From 1982 to 1984, the tourist-attracting cable tram underwent an overhaul and a new powerhouse by General Electric. However, the city realized that it would lose tourist dollars if the cable tram didn’t run, so they started running old trams on Market Street instead and hoped the tourists would keep coming. The transportation agency opted to use three heritage 1930s PCC streetcars from storage and bought ten more from Philadelphia. The only other places that still run them on revenue service are Boston on the Ashmont-Mattapan Espress and Philadelphia’s route 15.
What’s the deal with the Toronto Transit Commission livery on one of the trams? Turns out, San Francisco painted them in the colours of cities that used them and Toronto had the largest fleet of PCC cars at over 720 even though none were directly procured from the TTC. But Toronto’s PCCs have made it to Dallas, TX and Kenosha, WI for free or occasional service on their heritage fleets.
The F Line existed on Market Street since 1888 as a cable car, but it wasn’t on the Embarcadero until 1995 after the highway was torn down and tracks were put it. The new track runs along the waterfront and doesn’t get from any residential areas to any commercial areas, so the extension mostly for tourists. It was so successful that they later acquired a fleet of 1928 trams from Milan to augment service and the line replaced the route 8 bus. Milan still largely relies on the same trams.
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