Opinion : Central Subway’s slow start demands immediate fixing

San Francisco’s new Central Subway has been long on promises and short on results. For decades, residents and small businesses in Chinatown and the Bayview were promised a high-quality line that would connect our eastern neighborhoods. But now, with the subway finally open, it's clear that the promises made to those communities are at risk of being broken.

3,000. That’s the troubling number at hand. Just under 3,000 riders on average entered the subway’s new underground stations in February. That’s well below the estimated ridership of tens of thousands of daily riders. Even more troubling, it’s a dip from January’s opening numbers.

Yes, it’s still early. Yes, the rain has kept most of us shuttered inside. But, the warning signs are flashing: The Central Subway needs immediate attention. If SFMTA does not act, they risk abandoning residents from the Bayview to Chinatown that were promised a fast connection to jobs, community and health resources, and shopping.

What's gone wrong? The primary issue so far has been frequency. Riders are reporting long wait times, well beyond the advertised 12 minute headways. This infrequent service simply won’t cut it when buses above ground come every few minutes along a similar route and the journey below ground can take 5 minutes itself. This is light years apart from the original frequency of 3.75 minutes that SFMTA promised the Federal Transit Administration in 2015.

To make matters worse, the cavernous stations are already showing wear and tear. Electronic signs which are supposed to show train times have been blank for months.

Perhaps the most disappointing development has been a string of escalator closures that force riders to climb hundreds of steps. This is unforgivable given that the line serves Chinatown, the neighborhood with the highest concentration of seniors in all of San Francisco.

It’s not all bad news: If you happen to luck out and catch a train, you’re amazed at how quickly the Central Subway moves (the problem is waiting for it to move).

The station’s art has been a pleasant surprise, and staff and frontline workers deserve credit for

keeping the stations clean and being a friendly presence to offer directions and answer questions. But at the end of the day, people come to ride the train and get from point A to point B, not to spend twenty minutes in an underground station.

The responsibility of improving the Central Subway doesn't fall on SFMTA alone. SOMA is still dotted with parking lots and delayed plans. The Board of Supervisors and the Planning Department should do everything possible to speed those projects up, adding thousands of potential riders living within a few blocks of stations. The state must also back away from its ill-advised plan to cut $2 billion dollars in public transit budgets.

I’m rooting for the Central Subway. It has promise and it could be a high-performing transit line in a city that so badly needs alternatives to private vehicles to get around. But, part of loving something is calling out when it’s not living up to its potential. Let’s hope SFMTA feels the same way in time to save the Central Subway.

● Danny Sauter is a daily transit rider, a non-profit Director, and resident of North Beach. He also is a lead organizer with the Central Subway advocacy group, SF NextStop and former candidate for District 3 Supervisor.