Cameron Beach was well remembered at a touching service at Grace Cathedral on Thursday, attended by hundreds of friends. Comments about his great smile abounded; stories of how he bridged the divide between streetcar fans and bus fans brought laughter. We will have extensive coverage of this service and a tribute to Cam’s life in the forthcoming issue of our member newsletter, Inside Track, on which we are starting work now. (The newsletter members will receive in their mailboxes in the next few days was being printed at the time of Cam’s unexpected death.)Meantime, the S.F. Municipal Transportation Authority currently has a tribute to Cam on its main page.
News
Fort Mason Streetcar a Step Closer
Historic streetcar service to Aquatic Park and Fort Mason came a step closer today with the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the extension. The National Park Service was the lead agency on the DEIS because much of the 0.85 mile extension from Jones and Jefferson Streets to Fort Mason Center traverses federal parkland. However, the final design, construction, and operation of the extension would be done by Muni (part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency).
SPUR Backs Fast Action on Fort Mason Streetcar Extension
San Francisco’s top planning organization, SPUR, is getting attention with a call for quick action to build a streetcar extension to Fort Mason in time for America’s Cup races on the Bay in 2013. SPUR’s position is that with 200,000 to 1 million visitors expected every race day, it makes sense to put out the extra effort to accelerate construction of the streetcar extension from Fisherman’s Wharf to Fort Mason Center to have it ready to carry the big crowds along the waterfront.
San Francisco History Expo February 12-13!
For a long time now, many of us in the city’s historic preservation community have talked about how cool it would be if we could all get together in one place. Well, our friends at the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society have made it happen!Next Saturday and Sunday, February 12-13, more than 20 groups focused on one or more aspects of San Francisco history will join together in the first San Francisco History Expo at the Old Mint at Fifth and Mission. Hours are 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. both days.Market Street Railway will be offering photo and film viewings, a hands-on “guess-what-it-is” exhibits, a farebox display, and more. Those of you with memories of streetcars in San Francisco’s bygone days can share them on the spot through an oral history opportunity. Brochures, memberships, and volunteer information on Market Street Railway and information on the San Francisco Railway Museum will be available. We’ll also have some cool transit history items for sale.Best of all, admission is free. So hop on the F-line or the Powell Street cable car if you want to be fully in the swing of things and come on over to the Old Mint Saturday and Sunday, February 12-13, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Pssst. We won’t tell anyone if you decide to take one of those newfangled BART trains or even a bus! Just come on down any way you can.)
Pier 70: Even More Reason to Take the E-line There
The Port of San Francisco has gotten a lot more developer interest in historic Pier 70 than they expected, according to the Chronicle’s City Insider. Last fall, we outlined the value of historic streetcar service to Pier 70. We noted that Muni has already invested significant money in a partially-completed streetcar loop off the T-line that could allow the future E-line historic streetcar service to terminate near front door of Pier 70, just north of the landmark Bethlehem Steel headquarters building, pictured below, at 20th and Illinois Streets.Market Street Railway strongly believes this loop should be completed expeditiously and used as the southern E-line terminal. The current proposed terminal, which would be shared with the N-line at the Caltrain Depot, can only be used by double-end historic streetcars, of which Muni has relatively few, while the Pier 70 terminal can be used by every historic streetcar in the fleet. Adequate low-level boarding platforms already exist along the stretch of the T-line that would be shared, and the existing high-level T-line platforms can be used to board wheelchairs on E-line streetcars.The E-line streetcars would provide an attractive public transit connection between Pier 70, the fast-developing Mission Bay/UCSF neighborhood, the Giants’ ballpark, South Beach, the Ferry Building, the Barbary Coast/Golden Gateway neighborhood, the Cruise Ship terminal, Fisherman’s Wharf, and, later, Aquatic Park and Fort Mason. It would connect more National Landmark Districts than any other transit line in America. We call on Muni and the Port to work together to bring the E-line to Pier 70, increasing the value of this priceless historic district.
Happy New Year from (Glub) Down Under
If you’ve been following the news at all, you know that Australia is in the midst of historic flooding, following torrential rains that in turn followed an extended (and devastating) period of drought. Our hearts go out to all those affected. But the rain has also replenished reservoirs, brought salvation to farmers and ranchers, and given the country a good rinse — including its historic trams in Melbourne.<
A Powell Promenade!
Our friends at Streetsblog San Francisco offer some solid coverage of an offer Audi has made to the city: install two blocks of pedestrian amenities, including widened sidewalks and seating areas, on Powell Street between Ellis and Geary. We won’t duplicate what they wrote, but will note that beyond the pedestrian benefits, which could be considerable, this should make cable car operation in that area safer and more reliable.With parked automobiles and trucks in the curb lane, running board riders take the risk of getting whacked by vehicle mirrors if they let it all hang out just a little too far. And motor vehicles pulling in and out of the parking spaces can cause significant delays.We’re assured that the design shown above is only conceptual; final decisions will be made locally. We hope so. The concept of the Otis Spunkmeyer lookalike drinking some kind of green Caribbean cocktail on Powell is a tad jarring. To add to the somewhat surreal scene, there’s no cable car in sight, but riding the tracks we can clearly discern — a vintage VW Microbus! Did Ken Kesey design this?Seriously, if they actually intend to install benches like the ones “conceptually” shown, the people who actually occupy them probably won’t look like the folks in the drawing. Will the result be inviting to pedestrians, or will it turn into a gauntlet like you often find in the cable car passenger queue at Powell and Market?Just asking.With the right installation, though, this could be a huge plus for lower Powell Street, giving pedestrians much needed additional room to walk and clearing the way for at least a modest improvement in cable car service.Best of all, if this temporary installation works, it can help pave the way for something permanent, perhaps modeled on the existing one-block cable car plaza between Market and Ellis.The promenade is scheduled to be installed by April 2011. It is being managed by the Union Square Business Improvement District.
RIP Transbay Terminal Streetcar Hump
A wrecking ball knocked the triple-track streetcar “hump” on the Transbay Terminal into oblivion today. The 71-year old building itself is next, really the final chapter in clearing the site for the billion-dollar terminal that will replace it, hoped to include stations for both high speed rail and Caltrain in addition to buses.The “hump” was a streetcar ramp built in front of the terminal between First and Fremont Streets, just south of Mission. When it opened on January 15, 1939, some of the streetcars that had been going down Market to the Ferry Building — both Muni cars on the outer tracks and Market Street Railway Company cars on the inner tracks — were diverted to the new terminal, but the operation was such a mess (photo, below) that it caused what is still considered the worst traffic jam in Market Street history.At first, there were two streetcar tracks, one for each company, southbound on First and northbound on Fremont, switching into three tracks on the hump. They brought passengers to the trains that ran across the Bay Bridge: three companies with trains that ran as far as Chico. But within a couple of years of opening, only the Key System trains serving the inner East Bay cities survived.After Muni and the old Market Street Railway merged in 1944, First and Fremont were reduced to one track each, with two tracks on the ramp. By mid-1949, Muni was sending all its streetcars to the terminal: the B and C Geary lines, plus the J, K, L, M, and N. That ended when Muni Metro opened full-time in 1982, though vintage streetcars used the terminal hump during the Trolley Festivals of the 1980s, then again when the permanent F-line opened in 1995, until the Wharf extension opened in 2000. The tracks on First and Fremont were torn up soon after, and only Muni buses have used the hump since.Now, there are only photographs and memories…
It’s Official: Geneva Canopy Dedicated
SFMTA CEO Nat Ford (pictured at the microphone above) led the cheers today at the dedication of the new Geneva Canopy project — the covered storage facility for 24 streetcars in Muni’s historic fleet. The building was erected under a $6.9 million design build contract with Shimmick Construction. An SFMTA press release put the total project cost at $10.1 million dollars, meaning that so called “soft costs” came to about a third of the total, despite the fact that design and engineering was wrapped into the construction contract. Market Street Railway President Rick Laubscher also spoke at the dedication, paying tribute to two former MSR board members, Art Michel and George Miller, for leading our advocacy efforts on the much-needed project for years. He also thanked the San Francisco Municipal Railway Improvement Corporation, a special purpose financing entity, which provided major funding for the project.A few streetcars have been using the facility on a test basis for the past month while the contractor was finishing up work. Now, it will be filled with F-line cars every night, just in time to avoid the coming storms.
The Giants-Cleveland-F line Connection
Our friends at Curbed SF posted this photo as part of their Giants’ coverage. No doubt because of the orange and cream livery. Doubt they know that F-line PCC No. 1075 actually pays tribute to Cleveland Transit System! Wait, there’s actually a connection, though. Cleveland Transit System’s streetcars were painted in this livery in 1948, the last time the Indians won the World Series (one of only two teams with a longer championship drought than the Giants (the Chicago Cubs are even more hapless) . And it was in 1954 that Cleveland Transit System’s last streetcars stopped running, the same year that the Giants last won the World Series, beating — the Cleveland Indians! (But streetcars in Cleveland continued rolling on the suburban Shaker Heights line, with PCCs giving way to LRVs in 1983.)(The baseball futility scoreboard – most years since last World Series win: Giants 56; Indians 62; Cubs, 102 and counting!)And yes, Muni has a PCC honoring Chicago too. We’ll share a surprise about that one next week.GO GIANTS!
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