Market Street Railway depends on volunteers to make things happen. The more help we have, the more we can do to preserve historic transit in San Francisco.
We played the leading role in saving vintage streetcar service on Market Street, and later extending it to Fisherman’s Wharf along the waterfront. The F-Market & Wharves line is now rightly world-famous and stands as a testament to what volunteers acting in concert can accomplish. Now, with Muni’s budget crunch, we need volunteer help again to strengthen our organization and defend our streetcars, and the cable cars too!
E-mail volunteer@streetcar.org or call us at (415) 956-0472 to become a volunteer.
Below are some of the volunteer opportunities we offer.
Museum Docents
Market Street Railway volunteers serve as docents in our San Francisco Railway Museum, answering visitor questions about San Francisco transit history, helping them interact with displays, and demonstrating how to operate a vintage streetcar on our full-size replica. Docent shifts are from 1-4 days a month, 2-5 hours between 12 Noon – 5 pm. You’ll meet and greet rail fans and history buffs from around the City, the Bay Area, and the world. We have lots of international visitors, so volunteers with skills in such languages as German, Spanish, and Japanese are especially helpful.
Website Management
This website is our virtual window to the world. If you explore our We Built This City section, you’ll find scores of well-researched articles on aspects of San Francisco’s transit history, including many rare photographs. We need savvy help from content curators and web designers to make this content more accessible to the public. We would also welcome volunteers able and willing to help us keep our website secure.
Social Media
We’re looking for active social media users to contribute content to our TikTok account, our YouTube channel, our Instagram account, and our Facebook Pages (for our Museum, and for transit history, as well as our popular Facebook discussion group. When you see great historic transit action on the streets (cable cars and F-line streetcars), use your creativity to offer fresh perspectives on these iconic vehicles and POST.
Photo Archives
We have collected thousands of historic photographs of San Francisco historic transit from many sources, and use them in a variety of ways. You can help our lead archivist scan and catalogue additional photos and help us make them more accessible.
Fundraising
We need to grow our membership and win grants from foundations to support and extend the efforts of our organization and our volunteers. Those who are willing to approach merchants along the F-line route, or initiate outreach to community and other groups, or who have experience in writing grant proposals are especially welcome.
Office and field support
Volunteers are always welcome to help with office and clerical duties, including processing memberships and donations, keeping our database current and accurate, and more.
Board of Directors
The Market Street Railway Board of Directors are volunteers as well. It’s a prestigious opportunity for service, reserved for those who are able and willing to devote time, talent, financial resources, or a combination of these to governing our organization and helping set our strategy and priorities to keep the F-line streetcars and cable cars operating at adequate service levels, and to help business and government leaders recognize the significant value they contribute to the City’s economy.
If you’re interested in volunteering for any of these opportunities, please email volunteer@streetcar.org and share a brief description of your skills and the time you can devote to us. You can also call us at (415) 956-0472. Thanks very much.