UPDATE: The 28, 28R and 57 will not be affected. Muni has released a new proposal for service reductions.

After San Francisco State University ended its shuttle service ahead of Fall 2024, many students are now relying solely on Muni buses to commute between campus and the Daly City BART station, resulting in overcrowding and student tardiness — issues that could worsen as Muni has proposed to reduce 57 service and suspend the 28 route to adjust to a budget shortfall.

“I wish I get home sooner, but I usually have to wait for the next bus to come, and it is just super crowded and not comfortable at all,” said Chimaoge Nzerem, a first-year pre-nursing student. “A lot of times, especially during two or three [o’clock], there will be a huge crowd of people, and then there’ll be a lot of pushing and shoving onto the bus, and a lot of people won’t make it onto the bus.”

Just before last semester, Joy Manaois, SFSU’s director of operations and finance, told Golden Gate Xpress that the university evaluated Muni’s routes between Daly City BART station and the campus — the 28, 28R, and 57 — and concluded that they were sufficient, making the shuttle service redundant.

Yessenia Espinal, a second-year psychology student, recalled commuting with the shuttles as an option.

“There was enough space on each of the buses,” Espinal said. “Since the shuttles, I know a bunch of people have been arriving late. I have been arriving late also.”

According to data from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the 28R and 57 routes haven’t reached pre-pandemic ridership levels during the weekdays, but the 28 is close. Commuters say that buses are particularly packed between Daly City Station and SFSU’s main campus.

“The buses are so full you can see the bus height drop from all the weight,” said Jesus Rubio, a geography student. “Usually, I see about 50 to 60 people lined up, which is more than in past semesters.”

Blanca Missé, an associate professor who teaches French, has been using the 28 and 28R to connect to the Daly City station before taking BART to Oakland.

“Usually, when I had the shuttle or the bus, I would always be able to get it in the next three, four minutes and have a ride sitting down after a long day of work, because I teach my three classes and have all my office hours,” said Missé, who commutes to campus twice a week. “Right now, I need to wait sometimes 10 minutes, then a lot of students and faculty and staff will want to get on the bus. We’re all crammed on the bus until Daly City — very uncomfortable — and we really need to have the shuttles back, or otherwise add more bus lanes and more bus rides.”

Michael Roccaforte, a spokesperson for the SFMTA, said people commuting from the East Bay can transfer from BART to the M-Ocean View Muni Metro line at Embarcadero Station and likely experience a faster and less crowded trip compared to transferring to Muni buses at Daly City Station.

Missé uses BART and the M in the mornings but said the M trains back are much more crowded during the afternoons and evenings. Missé also prefers to take BART on the way back since it’s faster and finding a seat is much more likely.

Roccaforte mentioned that the 28R was improved last year, with one more bus added in the mornings.

However, with an impending $50 million budget shortfall, Muni has created three proposals for service cuts — two of which call for suspending the 28 route.

“I’m really, really hoping that it doesn’t happen,” Missé said. “It would make my life even more miserable because that means I will have to wait for longer and maybe the next bus that will come will be packed and I will have to wait for another bus, and sometimes getting home maybe half an hour later, or an hour later. Or I will have to take the Muni [Metro], which is also packed right now in rush hour, so you will have a negative impact in my workload, in my physical health, in my mental health.”

Students like Siya Jariwane, a third-year computer science student who rides the 28 daily, said she can’t just switch to the 28R.

“That would be really bad for me because that’s the only bus that I can really take,” Jariwane said. 

Jariwane can only access her stop on the 28 bus because the 28R skips it. She also said that if the route became suspended, she would be forced to walk an additional 15 to 20 minutes every day.

“We do not want to make cuts to Muni service this summer, or ever,” Roccaforte said. “But if we do not find a way to balance our budget, cuts to SFMTA services, whether it’s to Muni or to other essential services provided by the SFMTA, would quickly become more severe.”

This story was updated to correct a name.