Your year-end tax-deductible donation will be DOUBLED thanks to a matching challenge from our board members. Please read on!
Hard to believe that 2020 marks 25 years since the permanent F-line opened on Market Street, and 20 years since it was extended to Fisherman’s Wharf, where one of the famed Blackpool “Boat Trams” is pictured (both of the Boat Trams, we should mention, Market Street Railway acquired for Muni and paid to ship here).
Muni is, of course, America’s first publicly-owned big city transit system, celebrating its 107th anniversary of operation on December 28. Someone recently described our nonprofit as “like the starter dough that makes sourdough bread possible. Without that starter, always on hand to be a catalyst, no sourdough.” We’re certainly not as famous as San Francisco sourdough, but we’re flattered by the analogy. As we’ve said before, it takes patience and persistence to accomplish good things in San Francisco. Important projects don’t get done as quickly as we would like, that’s true, but we’ve seen so many examples of other advocacy groups who constantly act confrontative instead of collaborative, and they usually end up with no results at all.
We made some good progress in 2019, notably getting the Boats back into summertime waterfront service, to the delight of the public, thanks to SFMTA Director of Transit Julie Kirschbaum. Having been at this advocacy for almost 40 years (since the planning of the first Trolley Festival in the early 1980s), we’ve seen both supportive and obstructive officials at Muni. But our patient building of relationships at City Hall and with leading businesses and neighborhood groups has enabled steady growth and improvement in the historic streetcar operation, and contributed to rejuvenation of the cable car system, overcoming the periodic internal indifference that now appears past.
With new leadership in place at Muni and its parent, SFMTA, we believe 2020 can be a breakthrough year, with your help. There are already early indications that the beloved Boats will be cruising the waterfront more often in 2020. We believe contracts will finally go out to completely restore five more historic streetcars from the 1920s. They include New Orleans 913 (1923), Market Street Railway 798 (1924), Johnstown 351 (1926), Osaka 151 (1927) and Porto, Portugal 189(1929), restore them with their original trucks, not replicas, thanks to our advocacy, to give the traditional ride of these great vintage vehicles.
Additionally, original 1914 Muni 162 should reenter service, its 105-year old trucks completely rebuilt in-house, by Muni’s great crafts workers. Following that, its sister 1914 Car 130 is slated for a complete in-house rebuilding. Muni leadership’s decision to do this work in-house (pending identification of space and budgeting) is to us a clear demonstration of their strong commitment to the true permanent operation of not only the F-line, but also the E-Embarcadero line, where the double-end vintage streetcars will primarily be assigned. And again, thanks to our advocacy, we are closer to getting the E-line extended westward to Aquatic Park to serve Fort Mason, with a grant of nearly $1 million to get to the design phase approved by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.
Our board of directors, chaired by Carmen Clark, joins me in thanking all our members and donors for their support that made these and other accomplishments possible. And this year, several members of our board members have stepped up to personally match the first $7,500 in year-end donations we receive. These will be used to help us strengthen our day-to-day advocacy to get the projects I mentioned across the finish line. They’ll also seed an ambitious project we’ll be telling you more about in the next Inside Track, our member magazine. Our San Francisco Railway Museum begins its 15th year of operation in a few months. It’s time to freshen it, both inside and outside, with more moving images and interactivity to appeal to new generations of transit fans, to build enduring support for the historic streetcars and cable cars. Your year-end gifts will be the “starter” for this important project, and our board match will double your donation’s impact.
We hope to have made major progress on the museum by 2020’s Muni Heritage Weekend, August 22-23. Of course, the oh-so-popular Blackpool Boat Trams will be there, along with both Melbourne trams, Muni’s 1912 flagship Car 1, 1896 “Dinky” 578, and much more.
For all these reasons, and especially our board members’ matching offer, please consider a tax-deductible year-end donation to Market Street Railway. You can make a one-time gift of as little as $10, or a recurring monthly donation. Please click here to donate and help us keep the past present in the future. And please consider sharing this email with friends who might want to join Market Street Railway or make a donation. Thanks for your ongoing support.
Warm wishes for a very happy holiday season.
Looking forward,
Rick Laubscher, President, Market Street Railway
