We received this notification from Muni:
The F Market will be motorized all day and around 3PM, it will have a reroute short of Pier 39 at Bay Street given the street closures. The E line will operate with streetcars until about 2PM, when they will pull-in and be replaced by motorcoaches.
So Muni Operations has decided that E-line streetcars can run until 2 pm, but that F-line streetcars somehow cannot run at all on the 4th, even from Castro to the Ferry on Market, which as far as we know is not blocked or otherwise inaccessible to the streetcars.
This will no doubt disappoint lots of folks. We at Market Street Railway weren’t asked our opinion on this. If we were, we would have urged them to run the F-line with streetcars from Castro to the Wharf until things got too crowded there, and then turn the streetcars back at the Ferry loop, keeping streetcar service on Market.
Enjoy your streetcar-free 4th, folks. We hope Muni will reconsider this policy next year.
I understand wanting the flexibility of not operating streetcars on the Embarcadero, but what about doing a short-turn F that only operates on Market? No reason to shortchange the Castro Merchants or other destinations along Market?
Good question. We don’t know the thinking of Muni Operations is. We were not asked for our input and I’m sure the Castro Merchants weren’t either. We’re certainly not happy about this.