1.
Muni Metro
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Muni Metro is a light rail/streetcar hybrid system serving San Francisco, California, operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, a division of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. With an average ridership of 128,500 passengers as of the fourth quarter of 2014. Muni Metro operates a fleet of 151 light rail vehicles made by Breda, Muni Metro is the modern incarnation of the traditional streetcar system that had served San Francisco since the late 19th century. Recently, the system has undergone expansion, most notably the Third Street Light Rail Project, completed in 2007, other projects, such as the Central Subway, are underway. Muni Metro descended from the traditional streetcar system started on December 28,1912. The first streetcar line, the A Geary, ran from Kearny and Market Streets in the Financial District to Fulton Street, the system slowly expanded, opening the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1917, allowing streetcars to run to the southwestern quadrant of the city. By 1921, the city was operating 304 miles of trolley lines and 25 miles of cable car lines. The last line to service before 2007 was the N Judah. However, five heavily used streetcar lines traveled for at least part of their routes through tunnels or otherwise reserved right-of-way, as a result, these lines, running PCC streetcars, continued in operation. The new tunnel would be connected to the existing Twin Peaks Tunnel, the new underground stations would feature high platforms, and the older stations would be retrofitted with the same, which meant that the PCCs could not be used in them. Hence, a fleet of new rail vehicles was ordered from Boeing-Vertol. The K and M lines were extended to Balboa Park during this time, on February 18,1980, the Muni Metro was officially inaugurated, with weekday N line service in the subway. The Metro service was implemented in phases, and the subway was served only on weekdays until 1982. The K Ingleside line began using the Metro subway on weekdays on June 11,1980, the L Taraval and M Ocean View lines on December 17,1980, and lastly the J Church line on June 17,1981. Meanwhile, weekend service on all five lines continued to use PCC cars operating on the surface of Market Street through to the Transbay Terminal, finally, on November 20,1982, the Muni Metro subway began operating seven days a week. At the time, there were no plans to revive any service on the surface of Market Street or return PCCs to regular running. However, tracks were rehabilitated for the 1983 Historic Trolley Festival, Muni criticism had been something of a feature of life in San Francisco, and not without reason. The Boeing trains were sub-par and grew crowded quickly, Muni did take steps to address these problems
2.
San Francisco Municipal Railway
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The San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served 46.7 square miles with an budget of about $700 million. In ridership Muni is the seventh largest transit system in the United States, with 210,848,310 rides in 2006 and the second largest in California behind Metro in Los Angeles. With a fleet average speed of 8.1 mph, it is the slowest major urban transit system in America and one of the most expensive to operate, costing $19.21 per mile per bus and $24.37 per mile per train. However, it has more boardings per mile and more vehicles in operation than similar transit agencies, many weekday riders are commuters, as the daytime weekday population in San Francisco exceeds its normal residential population. Muni shares four metro stations with BART, on weekends, most Muni bus lines are scheduled to run every ten to twenty minutes. However, complaints of unreliability, especially on less-often-served lines and older lines, are a system-wide problem. Muni has had difficulty meeting a stated goal of 85% voter-demanded on-time service. Most intercity connections are provided by BART and Caltrain heavy rail, AC Transit buses at the Transbay Terminal, 70% of stops are spaced closer than recommended range of 800–1,000 feet apart. Muni is short for the Municipal in San Francisco Municipal Railway and is not an acronym, thus, the Muni metro is often called the train or the streetcar. Most San Francisco natives use Muni when speaking about the system in general, the E Embarcadero and F Market & Wharves lines are referred to by Muni as a historic streetcar line rather than as a heritage railway. Munis logo is a stylized, trademarked worm version of the word muni and this logo was designed by San Francisco-based graphic designer Walter Landor in the mid-1970s. Bus and trolleybus lines have number designations, rail lines have letters, except for cable cars, cash fares are $2.50 for adults, $1. Clipper card fares are $2.25 for adults and $1 for seniors, youth, proof-of-payment, which fare inspectors may demand at any time, is either a Clipper card, Muni Passport, or paper transfer. One fare entitles a rider to unlimited vehicle transfers for the next 90 to 120 minutes, cable cars are $7 one way, with no transfers unless the rider has a Muni Passport or Fast Pass. As of September 2014 monthly passes cost $70 for adults, $35 for low-income residents, or $24 for youth, seniors, passes are valid on all Muni lines—including cable cars—and the $83 adult Fast Pass allows BART transit entirely within San Francisco. Other passes and stickers are valid on all Muni lines, including cable cars, cable car fare is $7 per trip, with no transfers issued or accepted. Muni has implemented a smart card payment system known as Clipper
3.
Light rail
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Light rail, light rail transit or fast tram is urban public transport using rolling stock similar to a tramway, but operating at a higher capacity, and often on an exclusive right-of-way. A few light rail networks tend to have closer to rapid transit or even commuter rail. Other light rail networks are tram-like in nature and partially operate on streets, Light rail systems are found throughout the world, on all inhabited continents. They have been popular in recent years due to their lower capital costs. The term light rail was coined in 1972 by the U. S, Urban Mass Transportation Administration to describe new streetcar transformations that were taking place in Europe and the United States. In Germany the term Stadtbahn was used to describe the concept, and many in UMTA wanted to adopt the direct translation, however, UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead. Light in this context is used in the sense of intended for light loads and fast movement, the infrastructure investment is also usually lighter than would be found for a heavy rail system. The Transportation Research Board defined light rail in 1977 as a mode of urban transportation utilizing predominantly reserved, electrically propelled rail vehicles operate singly or in trains. LRT provides a range of passenger capabilities and performance characteristics at moderate costs. Light rail is a generic international English phrase for these types of rail systems, the use of the generic term light rail avoids some serious incompatibilities between British and American English. The word trolley is used as a synonym for streetcar in the United States. A further difference arose because, while Britain abandoned all of its trams except Blackpool after World War II, when these cities upgraded to new technology, they called it light rail to differentiate it from their existing streetcars since some continued to operate both the old and new systems. Conventional rail technologies including high-speed, freight, commuter/regional, and metro/subway/elevated urban transit systems are considered heavy rail, people movers and personal rapid transit are even lighter, at least in terms of capacity. Monorail is a technology that has been more successful in specialized services than in a commuter transit role. Due to varying definitions, it is hard to distinguish between what is called light rail, and other forms of urban and commuter rail, a system described as light rail in one city may be considered to be a streetcar or tram system in another. Conversely, some lines that are called light rail are in very similar to rapid transit, in recent years. Some light rail systems, such as Sprinter, bear little similarity to urban rail, in the United States, light rail has become a catch-all term to describe a wide variety of passenger rail systems. There is a significant difference in cost between these different classes of light rail transit, tram-like systems are often less expensive than metro-like systems by a factor of two or more
4.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
5.
Market Street Railway (transit operator)
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The Market Street Railway Company was a commercial streetcar and bus operator in San Francisco. The company was named after the famous Market Street of that city, over the years, the company was also known as the Market Street Railroad Company, the Market Street Cable Railway Company and the United Railroads of San Francisco. The franchise for what would become the Market Street Railway was granted in 1857 to Thomas Hayes, the line was the first horsecar line to open in San Francisco, opened on July 4,1860, as the Market Street Railroad Company. A few years later, the line was converted to steam power utilizing an engine that was part locomotive and part passenger car. Following the opening of the cable hauled Clay Street Hill Railroad in 1873, in 1882, Leland Stanford and associates bought the Market Street Railroad Company and converted its lines to cable haulage. In the process, the name was changed to the Market Street Cable Railway Company. This company was to grow to become San Franciscos largest cable car operator, at its peak, it operated five lines all of which converged into Market Street to a common terminus at the Ferry Building, during rush hours a cable car left that terminus every 15 seconds. In 1893, Stanford died and the company was taken over by the Southern Pacific Railroad, the company was again renamed to the Market Street Railway Company, and began the process of converting its lines to electric traction. In 1895 the company placed an advertisement in the San Francisco Examiner offering horse cars for $20. Many of these became the basis for the community built from streetcars called Carville-by-the-Sea. Conversion to electricity was resisted by opponents who objected to what they saw as ugly overhead lines on the thoroughfares of the city center. At 5,12 am on April 18,1906, those objections were swept away as the great San Francisco earthquake struck, the race to rebuild the city allowed the company to replace all but the steepest of its cable car lines with electric streetcar lines. By this stage, the company had changed again. Horsecars were finally withdrawn from city streets on June 3,1914, by 1918, and assisted by the construction of several tunnels under the citys hills, Muni was in direct competition with the URR down the length of Market Street. The two operators each operated their own pair of tracks down that thoroughfare, which came to be known as the roar of the four. The two Market Street Railway tracks were on the inside and the two San Francisco Municipal Railway tracks were on the outside, competition, labor troubles and a bad accident in 1918 led to the reorganisation of the URR, to re-emerge again as the Market Street Railway Company. This continued to operate electric streetcars throughout the city, the Powell St. cable car lines, and a fleet of buses.5 million. These are the surviving vehicles from the Market Street Railway fleet, Car 578 was built in 1896 by the Hammond Car Company and is a single-truck
6.
Trolleybuses in San Francisco
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The San Francisco trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network serving San Francisco, in the state of California, United States. Opened on October 6,1935, it presently comprises 15 lines, in San Francisco, these vehicles are also known as trolley coaches. One of only five such systems currently operating in the U. S. the Muni trolley bus system is the second-largest such system in the Western Hemisphere, a particularly notable feature of its operations are very steep grades. The Muni trolley bus system is complementary to the citys rail-bound Caltrain, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Muni Metro, in addition, it shares some of its overhead wires with the F Market & Wharves streetcar line. Of the latter,40 were New Flyer E60 vehicles,12 of these were retired in early 2013, and the remaining 28 were retired in early January 2015. All of the then-remaining 273 trolleybuses were built by Electric Transit, Inc. mostly in 2001–03, the 240 40-foot units being model 14TrSF, an order was placed in 2014 for 60 New Flyer XT60 articulated vehicles, the systems first low-floor trolleybuses. Two prototypes arrived in March 2015 and May 2015, respectively, delivery of the 58 production-series vehicles began in September 2015, and the series entered service between November 2015 and July 2016. They replaced the 33 ETI 15TrSF articulated trolleybuses, the last of which were retired in April–May 2016 and these changes left the current fleet with the 240 conventional units built by ETI and 60 New Flyer XT60s. The articulated trolleybuses are used on the 5R,14 and 30S lines, the suffix SF in the two ETI model numbers stands for San Francisco. These two types were specially derived from the standard series Škoda 14Tr for use on the Muni system, the model XT60 for New Flyer has prefixes X for Xcelsior and T for electric, and the suffix 60 for the 60-foot bus. The first order to be placed under the 2013 agreement was the 2014 order for 60 articulated trolleybuses, San Francisco Municipal Railway fleet List of trolleybus systems in the United States Perles, Anthony, with John McKane, Tom Matoff, Peter Straus. The Peoples Railway, The History of the Municipal Railway in San Francisco, San Francisco database / photo gallery and San Francisco trolleybus list at Urban Electric Transit – in various languages, including English
7.
Twin Peaks Tunnel
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The Twin Peaks Tunnel is a 2. 27-mile -long light rail/streetcar tunnel in San Francisco, California. The tunnel runs under the Twin Peaks and is used by the K Ingleside, L Taraval, M Ocean View, the S Castro Shuttle also uses the tunnel for AT&T Park game day runs. The tunnel was opened on February 3,1918, there are two stations along the tunnel, Forest Hill Station, near the western end, and the now disused Eureka Station, near the eastern end. When the Muni Metro system and Market Street Subway were built, they were connected to the Twin Peaks Tunnel to be used by the K Ingleside, L Taraval, the Eureka Station was closed, and the Metro lines stop at the nearby Castro Street Station instead. Instead, trains continue directly from the Market Street Subway into the tunnel without going above ground, west Portal Station, which was originally a surface stop outside of the tunnels western entrance, was rebuilt as a high-platform station located just inside of the entrance. Sunset Tunnel Silent film by SF real estate company of construction of tunnel
8.
Accessibility
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Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people who experience disabilities. The concept of design and practice of accessible development ensures both direct access and indirect access meaning compatibility with a persons assistive technology. Accessibility can be viewed as the ability to access and benefit from some system or entity and this is about making things accessible to all people. Article 9 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities commits signatories to provide for full accessibility in their countries. Accessible facilities therefore extend to such as Braille signage, elevators, audio signals at pedestrian crossings, walkway contours, website design. Government mandates including Section 508, WCAG, DDA are all enforcing practices to standardize accessibility testing engineering in product development, existing private businesses are required to increase the accessibility of their facilities when making any other renovations in proportion to the cost of the other renovations. The United States Access Board is A Federal Agency Committed to Accessible Design for People with Disabilities, the Job Accommodation Network discusses accommodations for people with disabilities in the workplace. Many states in the US have their own disability laws, in Australia, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 has numerous provisions for accessibility. In South Africa the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 2000 has numerous provisions for accessibility, in the UK, the Equality Act 2010 has numerous provisions for accessibility. In Sri Lanka, the Supreme Court, on 27 April 2011 gave an order to boost the inherent right of disabled persons to have unhindered access to public buildings. The Act refers to legislation regarding accessibility in e. g. ICT. In Canada, relevant federal legislation includes the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Employment Equity Act, legislation may also be enacted on a state, provincial or local level. In Ontario, Canada, the Ontarians with Disabilities Act of 2001 is meant to improve the identification, removal, the European Union, which has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, also has adopted a European Disability Strategy for 2010-20. A European Accessibility Act was proposed in late 2012 and this Act would establish standards within member countries for accessible products, services, and public buildings. Assistive technology is the creation of a new device that assists a person in completing a task that would otherwise be impossible. Adaptive technology is the modification, or adaptation, of existing devices, methods, or the creation of new uses for existing devices, to enable a person to complete a task. Examples include the use of controls, and the autocomplete feature in computer word processing programs. Adaptations to wheelchair tires are another example, widening the tires enables wheelchair users to move over soft surfaces, such as snow on ski hills
9.
San Francisco Transbay Terminal
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It opened on January 14th,1939 as a train station and was converted into a bus depot in 1959. Long-distance buses from beyond the Bay Area such as Greyhound and Amtrak also served the terminal, several bus lines of the San Francisco Municipal Railway connected with the terminal. It closed on August 7,2010, to make way for the construction of the replacement facility, the Transbay Transit Center, and associated towers. All long-distance and transbay bus operations were transferred to a Temporary Transbay Terminal at the block bounded by Main, Folsom, Beale. The new Transbay Transit Center broke ground on August 11,2010, US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and the Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom attended the ceremony. The new transit center is scheduled to be completed in 2017, bus services such as Greyhound and local Muni streetcar lines had stops at the main entrance. The Terminal was designed by Timothy L. Pflueger in the Art Moderne style, bids were taken for construction of the terminal in June 1937, excavation began on 29 July 1937, and the first steel was erected on 12 January 1938. Structural concrete was complete by May 1938, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Electric Railway Terminal Building was formally dedicated on January 14,1939. State officials and guests rode electric trains to the opening ceremony, the terminal cost was estimated at US$2,300,000, and it was expected to serve upwards of 60,000 passengers per day. Governor Frank Merriam piloted the first electric train across the bridge on 23 September 1938, although regular service did not commence until January 1939, trains were controlled with a custom electric switchboard, which was considerably simpler than the typical mechanical lever system then in use. A loop was built so trains could turn around and go back across the bridge, even after rail service ended, the loop continued to be used by AC Transit, Thruway Motorcoach and Greyhound buses until the station closed. Surprisingly, a track was never made to connect to the Southern Pacifics Third, the SP and Sacramento Northern trains ceased service across the Bay in 1941 only two years after the Terminal was completed. Interurban stated they were forced to service, citing falling passenger counts, revenues. After Interurban was granted permission to discontinue service, Sacramento Northern also applied to service in 1941. Sacramento Northern carried only a fraction of the total rail traffic over the Bay Bridge. The last train crossed the bridge on 20 April 1958, less than twenty years service was inaugurated in 1939. There have been attempts to restore rail service across the bridge. During the next year, the Transbay Terminal was rebuilt into a bus depot, the tracks were removed and replaced with pavement for use primarily by the buses of the publicly owned successor of the Key System, AC Transit
10.
Side platform
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A side platform is a platform positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. Dual side platform stations, one for direction of travel, is the basic station design used for double-track railway lines. Side platforms may result in a wider overall footprint for the station compared with a platform where a single width of platform can be shared by riders using either track. In some stations, the two platforms are connected by a footbridge running above and over the tracks. While a pair of platforms is often provided on a dual-track line. Where the station is close to a crossing the platforms may either be on the same side of the crossing road or alternatively may be staggered in one of two ways. With the near-side platforms configuration, each platform appears before the intersection, in some situations a single side platform can be served by multiple vehicles simultaneously with a scissors crossing provided to allow access mid-way along its length. Normally, the facilities of the station are located on the Up platform with the other platform accessed from a footbridge. However, in cases the stations main buildings are located on whichever side faces the town or village the station serves. Larger stations may have two platforms with several island platforms in between. Some are in a Spanish solution format, with two platforms and an island platform in between, serving two tracks
Muni: 22, N Owl
