During the design phase, BART's tunnel was moved from 8th to 9th Street to avoid a hardware store. This change required a tighter turn radius, and therefore slower trains at the Oakland Wye, which still impacts riders today.
I'm hoping someone can sanity check me here.
I'm trying to edit an existing route (BART Purple in the screenshot), and I can open the Route Details panel just fine. But when I select 'edit route', none of the red/green station buttons appear on the map, so I can't change the route.
The same thing happens if I try to create a brand new route from scratch. No station buttons ever appear.
I've tried restarting the game, closing and reopening the route editor, creating a new route instead of editing an existing one. No luck.
Is this a known bug, or is there some mode or setting I'm missing? I'll attach a screenshot of what I see when trying to edit the route.
edit: SOLVED! I had the station dots layer turned off. Needed this to be 'on' in order to edit stations.
The SFCTA and SFMTA recently released the Geary/19th Ave Subway & Regional Connections Strategic Case report.
A few interesting takeaways:
The study illustrates two representative concepts. The first (figure 3-1) uses BART technology, running directly west from Mission Bay under Geary before continuing south toward Daly City and potentially onward to SFO/Millbrae. This concept would connect to a future BART-compatible transbay crossing via Mission Bay. The second (figure 3-2) uses standard-gauge regional rail technology, routing via the SF Transit Center and a future Link21 transbay tunnel. The report specifically discusses high-capacity, single-level regional rail vehicles rather than traditional commuter rail equipment (aka Caltrain-type bilevel train sets).
I had previously assumed any future Geary subway would be some form of Muni Metro or automated light rail focused entirely on San Francisco trips. Instead, a significant portion of the report explores how the corridor could be much more impactful if it functioned as part of a broader regional rail network. The standard-gauge concept in particular feels reminiscent of through-running systems such as the Paris RER, London Elizabeth Line, or German S-Bahn.
I've been going back and forth on which concept I prefer. The BART option has the obvious advantage of plugging directly into the existing BART network, allowing one-seat rides from Geary to destinations throughout the East Bay as well as south to SFO and Millbrae. On the other hand, the standard-gauge regional rail concept aligns with several major long-term projects already planned or under construction, including Caltrain's extension to the Salesforce Transit Center, Link21, and eventually California High-Speed Rail reaching downtown San Francisco. That raises the interesting possibility of creating something more like an RER or S-Bahn style regional rail network than a traditional urban subway.
picture of map for better zooming: https://imgur.com/a/Hx67xQN
I made a concept map for a hypothetical southern extension of SMART beyond the current Larkspur terminus, continuing through southern Marin and ending in downtown Sausalito at Dunphy Park. Obviously this is fantasy planning, but I tried to keep it tied to real geography and realistic constraints instead of just drawing random lines.
>Red line: at-grade route
Yellow line: tunnel route
Blue squares: station
The route would start with a relocated Larkspur station placed much closer to the ferry terminal. The current station is nearby, but its a walk and not integrated in a way that feels seamless. I have the SMART rising onto an elevated structure over the road and ferry parking lot, with a station directly serving the terminal, before continuing south on a new bridge across Corte Madera Creek.
From there it would continue along the old rail right-of-way to a station near The Village at Corte Madera, then continue south toward Mill Valley by taking over Koch Rd. and turning it into rail. The houses in this neighborhood are able to use a different road for egress, but this segment could potentially be a short tunnel if there is too much opposition from neighbors.
The hardest part of the alignment is the Alto area, where 101, roads, and development all squeeze together. I originally wanted to continue alongside 101 on the East side and across a new bridge parallel to the Richardson Bay Bridge, but it does not seem feasible. Therefore I went with a short 1 mile tunnel under Mill Valley with one underground station at Alto. Expensive, but cleaner than forcing rail onto frontage roads or building awkward elevated structures. And this tunnel allows us to get onto the old rail right-of-way south of Corte Madera.
SMART would re-emerge and continue along the former rail corridor, currently a bike path. I am picturing double-tracked SMART plus a rebuilt bike path alongside it, with a stop near Tamalpais High School / Altamont.
I originally had the line ending near Waldo for simplicity, but it felt like stopping short. If you are going to spend all this money, I think it makes more sense to push another mile into downtown Sausalito. A Southern terminus at Dunphy Park station gives you an actual destination with waterfront access, tourism, restaurants, local trips, and a station people would genuinely use.
I have the route staying close to the northeastern edge of Bridgeway, which would require removing some smaller commercial businesses and parking lots. Nothing too major, but this is probably the most complex segment, and honestly it might not be feasible. Crossing gates would be used at the at-grade crossings through this section. I wanted to extend all the way to the Sausalito Ferry, but it was too difficult to get beyond Dunphy Park at grade, and a tunnel that close to the water sounds impossible.
There are obvious downsides to this plan overall. The tunnel would be very costly, especially with a station. The final segment into Sausalito would be politically (extremely) difficult, and street crossings across the tracks would remain. Marin is NIMBY central, so I have serious doubts about the overall political feasibility. The biggest issue is that this expansion would be massively more expensive than other SMART extensions:
| Extension | Length | Cost | Cost per Mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Rafael → Larkspur | 2.1 miles | $55mm | $26mm / mile |
| Santa Rosa → Windsor | 3 miles | $70mm | $23mm / mile |
| Windsor → Healdsburg (in progress) | 5.5 miles | $269mm | $49mm / mile |
| Larkspur → Sausalito (proposed) | 7.5 miles | $2 - 3B | $267mm – $400mm / mile |
I also included a screenshot from Open Railway Map showing the current SMART route (shown in orange) and the abandoned former rail ROW (dashed brown) that I’m using in this proposal. Source: https://www.openrailwaymap.org/
Main idea was to imagine SMART not stopping short at Larkspur, but continuing into southern Marin in a way that actually serves real places like Corte Madera, Mill Valley, and Sausalito. Southern Marin used to have direct rail access before passenger service faded out in the 1940s and much of the old right-of-way was later lost or repurposed. This was basically an attempt to imagine what a modern version of that connection could look like today.
Would love feedback, especially from Marin folks!
>Edit: If anyone is interested, I also built a Light Rail Speed Map comparing train speeds across 17 transit systems. If this post interests you, check it out here: https://www.reddit.com/r/transit/comments/1rw8fd4/i_built_an_interactive_speed_map_of_17_light_rail/