Market Street Railway is a non-profit organization with 1000 members, founded in 1976. Our mission: Preserving Historic Transit in San Francisco.
We receive no government money whatever. We rely instead on private donations and membership dues to help keep San Francisco’s past present in the future. Please click here to learn how to help.
We advocate for historic streetcar and cable car service improvements and expansion, educate people about the importance of attractive transit in creating vibrant, livable cities, and celebrate the wonderful historic streetcars, cable cars, and buses owned and operated by Muni, a service of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).
We also operate the free San Francisco Railway Museum across from the Ferry Building at 77 Steuart Street, open Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Our group’s leaders were the driving force in making vintage streetcars a full-time part of the San Francisco scene in the 1980s and 1990s.
This website, our quarterly member magazine, Inside Track, our monthly electronic newsletter, and our social media outlets bring you the latest news and information about San Francisco’s historic streetcars and cable cars.
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This photo reminds me of how I’ll always remember my first trip to San Francisco as a middle schooler in 1959 – seeing those cream and green streetcars on Market Street and then in the neighborhoods beyond – so foreign to a visitor from Seattle. Thanks for piquing a great memory.
This photograph was taken on 22nd st., looking down on Church st. This is such a pleasure to see, as I lived in the middle flat of the building on the corner with the rounded corner windows. That was in 1967 to 1972, and this “historic” streetcar was not yet “historic”. The fare was 15 cents, and we complained when it was raised to 20 cents. I have some photo’s taken from the window, and I also have the old yeller J-Church car stop sign, which has a dent in it as it was twisted off the pole when snagged by a truck. The crew that replaced it was going to toss it, but I was in the right place at the right time. I don’t know what sort of interest this sign would be to others, but it’s of great interest to me. As a lover of streetcars, I regret ever leaving that streetcar perfect corner. Now I live in a city that has only belching buses.