STREETCARS AS ENTERTAINMENT
Rail-based transportation in San Francisco consists of commuter rail, heavy rail, and surface light rail that then tunnels into downtown as the Market Street MUNI subway. But San Francisco has even more: not one but two little extras loved and used by residents and tourists alike.
Everyone knows about the cable cars; they not only serve the visitor, they attract him as well. They are listed as the city’s number one tourist attraction. Not long ago the cable cars were joined by colleagues in the entertainment business. Collectively, these colleagues are known as the Muni F-Line, or the Historic Streetcar Line or the Market Street Railway. It is packed with tourists, and locals use it, because it is effective transportation.
The line runs old streetcars salvaged from Newark and St. Louis and Milan, Melbourne and Moscow, New Orleans, even Hiroshima, Lisbon, Blackpool and (yes!) San Francisco. Most of the Americans are PCCs like the ones that survive on the MBTA Mattapan Line. They are gaily painted in the liveries of various cities that used to run them, including Boston, below:
Boston Colors In San Francisco
The Market Street Historic Streetcar or “F” Line runs on the surface of San Francisco’s main drag, broad Market Street, where streetcars once congregated so densely on four (count ‘em) parallel tracks that they made a kind of Chinese wall between the sidewalks of this thoroughfare.
The streetcars were shifted underground to make a light rail subway (like Boston’s Green Line under Boylston Street) when the tunnel was built for BART, the heavy rail line.
Peter Witt cars from Milan
PCC
A tram from Melbourne
So here, at various levels all on one alignment, are: 1. all San Francisco’s light rail subway routes; 2. the heavy-rail subway to the airport and to Berkeley and beyond; 3. miscellaneous electric trolleybuses; and most recently, the restored surface streetcars of the Market Street Historic Streetcar Line! What folly, you say, what duplication!
The ones on the right run under Market Street; the others on top.
The F-Line turns at the Ferry Building, where Market Street meets waterfront, and follows the graceful, tree-lined trajectory of the refurbished bayside Embarcadero, once host to the much-hated and now-demolished bi-level elevated freeway. Rumbling along Embarcadero, the F-Line links all the waterfront tourist hotspots, until it meets up with the cable cars near Fisherman’s Wharf.
Milan and PCC: what great streetscape this makes.
Embarcadero Waterfront with one of San Francisco’s own.
Tourists.
A streetcar from St. Petersburg: Russia on Market Street.
A San Francisco original.
A jolly ride, soon to be extended. This line does not cannibalize the duplicate underground lines for riders. Where tourists formerly were deterred from going, or where they slogged wearily alongside parking lots, or drove, they now ride the F-Line, cheerfully rubbernecking as they go.
They exploit the frequent headway of this line, hopping off and on, as something new to attract them heaves into view, while wafting by the sleaze and dull stuff at exactly the right speed and distance. In fact, the line is so entertaining that they ride it all the way to its terminus at the Castro, where the gay guys live. Something they never would have dreamed of before. And the gay guys? Why, they ride it too.
http://www.webcastro.com/fline.htm
So here is a line that made a market for itself, where none existed before. Just by being so darn entertaining.
Blackpool seaside open tram: the one the tourists love most.
Rail-based transportation in San Francisco consists of commuter rail, heavy rail, and surface light rail that then tunnels into downtown as the Market Street MUNI subway. But San Francisco has even more: not one but two little extras loved and used by residents and tourists alike.
Everyone knows about the cable cars; they not only serve the visitor, they attract him as well. They are listed as the city’s number one tourist attraction. Not long ago the cable cars were joined by colleagues in the entertainment business. Collectively, these colleagues are known as the Muni F-Line, or the Historic Streetcar Line or the Market Street Railway. It is packed with tourists, and locals use it, because it is effective transportation.
The line runs old streetcars salvaged from Newark and St. Louis and Milan, Melbourne and Moscow, New Orleans, even Hiroshima, Lisbon, Blackpool and (yes!) San Francisco. Most of the Americans are PCCs like the ones that survive on the MBTA Mattapan Line. They are gaily painted in the liveries of various cities that used to run them, including Boston, below:
Boston Colors In San Francisco
The Market Street Historic Streetcar or “F” Line runs on the surface of San Francisco’s main drag, broad Market Street, where streetcars once congregated so densely on four (count ‘em) parallel tracks that they made a kind of Chinese wall between the sidewalks of this thoroughfare.
The streetcars were shifted underground to make a light rail subway (like Boston’s Green Line under Boylston Street) when the tunnel was built for BART, the heavy rail line.
Peter Witt cars from Milan
PCC
A tram from Melbourne
So here, at various levels all on one alignment, are: 1. all San Francisco’s light rail subway routes; 2. the heavy-rail subway to the airport and to Berkeley and beyond; 3. miscellaneous electric trolleybuses; and most recently, the restored surface streetcars of the Market Street Historic Streetcar Line! What folly, you say, what duplication!
The ones on the right run under Market Street; the others on top.
The F-Line turns at the Ferry Building, where Market Street meets waterfront, and follows the graceful, tree-lined trajectory of the refurbished bayside Embarcadero, once host to the much-hated and now-demolished bi-level elevated freeway. Rumbling along Embarcadero, the F-Line links all the waterfront tourist hotspots, until it meets up with the cable cars near Fisherman’s Wharf.
Milan and PCC: what great streetscape this makes.
Embarcadero Waterfront with one of San Francisco’s own.
Tourists.
A streetcar from St. Petersburg: Russia on Market Street.
A San Francisco original.
A jolly ride, soon to be extended. This line does not cannibalize the duplicate underground lines for riders. Where tourists formerly were deterred from going, or where they slogged wearily alongside parking lots, or drove, they now ride the F-Line, cheerfully rubbernecking as they go.
They exploit the frequent headway of this line, hopping off and on, as something new to attract them heaves into view, while wafting by the sleaze and dull stuff at exactly the right speed and distance. In fact, the line is so entertaining that they ride it all the way to its terminus at the Castro, where the gay guys live. Something they never would have dreamed of before. And the gay guys? Why, they ride it too.
http://www.webcastro.com/fline.htm
So here is a line that made a market for itself, where none existed before. Just by being so darn entertaining.
Blackpool seaside open tram: the one the tourists love most.
Last edited:
