2 man operation was clearly the primary reason the Market St. Ry. started the abandonment process of the post Quake cable car network with the end of the Castro St. and Sacramento St. lines in 1942. It was the bus that made this possible with the well established practice of a driver only. Notice the Market St. private operation never tried PCC's because they still would have met real opposition, as with Muni, to dumping conductors.

Operating, maintaining, patrolling subway stations is also a very expensive undertaking but Muni is adding on precisely that with the Central Stubway, Patronage on this line may prove less than hoped - certainly much less than a similar amount of subway on the Geary corridor.

Cable-hauled is still around; witness the OAC.

The extension of the Mason line across Bay St. has made it into construction programs more than once as I recall but never came to fruition. The Cal cable extension to Fillmore did appear in a planning document, just as with trolley buses on Geary. Muni got taken over by diesel busmen in recent years. If they had been in power in 1980 you would not have any F line.

You wanna talk high and gratuitous cost, how about everything about BART, 2 man operation on SMART, base tunnels to Palmdale, yada yada.

By the bye I never asked Charlie(or I have forgotten)how did the Sacramento St. cars get into service? Looks like the traffic directions on Sacramento and Clay Sts. have been changed over the years.