it out.
Most important points for Muni riders:
-The funds allocated for the Central Subway project cannot be used for any other projects, so it's Central Subway or nothing.
-Most of the funding comes from the federal government.
-The Central Subway will hopefully help ease traffic congestion on Stockton, where two of the most crowded and dysfunctional Muni lines (the 30 Stockton and the 45 Union) run.
-The project will have a terminal at Union Square that will connect underground to a station on Market Street (don't quote me on this, but it is what I remembered from the meeting), hopefully easing above ground pedestrian traffic. (Plus, in the rain, you could walk underground from Market to Union Square, which might be a good thing!)

After the meeting as I was walking up 4th to catch a bus on Market, I kept looking around, envisioning a downtown with a new subway running beneath it. If the Central Subway works, how much will things change? How much will they stay the same? Considering the project is really a Phase 2 of the project that brought us the T Third, I will wait and see how it goes. Meanwhile, I urge everyone to check out the website I linked above, and here's a link to the Central Subway blog.
Thanks again to everyone at Central Subway for inviting me to the meeting!