Dark days loom for Muni after the failure of Prop L, an incoming Trump presidency, and a deficit as high as $322 million, so there’s talk of eliminating the cable cars, or axing some lesser-used bus lines outright.We noted last month that the SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) that oversees Muni was looking at a $214 million deficit come the year 2026, but in a Wednesday meeting, SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin said that deficit could be as high as $322 million. There could have been a $25 million a year lifeline in the form of the Prop L rideshare tax, but that did not pass, and Tumlin said in a Wednesday meeting that the election of Donald Trump meant that “there is no chance there is additional federal relief coming.”So Tumlin laid out a range of options to deal with that deficit, which include cutting cable car service entirely, slashing service in half on some of the highest ridership routes, or cutting some lower-ridership bus routes entirely, according to the Chronicle. “The service cuts I give are not planned. These are what we want to avoid,” Tumlin said at a Wednesday SFMTA meeting. “If we fail to come to an agreement and we fail to win (more funding), we will need to make massive service cuts.” Yes, he is talking about eliminating not one, but all three remaining operating cable car routes (California, Mason and Hyde) as well as the F Market streetcars. That would save an estimated $33 million a year, though would come with an inestimable hit to San Francisco’s tourism revenue and general reputation.Hmmm, are we having any second thoughts about that new $2 billion, low ridership Central Subway?Per the Chronicle, other options include cutting in half the number of vehicles in service on the high-ridership 1-California, 14-Mission, and 38-Geary buses, as well all of the letter-named light-rail trains. That could save an estimated $71 per year.Or they could slash night-time service across the board, or outright eliminate certain low-ridership routes, which the Chronicle identifies as the “1X, 2, 6, 12 Short, 16, 21, 27 and 31." Those cuts could save anywhere from $14 million to $32 million a year.The irony here, as NBC Bay Area points out, is that Muni is currently seeing its highest ridership numbers since the start of the pandemic amidst this financial mess. And the agency is currently basking in its highest user satisfaction numbers in decades. That is unlikely to last if these cuts take effect.There is some hope of a 2026 tax measure to fund public transit, though this year’s attempt at that failed in the state legislature. And even if it does materialize and get passed, that revenue would be spread across several other transit organizations like BART and Caltrain.Related: You May See More Muni Fare Inspectors on Buses This Year as SFMTA Vows Crackdown on Fare Evasion [SFist]Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CA - DECEMBER 17: A general view of a tram on December 17, 2019, in San Francisco, California. The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system. An icon of San Francisco, the cable car system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway. (Photo by Paul Rovere/Getty Images)