San Francisco trolleybus

A New Flyer XT60 trolleybus on Line 5 Fulton, 2019

An ETI / Vossloh Kiepe 14TrSF trolleybus on Line 1 California in 2008

The San Francisco trolleybus is the trolleybus operator of the city of San Francisco in the United States . There the transport company San Francisco Municipal Railway , Muni for short , operates the second largest trolleybus network in the western world after the Athens / Piraeus trolleybus and one of six in the USA. The operation was opened - by Muni's predecessor company, Market Street Railway - on October 6, 1935, today a total of 300 vehicles run on 14 lines . The trolleybus supplements the rail-bound systems Caltrain , Bay Area Rapid Transit , Muni Metro , the San Francisco Cable Cars and also the tram line F Market & Wharves , with which it shares the overhead line in sections . A special feature of the company are the steep gradients, on line 24, for example, a 228 per thousand steep passage has to be overcome.

history

The Marmon Herrington museum car number 776 in 2012

The St. Louis Car Company Museum Car 506 in 2012

As early as 1931, the California State Railway Commission issued a recommendation to start operating trolleybuses in San Francisco. On October 6, 1935, the Market Street Railway took the first line, line 33, into operation. It still runs on the route that was then used today. In 1941 Muni opened its first own trolleybus line with the R line between Army and Howard Street. When the Market Street Railway was taken over by the Muni in 1944, their vehicles and infrastructure were transferred to the latter. Muni had ordered 25 trolleybuses from the St. Louis Car Company to open its line , 15 of which did not go into operation until 1947 due to the war.

The restructuring of Muni from 1947 also included the conversion of tram lines to trolleybuses; a total of 14 new trolleybus routes were put into operation by 1952. This is why a large number of vehicles were procured from Marmon-Herrington and Twin Coach . By 1952, the number of trolleybuses rose to a total of 365 cars. The shortest of the Marmon-Herrington cars were removed from the Muni fleet as early as 1960, because after the opening of the Candlestick Park, the amplifier trips to the Seals Stadium were no longer necessary .

A Flyer E800 in 1983

In the years that followed, everything in San Francisco revolved around building the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and the Market Street Subway . Due to the uneven road conditions at the construction sites, the suspensions of most twin coach cars were damaged and the vehicles were relocated to other depots. To replace the aging trolleybuses from the 1940s, 343 new trolleybuses of the type E800 were ordered from Flyer in 1974 after two prototypes had been successfully tested . In the early 1980s, some of Muni's diesel buses had reached the end of their life, which is why availability was increasingly poor. The Muni then switched several lines - partly after adapting the route - to trolleybuses. At times, there was even a shuttle in the city center with line 82, which was operated with trolleybuses as a replacement for diesel buses. In the course of this wave of modernization, line 55 was electrified in 1981 (shortly afterwards linked to line 1) and line 24 in 1983, which, due to its steep line, had in some cases led to problems in bus operations.

In 1991, the first of a total of 60 New Flyer E60 articulated trams went into operation and used on route 31. The reason for this use was not the passenger capacity, but the built-in wheelchair lift, which could already be offered by the previously used diesel buses. In 1995, the trolleybus route 8 was discontinued, as from then on the F Line operated on the surface on Market Street between the Ferry Building and Castro Station. From 1999 onwards, the fleet was renewed again, in which two prototypes of the ETI / Vossloh 14TrSF type were put into operation. These were supplemented by 238 more solo trolleybuses between 2001 and 2003, which replaced the Flyer E800. The 33 ETI / Vossloh articulated trolleys, which went into operation in 2003, only partially replaced the articulated trolleys from the 1990s.

As of December 5, 2009, savings measures were implemented, which resulted in the trolleybus lines 4, 7 and 20 being discontinued, other lines being shortened and cycle times reduced. Line 20 was only introduced in 2007 for the opening of Line T of the Muni Metro .

At the beginning of 2014, Muni announced that it had joined an order for New Flyer Xcelsior trolleybuses with electrical equipment from Vossloh Kiepe for Seattle and had ordered 60 XT60 articulated trolleys. With the timetable change on April 23, 2016, Muni introduced amplifier trips with trolleybuses to California Street & Presidio Avenue on Line 2, which is actually operated by diesel buses.

Lines

Former

No.	Surname	Installation	attitude	Remarks
04th	Sutter	Jan. 21, 1951	Dec 5, 2009	from 2005 only during rush hour
07th	Haight	July 3, 1949	Dec 5, 2009	from 2005 only during rush hour
08th	Market	July 3, 1949	Dec 29, 1995	replaced by tram line F.
09	Richland	March 18, 1950	23 Aug 1983	largely replaced by line 14
09	San Bruno	1992	23 Sep 2005	five courses for the morning peak
12	Mission Ocean	May 18, 1952	23 Aug 1983	partially replaced by line 49
20th	Columbus	July 2, 2007	Dec 5, 2009
47	Van Ness	1951	June 9, 2001	replaced by line 49
55	Sacramento	1981	1982	Brief O-bus operation before renumbering to line 1
82				Downtown rush hour shuttle due to diesel bus shortage in the early 1980s
0E.	union	June 9, 1947	Feb. 1, 1949	Original line designation of line 41
0R.	Howard	Sep 7 1941	March 28, 1971	from 1947 combined with line E, renumbered to line 12

Today's

No.	Surname	route	Installation	Remarks
01	California	Drumm Street - California Street - 32nd Avenue	Jan. 21, 1981	by merging lines 1 and 55 (omnibus)
02	Clement	Ferry Plaza - Sutter Street - California Street & Presidio Avenue		Booster trips on bus line 2 at rush hour
03	Jackson	Sutter Street - Jackson Street - Walnut Street	Jan. 21, 1951
05	Fulton	Transbay Terminal - Fulton Street - La Playa	July 3, 1949	until 1983 5 McAllister only in service when line 5R is closed
5R	Fulton Rapid	Transbay Terminal - Fulton Street - La Playa	Nov 1, 2013	accelerated line on working days between 7am and 7pm through 2015 5L Fulton Limited
06th	Haight / Parnassus	Ferry Plaza - Parnassus Street - Quintara Street		6 Masonic by 1983 , 6 Parnassus by 2015, currently replacement services with buses
14th	mission	Ferry Plaza - Mission Street - San Jose Avenue	Jan. 6, 1952
21st	Hayes	Ferry Plaza - Hayes Street - Saint Marys Hospital	Jan. 3, 1949
22nd	Fillmore	20th Station - Fillmore Street - Marina Boulevard	Jan 16, 1949	24 hour operation
24	Divisadero	Jackson Street - Divisadero Street - Oakdale Palou Station	Aug 24, 1983
30th	Stockton	Caltrain Depot - Stockton Street - Jefferson Beach	Jan. 21, 1951
31	Balboa	Ferry Plaza - Balboa Street - La Playa	July 9, 1993	Mixed operation with buses until 1994
33	Ashbury 18th	Maple Street - Stanyan Street - Utah / 25th Street	Oct 6, 1935	originally operated by Market Street Railway , 33 Ashbury until 1988 , 33 Stanyan until 2015
41	union	Main Street - Union Street - Lyon Street	June 19, 1947	until 1949 line E, since October 1, 1988 only during rush hour
45	Union / Stockton	Lyon Street - Union Street - Stockton Street - Caltrain Depot	1970s	until 1988 45 Greenwich
49	Van Ness / Mission	North Point Street - Van Ness Avenue - Mission Street - City College	Aug 24, 1983	Currently, due to construction work for a BRT axis, replacement bus services

The end point of line 14, San Jose Avenue, is already in the neighboring city of Daly City .

vehicles

Current

The current vehicle fleet consists of two different types, including 226 solo and 60 articulated vehicles . The latter are used on lines 5R and 14 and are the company's first low-floor vehicles.

Numbers	piece	Manufacturer	Electrics	Type	Art	low-floor	Years of construction
5401–5640, with gaps	226	Electric Transit Incorporated / Škoda	Box	14TrSF	solo	No	1999-2003
7201-7260	60	New flyer	Vossloh Kieppe	XT60	joint	Yes	2015/2016

Former

All motor vehicles that were discarded so far were high-floor vehicles .

Numbers	piece	Manufacturer	Electrics	Type	Art	Years of construction	Scrapping	Remarks
51-59	9	JG Brill Company		T40	solo	1935/1936		Road numbers on the Market Street Railway until 1944
501-509	9	St. Louis Car Company		Job 1704	solo	1939		No. 506 today a museum car, not operational
510-525	16	St. Louis Car Company		Job 1731	solo	1947	1977
526-549	14th	Marmon-Herrington		TC-40	solo	1948	1977
550-569	20th	Marmon-Herrington		TC-44	solo	1948	1977	5 vehicles to use the trolley Mexico City sold
570-659	90	Twin coach		44-TTW	solo	1949/1950	1977	No. 614 today at the Illinois Railway Museum
660-739	80	Marmon-Herrington		TC-44	solo	1948/1949	1977	47 vehicles sold to the Mexico City trolleybus
740-849	110	Marmon-Herrington	General Electric	TC-48	solo	1950/1951	1977	No. 776 Today, 28 vehicles are sold to the Mexico City trolleybus
850-889	40	St. Louis Car Company		Job 1767	solo	1951	1977	32 vehicles sold to the Mexico City trolleybus
5001 + 5002	2	Flyer	General Electric	E700A	solo	1972/1973	1999	Prototypes, put into operation as No. 890 and No. 5200
5003-5345	343	Flyer	General Electric	E800	solo	1976/1977	1991-2007	No. 5300 today Museum car No. 5148 today at the Seashore Trolley Museum
7000-7059	60	New flyer	General Electric	E60	joint	1993/1994	2005-2015	No. 7000 prototype built in 1992 No. 7031 today a museum car
7101-7133	33	Electric Transit Incorporated / Škoda	Box	15TrSF	joint	2004	2015/2016	No. 7101 prototype built in 2000

photos

Car 5569 of the type 14TrSF on line 1, the steep gradients are typical
Articulated tram 7108 in the new paint scheme introduced in 2008
Interior of a 14TrSF
The New Flyer E60, here 7030, were the first articulated trolleybuses in San Francisco
In the depot , out of service since 2007, are the Flyer solo cars of the type E800, in the foreground number 5148 in 2008