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F Market & Wharves

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F Market & Wharves PCC cars at Jones Street terminal. The lead car is a San Francisco double-ended car painted in honor of the Illinois Terminal railway

The F Market & Wharves line is one of several light rail lines in San Francisco, California. Unlike the other LRV lines, the F line is operated as a heritage railway using exclusively historical equipment both from San Francisco's retired fleet as well as from cities around the world. While the F line is operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), that operation is supported by Market Street Railway, a nonprofit organization of streetcar enthusiasts which raises funds and helps to restore vintage streetcars.

Despite its heritage status, the F Market & Wharves line is an integral part of Muni's intermodal urban transport network, operating at frequent intervals for 20 hours a day, seven days a week. It carries local commuters and tourists alike, linking residential, business and leisure oriented areas of the city. Unlike the San Francisco cable car system, standard Muni fares are levied.

History

Previous F-Line

Before the F Market & Wharves came to fruition, back in 1915, The San Francisco Municipal Railway started the F-Stockton route, which ran from Scott St., and Beach St., in San Francisco to 4th and Market Sts., in San Francisco. It was extended to SP Depot in 1947, and was discontinued in 1951, being replaced by the 30-Stockton route, which still runs today.

Current F-Line

The F Market route was planned in 1980 after the planning of the E Embarcadero route in 1979. After the Cable Car lines were shut down in 1982, the advent of the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festivals began in 1983. These summertime operations of vintage streetcars on Market Street were a joint project of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Muni, originally intended as a one year only substitute attraction for the cable car system, which at that time was closed for reconstruction. The route went from the Transbay Terminal at First and Mission Streets to Market, then up Market to Duboce Avenue. From there, it followed a 'temporary' streetcar detour built in the 1970s to bypass subway construction under Market: Duboce, Church Street, and 17th Street to Castro.

The Trolley Festival proved so successful that it was repeated every year until 1987. In that year preparation began for the introduction of a permanent F line. After that year’s festival finished, Muni replaced the old Market Street tracks with new ones, restoring tracks to upper Market Street and creating a line to Castro again. Different types of vintage streetcars were evaluated to provide the backbone of the F-line fleet, resulting in the decision to use the PCC car, with its San Francisco transit heritage. Fourteen such cars were acquired second-hand from Philadelphia, to add to three of Muni’s own retired double-ended PCCs.

On Labor Day, 1995, the F line opened with a parade of PCC cars, painted to represent some of the two dozen North American cities that this type of streetcar once served. Ridership exceeded expectation, and the need for extra cars resulted in the acquisition of ten Peter Witt style cars just being retired in the Italian city of Milan. These cars were built in the 1920s to a design once common in North American cities.

In March 2000, service on the F line began along a new extension on The Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf.[1]

Operation

Route map

F Market & Wharves map

Station listing

The trolleys operate continuously, reversing direction via loops at the ends of the line. The stations and stops are as follows (transfers to other rail transit are noted):

  • Jones and Beach (near Piers 45 and 47, the waterfront end of the Powell/Hyde cable car line, and the San Francisco Maritime Museum)
  • Jefferson and Taylor (only when approaching Jones)
  • Beach and Mason (only when departing from Jones, near the Waterfront end of the Powell/Mason cable car line))
  • Jefferson and Powell (only when approaching Jones)
  • Beach and Stockton (only when departing from Jones)
  • Jefferson and the Embarcadero (near Pier 39)
A direct loop connection, from Jefferson and the Embarcadero to Beach and Stockton, allows cars to be turned short of the Jones and Beach terminal
  • Bay and the Embarcadero
  • Chestnut and the Embarcadero
  • Greenwich and the Embarcadero (near the Filbert Street steps)
  • Green and the Embarcadero (near the Fog City Diner)
  • Broadway and the Embarcadero
  • Washington and the Embarcadero
  • Ferry Terminal/Market and the Embarcadero
At this point, the line leaves the Embarcadero and turns southwest, passing briefly through a private right-of-way that has been designated as Don Chee Way before coming onto Market Street. Here also is a turning loop capable of turning cars coming off either the Embarcadero or Market Street, and a non-revenue connection to the lines of the Muni Metro N Judah line further east along the Embarcadero. In 2006, the nonprofit Market Street Railway opened the San Francisco Railway Museum, a museum and gift store celebrating San Francisco's historic streetcars and cable cars adjacent to the Steuart Street stop.

Cars

PCC car 1063 turning into the foot of Market Street. Built in 1948 for service in Philedelphia, it was acquired by Muni in 1995 and is painted in the color scheme once carried by Baltimore's PCC cars.
Former Milan Peter Witt streetcar. Built in 1928, it carries the orange color scheme latterly used by its home city.
Veteran San Francisco streetcar 130 was built for Muni in 1914, and operates in the color scheme it carried in 1939.

Muni owns a large selection of equipment for use on the F line, although not all of it will be in service at any given time. The car fleet can be broken down into four distinct sub-fleets:[2]

Notes: 1-One or more streetcar is either being serviced, or being prepared for service on the F-Market line. There are also the following:

  • Peter Witt streetcars from Milan in Italy. There are 11 of these cars, all built in 1928. Most are currently painted in the overall orange color scheme that they latterly carried in Milan, although one has been repainted into its original livery of yellow and white with black trim.
  • Vintage cars from both Muni itself, and from the Market Street Railway Company that ran competing streetcar services in San Francisco for many years. There are six of these cars, built between 1895 and 1924, and they carry a variety of former San Francisco streetcar color schemes.

There are also PCCs that Muni claims to be historic streetcars:

    • PCC streetcar #1040, which was the last PCC streetcar ever built in the United States, but is not in service.
    • PCC streetcar #1006, which was Muni's first real double-ended PCC, also not in service.
    • PCC streetcar #1128, which was renumbered and repainted into its original St. Louis livery for the Trolley Festival, again, not in service.


The line is principally operated by a mixture of the PCC and Peter Witt cars, although other more unusual or historic cars can often be seen in service.

Future extensions

There are plans to further extend heritage streetcar operation in San Francisco:

  • From the foot of Market Street to the Caltrain depot at Fourth and King Streets, using the existing non-revenue connection with existing Muni Metro tracks on the Embarcadero at Folsom Street, three blocks south of Market, then sharing those tracks with T Third line. Low-level platforms with wheelchair ramps have been installed on the jointly-used track with the light rail line south of Folsom Street. This extension is currently operable with double-end vintage equipment; installation of a turning loop at the south end of the line would allow all vintage equipment to be used. The Muni Short Range Transit Plan (2006-2025) currently projects opening of this extension in 2007, to be designated the "E Embarcadero line" and extending north along the F-line tracks on The Embarcadero to share its Fisherman's Wharf terminal.
  • From the vicinity of the existing Jones Street terminal, westward alongside the San Francisco Maritime Museum and Aquatic Park, and then running through an historic (1914) but disused single-track railroad tunnel to Fort Mason. A technical feasibility study, under the aegis of the National Park Service and Muni, was completed in December 2004. An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the extension, again led by the National Park Service, commenced in May 2006. This extension could be operated either as a part of the F-line or the E-line.

Trivia

  • The cars of the F Market & Wharves line contain typical advertising from their places and times of origin.
  • Except for the height of certain platforms, F Market & Wharves line cars are fully compatible with the rest of the Muni Metro system. Indeed, the cars can be privately chartered and are operated all over the system.
  • The F Market & Wharves line operates a car dedicated to Herb Caen, the noted columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle perhaps most famous for coining the phrase Baghdad by the Bay to describe The City. The car contains wood paneling and is decorated with many quotes from Caen.
  • In the Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry, Harry Callahan runs through the railroad tunnel under Fort Mason, emerging at the eastern portal facing Aquatic Park. This is the tunnel which may be used in one of the future extensions of the historic streetcar line(s).

References

  1. ^ "A brief history of the F-line". Market Street Railway. Retrieved March 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "The historic streetcars of the F-line fleet". Market Street Railway. Retrieved May 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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