MUN SURV __..___._ ........_~~ ... it if ii ':, "i I ' ~ .11; ~ ' Ii; I Ii; it ' ' I .. ,\ .~ ' ' ~ .;, l -6, l ' 'I .,__ I I . I L I ' L L L • . L I .t.lii i~ h • I • . I •I I I ' I I I I i I I I I L_ "- L L I 'I '- I I 'I I I I I I ! I I I l I '-- '- ._ I - - L_ ' q I i ! i - .L - ,-I 1 I I' ' - I I I I I I ' I I I - ' I - I I I I I ' I - - ! I j ! I - -- - , .:..._ I I I -- I I l MUNICIPAL RAILWAY SURVEY -- 1969-1970 I F O R E W O R D: The Municipal Railway Survey -- 1969-1970 is the fourth in a series of in-depth looks at the operations of various public transit systems in the Western United States (the 1967 SCRTD Survey, Pasadena City Lines I and Denver Tramway were the other three). The publication of this article at this time (January, 1973) is, by almost any means of reconing, a little late. The reason for the lack of timeliness is simply that it took the volunteer workers who prepared this article in their s pare time this long to produce it! The reader might well ask hims elf why the material herein wasn't updated and the article titled Munici­ I pal Railway Survey -- 1972-1973, The answer to this question is that the 1969-1970 fis cal year represented a sign i ficant t urning point in the history of the SAN FRANC ISCO MUNICIPAL RAILWAY. The s ystem had, in terms of equipment, routes and ser vice, remained relatively stable f or at least ten years prior to 1969; but in 1969 things began to change. The first half of the decade of the 1970's promises to foresee great changes in the Muni. The entire fleet of s treetcars, trolley coaches and diesel buses (but not cable cars) will be I replaced, and t he streetcars removed from the surface of Market Street and placed in a subway below it. The initiation of rapid trans i t service by the BAY ARE A RAPID TRA~S IT DISTRICT will probably result in the re­ orientation of Muni r outes in the Mission Corridor--the area to be served by BARTD. It was, therefore, de­ cided to publish the 1969- 1970 da t a as an historical record that would be representative of Municipal Railway operations during the decade of the 1960 1 s. I Other than attempting to depict Muni operations during the 1960 's, thi s article is not intended to be an historical work on the San Francisco Municipal Railway. For such works, we refer the reader to The White Front Cars of San Francisco by Charles A. Smallwood, and an article by one of the contributors to this effort: "San Francisco" by John H. McKane, Motor Coach m, November 1972 (published by the Motor Bus Society, Post I Office Box 527, Blackwood, NJ 0801~-~ This article attempts t o t ell the reader s omething about the Municipal Railway as it was during the 1 969-1970 fiscal year. The main sub j ects are the Muni's rout es, service and equipment, including servicing structures. To identify t he equipment, we present f i rst a r oster, and f ollow this up with descriptions of I the various paint s che me s pr evelant , and photographs of each t ype. This i s f ollowed by a listing of which locations and fac i lit ies ( called Di vi s i ons ) a nd which r out es the equipment is assigned; following this are diagrams of the Divisions and s ervi ce f acilit ies. Moving next to routes and service, a series of "Service Tables" is presented, defining each r oute in terms of a number, name, length, time, equipment type and Divi­ sion responsible for i t s oper a tion. The s er vice that was operated on each route is als o indicated in terms of "headway" (defined as t he time be t ween succed i ng vehicles in the same d irection) and the number of vehicle~ I required to operate that headway. Th i s s ervice is given f or four separate periods (morning peak, midday, evening peak and evening ) for Monday through Friday , for Sat urday and for Sunday. Service operated during the "owl" period is also listed, and samples of "operating schedules" are included. Routes are further de­ fined through a series of f our maps that show separately cable car and streetcar track layouts, .the trolley coach overhead wire ne t work, motor coach lines by divis ion, and an all-modes system map. Intricacies of in­ I dividual r outes and service are described i n text to pr esent infor mation that does not lend itself to table­ ization, Then comes a description of Muni's transfer system a nd reproductions of the transfer forms that are issued: Fina lly , t here is a t r eatise on the destinati on signs that are used to i dentify t he route and des­ tinati on of each Muni vehicle . I Ina smuch a s the Municipal Railway i s a publ icly owned agency , all of t he i nfor mati on contained herein is a ma tter of publi c i nformation . Even so , we would like to thank t he following Munic i pal Ra ilway personnel for t aking the time and t r oubl e to l ocate and pr ovide us with the mater ial and i nforma t ion required for this article: Mr. John M. Wo ods , Gener al Manager I Mr . Frank J. Scheifler, Tr anspor tati on As sistant Superintendent Mr. Maurice F. Itig , Traffic Superintendent Mr. Fred Thomas , Automotive Equipment Supervisor ABO UT THE WEST~RN TRANS IT SOCI~TY: I Readers who have ski pped ahead t o the bottom of t his page have not ed that this work was published by the West ern Tra ns it Soc iety. The Western Transit Societ y is a non-profit making organizatio~ that was e s t ablished i n 1963 (as the United Tr ansit Boosters) by a gr oup of persons who were inter e sted in public mass t r anspor tation, and in how such systems work, and generally fur theri ng the cause of mass transit. Be­ I side s monthl y meetings , occas ional field t rips and special publications s uch as thi s one , the orga nization a l so publishes a monthly news l etter cal led Wester n Transit (originally The Booster ) that publishes news of t r ansit oper ati ons i n t he Western United Sta tes . The organizati on pr ides itself on its objectiveity , and avoi dance of pol iti cal positions. The purpose I of the organization i s educational , a nd not pol itical . Membe r ship is open to any pe r son who has a sincer e inter est in public mass t r a nsportation, a nd applica­ t i ons are solicited. For membe r ship i nformation, please wr ite t o t he add res s l i sted below. I MUNICIPAL RAI LW AY SURVEY -- 1969-1970 was published WESTERN TRANSIT SOCI~TY by t he We s tern Trans i t Society as a suppl emen t t o the Januar y , 1973 issue of i ts monthl y newsletter, Bus i ness Add r ess : Western Transit. 7419 Be nn ington Ave nue I WESTERN TR ANSIT ** Januar y , 1973 ** Vo l. 11, No . 1 Pico- River a , Ca liforn i a 90660 Supplement No . 1 Ed itor --Gerald L. Squier Officers : Contributors --John H. Mc Kane --Loren B. Joplin I --John E. Pa ppas Ge neral Man ager --Frank J. LichtRnski Secr et a r y --Brian Norden Western Tr ans it Ed i tor--Edmund A. Buckley Cover Phot o --Tom Gray Founder --Gerald L. Squier 2 I I E O U I P M E N T R O S T E R The period from July, 1969 to June,1970 was one of great change for the Municipal Railway. It entered the period with a fleet whose average age was greater than any public system (and all but the smallest private company) in the state, In fact, the size and content of the fleet had remained more or less con­ stant during the preceding ten years, The reason for the stability was the refusal of the San Francisco electorate to approve any bond issue for capital improvements for the Muni, The City did acquire the use of new diesel bus and used PCC streetcar equipment in the mid- and late-1950's under negotiated lease arrange­ ments. The motor coach lease deal was effectively terminated insofar as the acquisition of additional new equipment was concerned when the lessor and manufacturer (The Mack Truck Company) stopped building buses in 1960. (It has been reported that the Muni attempted to arrange a similar lease situation with the only other major manufacturer at that time, General Motors, but that firm declined for fear of prosecution on federal anti-trust charges.) New equipment was finally acquired by means of the Municipal Railway Impr'ove­ ment Corporation, a non-profit public corporation. Although the City itself could not issue bonds for Mun i capital improvements without voter approval, it could contract with another agency to lease such equipment (such lease payment being an operating expense).