Central Subway Fully Opens With Pelosi Back From Chaotic Speaker Election

About two months after soft opening, San Francisco’s long-awaited Central Subway started full operation today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by a who's who of public officials inside Union Square Station.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, who flew overnight from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco after multiple contentious House votes to elect Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, to replace her, expressed excitement about the subway's opening.

“My first public appearance here as the speaker emeritus is for this project,” she said and described the opening event gathering as family time.

Pelosi drew laughter from the crowd when she characterized the dramatic events this week over the next House speaker as “inclement weather in the Congress.”

Other city officials at the event included Mayor London Breed, State Sen. Scott Wiener, Assemblymembers Phil Ting and Matt Haney and city supervisors.

Breed encouraged the city to imagine the Central Subway extended from Chinatown to Fishermen’s Wharf as Pelosi said that President Joe Biden’s administration has reserved funds for major transit projects.

Passengers now can take the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's T Third light rail service from the Chinatown-Rose Pak Station all the way to the southeast neighborhoods with stops at Union Square, Chase Center, Visitacion Valley, Dogpatch and the Bayview area seven days a week.

Central Subway service runs Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to midnight every 10 minutes and, on weekends, from 8 a.m. to midnight every 12 minutes.