Muni got off to a great start on restoring Portuguese tram No. 189 six years ago, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the project came to a dead stop with the car currently in pieces. Muni craftsworkers continue to make slow but steady progress in completing the restoration of 1914 car No. 162, brought back to San Francisco from a Southern California museum in 2003 thanks to MSR member donations. But there is still no firm date for its return to service.

We define the vintage cars as the sixteen unique passenger streetcars that either represent San Francisco’s actual streetcar heritage dating back 112 years, or that provide authentic dashes of flavor from other great cities around the world—a perfect fit with San Francisco’s self-image as a worldly city that welcomes visitors and residents from around the globe.

Many of these vintage cars formed the fleet that returned streetcar service to Market Street in the 1980s with the summer Historic Trolley Festivals. It was these vintage cars—plus a few PCCs and one Milan tram—that captured the imagination of San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein and other city officials, and generated public support for Proposition B, the sales tax measure that provided funding for a permanent F-line (and the new Third Street light rail line as well).

There is thus some irony that you now see these cars less and less on the F-line, which is dominated year-round by PCCs and Milan trams. In some cases, vintage cars have stopped operating because an understaffed maintenance force has been unable to keep up with repairs. In other cases, it’s because fully-funded renovation projects have ground to a halt. In still others, it’s because operations managers simply don’t want to operate a car, no matter how popular it is with the public. And finally, there are cars acquired over the years with the intention of restoring them for passenger service...projects that never moved forward for one reason or another.

Certainly, the overall condition of the vintage collection continues to deteriorate, in large measure because (after more than ten years of discussion, design, and funding) the long-promised canopy to protect Muni’s most valuable streetcars from the elements still has not begun construction at Geneva Yard. This project, delayed yet again, remains one of Market Street Railway’s top priorities.

Recently, we prepared a briefing paper on the vintage cars for Municipal Transportation Agency CEO Nat Ford and his Chief Operating Officer, Ken McDonald, both still relatively new to Muni. We wanted to acquaint them in more detail with this one-of-a-kind collection, and share with them our vision of how it could deliver maximum value to San Francisco.

At an April 5 meeting, Ford and McDonald expressed interest in exploring vintage streetcar restoration projects in preparation for Muni’s upcoming centennial in 2012, but again pointed out the shortage of resources available for such projects. Market Street Railway is now working with them to determine a workable plan.

We’re now sharing this briefing paper with you, our members and friends, to spark a dialogue that we hope will help determine the future shape of historic streetcar operation in San Francisco. We welcome your feedback on these ideas and will publish some of your thoughts in future editions of Inside Track. Send your comments and thoughts to feedback@streetcar.org.

Muni’s irreplaceable streetcars
Of all the transit agencies in the world, Muni owns the most valuable—and varied—collection of vintage streetcars. Beyond the everyday PCCs and Milan trams, Muni possesses sixteen passenger cars that are irreplaceable pieces of history—operable artifacts that show how average people in cities around the world traveled to work, school, shopping, and recreation for much of the 20th Century.

Acquired over the past thirty years, many with help from Market Street Railway members, this unique collection offers strong incremental economic value to San Francisco. There is great potential to create a major new visitor attraction, beyond that of the core F-line service, by placing these one-of-a-kind cars in limited but predictable, promotable service. If experience is a guide, these cars will draw more people to San Francisco from near and far to enjoy this unique experience. This collection of cars is also made to order for absorbing the extra visitor-season ridership currently experienced on the F-line, and anticipated for the E-line as well.

Bay Area families from Fremont, Fairfield, and Fairfax can be drawn to the city during summer vacations and key weekends to catch the ‘Boat Tram’ from Blackpool, get the flavor of Melbourne, Zürich, Porto, or New Orleans, staying to shop, dine, or take in other attractions, to the benefit of the city’s economy. San Franciscans, too, will be lured to Market Street and The Embarcadero by the prospect of these special streetcars not seen day in and day out. Visitors already here will be tempted to stay an extra day. Through a joint effort of the Convention & Visitors’ Bureau and Market Street Railway, cars from other nations can be promoted in their homelands, giving people in those countries one more reason to visit the City by the Bay, to see a piece of their past. A ‘Teaching Trolley’ with special onboard exhibits and a web-based curriculum prepared by Market Street Railway can attract school classes and students with their parents.

All of this translates into more economic activity for San Francisco—sales taxes, hotel taxes, and restaurant and store revenues.

To achieve these benefits, we don’t need to invent a new model, but only to follow an already successful one: the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival. For five summers, from 1983 to 1987, an eight-hour-a-day operation of vintage streetcars on Market Street revitalized the city’s main thoroughfare, built strong support for Muni in the Castro District and Downtown, and cemented the future of the permanent F-line in place from Upper Market to Fisherman’s Wharf. Today, the occasional operation of streetcars from the vintage collection, usually on the Embarcadero shuttle, draws smiles, waves, and dashes for the streetcar stop to climb on board.

As the nonprofit preservation partner for Muni, Market Street Railway advocates restoration or renovation of the cars in Muni’s vintage collection to create a critical mass of operating cars that can be promoted worldwide. Many of these cars come from great port cities of the world, offering one possible promotional theme that ties in so well with our maritime heritage, growing cruise ship business, soon-to-expand ferry services, and the Port’s waterfront development agenda.

This ‘Trolley Festival’ type service could be initiated five days per week, perhaps Wednesday through Sunday, during hours of peak visitor activity, perhaps 10am-7pm, requiring minimum eight-hour operator shifts and as few as six cars. The service could run on the existing F-line shuttle route (either 11th Street or the Ferry Building to the Wharf) or in ‘demonstration service’ on the E-Embarcadero line from Caltrain and the ballpark to the Wharf.

Market Street Railway would participate by contributing promotion, signage, volunteer docents, outfitting and support of the Teaching Trolley, and other support to this effort, all to the benefit of Muni’s reputation and the promotion of attractive transit in San Francisco.

What follows is a rundown of each passenger car in the vintage car collection, with a synopsis of its history, its current status, and Market Street Railway’s recommended goal for the car. Click on the link below, or use the links in the left-hand column to explore each car.