Montgomery Street station

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 referred to 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 and surrounding neighborhoods. This three-tiered station includes a spacious fare mezzanine with distinct platform levels for Muni Metro and BART situated below. Alongside Embarcadero station, Montgomery stands as one of the two most heavily trafficked stations in the BART network.

The station accommodates BART's Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue routes, in addition to Muni Metro's J Church, K Ingleside, L Taraval, M Ocean View, N Judah, and S Shuttle services.

Station layout

Similar to other shared Muni/BART facilities within the Market Street subway, Montgomery station comprises three subterranean levels: the uppermost level houses a fare mezzanine with separate paid zones for Muni and BART; below this lies a single island platform dedicated to Muni Metro; and the lowest level contains an island platform serving BART trains. The station offers seven street-level entrances alongside underground connections to the adjacent One Sansome Street and 44 Montgomery office buildings. Designed by the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Montgomery shares stylistic elements with nearby Powell station, notably the distinctive domed hexagonal "bubble tiles" that adorn the mezzanine area.

History

In December 1965, the BART Board officially designated this stop as "Montgomery Street". The station appeared during its construction phase in the 1971 movie The Organization. Service on BART commenced on November 5, 1973, with Muni Metro operations beginning later on February 18, 1980.

Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, select Antioch line trains terminated at Montgomery to enhance Transbay service capacity. Between February and September 2020, as well as March through August 2021, Dublin/Pleasanton line trains ended their runs here on Sundays due to single-tracking operations in the Market Street Subway.

Following a successful canopy installation at 19th Street Oakland station in 2015—resulting in a one-third reduction in escalator downtime—BART expanded canopy construction to all downtown entrances across Oakland and San Francisco. Work on canopies at Montgomery began in February 2021. The New Montgomery Street entrance was closed on January 3, 2022, reopening on April 17, 2023, with phased closures and subsequent reopenings of other entrances scheduled through November 2024. The entire project is anticipated to conclude by 2027.

Due to decreased ridership amid the pandemic, southern entrances were shuttered from April 13, 2020, until May 15, 2021. Initially lacking elevator faregates at thirteen stations including Montgomery, a project launched in 2020 aimed to install these security features. Montgomery’s elevator faregate was installed by December 2020, followed by deployment of second-generation faregates during October-November 2024.

On September 13, 2021, the mezzanine center along with the southern entrance east of Second Street closed temporarily to allow construction of a traction power substation; reopening was projected for 2023. Station restrooms had remained closed since post-9/11 security protocols; however, Montgomery’s restroom reopened on June 28, 2022 after refurbishment and now includes attendant services. As part of the planned Better Market Street initiative, removal of the inbound F line stop is proposed to streamline transit times.

Connections

The heritage streetcar service on Muni's F Market and Wharves line makes stops at Market and 2nd Street for outbound travel and at Market and New Montgomery for inbound passengers. This station is also accessible via a wide range of Muni bus and trolleybus lines, including:

• Local routes: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
• Rapid lines: , ,
• Express services: , , ,
• Overnight (Owl) operations: , , , , , , , ,

During BART's non-operational hours, AC Transit provides the 800 All Nighter route serving the Montgomery Street station.

Nearby Mission Street is served by additional transit options such as Muni (, , ), Golden Gate Transit (30, 70, 101, 101X), and SamTrans (292, 397, 398, FCX). Approximately a quarter-mile to the east lies the Salesforce Transit Center, which functions as the primary San Francisco hub for AC Transit transbay services, along with WestCAT, Greyhound, Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach buses, select Golden Gate Transit routes, and Muni's .

External links

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