Castro station is a

Muni Metro Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni Metro served an average of 157 ...

station at the intersection of

Market Street Market Street may refer to: *Market Street, Cambridge, England *Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia * Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia *Market Street, Manchester, England *Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ...

, Castro Street, and 17th Street in

The Castro The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...

district of

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Station layout and history

Muni 1053 at 17th and Castro, September 1999

The station consists of two

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s next to the tracks on the second level down with the concourse mezzanine level overlooking it. Uniquely among Muni Metro stations, the platforms are slightly curved due to the transition from the

Market Street subway The Market Street subway is a two-level subway tunnel that carries Muni Metro and BART trains under Market Street in San Francisco, California.Twin Peaks Tunnel The Twin Peaks Tunnel is a light rail/streetcar tunnel in San Francisco, California. The tunnel runs under Twin Peaks and is used by the K Ingleside/T Third Street, M Ocean View and S Shuttle lines of the Muni Metro system. The eastern entra ...

between this station and the now-disused

Eureka Valley station Eureka Valley station is an abandoned underground streetcar station in San Francisco, California. It was located inside the Twin Peaks Tunnel, very close to its eastern end in the Eureka Valley neighborhood. The station opened in 1918, and was cl ...

, just southwest. At both Castro and , there is only one entrance on each side of Market Street leading into the station. (All other stations on the Market Street subway have entrances spread out along the length of the station.) The southern entrance is located in

Harvey Milk Plaza Harvey Milk Plaza is a transit plaza at the Castro Muni Metro subway station commemorating Harvey Milk, in San Francisco's Castro District, in the U.S. state of California. History Harvey Milk, the site's namesake, was a gay man who moved to C ...

on the southwest corner of Market and Castro, and the northern entrance and street elevator on the northwest corner of Market and 17th. The station was designed by Howard Grant AIA of Reid & Tarics Associates and was completed in 1976. Service at the station began on June 11, 1980. Castro station features a transit plaza at the corner of Castro Street and Market Street. In 1985 it was dedicated to Harvey Milk, the slain SF supervisor and first openly gay elected official in California. In May 2016, the escalator in Harvey Milk Plaza was retrofitted with colored lights (to resemble the

rainbow flag A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the spectral colors of the visible light spectrum. The LGBT flag introduced in 1978 is the most recognized u ...

that flies above the plaza) after being rehabilitated. This test was considered a success; lights were added to 17 other escalators in the system, including the other three escalators at Castro, in 2018–19. Muni plans to construct

accessibility Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...

improvements, including a second elevator, in Harvey Milk Plaza at the south entrance of the station. A 2020 determination that the plaza is eligible for inclusion on the

California Register of Historical Resources The California Register of Historical Resources is a California state government program for use by state and local agencies, private groups, and citizens to identify, evaluate, register and protect California's historical resources. The register i ...

is not expected to impact elevator construction, but may stall the larger plaza project. , the project is estimated to be complete in late 2024. In 2022, a new decorative railing was added on the F Market & Wharves boarding island as part of the Upper Market Street Safety Project. It features a quote from

Harvey Milk Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised in N ...

's 1977 "You've Got to Have Hope" speech, as well as an illustration of streetcar #1051, which is dedicated in Milk's honor.

References

External links

Muni Metro stations Castro District, San Francisco Market Street (San Francisco) Railway stations located underground in California Railway stations in the United States opened in 1980 {{SanFrancisco-railstation-stub