Centennial celebration of San Francisco’s first streetcar kicks off

Written by jrood

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which oversees all transportation in the city, including the Municipal Railway (Muni), joined U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the SFMTA Centennial Honorary Committee, to launch the 100th anniversary celebration of the Municipal Railway, founded on December 28, 1912.

As the first publicly-owned transit system in a major U.S. city, Muni was inaugurated by Mayor James Rolph, Jr., at Geary and Kearny streets with Car No. 1. That streetcar has been restored and will now join Muni’s historic streetcar fleet, which runs on the F Market and Wharves Line. The citywide celebration through December will include San Francisco’s transit history and the city’s current integrated surface transportation network that encompasses pedestrians, bicyclists, transit, parking, traffic and taxis.

“Even one hundred years ago, San Francisco was the ‘Innovation Capital of the World’, when the city used mining technology and applied it to transit, a true innovation at the time that resulted in our modern Muni system that we still have today,” said Mayor Lee. “Just as our San Francisco innovators did a century ago, we are meeting the challenge of providing a world class transportation system for our residents with dedication and innovation.”

“Each year Muni provides service to more than 200 million customers with 700,000 daily boardings,” said Senator Feinstein. “I am especially proud of our city’s unique vintage streetcars, an international symbol of San Francisco culture. In fact, I was pleased to pilot Car No. 1 right down Market Street to open the first San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival in 1983. Happy 100th birthday to Muni for serving San Franciscans every day.”

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