The details are pretty well worked out now. Muni’s E-Embarcadero historic streetcar line will operate Saturday and Sunday, August 25 and 26, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. in conjunction with the America’s Cup World Series event.
A key goal of the Better Market Street project is to make the street better for transit and bikes.Autos? Eh, not so much.
Photo by Steve Ferrario.
PCC No. 1008 on Interstate 5 at Lost Hills, CA, en route to San Francisco, July 20, 2012. Paul Lucas photo.
It looks like the first of the four restored double-end PCC streetcars needed to start up E-line service is finally on its way to San Francisco, albeit 16 months later than the restoration contract specified. Sources tell us that PCC 1008, pictured below at the Brookville Equipment facility in Pennsylvania, is due to arrive at Muni on Friday, putting it somewhere along Interstate 80 at the moment.
Muni does continue to train streetcar crews, albeit for ongoing operations rather than specifically for America’s Cup. Here’s a recent shot of crews and trainers at the end of the L-Taraval line with 1914 Muni streetcar No. 162. Jeremy Whiteman photo, click to enlarge.
All summer long, the F-line streetcars are bedecked with flags: the American flag over the front door on all cars, and the flag of the city, state, or country they represent on the other side (as shown below with the Minnesota flag above the operator’s window of Twin City Rapid Transit PCC No. 1071).
Ex-Melbourne tram No. 605 on the Seattle Waterfront Streetcar line before it was shut down in 2007.
