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August 2021 Newsletter
Dear members and friends of Market Street Railway,
 
We just emailed our quarterly member magazine, Inside Track, to our members who choose to get it that way. In 10-14 days, printed copies will reach the rest of our members. So, we won't repeat the exclusive content in there. 



Main subject for this newsletter: if you're anywhere near San Francisco, come in and ride the cable cars. You'll never have a better opportunity. They're FREE for the rest of August and there's plenty of room on all lines for most of the day. Next month, they start charging eight bucks a head for EVERY head, even kids. That's $64 for a roundtrip for a family of four, since there are no transfers either. So take advantage while you can, like the folks in the shot above.

While you're at it, ride the F-line too!  We're glad to report that the threatened disruption of the line on Market Street for underground utility work has been at least postponed for a couple of years. We're working to keep the streetcars running whatever happens.

The latest news is always available on our website's blog.  Subscribe here to have all our blog posts delivered straight to your inbox as soon as they're posted. We hope you choose to spend more time browsing the deep content on our website, which continues to expand with great history articles and news.) 

There won't be a Muni Heritage Weekend this year, but we're working to get the event shifted to the spring, starting next year.

Looking forward, 
Rick Laubscher
President, Market Street Railway

Photo of the month


"Wrong Way" on Oak Street, 1940 -- For at least 60 years, Oak Street at the south edge of the Golden Gate Park Panhandle has been a major automobile artery, one-way eastbound (toward the Bay). But here we see a Market Street Railway "White Front" streetcar headed in the other direction on Oak, westbound toward Stanyan Street and the park. What a difference! And here's the history. In the 1890s, a previous Market Street Railway Company was building new electric streetcar lines around town as fast as they could build the streetcars to run on them. One of those new streetcars was San Francisco's beloved "Dinky" 578, which turned 125 this month. It was built for this line!

To crowd out competitors, the company at that time sought franchises that ran in one direction on a street and then in the other direction on the adjacent street. On this route, Ellis and O'Farrell Streets made up a one-way pair, as did Oak and Page farther west. You can read all about the Dinky's entire (and eventful) life, as well as more about this route, which become the 20-Ellis, in the new Inside Track. 

Become a member today and get exclusive benefits like our quarterly newsletter, Inside Track, filled with information you won’t see anywhere else, a 10% discount on all gifts and memorabilia from the San Francisco Railway Museum, and other member perks. Or if you'd prefer to support our cause by donating, visit our donation page.

MSR is supported entirely by members and donors, and receives no financial support from Muni or the City of San Francisco. 

We depend on the generosity of volunteers to make things happen, and the more help we have, the more we are able to do. MSR offers a variety of volunteer opportunities, some requiring just energy and time, and some requiring advanced skills. We can provide training in some areas.

Visit our volunteer page, email us at volunteer@streetcar.org, or call (415) 956-0472 to learn more.

 

Interact with our Online Community
MSR Facebook Group
@sfmsr on Twitter
MSR Website
About Market Street Railway
 
We are an independent advocacy group with the mission of preserving historic transit in San Francisco. We operate the San Francisco Railway Museum and also serve as a nonprofit partner of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. SFMTA is the city agency that owns and operates San Francisco’s transit system, known as Muni, which includes the city’s historic streetcars and cable cars.

While we support Muni’s historic transit activities, we are not part of Muni and we receive no government money whatsoever.

Instead, we rely on membership dues and private donations to help keep San Francisco’s past present in the future by serving as an effective independent advocate for the famed historic streetcars that operate on the F-line and E-line, and the national landmark cable cars. These irreplaceable historic vehicles carry almost 50,000 riders per day.
 
Copyright © 2021 Market Street Railway, All rights reserved.


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