Market Street Railway (nonprofit)
Encyclopedia
Market Street Railway is San Francisco Municipal Railway's
(Muni) 1,200-member nonprofit preservation partner. It relies on private contributions to help keep San Francisco’s famed historic streetcars
of the F Market & Wharves
line and the national landmark cable cars
running to this day.
Market Street Railway maintains a vintage vehicle restoration facility at 1 Buchanan Street, in the shadow of the 1937 San Francisco Mint
. It is here that Market Street Railway voluntarily restores historic vehicles before donating them to Muni.
Market Street Railway borrows the name of the Market Street Railway Company
, a former commercial streetcar and bus operator in San Francisco.
. The F-line carries more than double the ridership of the bus lines it replaced.
Over the past twenty years, Market Street Railway has helped Muni to acquire and restore more than a dozen historic streetcars and cable cars for service, adding diversity to Muni’s unmatched historic fleet. Market Street Railway's restoration corps has done much of this restoration work themselves. Its volunteers also clean the interiors of the F-line cars at the Castro Street Terminal to improve rider experience.
, a local history museum in the Vitale Hotel on the Embarcadero that showcases historical railway artifacts and tells the story of transportation in San Francisco.
line. The E-line will directly connect regional transit service—including Caltrain
, BART and bay ferries to waterfront businesses and attractions stretching from Mission Bay to Fort Mason (the F and E Line extension is currently being evaluated by Muni).
Market Street Railway is also working to restore and inaugurate the Market Street Railway Teaching Trolley, a 1924 streetcar which will serve to teach schoolchildren how electric railway vehicles work.
San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
(Muni) 1,200-member nonprofit preservation partner. It relies on private contributions to help keep San Francisco’s famed historic streetcars
Heritage streetcar
Heritage streetcars or heritage trams are a development of the heritage railways that are becoming popular across the world. As with modern streetcar systems, the vehicles are referred to as trams or tramcars in the United Kingdom, Australasia and certain other places , but as streetcars or...
of the F Market & Wharves
F Market
The F Market & Wharves line is one of several light rail lines in San Francisco, California. Unlike the other lines, the F line is operated as a heritage streetcar service, using exclusively historic equipment both from San Francisco's retired fleet as well as from cities around the world...
line and the national landmark cable cars
San Francisco cable car system
The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last permanently operational manually operated cable car system, in the US sense of a tramway whose cars are pulled along by cables embedded in the street. It is an icon of San Francisco, California...
running to this day.
Market Street Railway maintains a vintage vehicle restoration facility at 1 Buchanan Street, in the shadow of the 1937 San Francisco Mint
San Francisco Mint
The San Francisco Mint is a branch of the United States Mint, and was opened in 1854 to serve the gold mines of the California Gold Rush. It quickly outgrew its first building and moved into a new one in 1874. This building, the Old United States Mint, also known affectionately as The Granite Lady,...
. It is here that Market Street Railway voluntarily restores historic vehicles before donating them to Muni.
Market Street Railway borrows the name of the Market Street Railway Company
Market Street Railway Company
The Market Street Railway Company was a commercial streetcar and bus operator in San Francisco. The company was named after the famous Market Street of that city, which formed the core of its transportation network...
, a former commercial streetcar and bus operator in San Francisco.
History
Founded in 1976, Market Street Railway members created the successful San Francisco Trolley Festivals of the 1980s that resulted in the permanent return of streetcars to Market Street in the form of the F Market & Wharves — the most popular service of its kind in all of North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The F-line carries more than double the ridership of the bus lines it replaced.
Over the past twenty years, Market Street Railway has helped Muni to acquire and restore more than a dozen historic streetcars and cable cars for service, adding diversity to Muni’s unmatched historic fleet. Market Street Railway's restoration corps has done much of this restoration work themselves. Its volunteers also clean the interiors of the F-line cars at the Castro Street Terminal to improve rider experience.
San Francisco Railway Museum
Additionally, Market Street Railway developed and operates the San Francisco Railway MuseumSan Francisco Railway Museum
The San Francisco Railway Museum is a local railway museum located in the South of Market area of San Francisco.This small museum features exhibits on the antique streetcars of the F Market & Wharves and national landmark cable cars that continue to run along the city's major arteries. The museum...
, a local history museum in the Vitale Hotel on the Embarcadero that showcases historical railway artifacts and tells the story of transportation in San Francisco.
Vision for the Future
Led by President Rick Laubscher, Market Street Railway is working to increase F-line service levels and to expand historic streetcar service through the forthcoming E EmbarcaderoE Embarcadero
The E Embarcadero is intended to become the San Francisco Municipal Railway's second heritage streetcar line in San Francisco, California. Trial service first ran during the Sunday Streets events on The Embarcadero in 2008 , and the line will begin operating permanently once additional historic...
line. The E-line will directly connect regional transit service—including Caltrain
Caltrain
Caltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the Santa Clara Valley in the United States. The northern terminus of the rail line is in San Francisco, at 4th and King streets; its southern terminus is in Gilroy...
, BART and bay ferries to waterfront businesses and attractions stretching from Mission Bay to Fort Mason (the F and E Line extension is currently being evaluated by Muni).
Market Street Railway is also working to restore and inaugurate the Market Street Railway Teaching Trolley, a 1924 streetcar which will serve to teach schoolchildren how electric railway vehicles work.
Slogan
- "Without us, it would be a bus."
- "Keeping the Past Present in the Future" -- Rick Laubscher, president