San Francisco Railway Museum - San Francisco transit timeline

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1932
Height of rail transit service in San Francisco, with more than 50 streetcar lines and seven cable car lines

1933
Last streetcar to be built in San Francisco by Market Street Railway Company workers (car No. 994) completed at site of today's Muni Green Division

Coit Tower completed

1934
Market Street Railway Company employees unionize; company wins ruling to operate cars with single-person crew; 18 lines converted to this standard

Alcatraz becomes federal prison

General strike cripples city

1935
Market Street Railway Company converts 33-line across Twin Peaks to first trolley bus line in San Francisco

Pan Am inaugurates China Clipper air passenger service between San Francisco and Hawaii

1936
Bay Bridge opens to motor vehicles

Revolutionary PCC streetcar enters service in Pittsburgh and Brooklyn; designed to compete with automobiles and buses, ultimately 33 cities will use what becomes the most successful US streetcar ever

1937
Golden Gate Bridge opens

1938
Market Street Railway Company ordered to return to two-person crews on all streetcars; 19-Polk is first streetcar line to be converted to buses the following year

1939
Treasure Island World's Fair

Transbay Terminal serves Bay Bridge interurban trains from as far as Chico

Ferry Building traffic rapidly diminishes

Muni buys 'Magic Carpet' streetcars, resembling PCCs

1941
Market Street Railway Company cutbacks: Castro cable line closed; couterbalance (cable-aided) streetcars on Fillmore Street Hill in Marina closed; streetcar lines serving Bayview district on Third Street abandoned, restored 65 years later as Muni's T-line

1942
Sacramento-Clay cable car line, incorporating world's first cable car route, closes

World War II gas rationing and conservation measures drive up streetcar ridership and forestall further rail–to–bus conversions

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Depression, War, Consolidation, and Conversion 1935-1951

Muni’s private competitor had reclaimed the name Market Street Railway Company in 1921. The city wanted to take it over but voters repeatedly rejected the idea.

Market Street Railway Co. ran on a shoestring to stay in business, operated first by a utility management company named Byllesby, and later by Samuel Kahn, who acquired the railway. The company built 250 of its own streetcars (of which preserved No. 798 is the sole survivor) and bought others second–hand to save money. To gain more visibility, the ends of its vehicles were painted bright white, in contrast to Muni’s gray.

In 1935, Market Street Railway Co. won a court case overturning a city ordinance requiring two crew members per streetcar. This cut costs for the struggling company, but the decision was reversed in 1939. The company had already converted the lightly patronized 33-line over Twin Peaks into San Francisco’s first trolley bus route; now it started supplanting other streetcar routes, including Third and Polk Streets, with single–operator buses, and raised fares from 5 to 7 cents, which drove more riders to Muni.

World War II stopped production of transit vehicles, and gasoline rationing jammed transit with riders, wearing out both streetcars and track. In 1944, San Francisco voters finally approved Muni’s takeover of Market Street Railway Company. The first plan called for retaining 14 streetcar lines, including those on Mission, Sutter, Stockton, and Union Streets, as well as the San Mateo interurban, but after voters approved a bond issue in 1947, the focus changed. By 1951, only seven streetcar lines survived, all originally Muni’s. The ‘White Front’ cars of Market Street Railway Co. were history, replaced by the most extensive trolley bus system in the US, powered by the O’Shaughnessy–built Hetch Hetchy hydroelectric system in Yosemite. Even the J-Church was slated to convert to trolley buses until Noe Valley residents rose up in opposition. Rail transit in San Francisco was under siege.

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