San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival

San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival

Blackpool "boat" car 226 passing Muni car No. 1 on 17th Street in July 1983
Overview
Service type	Heritage streetcar
Locale	San Francisco, California, United States
First service	June 23, 1983 (1983-06-23)
Last service	October 17, 1987 (1987-10-17)
Successor	F Market & Wharves streetcar line
Former operator(s)	San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni)
Ridership	3,000+ (1986)[1]
Annual ridership	300,000 (1984)[2]
Route
Termini	Transbay Terminal 17th & Castro streets, Castro District
Technical
Rolling stock	Approx. 6–10 streetcars
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)
Electrification	Overhead lines, 600 V DC

The San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival was a heritage streetcar service along Market Street in San Francisco, California, United States. It used a variety of vintage streetcars and operated five to seven days a week, primarily in summer months, between 1983 and 1987. Sponsored by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, it was the predecessor of the F Market & Wharves heritage streetcar line that opened in 1995. It used historic streetcars from several different countries, as well as a number of preserved San Francisco cars. The impetus behind the Trolley Festival was that the city's famed cable car system, one of its biggest tourist attractions, was scheduled to be closed for more than a year and a half for renovation, starting in September 1982. The Trolley Festival was conceived as a temporary substitute tourist attraction during the cable car system's closure.

When its operation began, in the summer of 1983, the Historic Trolley Festival was expected to be a temporary service, operating only five days a week–Thursday through Monday–and not expected to continue beyond that summer's tourist season. However, its popularity was such that it was repeated in subsequent years, gradually expanded to additional months of the year, and even operated seven days a week in 1985. Each season, a few additional streetcars joined the festival fleet, adding variety and helping to maintain tourist interest. The five seasons of Historic Trolley Festival operation helped to establish strong public and business support for the proposed full-time F-line streetcar service (an all-day, daily, year-round service) that ultimately came to fruition in 1995.