Market and 2nd Street / Market and New Montgomery stations

Montgomery Street station

Company type	Rapid transit station
Industry	Public transportation
Founded	November 5, 1973 (1973-11-05)
Headquarters	San Francisco , United States
Products	BART and Muni Metro services

Montgomery Street station—commonly known simply as Montgomery station—is an integrated rapid transit hub serving both BART and Muni Metro within the Market Street subway located in downtown San Francisco. Positioned beneath Market Street between Montgomery Street and Sansome Street, it primarily caters to the Financial District along with adjacent neighborhoods. This three-tiered facility includes a spacious fare mezzanine, which separates paid areas for Muni Metro and BART, with dedicated platform levels for each transit system below. Alongside Embarcadero station, Montgomery is among the busiest stations within the BART network.

Montgomery station accommodates BART's Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue services, as well as Muni Metro lines including the J Church, K Ingleside, L Taraval, M Ocean View, N Judah, and the S Shuttle.

Station layout

Montgomery shares a similar design with the other three joint Muni/BART stations along the Market Street subway, consisting of three subterranean levels. The uppermost level serves as a fare mezzanine with distinct paid zones for both transit systems. Beneath this, the second level contains a single island platform dedicated to Muni Metro trains, while the lowest tier houses an island platform for BART services. The station is accessible through seven street-level entrances and offers underground connections to the office buildings at One Sansome Street and 44 Montgomery. Both Montgomery and the nearby Powell—which were designed by architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill—feature unique domed hexagonal "bubble tiles" adorning their mezzanine areas.

History

The designation "Montgomery Street" was officially approved by the BART Board in December 1965. During its construction phase, the station was featured in the 1971 motion picture The Organization. BART commuter service commenced on November 5, 1973, followed by Muni Metro operations beginning February 18, 1980. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, some Antioch line trains terminated at Montgomery to enhance Transbay service frequency. Between February and September 2020 and again from March to August 2021, certain Sunday Dublin/Pleasanton line trains ended their routes at Montgomery due to single-tracking maintenance within the Market Street Subway.

After observing a successful canopy installation at 19th Street Oakland station in 2015—which reduced escalator downtime by approximately one-third—BART initiated plans to install similar protective canopies over all downtown entrances in both Oakland and San Francisco. Construction of these canopies at Montgomery began in February 2021, leading to the closure of the New Montgomery Street entrance on January 3, 2022. This entrance reopened on April 17, 2023, followed by temporary closures at other entrances including Montgomery Street/Post Street and Sutter Street for canopy installation work. The Sutter entrance became operational again on May 30, 2024; subsequently, the Sansome entrance was closed until November 2024. Completion of canopy installations across all entrances is projected by 2027.

Due to decreased ridership during the pandemic, southern station entrances were shut from April 13, 2020 until May 15, 2021. Initially lacking faregates for elevator users at thirteen BART stations—including Montgomery—a project commenced in 2020 to install these gates. The first faregate on Montgomery’s BART platform was added in December 2020, with second-generation faregates installed during October and November of 2024.

On September 13, 2021, a section of the mezzanine along with the southern entrance east of 2nd Street was closed to accommodate construction of a traction power substation; reopening was anticipated by 2023. Restroom facilities underground had been closed since heightened security measures following September 11 but were refurbished and reopened on June 28, 2022 with attendants present during operational hours. Under the proposed improvements associated with the Better Market Street initiative, plans include eliminating the inbound F line stop near Montgomery to enhance transit travel times.

Connections

Muni's F Market and Wharves historic streetcar line serves stops at Market and 2nd Street for outbound travel and Market and New Montgomery for inbound trips. This station is also a hub for a variety of Muni bus and trolleybus lines:

• Local routes: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
• Rapid lines: , ,
• Express services: , , ,
• Owl routes: , , , , , , , ,

During BART's non-operational hours, AC Transit runs the 800 All Nighter night bus at Montgomery Street station.

Several other transit options are available nearby on Mission Street, just one block away, including Muni routes (, , ), Golden Gate Transit lines (30, 70, 101, 101X), and SamTrans services (292, 397, 398, FCX). Approximately east lies the Salesforce Transit Center, which functions as the main San Francisco terminal for AC Transit transbay buses, WestCAT, Greyhound, Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach, select Golden Gate Transit routes, and Muni route .

External links

• BART: Montgomery St. Station
• SFMTA: Montgomery Station inbound, outbound
• SF Bay Transit (unofficial): MUNI Metro Montgomery Station, Montgomery St. BART Station