The F Market & Wharves line is one of several light rail lines in San Francisco, California. Unlike the other LRV lines, the F line is operated as a heritage railway using exclusively historical equipment both from San Francisco's retired fleet as well as from cities around the world. While the F line is operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), that operation is supported by Market Street Railway, a nonprofit organization of streetcar enthusiasts which raises funds and helps to restore vintage streetcars.
Despite its heritage status, the F Market & Wharves line is an integral part of Muni's intermodal urban transport network, operating at frequent intervals for 20 hours a day, seven days a week. It carries local commuters and tourists alike, linking residential, business and leisure oriented areas of the city. Unlike the San Francisco cable car system, standard Muni fares are levied.
History
Previous F-Line
-
In 1915, the San Francisco Municipal Railway started the F-Stockton route, which ran from Scott and Beach Streets in the Marina to 4th and Market Streets near Union Square, later extended to the Southern Pacific Depot (currently the Caltrain Depot) in 1947. The streetcar line was discontinued in 1951 and was replaced by the 30-Stockton route, which still runs today.
The F-line designation was therefore available for use by the current line, although that service is over a completely different route to the F-line of 1915 to 1951.
Previous lines on Market Street
Market Street is a major transit artery for the city of San Francisco, and has carried in turn horse-drawn streetcars, cable cars and electric streetcars. In the 1970s construction began on the Market Street Subway, which would carry BART's trains on its lower level. The streetcar lines that previously ran on the surface of Market Street were diverted into the upper level of this tunnel. This diversion, together with the provision of new light rail cars, resulted in today's Muni Metro system.
The diversion of the Market Street streetcar lines into tunnel, and the replacement of the existing streetcars with new light rail cars, was completed by November 1982. However the street trackage on Market Street was retained, and many of the old streetcars were still in store.
Historic Trolley Festivals
In 1982, San Francisco's cable car lines had to be shut down for two years to allow for a major rebuild. To provide an alternative tourist attraction during this period, the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festivals began in 1983. These summertime operations of vintage streetcars on Market Street were a joint project of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Muni.
The trolley festival route went from the Transbay Terminal at First and Mission Streets to Market, then up the retained Market Street tracks to Duboce Avenue. From there, it followed a 'temporary' streetcar detour built in the 1970s to bypass subway construction under Market: Duboce, Church Street, and 17th Street to Castro.
F-Market Line
The Trolley Festival proved so successful that it was repeated every year until 1987. In that year, preparation began for the introduction of a permanent F line. After that year’s festival finished, Muni replaced the old Market Street tracks with new ones, restoring tracks to upper Market Street and recreating a line to Castro. Different types of vintage streetcars were evaluated to provide the backbone of the F-line fleet, resulting in the decision to use the PCC car, with its San Francisco transit heritage. Fourteen such cars were acquired second-hand from Philadelphia, to add to three of Muni’s own retired double-ended PCCs.
On Labor Day, 1995, the F line opened with a parade of PCC cars, painted to represent some of the two dozen North American cities that this type of streetcar once served. Ridership exceeded expectation, and the need for extra cars resulted in the acquisition of ten Peter Witt style cars just being retired in the Italian city of Milan. These cars were built in the 1920s to a design once common in North American cities.
Extension on the Embarcadero
The Embarcadero is the eastern waterfront roadway of San Francisco, along San Francisco Bay. At one time busy with port and ferry related traffic, it fell into decline as freight transferred to the container terminals of Oakland and the Bay Bridge replaced the ferries. In the 1960s the elevated Embarcadero Freeway was built above, dividing the city from the bay, but this was condemned and demolished after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
With the increasing development of the waterfront for leisure and tourist activities, and the existence of Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 at its northern end, it was decided to rebuild the Embarcadero as a tree-line boulevard complete with a streetcar reservation. The section of this north of Market Street was to be served by an extension of the F line. Tracks were extended on the northern end of Market to connect with the Embarcadero tracks. In March 2000, service on the F line began along the new extension to Fisherman's Wharf.[1]
A month later, Muni dedicated a car to Herb Caen, the noted columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle perhaps most famous for coining the phrase Baghdad by the Bay to describe The City. The car contains wood paneling and is decorated with many quotes from Caen.
Route
Route map
Station listing
The trolleys operate continuously, reversing direction via loops at the ends of the line. The stations and stops are as follows (transfers to other rail transit are noted):
- A direct loop connection, from Jefferson and the Embarcadero to Beach and Stockton, allows cars to be turned short of the Jones and Beach terminal
- At this point, the line leaves the Embarcadero and turns southwest, passing briefly through a private right-of-way that has been designated as Don Chee Way before coming onto Market Street. Here also is a turning loop capable of turning cars coming off either the Embarcadero or Market Street, and a non-revenue connection to the lines of the Muni Metro N Judah line further east along the Embarcadero. In 2006, the nonprofit Market Street Railway opened the San Francisco Railway Museum, a museum and gift store celebrating San Francisco's historic streetcars and cable cars adjacent to the Steuart Street stop.
Except for the height of certain platforms, F Market & Wharves line cars are fully compatible with the rest of the Muni Metro system. Indeed, the cars can be privately chartered and are operated all over the system.
Car fleet
Muni owns a large selection of equipment for use on the F line, although not all of it will be in service at any given time. The car fleet can be broken down into four distinct sub-fleets consisting of PCC streetcars, Peter Witt streetcars, pre-PCC veteran streetcars from San Francisco, and a diverse collection of 10 streetcars and trams from various overseas operators.[2]
The line is principally operated by a mixture of the PCC and Peter Witt cars, although other more unusual or historic cars can often be seen in service (such as the 913 and 952, two of the iconic Streetcars Named Desire). Although Muni LRVs are not compatible with F-line service, Boeing LRVs have operated down parts of Market Street one or more times.[3]
PCC car 1063 turning into the foot of Market Street. Built in 1948 for service in Philadelphia, it was acquired by Muni in 1995 and is painted in the color scheme once carried by Baltimore's PCC cars.
Two PCC cars at the Jones and Beach terminus. That nearest the camera is one of San Francisco's original double-ended cars.
PCC fleet
A fleet of PCC streetcars from San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Newark, built between 1946 and 1948. As of August 2007, there are 27 of these cars restored to various states of readiness for service, together with another 30 unrestored cars in long term storage.[4]
Of the restored cars, three are original San Francisco double-ended PCC cars. A further 16 cars are single-ended cars acquired from SEPTA in Philadelphia in 1992, whilst the remaining 11 cars are single-ended cars acquired from New Jersey Transit in Newark in 2002.[4]
Many of the restored cars are painted in the color schemes of prominent past and present PCC streetcar operators, including Muni itself and:[4]
- Baltimore Transit Company
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Boston Elevated Railway
- Brooklyn & Queens Transit Corporation, in New York City
- Chicago Transit Authority
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Cincinnati Street Railway Company
- Detroit, Michigan
- El Paso City Lines, linking El Paso, Texas with Juarez in Mexico
- Illinois Terminal Railroad, in St. Louis, Missouri
- Johnstown Traction Company, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania
- Kansas City Public Service Company, in Kansas City, Missouri
- Los Angeles Railway
- Louisville, Kentucky
- National City Lines
- Newark, New Jersey
- Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, in Boston
- Mexico City
- Pacific Electric Railway, in Los Angeles
- Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Philadelphia Transportation Company
- St. Charles Avenue Streetcar, in New Orleans
- San Diego, California
- Toronto Transit Commission
- Twin City Rapid Transit, in Minneapolis-Saint Paul
- Washington, D.C.
The unrestored PCC cars include five more San Francisco double-ended cars, 10 San Francisco single-ended cars, 12 single-ended cars acquired from St. Louis in 1957, two single-ended cars from Philadelphia, and two single-ended cars from Pittsburgh. A further previously restored car from Philadelphia was written off after a traffic accident in 2003.[5]
Former Milan Peter Witt car, carrying the orange color scheme latterly used by its home city.
Another Peter Witt car, carrying the two-tone green color scheme used by Milan in the 1930s.
Peter Witt fleet
A fleet of Peter Witt streetcars acquired from Milan, Italy. There are 11 of these cars, all built in 1928 to an Italian derivative of a common streetcar design that operated in many US cities, although never previously in San Francisco.[6]
Most of San Francisco's Peter Witt cars are currently painted in the overall orange color scheme that they carried in Milan, although one has been repainted into its original livery of yellow and white with black trim, whilst another is in the two-tone green livery that that the cars carried from the 1930s to the 1970s.[6]
Veteran San Francisco streetcar 130 was built for Muni in 1914, and operates in the color scheme it carried in 1939.
San Francisco vintage fleet
A fleet of pre-PCC vintage cars built between 1895 and 1924 for operation in San Francisco. Three passenger cars were built for Muni itself, and a further two for the independent Market Street Railway Company that ran competing streetcar services in San Francisco until acquired by Muni in 1944. The final car is a works flat car, built for Muni in 1916 and used for hauling rails, ties, and other materials needed to maintain a streetcar system.[7]
The cars carry a variety of former San Francisco streetcar color schemes.[7]
World-wide fleet
A diverse collection of 10 cars from various operators world-wide:[7]
- Blackpool tramway, in Blackpool, England
- Hamburger Hochbahn AG, in Hamburg, Germany
- Hankai Electric Rail Service Company, in Osaka, Japan
- Kobe City Railways & Hiroshima Electric Railway, in Kobe & Hiroshima, Japan
- Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board, in Melbourne, Australia
- Moscow, Russia
- STCP, in Porto, Portugal
- STIB/MIVB, in Brussels, Belgium.
All the cars carry the color schemes of their original operators, except for the Brussels car, which currently carries a color scheme commemorating San Francisco's twin city of Zürich in Switzerland.
Future extensions
There are plans to further extend heritage streetcar operation in San Francisco:
- From the foot of Market Street to the Caltrain depot at Fourth and King Streets, using the existing non-revenue connection with existing Muni Metro tracks on the Embarcadero at Folsom Street, three blocks south of Market, then sharing those tracks with T Third line. Low-level platforms with wheelchair ramps have been installed on the jointly-used track with the light rail line south of Folsom Street. This extension is currently operable with double-end vintage equipment; installation of a turning loop at the south end of the line would allow all vintage equipment to be used. The Muni Short Range Transit Plan (2006-2025) currently projects opening of this extension in 2007, to be designated the "E Embarcadero line" and extending north along the F-line tracks on The Embarcadero to share its Fisherman's Wharf terminal.
- From the vicinity of the existing Jones Street terminal, westward alongside the San Francisco Maritime Museum and Aquatic Park, and then running through an historic (1914) but disused single-track railroad tunnel to Fort Mason. A technical feasibility study, under the aegis of the National Park Service and Muni, was completed in December 2004. An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the extension, again led by the National Park Service, commenced in May 2006. This extension could be operated either as a part of the F-line or the E-line.
See also
References
- ^ "A brief history of the F-line". Market Street Railway. Retrieved on March 20, 2006.
- ^ "The historic streetcars of the F-line fleet". Market Street Railway (2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-14.
- ^ MUNI LRVs--1258 @ Market/Duboce
- ^ a b c "The PCC: A streetcar named success". Market Street Railway (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
- ^ "F-line fleet operational status". Market Street Railway (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
- ^ a b "The Milan 'Peter Witt' trams". Market Street Railway (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
- ^ a b c "Muni's incomparable antique streetcars". Market Street Railway (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
External links
|
San Francisco attractions |
|
| Landmarks |
|
|
| Museums |
|
|
| Zoos, islands, beaches, and parks |
|
|
| Entertainment |
|
|
| Sports |
|
|
| Famous food |
|
|
| Shopping centers |
|
|
| Points of interest |
|
|
|
San Francisco Municipal Railway |
|
| Muni Metro |
|
|
| Muni Metro subway stations |
|
|
| Major Muni Metro stations |
|
|
| Muni Metro system features |
|
|
| Other Muni services |
|
|
| Current projects |
|
|
| Future projects |
|
|
| Connecting services |
|
|
| Museums |
|
|
| Other information |
|
|
|
