San Francisco Municipal Railway's Muni Metro subway service will begin early closures this week, lasting for two weeks as crews do maintenance work.
Starting Monday, subway service between the Embarcadero and West Portal stations will end at 9:30 p.m. so that crews can perform "critical maintenance tasks," Muni officials said.
On most nights, crews only have a small window of about two hours to complete maintenance on the underground tracks and equipment. The temporary early closures will ensure that crews have more than enough time to complete the work, according to Muni.
The work is aimed at making subway operations more reliable and helping to prevent future breakdowns, covering overhead lines, tracks, signals and Muni's Automated Train Control System.
According to the plan, after 9:30 p.m., shuttle buses will begin serving all Muni Metro stops above ground through about 1 a.m.
With the exception of the L-Taraval line, all other Muni Metro lines will continue their above-ground routes.
