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Re: #7 streetcar on Haight Street - Questions...
Author: synonymouse
Date: 09-01-2008 - 09:39
Most all of the numbered bus lines used to be Market Street Railway streetcar lines. A few were Muni Railway streetcar lines, like the busiest, the #38 bus line, which had been the B Geary streetcar until 1956, the last car line to go. One diesel bus line, the #55, was changed to the #1 when it was converted to trolley bus.
Some of these lines were obvious operational headaches, but the key ones, like the Mission Street lines(and interburban to San Mateo) and the Geary line would have been ideal for PCC cars. I had always heard that the union's resistance to one man operation poisoned management's attitudes toward streetcars. That and a lack of money in the face of declining ridership afte the War fed the trolley and diesel bus conversion zeal.
Ironically the privately owned Market Street Railway may have the streetcars' own worst enemy, because it continually opposed the publicly owned Muni's bond issues to upgrade their system. For example its corporate predecessor successfully opposed the 1917 Bernal Cut San Jose Avenue extension, which was finally built some 70 years later. This is now the outer end of the J line, my personal favorite.
In or about 1937 there was a Muni streetcar subway bond issue which failed largely due to opposition from the Market Street Railway. My memory is hazy on this one but I think it called for a subway on Geary Street downtown in addition to one on Market Street. I believe this would have saved the B line had it gone thru.
Muni is capable of really good moves(like the new T line on 3rd St.) or some really dumb ones, like passing on wiring the #71 Noriega bus a few years ago when it would have cost half of today's price.
Some of these lines were obvious operational headaches, but the key ones, like the Mission Street lines(and interburban to San Mateo) and the Geary line would have been ideal for PCC cars. I had always heard that the union's resistance to one man operation poisoned management's attitudes toward streetcars. That and a lack of money in the face of declining ridership afte the War fed the trolley and diesel bus conversion zeal.
Ironically the privately owned Market Street Railway may have the streetcars' own worst enemy, because it continually opposed the publicly owned Muni's bond issues to upgrade their system. For example its corporate predecessor successfully opposed the 1917 Bernal Cut San Jose Avenue extension, which was finally built some 70 years later. This is now the outer end of the J line, my personal favorite.
In or about 1937 there was a Muni streetcar subway bond issue which failed largely due to opposition from the Market Street Railway. My memory is hazy on this one but I think it called for a subway on Geary Street downtown in addition to one on Market Street. I believe this would have saved the B line had it gone thru.
Muni is capable of really good moves(like the new T line on 3rd St.) or some really dumb ones, like passing on wiring the #71 Noriega bus a few years ago when it would have cost half of today's price.
