By: Kelsey Rugani

San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency – better known as MUNI – has announced plans to create a new express bus line that will connect Caltrain’s Fourth and Townsend station with Market Street between Eight and Ninth streets. And you know what’s conveniently placed a block away? The new Twitter headquarters!

[Image Credit: The Twitter-Muni image is from N Judah Chronicles.]

Here are the logistics (in 140 characters or less): 83X will run Monday-Friday from 7am-11am and 4pm-8pm beginning in June.

This link between Caltrain and the Civic Center BART Station is expected to carry 400,000 riders a year including Peninsula residents who will now have a much more efficient method of getting to San Francisco’s downtown. The estimated cost of the line is $297,000.

83x-muni-route-mapThe line also incentivizes San Francisco residents and visitors to travel to and through the Civic Center/Tenderloin area, a high-priority area for job creation and economic development.

Starting with its Transit Effectiveness Project Report – a system-wide study that aims to “improve service reliability, reduce travel time on transit, improve customer experiences and service efficiency” – and continuing on by holding its own Muni townhalls, MUNI has become more responsive to the needs of its riders. One such example is the piloting of, and subsequent success of, the TEP-recommended NX-Judah Express line. The 83X is a step in the right direction to reform the overall MUNI system and shows that MUNI is #listening.