1.
N Judah
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The N Judah is a Muni Metro light rail line in San Francisco, California, so named as it runs along Judah Street for much of its length, named after railroad engineer Theodore Judah. It links downtown San Francisco to the Cole Valley and Sunset neighborhoods and it is the busiest line in the Muni Metro system, serving an average of 41,439 weekday passengers in 2013. It was one of San Franciscos streetcar lines, beginning operation in 1928, while many streetcar lines were converted to bus lines after World War II, the N Judah remained a streetcar line due to its use of the Sunset Tunnel. The line runs from the Caltrain depot in the Mission Bay district to Ocean Beach, from the Caltrain depot at Fourth and King Streets, it runs along King Street and the Embarcadero, passing by AT&T Park. It then enters the Market Street Subway, which it shares with the five other Muni Metro lines and it exits the tunnel at Church Street and, after a brief stretch along Duboce Avenue to Duboce Park, enters the older Sunset Tunnel. This tunnel serves to avoid a hill and contains no underground stations, on Judah between 9th Avenue and 19th Avenue the N runs on a right-of-way that is slightly raised above the surrounding street. There is a loop in the intersection at Judah, La Playa, the N Judah line stops at large stations for the downtown section of the route and at smaller stops on the rest of the line. Muni bus routes provide service to all stations and other systems with access to the stations are noted. As with all Muni lines, service begins around 5 a. m. on weekdays,6 a. m. on Saturdays and it operates at high frequencies, mainly between 7 and 12 minutes, and mostly utilizes two-car trains during Muni Metro hours of operation. Late night service is provided by the N Owl diesel bus line and this line is generally the same as the daytime N Judah line, except it follows surface streets instead of going through the streetcar-only Market Street Subway and Sunset Tunnel. It then takes Church, Hermann and Fillmore to get to Haight Street, where it bypasses the hill above the Sunset Tunnel. It turns off Haight at Cole, and then rejoins the daytime N line at Carl, originally, the line was operated on the Market Street Railway before being rerouted underground through the Market Street Subway in 1980. The extension to King Street Station and Caltrain was opened in 1998, on December 5,2009, SFMTA eliminated the portion of the N Judah line between Embarcadero and 4th & King/Caltrain on weekends and holidays. N Owl service was not affected by this change, weekend service to the Caltrain depot was restored in October 2011. After concerns from riders of constant overcrowding of the trains on the N Judah line, starting off as a pilot program, the NX was intended to relieve overcrowding during rush hours every ten minutes. It follows the end of the N Judah route from Ocean Beach to 19th Avenue, then operates nonstop from there to the Financial District where it stops at Bush. This will allow the N Judah to run three car trains as opposed to the current two car trains, additional plans include a non-revenue L Taraval to N Judah connector, which may run on 46th Avenue. Inbound to outbound N Judah on SFMTAs site N Judah schedule N Judah map, N Judah route information from the SF Muni Map Project The N-Judah Chronicles
2.
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
3.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
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
6.
Duboce Park
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Duboce Park is a small urban park located between the Duboce Triangle and Lower Haight neighborhoods of San Francisco, California. The park is less than one block wide from north to south and its western boundary is Scott Street, and its eastern boundary is Steiner Street. The park is part of the Duboce Park Landmark District, the N Judah Muni Metro streetcar line runs along Duboce Avenue, which forms the southern boundary of the park. As such, the park is served directly by the Duboce, the train tracks veer away from Duboce Avenue at the western end of the park and enter the Sunset Tunnel. Duboce Park is a site for dog walkers, and off-leash dog play is permitted in the Multi-Use Area. West of the Multi-Use area is an area with a childrens play structure. Behind the play area is a basketball court with multiple rims. Along Scott Street is a labyrinth, completed in 2007, designed for meditation, contemplation, along the west end of the park is the Harvey Milk Recreational Arts Building, which underwent expansion/renovation and reopened in June 2009. The facility hosts a number of community events and includes a center, a studio for dance and aerobics classes. In addition, the Friends of Duboce Park host an Annual Film Festival, featuring movies filmed in San Francisco, a fake BART station was constructed in the park in 2005 for filming of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, it was removed after filming. The park also features in Gus Van Sants Oscar-winning biopic Milk, a helicopter landed in the park as part of a stunt for the television series Trauma. The park is unusual for having homes directly alongside it and it is one of the few parks in the city without a roadway or walkway separating the park land from buildings. The space was designated by the city as public land in 1858. This coincided with a period of development of homes in the surrounding area. The 1906 earthquake and fire devastated much of San Francisco, however, the Duboce Park area was relatively undamaged, the park is named after Victor Donglain Duboce. In the past, dog owners flouted city leash laws by letting their dogs run free throughout the park and this conflict was resolved when the official off-leash area was established. Some residents have noted that the area is far larger than the on-leash area. Because of the number of dogs, owners are reminded to remove the droppings
7.
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
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The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is an agency created by consolidation of the San Francisco Municipal Railway, the Department of Parking and Traffic, and the Taxicab Commission. SFMTA was established by the passage of Proposition E in November 1999, the measure, promoted by the transit riders group Rescue Muni, among others, established service standards for the agency and made a number of changes to the laws governing it. Prior to the passage of Proposition E, the Muni was governed by the Public Transportation Commission, both bodies were dissolved upon the full implementation of Proposition E. Board members are limited to three terms. The SFMTA Board of Directors is responsible for, among other things, at its inception, the SFMTAs Director of Transportation was Michael T. Burns. On July 15,2005 he left the SFMTA for a position with Santa Clara VTA, ford, Sr. previously the general manager and CEO of MARTA in Atlanta, took over as the new executive director. Johnson would take over as acting director until a permanent replacement was selected by the SFMTA Board. The board selected Edward D. Reiskin, the head of the San Francisco Department of Public Works, as the permanent executive director, the first chair of the SFMTA Board of Directors was H. Welton Flynn, he was succeeded by Cleopatra Vaughns. When Vaughns left the board, James McCray, Jr. was elected chairman, like two of his then-colleagues, McCray previously served on the Parking and Traffic Commission, which was abolished when the department merged into the SFMTA. The Board of Supervisors rejected Stern by a 7–4 vote on September 27,2005, Stern was an official with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Proposition E also established a 15-member SFMTA Citizens Advisory Council which must review the agencys budget, the mayor appoints four members of the SFMTA Citizens Advisory Council and each member of the Board of Supervisors appoints one. Proposition E allowed for the SFMTA to take over the functions of the Taxicab Commission, in 2009, the agency did so, as a result of legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors and signed by the mayor. In November 2005, the voters of San Francisco rejected, by a margin of 35%–65%, in November 2016 San Francisco voters rejected by 45%–55% a second ballot measure that would have split appointments between the mayor and the Board of Supervisors. The measure would also have made it easier for the supervisors to reject the SFMTA budget. In November 2016, The SFMTA was hit by hackers, using ransomware, demanding $70,000 in bitcoins, with fare machines reading “OUT OF SERVICE”, in February 2006, the MTA Board adopted a resolution adding CEO to the title. When Edward D. Reiskin took office in 2011, he opted to use only the official title. * Although the city charter specifies that the MTA Board shall have a chair, Flynn, Vaughns, McCray, and Nolan have all opted for the style chairman
8.
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
9.
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
10.
Tram
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A tram is a rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets, and also sometimes on a segregated right of way. The lines or networks operated by tramcars are called tramways, Tramways powered by electricity, the most common type historically, were once called electric street railways. However, trams were used in urban areas before the universal adoption of electrification. Tram lines may run between cities and/or towns, and/or partially grade-separated even in the cities. Very occasionally, trams also carry freight, Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than conventional trains and rapid transit trains, but the size of trams is rapidly increasing. Some trams may also run on railway tracks, a tramway may be upgraded to a light rail or a rapid transit line. For all these reasons, the differences between the modes of rail transportation are often indistinct. In the United States, the tram has sometimes been used for rubber-tired trackless trains. Today, most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph, in some cases by a sliding shoe on a third rail. If necessary, they may have dual power systems — electricity in city streets, trams are now included in the wider term light rail, which also includes segregated systems. The English terms tram and tramway are derived from the Scots word tram, referring respectively to a type of truck used in coal mines and the tracks on which they ran. The word tram probably derived from Middle Flemish trame, a Romanesque word meaning the beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge, the identical word la trame with the meaning crossbeam is also used in the French language. The word Tram-car is attested from 1873, although the terms tram and tramway have been adopted by many languages, they are not used universally in English, North Americans prefer streetcar, trolley, or trolleycar. The term streetcar is first recorded in 1840, and originally referred to horsecars, when electrification came, Americans began to speak of trolleycars or later, trolleys. The troller design frequently fell off the wires, and was replaced by other more reliable devices. The terms trolley pole and trolley wheel both derive from the troller, Modern trams often have an overhead pantograph mechanical linkage to connect to power, abandoning the trolley pole altogether. Conventional diesel tourist buses decorated to look like streetcars are sometimes called trolleys in the US, the term may also apply to an aerial ropeway, e. g. the Roosevelt Island Tramway. Over time, the trolley has fallen into informal use
11.
Track (rail transport)
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The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties and ballast, plus the underlying subgrade. It enables trains to move by providing a surface for their wheels to roll upon. For clarity it is referred to as railway track or railroad track. Tracks where electric trains or electric trams run are equipped with a system such as an overhead electrical power line or an additional electrified rail. The term permanent way also refers to the track in addition to structures such as fences etc. Most railroads with heavy traffic use continuously welded rails supported by sleepers attached via baseplates that spread the load, a plastic or rubber pad is usually placed between the rail and the tieplate where concrete sleepers are used. The rail is held down to the sleeper with resilient fastenings. For much of the 20th century, rail track used softwood timber sleepers and jointed rails, jointed rails were used at first because contemporary technology did not offer any alternative. The joints also needed to be lubricated, and wear at the mating surfaces needed to be rectified by shimming. For this reason jointed track is not financially appropriate for heavily operated railroads, timber sleepers are of many available timbers, and are often treated with creosote, copper-chrome-arsenic, or other wood preservative. Pre-stressed concrete sleepers are used where timber is scarce and where tonnage or speeds are high. Steel is used in some applications, the track ballast is customarily crushed stone, and the purpose of this is to support the sleepers and allow some adjustment of their position, while allowing free drainage. A disadvantage of traditional track structures is the demand for maintenance, particularly surfacing and lining to restore the desired track geometry. Weakness of the subgrade and drainage deficiencies also lead to maintenance costs. This can be overcome by using ballastless track, in its simplest form this consists of a continuous slab of concrete with the rails supported directly on its upper surface. There are a number of systems, and variations include a continuous reinforced concrete slab. Many permutations of design have been put forward, however, ballastless track has a high initial cost, and in the case of existing railroads the upgrade to such requires closure of the route for a long period. Its whole-life cost can be lower because of the reduction in maintenance, some rubber-tyred metros use ballastless tracks
12.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
13.
Standard gauge
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The standard gauge is a widely used railway track gauge. Approximately 55% of the lines in the world are this gauge, all high-speed rail lines, except those in Russia, Uzbekistan, and Finland, are standard gauge. The distance between the edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm except in the United States. It is also called the UIC gauge or UIC track gauge, as railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge to be used. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a gauge of 1435 mm. In North East England, some lines in colliery areas were 4 ft 8 in. All these lines had been widened to standard gauge by 1846, parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. However, until well into the half of the 19th century, Britain. The American gauges converged as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent, notably, all the 5 ft broad gauge track in the South was converted to standard gauge over the course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States, snopes categorized this legend as false, but commented that. It is perhaps more fairly labelled as True, but for trivial, the historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles approximately 5 feet apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Others were 4 ft 4 in or 4 ft 7 1⁄2 in, the English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for the coal mines of County Durham. He favoured 4 ft 8 in for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham, the Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephensons Stockton and Darlington railway was primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees. The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge, George Stephenson used the 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The success of this led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, authorised 1824 and opened 1825, used 4 ft 6 in, Dundee and Newtyle Railway, authorised 1829 and opened 1831, used 4 ft 6 1⁄2 in
14.
Railway electrification system
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A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electrification has many advantages but requires significant capital expenditure, selection of an electrification system is based on economics of energy supply, maintenance, and capital cost compared to the revenue obtained for freight and passenger traffic. Different systems are used for urban and intercity areas, some electric locomotives can switch to different supply voltages to allow flexibility in operation, Electric railways use electric locomotives to haul passengers or freight in separate cars or electric multiple units, passenger cars with their own motors. Electricity is typically generated in large and relatively efficient generating stations, transmitted to the railway network, some electric railways have their own dedicated generating stations and transmission lines but most purchase power from an electric utility. The railway usually provides its own lines, switches and transformers. Power is supplied to moving trains with a continuous conductor running along the track usually takes one of two forms. The first is a line or catenary wire suspended from poles or towers along the track or from structure or tunnel ceilings. Locomotives or multiple units pick up power from the wire with pantographs on their roofs that press a conductive strip against it with a spring or air pressure. Examples are described later in this article, the second is a third rail mounted at track level and contacted by a sliding pickup shoe. Both overhead wire and third-rail systems usually use the rails as the return conductor. In comparison to the alternative, the diesel engine, electric railways offer substantially better energy efficiency, lower emissions. Electric locomotives are usually quieter, more powerful, and more responsive and they have no local emissions, an important advantage in tunnels and urban areas. Different regions may use different supply voltages and frequencies, complicating through service, the limited clearances available under catenaries may preclude efficient double-stack container service. Possible lethal electric current due to risk of contact with high-voltage contact wires, overhead wires are safer than third rails, but they are often considered unsightly. These are independent of the system used, so that. The permissible range of voltages allowed for the voltages is as stated in standards BS EN50163. These take into account the number of trains drawing current and their distance from the substation, railways must operate at variable speeds. Until the mid 1980s this was only practical with the brush-type DC motor, since such conversion was not well developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century, most early electrified railways used DC and many still do, particularly rapid transit and trams
15.
Overhead line
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An overhead line or overhead wire is used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses, or trains. Overhead line is designed on the principle of one or more overhead wires situated over rail tracks, the feeder stations are usually fed from a high-voltage electrical grid. Electric trains that collect their current from overhead lines use a device such as a pantograph and it presses against the underside of the lowest overhead wire, the contact wire. Current collectors are electrically conductive and allow current to flow through to the train or tram, non-electric locomotives may pass along these tracks without affecting the overhead line, although there may be difficulties with overhead clearance. Alternative electrical power transmission schemes for trains include third rail, ground-level power supply, batteries and this article does not cover regenerative braking, where the traction motors act as generators to retard movement and return power to the overhead. To achieve good high-speed current collection, it is necessary to keep the wire geometry within defined limits. This is usually achieved by supporting the wire from a second wire known as the messenger wire or catenary. This wire approximates the path of a wire strung between two points, a catenary curve, thus the use of catenary to describe this wire or sometimes the whole system. This wire is attached to the wire at regular intervals by vertical wires known as droppers or drop wires. It is supported regularly at structures, by a pulley, link, the whole system is then subjected to a mechanical tension. As the contact wire makes contact with the pantograph, the insert on top of the pantograph is worn down. The straight wire between supports will cause the wire to cross over the whole surface of the pantograph as the train travels around the curve, causing uniform wear. On straight track, the wire is zigzagged slightly to the left. The movement of the wire across the head of the pantograph is called the sweep. The zigzagging of the line is not required for trolley poles. Depot areas tend to have only a wire and are known as simple equipment or trolley wire. When overhead line systems were first conceived, good current collection was only at low speeds. Compound equipment - uses a second wire, known as the auxiliary
16.
Volt
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The volt is the derived unit for electric potential, electric potential difference, and electromotive force. One volt is defined as the difference in potential between two points of a conducting wire when an electric current of one ampere dissipates one watt of power between those points. It is also equal to the difference between two parallel, infinite planes spaced 1 meter apart that create an electric field of 1 newton per coulomb. Additionally, it is the difference between two points that will impart one joule of energy per coulomb of charge that passes through it. It can also be expressed as amperes times ohms, watts per ampere, or joules per coulomb, for the Josephson constant, KJ = 2e/h, the conventional value KJ-90 is used, K J-90 =0.4835979 GHz μ V. This standard is typically realized using an array of several thousand or tens of thousands of junctions. Empirically, several experiments have shown that the method is independent of device design, material, measurement setup, etc. in the water-flow analogy sometimes used to explain electric circuits by comparing them with water-filled pipes, voltage is likened to difference in water pressure. Current is proportional to the diameter of the pipe or the amount of water flowing at that pressure. A resistor would be a reduced diameter somewhere in the piping, the relationship between voltage and current is defined by Ohms Law. Ohms Law is analogous to the Hagen–Poiseuille equation, as both are linear models relating flux and potential in their respective systems, the voltage produced by each electrochemical cell in a battery is determined by the chemistry of that cell. Cells can be combined in series for multiples of that voltage, mechanical generators can usually be constructed to any voltage in a range of feasibility. High-voltage electric power lines,110 kV and up Lightning, Varies greatly. Volta had determined that the most effective pair of metals to produce electricity was zinc. In 1861, Latimer Clark and Sir Charles Bright coined the name volt for the unit of resistance, by 1873, the British Association for the Advancement of Science had defined the volt, ohm, and farad. In 1881, the International Electrical Congress, now the International Electrotechnical Commission and they made the volt equal to 108 cgs units of voltage, the cgs system at the time being the customary system of units in science. At that time, the volt was defined as the difference across a conductor when a current of one ampere dissipates one watt of power. The international volt was defined in 1893 as 1/1.434 of the emf of a Clark cell and this definition was abandoned in 1908 in favor of a definition based on the international ohm and international ampere until the entire set of reproducible units was abandoned in 1948. Prior to the development of the Josephson junction voltage standard, the volt was maintained in laboratories using specially constructed batteries called standard cells
17.
Direct current
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Direct current is a flow of electrical charge carriers that always takes place in the same direction. The current need not always have the magnitude, but if it is to be defined as dc. This contrasts with alternating current which varies the direction of flow, sources of direct current include power supplies, electrochemical cells and batteries, and photovoltaic cells and panels. The intensity, or amplitude, of a direct current might fluctuate with time, in some such cases the dc has an ac component superimposed on it. An example of this is the output of a cell that receives a modulated light communications signal. A source of dc is sometimes called a dc generator, batteries and various other sources of dc produce a constant voltage. This is called pure dc and can be represented by a straight, the peak and effective values are the same. The peak to peak value is zero because the instantaneous amplitude never changes, in some instances the value of a dc voltage pulsates or oscillates rapidly with time, in a manner similar to the changes in an ac wave. The unfiltered output of a wave or a full wave rectifier. In 1820, Hans Christian Orsted discovered that electrical current creates a magnetic field and this discovery made scientists relate magnetism to the electric phenomena. In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. He improved a 50-year-old idea using lower current electricity, a vacuum inside the globe and a small carbonized filament. At that time, the idea of lightning was not new. Edison not only invented an incandescent electric light, but an electric lighting system contained all the necessary elements to make the incandescent light safe, economical. Prior to 1879, direct current electricity had been used in lighting for the outdoors and it was in the 1880s when the modern electric utility industry began. It was an evolution from street lighting systems and from gas and it was located in Lower Manhattan, on Pearl Street. This station provided light and electricity to customers in a one square mile range, the station was called Thomas Edisons Pearl Street Electricity Generating Station. This station introduced four elements of an electric utility system, Efficient distribution, competitive price, reliable central generation
18.
Buena Vista Park
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Buena Vista Park is a park in the Haight-Ashbury and Buena Vista Heights neighborhoods of San Francisco, California. It is the oldest official park in San Francisco, established in 1867 as Hill Park and it is bounded by Haight Street to the north, and by Buena Vista Avenue West and Buena Vista Avenue East. The park is on a hill that peaks at 575 feet. The lowest section is the end along Haight. The hill on which the park lies is composed primarily of sand and San Francisco chert, the layout of the park uses the steepness of the hill to good advantage, offering good views of the city. At the peak of the park is a small lawn, the paths along the west side are lined with gutters built by WPA workers out of broken headstones from the Citys Victorian cemeteries at Lone Mountain, which were moved to Colma in 1930s. In a few cases the inscriptions were placed facing up and can be discerned, the northeast corner staircase features a large peace symbol shaped out of flower plantings. Further south a tennis court is located just inside the park at the intersection of Duboce, across the street from the south side of the park is 355 Buena Vista East, an architecturally notable building which appears briefly in Alfred Hitchcocks Vertigo. The building, constructed in 1928 as St. Josephs Hospital, has converted to condominiums. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and this modern house is no more, as it has been significantly modified with an addition of another level in 2015. Muni bus lines 6,7,43,71, the 37 line passes along the south end of the park. The 24 and 33 come within three blocks, the N Judah runs underneath the park via the Sunset Tunnel. List of hills in San Francisco Official page on San Francisco Recreation and Parks web site
19.
James Rolph
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James “Sunny Jim” Rolph Jr. was an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was elected to a term as the 27th governor of California from January 6,1931 until his death on June 2,1934 at the height of the Great Depression. Previously, Rolph had been the 30th mayor of San Francisco from January 8,1912 until his resignation to become governor, Rolph remains the longest serving mayor in San Francisco history. Rolph was born in San Francisco and he had four brothers and two sisters. After attending school in the Mission District, he went to work as a boy in a commission house. He married Annie Marshall Reid and had at least one son, James Rolph, Rolph entered the shipping business in 1900, by forming a partnership with George Hind. He would over the next serve as president of two banks, one of which he helped establish. Although he was asked to run for mayor in 1909, he chose to wait until 1911 to run for mayor—a position that he would hold for nineteen years, as mayor, he was known as Sunny Jim and his theme song was There Are Smiles That Make You Happy. In 1915 he appeared as himself in a documentary film titled Mabel and Fatty Viewing the Worlds Fair at San Francisco. In 1924, Rolph appeared as himself in a Slim Summerville comedy short film, Hello, Rolph knew of the power in San Francisco of the Roman Catholic Church. Italians, Irish, French and Germans made up the majority of the population of the City and he established a deep friendship with Archbishop Edward Joseph Hanna. In turn, Hanna would support Rolph in his 1930 election as governor of California, in addition to his mayoral duties and overseeing his shipping interests, he directed the Ship Owners and Merchants Tugboat Company and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. He also was vice-president of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and president of the Merchants Exchange and he resigned in 1931 to assume the office of governor of California. Four days before the lynching he had announced he would not call on the National Guard to prevent the lynching, after violence erupted during the San Joaquin cotton strike in October 1933, Governor Rolph appointed a fact-finding committee to investigate the deaths of several strikers. After suffering several heart attacks, he died in Santa Clara County on June 2,1934, aged 64, Rolph was the second governor to die in office, the first being Washington Bartlett in 1887. He is buried at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Colma, California and he was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Frank Merriam in the Governors Office. One of the names of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge is the James “Sunny Jim” Rolph Bridge. Biography from the State of California James Rolph, Jr. at The Political Graveyard Biography from the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco James Rolph at the Internet Movie Database
20.
Duboce Triangle, San Francisco
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The area is sometimes known as Mint Hill, after the United States Mint, nearby on a steep rocky cliff overlooking the intersection of Market and Duboce streets. The neighborhood is bounded bordered by Market St. Castro St. Divisadero St. Waller St. Webster St. the Duboce Triangle is well served by Muni Metro, historic streetcars, and buses. Because of its location east of Buena Vista Heights and Twin Peaks, Duboce Park and several smaller pocket parks provide public green spaces, as well as lushly landscaped sidewalks and well-maintained Victorian flats and apartment buildings. These are the result of San Franciscos rejection of the large-scale demolition of Victorians
21.
Cole Valley, San Francisco
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Cole Valley is a small neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It borders Golden Gate Park to the north, Haight-Ashbury to the northeast, The Castro to the east. near Kezar Stadium, Cole Valley is the smallest neighborhood in San Francisco, California. And is near one of the hills in San Francisco, the neighborhood is bordered on the west by Stanyan Street and the Sutro Forest, on the south by Tank Hill, and on the east by Clayton Street in San Francisco, California. The main commercial strip is condensed into three blocks along Cole Street and part of Carl Street and this strip includes more than a dozen restaurants and cafés. It is very close to Haight-Ashbury and Golden Gate Park, and is considered a sub-area of that district. It is also close to the Inner Sunset, Cole Valley grew up around the streetcar stop at the entrance to the Sunset Tunnel at the intersection of Carl and Cole Streets. That intersection is still the center of the small business district. Cole Valley was popular with dot-commers during the late 1990s dot-com bubble, craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, is a recent former resident, and still frequents Cole Valleys cafes. The area is home to professionals, some University of California, San Francisco residents, staff. ColeValleySF. com San Francisco Neighborhoods Cole Valley Home Page colevalley. org Cole Valley Improvement Association, includes information on the annual Cole Valley Street Fair, in September
22.
Vandalism
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Vandalism is action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes criminal damage such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner, the term finds its roots in an Enlightenment view that the Germanic Vandals were a uniquely destructive people. The Vandals, an ancient Germanic people, are associated with destruction as a result of their sack of Rome under King Genseric in 455. During the Enlightenment, Rome was idealized, while the Goths, however, the Vandals did intentionally damage statues, which may be why their name is associated with the vandalism of art. The term Vandalisme was coined in 1794 by Henri Grégoire, bishop of Blois, the term was quickly adopted across Europe. Historically, vandalism has been justified by painter Gustave Courbet as destruction of monuments symbolizing war, therefore, it is often done as an expression of contempt, creativity, or both. Gustave Courbets attempt, during the 1871 Paris Commune, to dismantle the Vendôme column, Nietzsche himself would meditate after the Commune on the fight against culture, taking as example the intentional burning of the Tuileries Palace on May 23,1871. The criminal fight against culture is only the side of a criminal culture wrote Klossowski after quoting Nietzsche. Private citizens commit vandalism when they damage or deface the property of others or the commons. Some vandalism may qualify as culture jamming or sniggling, it is thought by some to be artistic in nature even though carried out illegally or without the property owners permission, examples include at least some graffiti art, billboard liberation and possibly crop circles. Graffiti on public property is common in inner cities as part of a gang culture. More serious forms of vandalism that may take place during public unrest such as rioting can involve the destruction of public. In elections, opposing candidates supporters may engage in political vandalism - the act of defacing opponents political posters, bumper stickers, billboards, and other street marketing material. Also activists may use the tactic of property destruction as means of protest, e. g. by smashing the windows of banks, shops and government institutions, Vandalism is also a common tactic of black blocs. Opportunistic vandalism of this nature may also be filmed, the mentality of which can be akin to happy slapping, greed can motivate vandalism as can some political ideologies, wish to draw attention to problems, frustration, even playfulness. Youngsters, the most common vandals, frequently experience low status, Vandalism enables powerless people to attack those above them, take control and frighten others. Unpunished vandalism can provide relief which reinforces the behaviour, Vandalism by one person can lead to imitation. Criminological research into vandalism has found that it serves many purposes for those who engage in it, sociologist Stanley Cohen describes six different types of vandalism, Acquisitive vandalism
23.
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
24.
Castro District, San Francisco
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The Castro District, commonly referenced as The Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States, San Franciscos gay village is mostly concentrated in the business district that is located on Castro Street from Market Street to 19th Street. It extends down Market Street toward Church Street and on sides of the Castro neighborhood from Church Street to Eureka Street. Some consider it to include Duboce Triangle and Dolores Heights, which both have a strong LGBT presence and it reappears in several discontinuous sections before ultimately terminating at Chenery Street, in the heart of Glen Park. Castro Street was named for José Castro, a Californian leader of Mexican opposition to U. S. rule in California in the 19th century, and alcalde of Alta California from 1835 to 1836. The neighborhood now known as the Castro was created in 1887 when the Market Street Railway Company built a line linking Eureka Valley to downtown. In 1891, Alfred E. Clarke built his mansion at the corner of Douglass and it survived the 1906 earthquake and fire which destroyed a large portion of San Francisco. Up to the 19th century, the possession of the Russian Empire in North America included the modern-day U. S. State of Alaska and settlements in the modern-day U. S. states of California. These Russian possessions were collectively and officially referred to by the name Russian America from 1733 to 1867, formal incorporation of the possessions by Russia did not take place until the establishment of the Russian-American Company in 1799. At the time, Russia was a young naval power. From the start, in 1840–1865, three consecutive Finnish pastors served this pastorate, Uno Cygnaeus, Gabriel Plathán and Georg Gustaf Winter, the Finns Aaron Sjöstrom and Otto Reinhold Rehn served as the parish organists/sextons during the same period. In 1841, under the governorship of Russian America by Finnish Arvid Adolf Etholén, during the final three decades of the existence of Russian America, Finnish Chief Managers of Russian America included Arvid Adolf Etholén in 1840–1845 and Johan Hampus Furuhjelm in 1859–1864. A third Finn, Johan Joachim von Bartram, declined the offer for the term between 1850 and 1855. All three were high ranking Imperial naval officers, in reference to San Francisco, researcher Maria J. Enckell states the following about the Finns in the Russian-American Company, Russia relied heavily on Finnish seamen. These seamen manned Russian naval ships as well as its deep-sea-going vessels, Company records show that in the early 1800s these ships were crewed predominantly by merchant seamen from Finland. From 1840 onward the Companys around-the-world ships were manned entirely by Finnish merchant skippers, Most Company ships stationed in Sitka and the Northern Pacific were likewise manned by Finnish skippers and Finnish crews. During the California Gold Rush and in its aftermath, a substantial Finnish population had settled in San Francisco, accordingly, Kalevalas visit in the city received a very warm welcome and created much attention. In addition to the Finnish-built corvette Kalevala now returning to the U. S, Finnish officers serving in the squadron included Theodor Kristian Avellan, who later became the Minister of Naval Affairs of the Russian Empire
25.
Western Addition, San Francisco
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The Western Addition is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States. The Western Addition is located between Van Ness Avenue, the Richmond District, the Haight-Ashbury and Lower Haight neighborhoods, historically, the Western Addition was first platted during the 1850s as a result of the Van Ness Ordinance. This large tract encompassed some 500 blocks running west from Larkin Street to Divisadero Street, the area was initially used for small-scale farming, but following the invention of the cable car during the 1870s, the Western Addition developed as a Victorian streetcar suburb. It survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake with its Victorian-style buildings largely intact, from there, it is usually divided into smaller neighborhoods such as Lower Pacific Heights, Cathedral Hill, Japantown, the Fillmore, Hayes Valley, Alamo Square, Anza Vista, and North Panhandle. By this definition, the Western Addition is roughly synonymous with the Fillmore, after the Second World War, the Western Addition — particularly the Fillmore District — became a population base and a cultural center for San Franciscos African American community. The Central Freeway used to run through the neighborhood to Turk Street, since the early 1990s, the Western Addition has undergone massive gentrification. The San Francisco Police Department Northern Station serves the Western Addition, Fillmore District San_Francisco/Western Addition travel guide from Wikivoyage
26.
San Francisco Chronicle
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It was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The paper is owned by the Hearst Corporation, which bought it from the de Young family in 2000. The paper benefited from the growth of San Francisco and was the largest circulation newspaper on the West Coast of the United States by 1880. Like many other newspapers, it has experienced a fall in circulation in the early 21st century. The newspaper publishes two web sites, SFGate, which has a mixture of news and web features. Between World War II and 1971, new editor Scott Josephine Newhall took a bold, the newspaper grew in circulation to become the citys largest, overtaking the rival San Francisco Examiner. The demise of other San Francisco dailies through the late 1950s and early 1960s left the Examiner, from 1965 on the two papers shared a single classified-advertising operation. This arrangement stayed in place until the Hearst Corporation took full control of the Chronicle, beginning in the early 1990s, the Chronicle started to face competition beyond the borders of San Francisco. The Chronicle launched five zoned sections to appear in the Friday edition of the paper, the sections covered San Francisco, and four different suburban areas. They each featured a unique columnist, enterprise pieces and local news specific to the community, the newspaper added 40 full-time staff positions to work in the suburban bureaus. The de Young family controlled the paper, via the Chronicle Publishing Company, until July 27,2000, following the sale, the Hearst Corporation transferred the Examiner to the Fang family, publisher of the San Francisco Independent and AsianWeek, along with a $66-million subsidy. Under the new owners, the Examiner became a free tabloid, in 1949, the de Young family founded KRON-TV, the Bay Areas third television station. Until the mid-1960s, the station, operated from the basement of the Chronicle Building, KRON moved to studios at 1001 Van Ness Avenue. The frequent bold-faced, all-capital-letter headlines typical of the Chronicles front page were eliminated, editor Ward Bushees note heralded the issue as the start of a new era for the Chronicle. On July 6,2009, the paper unveiled some alterations to the new design that included yet newer section fronts and wider use of color photographs and graphics. In a special section publisher Frank J. Vega described new, the newer look was accompanied by a reduction in size of the broadsheet. On November 9,2009, the Chronicle became the first newspaper in the nation to print on high-quality glossy paper, the high-gloss paper is used for some section fronts and inside pages. As of 2013 the publisher of the Chronicle is Jeffrey Johnson, audrey Cooper was named editor-in-chief in January 2015 and is the first woman to hold the position
27.
J Church
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The J Church is a Muni Metro light rail line in San Francisco, California, mainly serving the Noe Valley and Balboa Park neighborhoods, connecting them to downtown. It began as one of San Franciscos streetcar lines in 1917, buses cannot negotiate the grades, and the right-of-way is too narrow to accommodate anything wider than the streetcar tracks. The line runs from Embarcadero Station in the Financial District to Balboa Park Station, the downtown portion of the line uses the Market Street Subway, along with four other Muni Metro lines. The J exits the tunnel at Duboce Avenue along with the N Judah, between 18th and 20th Street, the line cuts through Dolores Park in a private right-of-way featuring a 9% grade, the steepest section of the Muni Metro. After crossing 20th Street, it cuts across the blocks east of Church, around a steep hill, the J then follows Church to 30th Street, then to San Jose Avenue and Geneva. Between Randall and Cotter Streets, there is a right-of-way in the middle of San Jose Avenue, at the end of the line, the J loops around the Metro yard at San Jose and Geneva, alongside Balboa Park Station. The J Church line stops at stations for the downtown section of the route. Most of the stops are designated by a sign on the sidewalk. The J Church begins service at 5 a. m. weekdays,6 a. m, sundays and continues until 12,15 a. m. every night. Headways range from 7 to 15 minutes during the day, and 15 to 20 minutes at night, there is no late night service along the entire J line. Some of the route is covered by the L-Owl and N-Owl service provided by buses run on Market Street between Church Street and Steuart Street. Owl service on the 24 Divisadero line runs near the portion of the J line north of 30th Street, the outer end of the line was originally at Church and 30th Streets, where streetcars used a wye to turn around. In 1991, the tracks were extended to the Balboa Park BART station, however, the 2. 3-mile new section was initially used only by light rail cars starting or ending their runs, all-day J-line service was not extended along the new tracks until March 1992. This extension of the J-line to the Metro Center now also provides vintage F Market cars a connection to the adjacent Geneva Yard, occasionally J-Church streetcars use the wye at 30th and Church as a terminus during rush hours, or during irregular operations. With the completion of the M Ocean View Subway, the J Church will be re-routed to connect with the M Ocean View at a new subway station at SF State. Future ideas for extensions include a north of Church and Duboce Streets along Fillmore Street to Fort Mason. When these extensions occur, it is whether the J Church will be re-titled to J San Jose or keep its current designation. Inbound to outbound J Church on SFMTAs site J Church schedule J Church map, J-Church route information from the SF Muni Map Project
28.
K Ingleside
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The K Ingleside is a Muni Metro line in San Francisco, California, mainly serving the West Portal and Ingleside neighborhoods. The line runs from the Embarcadero Station downtown to the Geneva Avenue and San Jose Avenue in the Balboa Park neighborhood, the downtown portion of the line runs through the Market Street Subway, which it shares with the four other Muni Metro lines. It continues through the much older Twin Peaks Tunnel, along with the L Taraval and M Ocean View lines, emerging at West Portal Station. From there, it follows West Portal Avenue to Saint Francis Circle, the K then follows Ocean Avenue until it reaches Balboa Park Station, where it circles around the Metro yard at San Jose and Geneva Avenue, with the actual terminal stop alongside the station. The K Ingleside line stops at stations for the downtown section of the line. Most of the stops are nothing more than concrete islands in the middle of the street next to the tracks. Some of these island stops provide access for wheelchairs, Muni bus routes provide service to all stations and other systems with access to the stations are noted. The original K Ingleside streetcar line opened in 1918, service was extended the next year by incorporating a previously opened line. The outer end of the line was a stub at the intersection of Brighton and Grafton, in the 1940s an additional branch of the line was built down Onondaga Street to Mission Street. In the 1950s, this was shortened to the Phelan loop at Ocean, on April 23,1979, the line was lengthened to Balboa Park BART Station. Weekend service continued to use PCC cars until September 1982 when the Muni Metro became fully operational. At West Portal Station, inbound K trains heading towards downtown change their signs to the T line, conversely, at Embarcadero Station, the trains show the ultimate destination of the spliced lines rather than the intermediate terminus of the individual line. The K Ingleside begins service at 5 a. m. weekdays,6 a. m, sundays, with the end of service occurring around 12,30 a. m. each night. It operates a headway of 9 to 10 minutes during the day, there is also a K-Owl diesel bus line that runs from Market Street and Steuart Street to Balboa Park. This line makes a number of trips between the times owl service stops and the underground subway stations open. This has been identified as a Tier 1 level project, once this project is complete, the K Ingleside may be re-titled as K Geneva or K Crocker Amazon. Additional plans include a subway with an entrance south of Saint Francis Circle on Junipero Serra Boulevard that connects to the existing Twin Peaks Tunnel. This plan will coincide with the construction of the M Ocean View subway project, inbound to outbound Muni Metro and San Francisco rail map K Ingleside route information from the SF Muni Map Project
29.
L Taraval
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The line commenced operation in 1919 and incorporated a previous streetcar line which had opened in about 1907, 20th Avenue – 30th Avenue. It was extended along Taraval to 48th in 1923, and subsequently extended south to the San Francisco Zoo, the L was partially converted to modern light rail operation as part of the opening of the Muni Metro system in 1980. While many streetcar lines were converted to buses after World War II, the L Taraval Rapid project was conceived to increase pedestrian safety and speed up trains. Nine stops will be eliminated, the roadway upon which the track is laid will be repainted as a transit-only lane, stop elimination occurred on February 25,2017. The line runs from the Embarcadero Station in the Financial District to the 46th Avenue and Wawona Street, the downtown portion of the line runs in the Market Street Subway, which is shared with six other Muni Metro lines. It continues through the much older Twin Peaks Tunnel, shared by the K Ingleside and M Ocean View lines, once out of the tunnel, the L begins street running operation. It takes Ulloa Street to 15th Avenue and then turns west onto Taraval Street and it then follows Taraval to 46th Avenue, where it turns south towards the Zoo. The end of the loops around Vicente, 47th Avenue. Tracks on Taraval Street extend west from 46th Avenue to 48th Avenue/Great Highway, however, chartered streetcars and LRVs can operate there if requested. The L Taraval line stops at stations for the downtown section of the route. Muni bus routes provide service to all stations and other systems with access to the stations are noted, the L Taraval operates 7 days a week, primarily with train service beginning at 5 a. m. weekdays,6 a. m. Sundays and running until 12,30 a. m, frequency headways range from 7 to 10 minutes during the day, and 15 to 20 during nighttime service. Late-night service is provided by the L Owl diesel bus line and this line is generally the same as the daytime L Taraval line, except it follows surface streets instead of going through the streetcar-only Market Street Subway and Twin Peaks Tunnel. West of Castro Street, it turns south on Market Street and it follows Portola between the Diamond Heights neighborhood and Twin Peaks, turns onto Woodside and then Laguna Honda Boulevard, where it loops around at Forest Hill Station. It then backtracks on Laguna Honda Boulevard, Dewey, Claremont and Ulloa to West Portal Station, inbound to outbound Muni Metro and San Francisco rail map L Taraval route information from the SF Muni Map Project
30.
M Ocean View
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The M Ocean View is a Muni Metro light rail line in San Francisco, California. It was one of San Franciscos streetcar lines in the early 20th century, service along this route was replaced by buses in 1939, but rail service was shortly restored in 1944. While many streetcar lines were converted to buses after World War II. On August 30,1980, the line was extended to Balboa Park BART station, the line was partially converted to modern light-rail operation with the opening of the Muni Metro system in 1980. In May 2010, the San Francisco MTA began a project to reconstruct. The MTA decided to discontinue all M Ocean View rail service for the duration of the project, passengers were required to take K Ingleside trains or L Taraval trains and transfer to temporary shuttle bus service at West Portal. Full M Ocean View service was restored on Sept.4,2010, the line runs from the Embarcadero Station in the Financial District to Geneva Avenue and San Jose Avenue near City College of San Francisco in the Balboa Park neighborhood. The downtown portion of the runs through the Market Street Subway. It continues through the much older Twin Peaks Tunnel, along with the K Ingleside and L Taraval lines, from there, it follows West Portal Avenue to the Saint Francis Circle, where it then takes its own right-of-way to 19th Avenue. The portion of the line on 19th Avenue between where it joins 19th near Eucalyptus Drive and Junipero Serra Boulevard is a right-of-way separated from the street. This section has two stations with high-platforms, one at the Stonestown Galleria on Winston Drive and the other at San Francisco State University on Holloway Avenue and it continues on 19th Avenue past Junipero Serra to Randolph Street. At the end of Randolph, the M uses Orizaba Avenue to get to Broad Street, the rest of the line follows San Jose Avenue to Geneva Avenue, where the line loops around the Metro yard there on the corner opposite from Balboa Park Station. The M Ocean View line stops at stations for the downtown section of the route and on 19th Avenue. Muni bus routes provide service to all stations and other systems with access to the stations are noted, M Ocean View moves at only 8.5 to 9.5 miles per hour during afternoon commute hours over a 2-mile distance along 19th Avenue/Highway 1. The slow speed is attributed to trains stopping at multiple busy street crossings, in addition, the majority of riders access 19th Avenue stops from the west side of 19th, since Stonestown Galleria, San Francisco State University and Parkmerced are all located west of 19th. In order to access the stops, which are located in the median of 19th Avenue, in San Francisco, 55% of severe and fatal pedestrian accidents occur on 7% of its street miles, which includes the 19th Avenue/Highway 1 corridor. In response, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority commissioned a study, published in 2014 to explore options to facilitate pedestrian access, the option that has been selected is the full subway alternative. The M Ocean View and K Ingleside will remain underground along West Portal Avenue, the current West Portal station will most likely have to be redesigned as a two-level station with the K and M lines on the lower level and the L line on the upper level
31.
T Third Street
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The T Third Street is a Muni Metro line in San Francisco, California. It is the first new rail line in San Francisco in more than half a century. It is also the first true light rail line in the mostly streetcar Muni Metro system, as it mostly in a street median. Testing on the line took place in summer 2006, with limited service starting on January 13,2007, and full service beginning on April 7,2007. In the future, the line may be extended to Caltrains Bayshore Station and, in the other direction, each train displays its ultimate destination. This system will continue in place until the Central Subway is operational, from there the T turns south on Fourth Street, crossing the bridge over Mission Creek before joining Third Street for the majority of the routes length. It passes through Mission Bay where the UCSF Mission Bay branch is located, then continues on south through the Bayview, once both economically impoverished parts of the City, they have slowly experienced rehabilitation and rebuilding mainly helped by the new T line. From there the T follows Bayshore Boulevard for two stations until it reaches its terminus at Sunnydale Station. A section of track one more block until stopped short at the Daly City limits. All stations along this line feature high platforms, eliminating the need for the raising and lowering of entrance, stations south of Fourth and King feature short platforms that accommodate only two-car trains. The T Third also uses the Muni Metro terminology in which a train goes from West Portal to Embarcadero. This also means that an outbound T Third train runs from Sunnydale and this is the reverse of other lines, as those lines have their outer termini on the southwest and west sides of the city, and those trains enter the subway from the west going inbound toward downtown. T-Third has been built in phases, the first phase extended rail service south to Sunnydale Station. The second phase, currently under construction, is known as the Central Subway project. The southern segment from Sunnydale to 4th and King Street will remain as-is, operating on street-level median tracks. After 4th and King, the line will proceed to a new 4th and Brannan Station, a proposed third phase would build an extension beyond Chinatown, including new stations at Washington Square in North Beach and Fishermans Wharf. In preparation, the tunnels were bored past Chinatown Station, a conceptual fourth phase has been advanced by SFMTA and transit advocates to further extend the line west of Fishermans Wharf to the Presidio. Initially upon opening, the T Third was operated from Castro Station to Bayshore, in the aftermath of the Muni Meltdown of 2007, the T Third was suspended from operating as a distinct line, in favor of being through-routed with the K Ingleside
32.
S Castro Shuttle
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The S Castro Shuttle is a Muni Metro line in San Francisco, California. At its inception in 1995, it ran from Embarcadero Station downtown to the Castro Street Station during peak periods on weekdays, the service stopped running in the early 2000s as the number of available light rail vehicles went down due to maintenance issues. As of 2016, the runs from St. Francis Circle to Embarcadero station with limited service beyond to 23rd Street. The line also runs when there is a game at AT&T Park, continuing from King. During these times the shuttle will occasionally run a three car formation, being the line that will do this regularly. On November 7,2016, S shuttle service resumed with two extra one-car trains running between Embarcadero and West Portal during the rush hour, for a total of ten total trips. The service increase is planned to reduce overcrowding along the L, M and this addition was viewed as a strategic way to use limited resources to provide more service. This service improvement is part of Muni Metros Muni Forward program to add more true subway service, the S Castro Shuttle is the only line not included on any Muni Metro map or on NextBus. The service is not a true shuttle train
33.
Market Street Subway
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The Market Street Subway is a double-decker subway tunnel that carries Muni Metro and BART train traffic in San Francisco, California. It runs under the length of Market Street between Embarcadero Station and Castro Street Station, the upper level is used by Muni Metro lines and the lower level is used by BART lines. BART does not run through the subway, it turns south. The northeastern end of the BART level is connected to the Transbay Tube, on the Muni Metro level, the southwestern end of the Market Street Subway connects to the much-older Twin Peaks Tunnel, and the northeastern end connects to surface tracks along the Embarcadero. The Market Street Railway had existed on the parallel to the subways alignment in some form since 1860 with services terminating at the Ferry Building. To alleviate traffic, plans for a third-rail powered tunnel under Market Street can be dated to at least 1910, by 1918, there were four tracks running down the thoroughfare - two per direction. The Twin Peaks Tunnel had been built with provisions to connect to a tunnel under Market Street. Serious consideration for construction was given while designing the initial BART system. Original plans variously called for the current stations, less Embarcadero, both levels were originally to have carried BART trains, with the lower level reserved for express trains. The top level was finally ceded to Muni when funds for BART construction came short of estimates, an Embarcadero station was planned, with a station box designed into the tunnel, but was not slated to be complete with the initial opening of the subway. Construction, commencing in July 1967, was carried out via the cut-and-cover method, BART trains first ran though the Subway with service as far as Daly City on November 5,1973. Connections through the Transbay Tube were opened for service on September 16,1974. Embarcadero station was opened shortly after on May 27,1976, starting on February 18,1980 and continuing for over a year afterward, Muni replaced surface operations with subway service at all stations in the tunnel. At that point, there were no plans to maintain the tracks on Market Street. Munis Embarcadero portal opened in 1998, and was not a part of the subways plan. T Third trains began running in the subway with the inauguration on April 7,2007. That line will be rerouted through Central Subway, which is a tunnel running underneath the Market Street Subway east of Powell Street Station. The K Ingleside, L Taraval, M Ocean View, and T Third Street Muni Metro lines run through the length of the subway to its direct connection with the Twin Peaks Tunnel
34.
Mission Dolores Park
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Mission Dolores Park, often abbreviated to Dolores Park, is a Leave no Trace city park in San Francisco, California. It is located two blocks south of Mission Dolores at the edge of the Mission District. Dolores Park is bounded by 18th Street on the north, 20th Street on the south, Dolores Street on the east, the northern end of Dolores Park is located directly across the street from Mission High School. On its eastern, southern and western sides, the park is surrounded by buildings of two to four stories, in various architectural styles. South of the park is an area known as Dolores Heights. Dolores Park offers several features including many tennis courts, a court, a multi-purpose court, a soccer field, a pissoir, a childrens playground. The southern half of the park is notable for its views of the Mission district, downtown, the San Francisco Bay. The Muni Metro J-Church streetcar line runs through the park along its western border, the park lies east of Twin Peaks in the warm and sunny microclimate of the Mission neighborhood, which was named one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world in 2016. Native Americans of the Chutchui village of the Yelamu tribe inhabited the area prior to the arrival of Spanish missionaries, the cemetery was moved to San Mateo County when San Francisco land became too valuable for the dead and burial within the city limits was prohibited. The graves were moved to Colma, where they still rest today at Hills of Eternity and it passed by 73. 9% later in the same year, initiating the creation of what was back then named Mission Park. In 1905, the City of San Francisco bought the land for $291,350, in 1906-07, the park served as a refugee camp for more than 1600 families made homeless by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Camp life after the earthquake ended in the summer of 1908, some people kept their temporary shacks as houses and a few still survive today scattered across western San Francisco. In 1917, the J-Church streetcar line, which runs one side of the park. Until after World War II, the Mission District was largely inhabited by European Americans, which from the 1950s to the 1970s were replaced by an influx of Latino immigrants. The Mexican Liberty Bell is a bell that Hidalgo rang in 1810 in the Mexican city of Dolores Hidalgo. In 2014, the replica was relocated by around 25 feet during the renovations of Mission Dolores Park, in subsequent decades, the park also became popular among LGBT residents from the nearby Castro district and among young professionals who moved to the area to work at Internet tech companies. Numerous community-driven meetings lead to the design of the improvement project. The park was opened in January 2016 with a light-up event
35.
Heritage streetcar
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Heritage streetcars or heritage trams are a part of the efforts to preserve rail traffic heritage. In addition to preserving street running rail vehicles, heritage streetcar operations can include upkeep of historic rail infrastructure, working heritage streetcars are closely related to the growing global heritage railway movement and form a part of the living history of rail transport. As with modern systems, the vehicles are referred to as trams or tramcars in the United Kingdom, Australasia and certain other places. The last two terms are used interchangeably in the United States, with trolley being preferred in the eastern US and streetcar in Canada. In parts of the United States, internally powered buses made to resemble a streetcar, are often referred to—inaccurately—as trolleys, to avoid further confusion with trolley buses, the American Public Transportation Association refers to them as trolley-replica buses. Museums, heritage tram line operators and amateur enthusiast can preserve original vintage vehicles or create replicas of vehicles to re-create or preserve streetcar technology of the past. Heritage vehicles that are fully functional can be used on heritage tramlines or for charter traffic. Heritage tram lines, that offer scheduled service on a certain route, Heritage tramlines that operate on a rail network that mainly serves the interest of modern urban mobility, have difficulty in exhibiting historic tramway infrastructure, apart from the car itself. This kind of tramlines are often operated mainly to attract tourist, some technical aspects of historic tram infrastructure can prevent the use of a heritage line as an integral part of the public transport system. For example, heritage tramlines often lack handicapped access which is required by law in many countries, Heritage tramlines can be either newly installed lines or be surviving older tramlines which have retained use of historic trams for all or most of their scheduled service. Rail tracks designated solely or mainly to heritage streetcar traffic offer best opportunities for preservation of historic streetcar scenes, some heritage tramways use all-new construction while others make use of an existing, usually disused, freight railway, by installing overhead wires and passenger stops. In some cities, new heritage tramways have been installed in the city center, to attract tourists, proponents of such projects claim that using a simple, reliable form of transit from 50 or 100 years ago can bring history to life for 21st century users. However, there are trade-offs, among other things, heritage systems can offer slower speeds, less capacity, the 2014 opened museum Remise covers the history of public transport in the city of Vienna and offers a very extensive tram collection to visitors. The Styrian municipality centre Graz has a museum since 1971 located in the depot of Mariatrost. Another heritage tram is operating in Styria between the station of Mariazell and the nearby Erlaufsee, mainly with Ex-Vienna streetcars. This line was electrified on longer sections and also extended towards the city center. In Amsterdam in the Netherlands the Electrisch Museumtramlijn operates historic trams over a 7 km length of railway line. The tram networks of Hague and Rotterdam have also their tram museums, the association Tramweg Stichting maintains and operates in every three cities its own vehicles, partly as collection of these museums
36.
San Francisco cable car system
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The San Francisco cable car system is the worlds last manually operated cable car system. An icon of San Francisco, the car system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway. Of the 23 lines established between 1873 and 1890, only three remain, two routes from downtown near Union Square to Fishermans Wharf, and a route along California Street. While the cable cars are used to an extent by commuters. They are among the most significant tourist attractions in the city, along with Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The cable cars are not to be confused with San Franciscos heritage streetcars, which operate on Market Street, the first successful cable-operated street railway was the Clay Street Hill Railroad, which opened on August 2,1873. The promoter of the line was Hallidie, and the engineer was William Eppelsheimer, the line involved the use of grip cars, which carried the grip that engaged with the cable, towing trailer cars, the design was the first to use grips. The term grip became synonymous with the operator, the line started regular service on September 1,1873, and its success led it to become the template for other cable car transit systems. It was a success, and Hallidies patents were enforced on other cable car promoters. Accounts differ as to exactly how involved Hallidie was in the inception of the line, the next cable car line to open was the Sutter Street Railway, which converted from horse operation in 1877. This line introduced the side grip, and lever operation, both designed by Henry Casebolt and his assistant Asa Hovey, and patented by Henry Casebolt. This idea was brought about because Casebolt did not want to pay Hallidie royalties of $50,000 a year for use of his patent, the side grip allowed cable cars to cross at intersections. In 1878, Leland Stanford opened his California Street Cable Railroad and this companys first line was on California Street and is the oldest cable car line still in operation. In 1880, the Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway began operation, the Presidio and Ferries Railway followed two years later, and was the first cable company to include curves on its routes. The curves were let-go curves, where the car drops the cable, in 1883, the Market Street Cable Railway opened its first line. This company was controlled by the Southern Pacific Railroad and 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 terminus at the Ferry Building, during rush hours, cars left that terminus every 15 seconds. In 1888, the Ferries and Cliff House Railway opened its initial two-line system, the Powell-Mason line is still operated on the same route today, their other route was the Powell-Washington-Jackson line, stretches of which are used by todays Powell-Hyde line
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E Embarcadero
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The E Embarcadero is a light rail line that is the San Francisco Municipal Railways second heritage streetcar line in San Francisco, California. Trial service first ran during the Sunday Streets events on The Embarcadero in 2008, the line initially ran on weekends only, but expanded to weeklong service in late April 2016. The initial routing of the line is identical to the 32 Embarcadero bus line. Since there is no loop at the Caltrain station, only double-ended streetcars are able to operate on the line until the 19th Street loop is built, in the future, the line may extend northwest past Aquatic Park and through an unused railroad tunnel to Fort Mason. For this reason, existing sidewalk-level stops adjacent to each raised central light-rail stop will be utilized for the E line, for stops north of Market, the new line will use those of the existing F Market & Wharves line. Munis original E streetcar line was the E Union line, running north from the Ferry Building via The Embarcadero to Washington/Jackson streets and this line was discontinued in 1947. Proposals for historic streetcar service along The Embarcadero were first put forward in 1974, and this temporary line was designated E Embarcadero, and it was discontinued when it was replaced in August 1998 by an extension of the N Judah line. In 2007 the new T Third Street line also began operating on this extension, historic streetcar service on The Embarcadero north of Don Chee Way began in March 2000 when the F Market & Wharves line was extended to Fishermans Wharf. The new E Embarcadero line operated on a temporary basis during the 2013 Americas Cup racing, weekend operation officially began on August 1,2015, and weeklong service began on April 23,2016. Official website Market Street Railway website San Francisco Railway Museum Streetcar Fleet Status Fort Mason Center website
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F Market & Wharves
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The F Market & Wharves line is one of several light rail lines in San Francisco, California. Despite its heritage status, the F Market & Wharves line is an part of Munis intermodal urban transport network, operating at frequent intervals for 20 hours a day. It carries local commuters and tourists alike, linking residential, business, unlike the San Francisco cable car system, standard Muni fares are levied. The streetcar line was discontinued in 1951 and was replaced by the 30-Stockton route, the F-line designation was therefore available for use by the current line, although that service is over a completely different route from the F-line of 1915 to 1951. Market Street is a major artery for the city of San Francisco. In the 1960s construction began on the Market Street Subway, which would carry BARTs trains on its lower level, all streetcar lines currently operating in the subway previously ran on the surface of Market Street, and were eventually diverted into the upper level of the tunnel. This diversion, together with the provision of new rail cars. The diversion of the Market Street streetcar lines into tunnel and the replacement of the existing streetcars with new rail cars was completed by November 1982. However, the trackage on Market Street was retained. In 1982, San Franciscos cable car lines were shut down for almost two years to allow for a major rebuild, to provide an alternative tourist attraction during this period, the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festivals began in 1983. These summertime operations of vintage streetcars on Market Street were a joint project of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the trolley festival route went from the Transbay Terminal at First and Mission Streets to Market, then up the retained Market Street tracks to Duboce Avenue. From there, it followed a temporary streetcar detour built in the 1970s to bypass subway construction under Market, Duboce, Church Street, the Trolley Festival proved so successful it was repeated every year until 1987. In that year, preparation began for the introduction of a permanent F line, after that year’s festival finished, Muni replaced the old Market Street tracks with new ones, restoring tracks to upper Market Street and recreating a line to Castro. Different types of streetcars were evaluated to provide the backbone of the F-line fleet, resulting in the decision to use the PCC car. Fourteen such cars were acquired second-hand from Philadelphia to add to three of Muni’s own retired double-ended PCCs, at that point in history, this was a rare instance in which a streetcar replaced a bus line in operation, rather than the other way around. Ridership exceeded expectation, and the need for extra cars resulted in the acquisition of ten Peter Witt style cars just being retired in the city of Milan, Italy. These cars were built in the 1920s to a once common in North American cities. The Embarcadero is the eastern waterfront roadway of San Francisco, along San Francisco Bay, at one time busy with port and ferry related traffic, it fell into decline as freight transferred to the container terminals of Oakland and the Bay Bridge replaced the ferries
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Market Street Railway (nonprofit)
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Market Street Railway is San Francisco Municipal Railways 1, 200-member nonprofit preservation partner. It relies on contributions to help maintain San Francisco’s fleet of historic streetcars in service on the E Embarcadero and F Market & Wharves lines. Market Street Railway operates a vintage vehicle restoration facility at 1 Buchanan Street and it is here that Market Street Railway volunteers restore historic vehicles before donating them to Muni. Market Street Railway borrows the name of the Market Street Railway Company, service on F-Market commenced on September 1,1995, replacing Munis 8-Market trolley bus line. Currently, the F line carries four times the ridership of the bus lines it replaced. In 1996, one year after service began, F-Market streetcars carried an average of 7,758 passengers per day, by 2008, F-Market streetcars were carrying an average of 20,000 riders per day, and were so overcrowded that drivers were forced to skip stops. For comparison, the Muni Metro system carried an average of 130,000 passengers per day through the Market Street Subway in 1999, service expanded in 2015 with the E Embarcadero line. The E line directly connects several regional transit services, including Caltrain, BART and bay ferries to waterfront businesses and attractions stretching from Mission Bay to Fort Mason. Since its inception, Market Street Railway has helped Muni to acquire and restore more than a dozen historic streetcars and cable cars for service, Market Street Railways restoration corps has done much of this restoration work themselves. Its volunteers also clean the interiors at the Castro Street Terminal to improve rider experience. Led by President Rick Laubscher, Market Street Railway is working to increase F-line service levels, extension of historic trolley service through Fort Mason Tunnel is currently being evaluated by Muni
40.
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
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Third Street Light Rail Project
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Construction was finished in late 2006, non-revenue weekend service began on January 13,2007, and full service began on April 7,2007. In the two light rail routes proposed, rail service would be extended south to Caltrains Bayshore Station along Third Street from the Financial Disrict. Potential future extensions studied included lines along Hunters Point, in Little Hollywood, the project was initially budgeted at $667 million. As of July 2006, the budget increased by $120 million, the 15-Third bus line was eliminated and the 8-Bayshore bus line was extended to replace the 15 in areas not served by the metro extension, including City College and Fishermans Wharf. The extension was supposed to connect directly to the Bayshore Caltrain Station when the station was in San Francisco County, however, as part of Caltrains 2004 CTX project, Caltrain relocated the Bayshore Station to San Mateo County without informing Muni. To complicate matters, this connection has been plagued by cost, as a result, the southern end of the line terminates at the Sunnydale Station on Bayshore Boulevard for the time being. 18 new stations were built along the line, as part of the project, the entire Third Street corridor was repaved and received new streetlights. Additionally, palm trees were planted, sidewalks reconstructed and the pavement on 3rd Street repaved, stations along the route have a distinctive marquee pole with a sculpture or mobile. Light rail vehicles operate in an exclusive right-of-way in the center of the street along most of the line to bypass vehicular congestion, in addition, transit signal priority has been implemented along the entire corridor. The goal is to allow LRVs to have a light at every intersection so they can travel from station to station without stopping. The Third Street Light Rail Project is the first part of a plan to expand the Muni Metro system. The second phase, known as the Central Subway, will take T Third off the tracks it shares with K Ingleside and N Judah north of 4th and these plans were presented in October 2014 as a third phase and a conceptual fourth phase. ON REGIONAL TRANSIT Going underground in Chinatown, everyone has an idea on S. F. subway plan. Overview, The Project in a Nutshell, $147 Million Deal Could Derail Central Subway Project Budget. Central Subway may travel farther north than planned, Third Street Light Rail Project, Transportation Improvements, San Francisco, Environmental Impact Statement. City and County San Francisco, Planning Department
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Central Subway
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The subway is the second phase of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agencys Third Street Light Rail Project. The first phase opened to the public as the T Third Line in 2007, the Central Subway is expected to open to the public in 2018. With the addition of the Central Subway, the T Third Line is projected to become the most heavily ridden line in the Muni Metro system by 2030, the subway will serve major employment and population centers in San Francisco that are underserved by rapid transit. SoMa is home to the headquarters of many of San Francisco’s major software and technology companies, Union Square, located in the citys downtown, is a primary commercial and economic district. Chinatown is the most densely populated neighborhood in the city, the Central Subway will connect these areas to communities in eastern San Francisco, including Mission Bay, Dogpatch, Bayview-Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley. The budget to complete the Central Subway is $1.578 billion, the project is funded primarily through the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program. In October 2012, the FTA approved a Full Funding Grant Agreement, the Central Subway is also funded by the State of California, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the City and County of San Francisco. Ground was broken for the Central Subway on February 9,2010, as of February 2014, both tunnel boring machines had passed under Market Street and were tunneling under Stockton Street toward Chinatown. Tunnel boring for the Central Subway was completed at Columbus and Powell Street in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco on June 16,2014 and this subway extension of the T Third Line is expected to open to the public in December 2018. In February 2008, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors voted to select the alignment for the subway. In the approved alignment, trains travel north along 4th Street and Stockton Street, stopping at one above-ground station, currently northbound T Third Line trains turn right from 4th Street onto King Street and travel along the Embarcadero to the Market Street Tunnel. When the Central Subway is complete, trains will instead cross King Street, the first stop will be at an above-ground station at 4th and Brannan streets, the 4th and Brannan Station. Heading north, trains enter the subway through a portal on 4th Street between Bryant and Harrison streets, under Interstate 80. The route will continue under 4th Street through South of Market, stopping at an underground station. At Market Street, the subway will dip below the Market Street Subway, another underground station serving Market Street and Union Square will be located underneath Stockton Street. This combined Union Square/Market Street Station will have entrances at the Market, Ellis and Stockton intersection and within Union Square Plaza at Stockton, a pedestrian passage will connect the Union Square/Market Street Station to the Muni Metro and BART Powell Street Station. The subway will then continue under Stockton Street to Chinatown Station, the subway tunnels, one for northbound trains and one for southbound trains, will continue north past Chinatown Station, beneath Stockton Street and Columbus Avenue. In the future, the T Third Line may terminate in North Beach or extend to Fishermans Wharf and the Aquatic Park to connect with F Market & Wharves
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Fort Mason Tunnel
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Fort Mason Tunnel is a single track railway tunnel in San Francisco. It was built in 1914 to bypass Fort Mason, the east portal is near the north end of Van Ness Avenue, and the west portal feeds onto the east end of Marina Boulevard at Laguna Street. Its construction in 1914 served several purposes, the rail link supplied goods and mass transit to the Panama Pacific International Exposition the following year, and the US Army utilized the line for construction of the Port of Embarkation. The tunnel operated as part of the State Belt Railroad until the suspension in 1993. In 2012, the National Park Service released an environmental impact report on providing extended service though the tunnel to the San Francisco Municipal Railway F Market & Wharves line. The E Embarcadero line may also see extension through the tunnel
