San Francisco Railway Museum - San Francisco transit timeline

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1944
After six defeats beginning in 1925, San Francisco voters approve city purchase of Market Street Railway Company; its operations are merged with Muni's on September 29

1946
Muni begins removal of outer set of streetcar tracks on Market Street, ending—two years later—the era of complete streetcar supremacy on its main street known as the Roar of the Four

1947
San Francisco voters overwhelmingly rally behind activist Friedel Klussmann and reject Mayor Roger Lapham's proposal to convert Powell cable car lines to buses; but voters also approve bond issue to overhaul transit infrastructure

1948
Muni takes delivery of its first true PCC streamlner streetcars; ten double-end cars join the five look-alike Magic Carpets

1949
Last streetcar service to Ferry Buildings ends

40-line interurban streetcar service to San Mateo discontinued

1951
F-Stockton streetcar is converted to trolley bus (30-Stockton), ending a three–year changeover that saw two dozen San Francisco streetcar lines disappear

1952
Muni begins operating cable car lines on California, Hyde, and Jones streets, acquired from backrupt California Street Cable Railroad

1954
Following intense civic battle, San Francisco voters narrowly agree to a 'consolidation' of cable car system, cutting its route mileage in half and eliminating all service west of Van Ness Avenue

1956
Muni's first streetcar line, on Geary Street, is converted to buses (30-Geary)

Washington & Jackson cable car line closes

1957
First 'new' cable car line in 63 years opens, Powell-Hyde combines parts of old Washington-Jackson and O'Farrell, Jones & Hyde lines

Last remaining street–running cable car outside San Francisco closes in Dunedin, New Zealand

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The Cable Car Wars 1947-1954

By the 1940s, motor bus improvements let them climb almost any hill. Market Street Railway Company converted its Castro cable car line to buses in 1941, followed by Sacramento-Clay in 1942, but World War II postponed possible conversion of the Powell-Mason and Washington-Jackson lines. After Muni’s takeover, Mayor Roger Lapham advocated buses for those two lines.

“Not so fast,” said Friedel Klussmann, arguing the cable cars were a symbol of the city. The political and business ruling class—exclusively male—derided her. With no campaign experience, she got a measure on the ballot, and rallied voters to crush Lapham’s plan by a margin of 3 to 1, saving the two cable car lines.

In 1951, the California Street Cable Railroad Company, which also ran lines on O’Farrell, Jones, and Hyde Streets, went out of business after 74 years. Pro–cable forces got the city to buy it in 1952, but city voters turned down a bond issue to rehabilitate its lines in 1953. Downtown interests, seeking more one–way streets for automobiles, took aim at the ‘Cal Cable’ lines.

Attorney Morris Lowenthal led the opposition this time, Friedel Klussman joining in later. A deal was almost struck to keep all the trackage except that on O’Farrell Street, but Klussmann said no. Another plan, to combine the inner end of the California Street line and the outer end of the Hyde Street line, gave way to a more radical ballot proposal cutting off the scenic Pacific Heights portion of the Washington-Jackson line and combining it with the Hyde Street trackage to form a ‘new’ Powell-Hyde line—meanwhile cutting the California Street line in half to dead–end at Van Ness Avenue. Muni’s governing commission secretly hired a PR man to set up a fake citizens committee that misled many voters into thinking they were saving the cable cars when, in fact, they were greatly reducing the system. The proposal passed at the polls, creating the three–line cable car system we ride today.

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