The first day of summer boat tram service, May 28, went very well. Some highlights:
- The Boat ran great, the banners Market Street Railway prepared looked great; thanks to Randy Catanach’s rail maintenance crew.
- The operating crew (Angel Carvajal and Juiel Rice) were great with riders, very welcoming.
- Market Street Railway had docents on board all day answering questions.
- Loads were good all day; full both directions on final few trips.
- Lots of waves and positive feedback from onlookers all along the way, plus endless photos.
- Quite a few people came into our museum and asked us when the boat would next be there.
Until this boat tram is updated with a low-voltage power supply, there’s no Muni GPS on the tram, so it doesn’t show up on Muni’s NextBus map. (The other boat tram, which Market Street Railway acquired for Muni in 2013, has already been updated with low-voltage, but is out of service this summer getting new wheels).
So, as an experiment, Market Street Railway has purchased a battery-powered consumer GPS unit, which should arrive later this week. We’re going to see if we can get it to shop up on our own live streetcar map. We’ll let you know if we can get it working.
Meanwhile, come out every Tuesday and Wednesday through Labor Day to ride the boat. The first run from the Ferry Building will head for the Wharf about 11 a.m. Service will wrap up at about 5.
We’ll have a full report about the boat launch, with more great photos, in our member newsletter, Inside Track, due out in June.
