MUNI Station – West Portal

West Portal is a pretty station. It’s nicer waiting for an outbound train here, rather than downtown. From the station you can see the sky and feel a gentle breeze. Or stay under the awnings if it’s raining.
Neighborhood itself is great and safe.
The downside of the station is that transferring from an inbound train to an outbound train or bus in a different direction is often difficult, so we frequently miss a bus or train at the last moment. They should do timed transfers between busses and trains. Also the announcements should say when the 48 and the 57 (formerly the 17) busses are leaving, rather than only giving that information for the trains. Also needs a bathroom.
Great station with some room for improvement.

This is a MUNI train station! What else should you expect other than the following…
Fouls smells emitting from every corner of this station. With the increase in pigeon occupancy at this station there is no wonder that the smell is so gross and disgusting. Let’s not forget that a lot of garbage gets left here because of the all the restaurants in the area. People will jump on the train and throw their trash anywhere and everywhere.
The amount of people panhandling at this station is increasing. They will lurk around the ticket machines so be aware of where they are.
There have never been any agents on duty in the booth when I have been here so if you have questions about buses or trains you may have to just wait.
There is a lot of heavy traffic at the intersection going into the station as well. Lot of almost accidents tend to happen at the intersection. Not to mention that there are a few buses that pass through this area as well.
This is what you can expect! Good luck to all of you current and future riders. Oh yeah, make sure you have a ticket at all times. The city has started to crack down on freeloading free riders, BACK DOOR/​NON PAYING passengers are getting ticketed. It is a HEFTY FINE so be prepared.

Lots of nice restaurants nearby. I take l almost everyday lol. Sometimes it’s unpredictable though. Be prepared for unforseeable breakdown or sudden change of routines lol

Just like any other bus station. It’s close to where I live and muni mostly comes on time. Convenient for working downtown because I don’t have to go through the hassle of finding parking downtown.

Muni Drivers should not be allowed to drink Alcohol in Public whilst in Uniform which is exactly what I just experienced at West Portal Station. This ought to be banned by SF Muni! Terribly mortifying at the sight of this!
Unions often protect people they ought not, SF Muni being a prime example here at West Portal Station.

I love emerging from this Muni Metro Tunnel into this retro neighborhood of West Portal. Yes Gayle, this place reminds me of Iowa and old Time Tunnel TV show. :)
Yet…the trendy restaurants indicate that the SF yup-​ification has come here too. But thank G-​d for the Manor Coffee Shop which makes the Muni ride and stop here more than worth it. Chasing the past, I stumble into the future…

Sometimes if muni gets backed up, this station becomes a ghost stop. But its a great way to transfer at the last minute like if your on a K and want to get on the L you can get off and wait on the platform. + 1 star for side platforms that regulate passenger flow.

I was there. Friday. My train arrived so fast. I have so many memories of this station! They are all the same. I have been there and the train comes. The PA system sucks. You can not tell what they say and they probably like that. Let’s make an announcement and watch the patrons get cock eyed what the f did the speakers say? Those are my find memories of this great train station. AC Transit people are mad at me. Bart people are mad at me. Why not. Let’s irk the Muni people too. Whoever told these people I am a journalist and watch I may write unfavorable is insane. I write journals. I keep notes on what I think. They are called journals. That does not make me a journal+list. Morons. And I can publish all I want. That still don’t make me a journal+list. I like that l typo. Gotta love auto-​correction. I know what I wrote. who cares you get confused. I am NOT a journalist. Delaying my bus or train in retaliation for losing strikes is a dumb retarded step. Public employees whom take such actions need to get a life. I expect timely service for my fare. Muni will probably joins them today. I don’t want to spend three hours in the West Portal tunnel tonight in a windy train. They always run super air conditioning inside. If I do, that is because we have many retards on public payroll unless is definitely legit. Anyway. West Portal is very nice. I am not coming back for a while so don’t worry. You won’t get unfavorable writing by those journal+ists. The typos are on the house and for the readers just because we like you that much. 1 Nov 2013

I love it! It’s got cute little shops and great eats around the area!

What happened to the West Portal business district. It looks like a ghost town. All my favorite places seem to have closed down in the last couple of years. Are the rents over the top? Used to be my favorite place in the city but definitely gone down in the last few years.

I take the bus here everyday going in and outbound. But no matter if I leave an hour early or just on time for the bus, I’m always late.
In recent years, SF muni has been getting worst. More fees, less service. Buses I would say about a good 10 years ago ran fine and frequent. These days you would be lucky if one came within 20 – 30 minutes. Yes, I do plan accordingly on my departure and my arrival time towards my destination. But to make up for their slack in bad waiting times, I’ve been getting up earlier and earlier just to be on time. It’s really frustrating, but in a city full of people commuting from out of town there’s not much parking left for us locals. So the next logical idea would be to take public transportation.
I would advise one to be cautious when taking San Francisco public transportation. Plan ahead and expect lengthy delays (especially tourists). You can be waiting what seems like forever only to go a short distance.

I always walk to West Portal because so many bus lines stop here. If i want to head downtown I can get on a L, M or K/​T. If I want to head to SFSU I can get on the M. But for some reason when I’m coming from downtown trying to get off at West Portal to catch the 48, the train will suddenly stop in the tunnel right before the station because of some delay. I never know why… and because of this I miss my 48 bus to go home. Also, they change a lot of the trains here. One time the computer said it was a K coming outbound. Then they make a last minute change to a M and didn’t even tell the people waiting outside until it had already left! But that has more to do with the employees and the actual trains itself. The West Portal Station itself is very nice despite all the pigeons. Design wise, I think it’s one of the more unique stations in the city. The station has plenty of room for people to wait and when it’s raining you’re covered. They also do a lot of transfer checking here so make sure you have some proof of payment.

Out of all the MUNI Stations, this is probably one of the nicer ones out there. That doesn’t take away some of my frustration I have with this place but when you compare it to all the other stops, it definitely is one of the better stations around.
Most of the hate for this station probably has more to do with the MUNI lines than the station itself. I’ve often found the L line I take home to Sunset decide that West Portal is its last stop thus leaving me at this station to wait 30 minutes at times just for the next L line to appear (and super crowded at that). From what I’ve seen, this is often the case with M-​line and K-​line travelers as well. One good thing at least with this station is that its outside so you often get a nice breeze coming in as well as receiving reception for your phone so you can actually make calls or surf the web on your phone.
While this station is the site of many lines breaking down or changing courses, at least its a nicer looking station that doesn’t want to make you vomit. And considering how often MUNI breaks down and leaves me stranded here, I am thankful that at least this station is one of the nicer ones.

Muni West Portal…
The Beautiful and Historic West Portal Station highlights the true middle class of SF, surronded by Ingleside Terrace, St. Francis Wood’s and Lakeside communities. During the MUNI upgrade, this was one of first stations to get a face lift, while other tracks STILL need a patch up (it confuses me all the time).
Why this station is ok? well… everywhere you look there’s a shop or a place to grab a bite which gets your mind off of why MUNI is taking forever, or to mask the mass confusion of why the operators have to change their destination. It dumbfounds me everyday that MUNI STILL does not have it together.

This station is the worst because the K and M lines are always broken and you have to transfer to other bus lines and it makes me be late to class all the time!
If possible take another transportation method!

My favorite MUNI stop– Lots of unique shops (squat n gobble!) around the corner-​its always nice to come out into the light after passing through the dark underground stations of vaness, Castro and Montgomery… Its pretty big, and very clean, and convenient with transfers just steps away.

I haven’t ridden MUNI in forever, but this is my station. I took the bus to school from here everyday for years and to go downtown and to the wharf when I was growing up.
It’s a plus that so many of the lines go thru this tunnel, if you are starting or ending your trip at the tunnel then you can hop on whatever train that comes, always a plus.

Getting to here from downtown is difficult within itself. When the K & M trains were out of service because of track replacement, Muni just ran the same amount of L trains but killed the other 2 trains.
Even after fixing the tracks, one can see how many trains they have for N & J compared to the ones that go out of West Portal. All 3 lines does equal the amount of N & J trains they run making the trains to West Portal completely packed.

All the seats are cold if you want to rest your booty while you wait
Gotta use public transporttion when you can. This is definitely one ofthe colderones as you wait outside

Yeah, I know this is the site of many Muni meltdowns. I was stuck on this side of town during one of them, but I ended up taking a bus and getting back to the San Francisco side of San Francisco easily enough.
I’m giving this station four stars because it’s awesome. How can you not love the overhanging steel awning thing at the opening of the tunnel? And how the trains have this weird route once they leave the tunnel? And how the buses all come and line up here to drop people off on their way to work? OK, I can understand how all of this could get quite annoying when you’re just trying to do your daily commute and you’re regretting having moved this far away from everything because the rents were cheaper. But I don’t live here or make use of this station regularly, so it’s kind of like Disneyland to me.