How to ride transit in San Francisco

San Francisco looks complicated on a transit map, but for a visitor it boils down to two systems: Muni runs everything inside the city — light rail, buses, the vintage streetcars, the cable cars — and BART is the fast regional rail that gets you to the airport, Oakland and Berkeley. Since late 2025 one tap works on all of it: a contactless bank card, your phone, or a Clipper card.

The basics

Muni (run by the SFMTA) is your everyday network:

• Muni Metro — six light rail lines (J, K, L, M, N, T) that run in a subway under Market Street downtown and surface out in the neighborhoods.
• Buses — the real workhorses, covering every corner of the city. Routes ending in R are Rapids: fewer stops, more frequent.
• The F line — genuine vintage streetcars from around the world, running along Market Street and up the waterfront to Fisherman’s Wharf.
• Cable cars — three lines (Powell/Hyde, Powell/Mason, California). A moving landmark with a premium $9 fare — treat them as an attraction, not a commute.

BART is the separate regional rail system: it shares the four downtown Market Street stations with Muni (Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, Civic Center), then runs south to SFO and east under the bay to Oakland and Berkeley. Fares are distance-based, and it’s the airport connection.

Around the edges: Caltrain runs commuter rail down the Peninsula to San Jose from its own terminal at 4th & King, and ferries leave the Ferry Building for Oakland, Alameda, Sausalito and beyond — slower, but the views are the point.

How to pay

The Bay Area finished rolling out tap-to-pay across all its agencies in December 2025, so paying is now genuinely easy:

1. Tap a contactless bank card or your phone (Apple Pay / Google Pay) — on the Clipper reader as you board Muni, and at the fare gates on BART. No setup, no app. Two catches: it only charges full adult fares, and on BART you must tap in and out with the same card (fares depend on distance). Each rider needs their own card or device.
2. Get a Clipper card — the regional transit card, either in your phone’s wallet (Apple/Google Wallet — you can set it up before you land) or as plastic from station machines and retailers. You’ll need Clipper for discounted fares (seniors, youth on BART, the low-income Clipper START program) and it’s the easiest way to load passes.
3. Cash works on Muni buses and streetcars — $3.00, exact change, and you get a paper transfer. Cable car conductors take exact-change cash too ($9). BART takes no cash at the gates and no longer sells paper tickets.

Muni has no turnstiles outside the Metro subway — it runs on proof of payment. Tap every time you board, keep your transfer or ticket, and be ready to show it to a fare inspector.

Fares

One Muni fare buys two hours of unlimited rides on buses, Metro and streetcars (cable cars excluded):

Beyond the single fare:

• Day Pass — $5.70 for unlimited Muni (no cable cars).
• Visitor Passport — unlimited Muni including cable cars: $15 (1 day), $35 (3 days), $47 (7 days). Worth it if you’re planning more than one cable car ride ($9 each on their own). Not valid on BART, including to the airport.
• Cable car single ride — $9.00, no transfers.
• BART — distance-based: a few dollars for short hops within the city, $11.80 from SFO to downtown.

Nice bonus: transfers between agencies within two hours get a $2.85 discount — so a BART ride followed by a Muni ride effectively makes the Muni leg free. It works with Clipper and with bank-card taps alike; just pay every leg of the trip with the same card or device, since the discount follows the card.

Getting from the airport

Take BART. The station is inside the International Terminal — walk from Terminals 1 and 3 or take the free AirTrain from any terminal.

• Time: about 30 minutes to downtown.
• Cost: $11.80 one-way to the downtown stations (Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, Civic Center) — tap a bank card or Clipper at the gate, and remember to tap out.
• Which train: any Yellow Line (Antioch) or Red Line (Richmond) train toward San Francisco — both hit all four downtown stations. Going back, look for SFO in the train’s name.
• Hours: first trains leave SFO at 4:58am weekdays, 5:47am Saturdays, and not until 8:08am Sundays — an early Sunday flight means a cab or rideshare. Service ends around midnight every night.
• Heads-up: through Summer 2026, construction pauses trains between Millbrae and SFO after 9pm on Sunday–Thursday nights, with delays up to 30 minutes in the area (see the alert above).

Apps to download

• Clipper — add the card to Apple or Google Wallet before you arrive and you can walk straight off the plane onto BART.
• MuniMobile — Muni’s official app, best for Visitor Passports and cable car tickets. Note: from August 1, 2026 it no longer sells single rides or Muni day passes — tap Clipper or a bank card for those instead.
• Transit — the local favorite for real-time arrivals across Muni and BART.
• Official BART app — real-time departures and delay alerts, handy for timing your airport trip.
• Google Maps / Apple Maps — fine for planning, with live data from both systems.

When it runs

• Muni runs roughly 5am to midnight, then hands over to the Owl network: about a dozen routes every 30 minutes all night, including the 14, 22, 25 and 38, with buses substituting for the L and N trains. San Francisco is one of the few US cities where transit genuinely runs 24 hours — just plan for a wait.
• Muni frequency is good on the big lines: Metro trains about every 10 minutes midday, Rapid buses every 5–12 minutes, quieter routes every 20.
• BART runs 5am–midnight weekdays, from 6am Saturdays and 8am Sundays. All five lines run until 9pm; after that it drops to three lines, so late-night trips may need a transfer.

Accessibility

Muni Metro stations have elevators and every surface line has designated accessible stops; buses kneel and deploy ramps. The big exception is the cable cars — they have no accessible boarding (the historic F streetcars have accessible options at most stops). All BART stations have elevators and wide fare gates, which also help with luggage. Both agencies post live elevator/escalator status online — worth checking, since outages are common. SF Paratransit provides door-to-door vans and ramp taxis for riders who can’t use regular transit.

Etiquette & local quirks

• On BART, tap in and out — with the same card. On Muni, tap once each time you board, transfers included.
• Don’t confuse the two systems downtown. At the shared Market Street stations, Muni Metro and BART are on different levels with separate fare gates. Follow the signs for the system you’re actually riding.
• Cable cars: at the busiest terminals (Powell & Market, Hyde & Beach, Bay & Taylor) you must buy your ticket before boarding between 8am and 8pm. Skip the turntable queue at Powell — locals board a few stops uphill. Hold on tight, and no bikes.
• Kids and teens ride Muni free — anyone 18 and under, no card needed.
• Dress in layers. Summer afternoons downtown can be sunny while the N Judah rides into a 55°F fog bank at Ocean Beach. The fog is not a malfunction; it’s called Karl.

Good to know

• Fare enforcement is real on Muni: inspectors check proof of payment on vehicles and in Metro stations, and riding without it means a fine of more than $100.
• Your Visitor Passport doesn’t cover BART — including the airport ride. Budget the $11.80 separately.
• Steep hills are part of the system. A route that looks like a short walk on the map can be a serious climb — the 1, 19, and 27 buses exist for a reason.
• Check advisories before late-night BART trips through Summer 2026 while the train-control work is underway, especially anywhere near SFO/Millbrae after 9pm.
• BART switches to a new schedule on August 10, 2026 — trains get longer and more evenly spaced (Yellow and Red line trains every 10 minutes instead of alternating 5 and 15). Good news overall, but exact departure times shift, so look up current times on bart.gov if you’re cutting a first-train or last-train trip close after that date.