Cable car restart remains uncertain
Muni juggles funding, safety, staffing concerns
San Francisco’s landmark cable cars, sidelined since the start of the pandemic, face an uncertain future. The iconic transportation system will roll again, Muni officials say, but when the cars will return and what that will mean for the rest of the city’s transit network and the recovery of the tourist industry is unclear.
City officials, business leaders and residents are urging a return of the nearly 150yearold cable cars, but the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is grappling with hard choices about how to bring back service while facing longterm financial issues.
Muni officials are also contemplating whether to do major rehabilitation work in the Cable Car Barn before resuming cable car service, Supervisor Aaron Peskin told The Chronicle. A project involving the system that pulls the cables beneath city streets can be done only when the cable cars aren’t operating, he said, and might be more easily done during the pandemic. Erica Kato, an agency spokesperson, said Muni is not yet working on the project.
But as more people are vaccinated and San Francisco reopens more of its economy in the coming months, the return of the cable cars could play a key role in eventually drawing back tourists.
“If we are really going to get back on our feet and welcome
tourists back, we’ve got to turn the cable cars and the F (historic streetcar) line back on,” Peskin said. “The bottom line is the cable cars are the pride of San Francisco. You think of San Francisco, you think of cable cars climbing the hills and crab and the Golden Gate Bridge, and it’s a boon to tourism.”
Before the pandemic, tourism was the city’s biggest industry, supporting more than 85,000 jobs and providing more than $750 million in taxes to city coffers.
Many of the 25 million tourists rode the cable cars, which carried nearly 17,000 riders a day before they were parked last March as the city sheltered in place. Muni continued to operate a skeletal network of transit lines during the shutdown and has gradually been restoring service. But the cable cars and historic streetcar lines that run on Market Street and the Embarcadero have remained out of service.
Restoring cable cars will take more time and resources than other services, Director of Transit Julie Kirschbaum told the agency’s board Tuesday. The agency has lost cable car operators over the past year or reassigned them to other divisions. About 50 a day are now supporting the city’s vaccine efforts. New and existing operators would need to be trained and certified. And cable car operators will need to be vaccinated before service can resume, Kato said Thursday.
Kirschbaum couldn’t provide an exact timeline of restoration Tuesday because the agency is working on a staffing and training plan, but said she would come back to the board in March with more details on which lines could come back in May and the fall.
“It’s going to be a more complicated process to restore cable cars,” Kirschbaum said. “It will be a very big lift and will require the board to weigh in on things like how we prioritize restarting the cable cars against other service needs like gaps on the hilltops.”
Muni, crippled by lost ridership, nosediving revenue and limited capacity during the pandemic, is running up to 70% of service compared with pre-COVID levels. Federal funds have kept the agency afloat, but the transit operator is staring down a future structural deficit of hundreds of millions.
That reality leads to hard choices, Director of Transportation Jeffrey Tumlin told the board.
“We’re in complete agreement around restoring the cable car and Fline service, it’s so important, not just as a mobility service but as part of the very image of San Francisco and what drives the economy here. ... And yet, we’re also suffering from a gaping structural deficit,” Tumlin said.
“To what degree should we prioritize restoration of cable car service in the short run as opposed to serving the reopening of schools by shifting to school lines or restarting lines in the hillier and more isolated parts of the system that currently have no Muni service? We cannot do it all.”
While cable cars cost $8 a ride before the pandemic, it’s not clear how much the agency spends to run them. The agency said it could not immediately provide the fare revenues and operating costs.
During Tuesday’s meeting, directors, residents and business leaders urged the agency to prioritize bringing back cable cars. The agency’s Citizen Advisory Council unanimously recommended restoring them.
“We believe return of cable cars and historic vehicles would boost morale for the city in this continuously tough time,” said Neil Ballard, the council’s chair.
Some directors pushed the agency to create a plan and timeline for restoration.
“We ought to try to get the cable cars back out there,” Director Steve Heminger said. “Getting that service out there, maybe it’s more of a symbolic victory, but I think that would be a statement more than most we can make that we’re back.”
Director Manny Yekutiel, who owns a small business, said business owners are experiencing “extreme distress” and the agency needs to get ready to transport people when the economy reopens and provide a plan so owners can prepare.
San Francisco’s tourist leaders are also eager to see service restored. Laura Schaefer, deputy director of the Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District, emphasized cable cars are an iconic city experience touted by travel and trade organizations.
“No experience is more uniquely San Francisco than a ride on the cable car. It’s our very own national historic landmark,” Schaefer said. “If we do not return the cable cars, San Francisco will be seen as struggling with the changes that have resulted from COVID, and it impacts our already struggling hospitality and tourism industry.”
Elisabeth Wieselthaler-Toelly, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Travel Association, said she’s pleased the SFMTA is planning for the comeback of the cable cars — and tourism.
“The cable cars are important because they’re such an iconic part of our brand and an important attraction for visitors.” she said. “Of course, we can’t wait to have the cable cars back on the street, but they are just one part of tourism in S.F.”
Heminger said Thursday that the agency should weigh its choices in deciding what services to prioritize but that the cable cars shouldn’t be left for last.
“The cable cars have a pretty important psychic value to city,” he said. “They are a symbol of the city, one of the oldest and most memorable parts of our city. Getting them out there would be a shot in the arm to the city.”
Rick Laubscher, head of the Market Street Railway, a nonprofit group that promotes Muni’s historic transportation lines, said it would be easier and quicker to resume the streetcar services, which run on Market Street and along the Embarcadero.
The streetcars can be more easily fitted with protective shields for operators and provide safe space for riders, he said. The cable cars, with much tighter space, might need to wait for virus case counts to drop and precautionary measures to ease.
“We all hope the pandemic wanes quickly, allowing those protocols to be relaxed soon. But the Fline streetcars can safely start back up now, while the cable cars probably need to wait for the protocols to be loosened to restart,” he said. “We are glad SFMTA is looking at what’s required to restore both kinds of historic service, so we can be ready to go and can all see and hear the sweet sights and sounds of the cable cars and streetcars again.”
The last lengthy cable car shutdown came in the early 1980s when a $60 million rehabilitation, championed by thenMayor Dianne Feinstein, halted the cars for 21 months. Feinstein said Thursday she’s eager to see them return.
“When people think of San Francisco, among the first things that come to mind are cable cars,” she said. “I remember our fight to save them in the early 1980s when Tony Bennett, Mick Jagger and others joined the effort. The cable car system is unique in the world, they’re a big part of our city’s history and identity and they deserve to be saved.”