Despite strong and successful opposition the first time they tried it four years ago, the budget crafters at SFMTA, Muni’s parent agency, are back with proposals to uncouple the F-line fare from the basic Muni fare and raise it between 50% and 300%.
The F-line will be served by buses rather than streetcars both Saturday and Sunday, January 18-19.
There will be no streetcar service on the F-Market & Wharves line all day Saturday, January 11. Sewer work is taking place on Market between Fremont and Third; crews are taking the opportunity to remove the disused track switch at First Street that used to connect to the now-demolished Transbay Terminal. Motor coaches will substitute for the streetcars, with Wharf-bound buses detouring via Second, Mission, and Fremont Streets to go around the work site.
Don’t worry, the arrow missed! PCC streetcar No. 1008 passes the Cupid’s Bow sculpture at Folsom and The Embarcadero, just after switching off from the tracks it shares with N- and T-line light rail vehicles. It will follow its own right-of-way to the Ferry Building, where it will join the F-line tracks to finish its journey to Fisherman’s Wharf. Adolfo Echeverry photo via the Market Street Railway Facebook group.
Recently restored E-line PCC streetcar No. 1008 switches off the F-line tracks onto the connector track that will take it the rest of the way on The Embarcadero during America’s Cup service August 25, 2013. The special E-line connector track has been in place almost a decade, waiting for the full-time startup of the line. Refurbishment of this car and others allows for full time E-line service to begin as soon as Muni funds it. Brian Leadingham photo.
PCC No. 1006 where The Embarcadero becomes King Street, training operators for E-line America’s Cup service.
The whisky wall at Hard Water.
The E-line service on July 4 drew big crowds, like this one at the Caltrain Depot. Bruce Agid photo.
Thirty years ago this week, the first San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival kicked off, with then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein personally piloting historic Muni Car No. 1 from 17th Street and Market to East Bay Terminal. The festival was so successful, the mayor asked that it be repeated…and the F-line rapidly progressed from a dream to full-time reality.
Detail from Ben Caldwell’s presentation on removing I-280, showing E-line extension around Pier 70 and onward to the 22nd Street Caltrain station.
