F Market & Wharves

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

F Market & Wharves
Car 130 at Jones Street Terminal.
Info
Type	Heritage streetcar
System	San Francisco Municipal Railway
Locale	San Francisco, California
Terminals	Jones and Beach 17th Street and Castro
Operation
Opened	1995, but 1983 for the Trolley Festival
Owner	Muni
Operator(s)	MUNI
Character	street-running, right-of-way
Rolling stock	PCC streetcars from SEPTA, NJ Transit, and Muni. There are also streetcars from the world.
Technical
Gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in)
Line map Jones and Beach Jefferson and Taylor Inbound only Beach and Mason Outbound only Powell & Jefferson Inbound only Beach and Stockton Outbound only Pier 39 Inbound only Embarcadero and Bay Embarcadero and Lombard Embarcadero and Greenwich Embarcadero and Green Embarcadero and Broadway Embarcadero and Washington Ferry Building E Embarcadero Don Chee Way and Steuart Main and Drumm Embarcadero Station 1st and Battery 2nd and Sansome Montgomery Street Montgomery Station 3rd and Kearny 4th and Stockton 5th Street Powell Station 6th and Taylor 7th and Leavenworth Civic Center 8th and Hyde 9th and Larkin Van Ness/US 101 Van Ness Station Haight and Gough Laguna and Guerrero Buchanan and Dolores 14th and Church Church Station 15th and Sanchez 16th and Noe 17th and Noe Outbound only 17th and Castro Castro Station To Twin Peaks Tunnel J Church Church and 18th Street Right-of-way and 20th Street Right-of-way and Liberty Right-of-way and 21st Street Church and 22nd Street Church and 24th Street Church and Clipper Church and 27th Street Church and 29th Street Church and 30th Street 30th Street and Dolores San Jose and Randall San Jose and Bosworth Glen Park Interstate 280 San Jose and Santa Rosa San Jose and Santa Ynez San Jose and Ocean San Jose and Geneva

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.

[edit] History

[edit] Previous F-Line

Main article: F Stockton

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.

[edit] Current F-Line

The F Market route was planned in 1980 after the planning of the E Embarcadero route in 1979. After the Cable Car lines were shut down for reconstruction in 1982, the advent of 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, originally intended as a one year only substitute attraction for the cable car system, which at that time was closed. The route went from the Transbay Terminal at First and Mission Streets to Market, then up Market 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.

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.

In March 2000, service on the F line began along a new extension on The Embarcadero 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.

[edit] Operation

[edit] Route map

F Market & Wharves map

[edit] 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):

• Jones and Beach (near Piers 45 and 47, the waterfront end of the Powell/Hyde cable car line, and the San Francisco Maritime Museum)
• Jefferson and Taylor (only when approaching Jones)
• Beach and Mason (only when departing from Jones, near the Waterfront end of the Powell/Mason cable car line))
• Jefferson and Powell (only when approaching Jones)
• Beach and Stockton (only when departing from Jones)
• Jefferson and the Embarcadero (near Pier 39)

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

• Bay and the Embarcadero
• Chestnut and the Embarcadero
• Greenwich and the Embarcadero (near the Filbert Street steps)
• Green and the Embarcadero (near the Fog City Diner)
• Broadway and the Embarcadero
• Washington and the Embarcadero
• Ferry Terminal/Market and the Embarcadero

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.

• Don Chee Way and Steuart
• Main and Drumm (near the Embarcadero end of the California Street cable car line, and the BART/Muni Metro Embarcadero Station)
• 1st and Battery
• 2nd and Sansome
• Montgomery (near the BART/Muni Metro Montgomery Street Station)
• 3rd and Kearny
• 4th and Stockton
• 5th and Powell (near the Market Street end of the Powell/Hyde and Powell/Mason cable car lines, and the BART/Muni Metro Powell Street Station)
• 6th and Taylor
• 7th and Jones
• 8th and Hyde (near the BART/Muni Metro Civic Center Station)
• 9th and Larkin
• Van Ness (U.S. Route 101; near the Muni Metro Van Ness Station)
• Haight and Gough
• Laguna and Guerrero
• Dolores and Duboce
• 14th and Church (near the Muni Metro Church Street Station)
• 15th and Sanchez
• 16th and Noe
• 17th and Castro (near the Muni Metro Castro Street Station station)

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.

[edit] 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. 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.

[edit] 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 streetcar. Built in 1928, it carries the orange color scheme latterly used by its home city.

Former Milan Peter Witt streetcar. Built in 1928, it carries the two-tone green color scheme used in the 1930s.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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]

[edit] 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, in Kobe, 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] See also

• List of F Market & Wharves Streetcars

[edit] References

1. ^ A brief history of the F-line. Market Street Railway. Retrieved on March 20, 2006.
2. ^ The historic streetcars of the F-line fleet. Market Street Railway (2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-14.
3. ^ MUNI LRVs--1258 @ Market/Duboce
4. ^ ^{a b c} The PCC: A streetcar named success. Market Street Railway (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
5. ^ F-line fleet operational status. Market Street Railway (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
6. ^ ^{a b} The Milan 'Peter Witt' trams. Market Street Railway (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
7. ^ ^{a b c} Muni's incomparable antique streetcars. Market Street Railway (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

San Francisco Municipal Railway Historic Fleet

• Market Street Railway website
• Transit Rider Photos
• Maps and news about the extension to Fort Mason
• San Francisco Railway Museum
• Official Route Map in PDF