We at Market Street Railway are delighted to partner again with SFMTA/Muni to give transit lovers the chance to ride vintage streetcars, cable cars, and buses, while learning how public transit spurred the growth of San Francisco from a village to the world-class City we enjoy today.
All rides on the vintage streetcars and buses will be free, as a ‘thank you’ from SFMTA. Special cable car attractions are on offer as well.
Streetcar and bus rides will depart every few minutes from 10 AM- 4 PM both days from our San Francisco Railway Museum at the Steuart Street F-line stop between Market and Mission Streets, across from the Ferry Building.
Streetcars will run a 30-minute round trip to Pier 39 and back. Riders may get off at Pier 39. Among the streetcars expected to operate this year:
— The most popular vehicle at past events: the 1934 open-top “Boat Tram” from Blackpool, England
— America’s oldest passenger streetcar still operated by a transit agency, the 1896 “Dinky” that survived the 1906 earthquake and fire
— The very first big city streetcar owned by the people themselves: Municipal Railway Car 1 from 1912
— A “wonder from Down Under”: a classic Melbourne tram from 1928
— An ever-popular 98-year old Milan tram, with its Italian flare
— Possibly a surprise additional vintage car.
Buses will also roll from our museum to Pier 39, along Sansome and Battery Streets past Levi’s Plaza. Buses expected to operate include Muni motor coaches from 1938, 1947, 1956, 1970, and beyond. Vintage trolley coaches will not operate this year.
Two cable cars from long-disappeared lines will operate together on the special summer “Hyde Rid service, both Saturday and Sunday, from 10 am – 6 pm:
— The largest and oldest operating cable car in the world, “Big 19”, built in 1883 and operated on Market Street until the 1906 earthquake and fire, then modified for continued service on Sacramento & Clay Streets until its retirement in 1942, followed by its resurrection by Muni in the last few years
— The only surviving cable car from the disappeared O’Farrell, Jones & Hyde line restored to its 1907 condition; a joint project of Muni and Market Street Railway.
You can board at Aquatic Park terminal, Hyde & Beach Streets. A round-trip on these rare cars takes 25-minutes and costs $9.
For a free, fun cable car fix, just walk one block from our museum to the California Street cable car terminal at Market & Drumm Streets. There, you can pose in front of
On Saturday, as a special added attraction, several “guest buses” from museums and other transit agencies will join vintage Muni buses on display on The Embarcadero, adjacent to the activity plaza and museum. In the plaza and outside our museum, there’ll be kid’s games, informational displays, and a special sale of hard-to-find transit artifacts and books and more.
Fun for all, keeping the past present for the future.
