Where little cable cars often charge nothing
Ride after ride, conductors rarely ask reporter to pay
It’s entirely possible to ride a cable car for nothing. City inspectors did it over and over again in December. And a reporter did the same thing Tuesday.
On ride after ride, no conductor asked for the $7 fare, scanned a Clipper Card or demanded anything else that would help fill Muni’s coffers. The Chronicle boarded nine cable cars and was asked to pay only twice.
It was a day after the San Francisco city controller’s office reported that it had sent undercover investigators onto 30 cable cars in December and had gotten free rides on 11 of them. Passengers who boarded cars in the middle of the route instead of at a turnaround were especially likely to receive a freebie, the controller said.
If anything, The Chronicle’s own cloak-and-dagger follow-up Tuesday found that the city sleuths understated the problem.
Three rides on a southbound Powell Street car from the Cable Car Museum on Nob Hill to the end of the line at Market Street. Free each time. Twice from Union Square to Nob Hill, also free.
Once from Chinatown to the eastern end of the California Street line. Free.
“You sure you were on my car?” said the conductor on one of the Powell Street cars, after the reporter disembarked at Powell and Market. “You sure I didn’t ask?”
On one northbound car on Powell Street, the conductor approached and said, “Sir?” The Chronicle produced its Clipper Card, which the conductor looked at but did not check on his handheld scanner. Free ride.
The only two times the fare was collected was on the California Street line, once westbound and once eastbound.
Three cable car conductors, who all declined to identify themselves, said a conductor cannot safely collect fares when a cable car is descending the steeper hills on its run. At such times, a conductor is obliged to operate the track brake at the rear end of the car.
And with 100 or so passengers on each run, it can be tough to keep track of who boarded when, who has been checked and who hasn’t — particularly after a cable car has started its run.
A shrewd cable car passenger who takes partial rides on steep hills can, more often than not, ride free.
“There are only a few places on the line when you can check fares,” one conductor said. “Generally, when it’s not steep.”
The collection of fares has become a matter of increased concern after two cable car conductors suspected of pocketing fares were arrested in April and charged with embezzlement and theft. David Reyes, 55, and Albert Williams, 61, of San Francisco both pleaded not guilty and are free pending preliminary hearings, prosecutors said.
At $7 per ride, the amount of cash that changes hands on a typical run can be considerable. Conductors are supposed to issue a blue receipt after collecting each fare. Reconciling the cash with the unissued receipts at the end of a shift is the only way to keep track of the transactions.
Typically, cable car passengers are tourists who are unaware of the fare collection protocol and the blue receipt system.
Colin and Dianne Bulloch, married visitors from Winnipeg, Canada, were waiting in line Tuesday to board a cable car at Powell and Market streets and said they had no idea about the cash receipt system.
“It doesn’t affect us,” Colin Bulloch said. “It only affects you. We’ll pay what they ask. Paying cash is more convenient for us.”
In its report Monday, the city controller’s office suggested ending the collection of cash fares. The auditors recommended that Muni install more ticket machines, expand its network of ticket vendors, provide conductors with the means to accept credit cards, and consider installing fare boxes.
In response, Muni said it was “unlikely given the ridership demographics that a full, cashless system would be possible” and said it would not install fare boxes on cable cars.
“We’re trying to explore every option to see what can be implemented but, at the end of the day, we have to preserve flexibility for our passengers to pay for their rides,” said Muni spokesman Paul Rose.
Cable car passengers can now buy tickets from a booth at Market and Powell streets but not at any other terminus. Rose said Muni would soon try out a system with booths or ticket vendors at all turnarounds.
“Any time you have a system that accepts cash, you do everything you can to protect the public interest and dollars,” Rose said.
The collection of cable car fares presents a unique challenge. Unlike a bus or a streetcar, cable cars can be boarded through as many as four doors, depending on the configuration of the car, and via the outside bench seats and running boards, making collection upon boarding problematic.
At $7, a cable car fare is nearly three times the standard $2.75 Muni fare. Muni says cable cars cost more to ride than buses and streetcars because they’re more expensive to operate. Tourists have been known to say that cable cars cost more to ride because tourists get taken for rides.
On the other hand, the Bullochs noted that $7 per person to ride a cable car in San Francisco was a lot less than what they paid to get to San Francisco from Winnipeg. Dianne Bulloch said the weather was too fine and the city too beautiful to let $7 come between two neighbors like the U.S. and Canada.