How do I get tickets to Market Street Railway?

Tickets and current schedules are available on the operator's official website at http://www.streetcar.org.

Photo by Dllu, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Market Street Railway

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

4.3· 27 Google reviews

Upcoming Events

No ticketed events are currently listed for Market Street Railway. Many heritage operators publish schedules seasonally or run on regular open hours instead of dated events.

Check the operator’s website for current hours and special runs, or subscribe to event alerts and we’ll email you when something is scheduled.

About Market Street Railway

Ride living transit history through San Francisco: this 1,000-member nonprofit is Muni's preservation partner behind the vintage streetcars of the F Market & Wharves line, the most popular service of its kind in North America, and it supports the landmark cable cars too. Visit its San Francisco Railway Museum across from the Ferry Building, or catch Muni Heritage Weekend, when rarely run vintage streetcars and buses carry the public.

📍 SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102

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History

Founded in 1977 and named in homage to the old Market Street Railway Company, a former commercial streetcar and bus operator, the nonprofit's members created the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festivals of the 1980s — the success that brought historic streetcars permanently back to Market Street as the F Market & Wharves line. Service began on September 1, 1995, replacing the 8 Market trolleybus, and within a year the streetcars were carrying 7,758 passengers a day, a 43 percent ridership jump. On March 4, 2000 the line was extended along the rebuilt Embarcadero between the Ferry Building and Fisherman's Wharf, and by 2008 the cars averaged 20,000 riders daily. A second vintage line, the E Embarcadero, followed in 2015. The group opened the San Francisco Railway Museum in 2006 at the F-line's Steuart Street stop, and in 2023 it co-sponsored citywide celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Andrew Hallidie's invention of the cable car, followed in 2024 by the dedication of Cable Car 53 to singer Tony Bennett.

The Trains

Market Street Railway does not run the trains itself — it is the preservation partner behind Muni's fleet of historic streetcars on the F Market & Wharves line and supports operation of the National Historic Landmark cable cars. Since its founding it has helped Muni acquire and restore more than a dozen historic streetcars and cable cars, with some restoration work performed by its own volunteer corps, and its volunteers clean car interiors at the Castro Street Terminal. During the annual Muni Heritage Weekend, centered on the San Francisco Railway Museum, riders can board rarely operated vintage streetcars, trolleybuses, and motor buses built between 1896 and 1999.