Some people see Muni’s fleet of historic streetcars as more than just another way to traverse the F and E lines on Market Street and the Embarcadero; those vintage cars are also an authentic step back into the 1920s, 30, or 40s. Now, a couple of vintage streetcar enthusiasts have just launched an extremely handy and fascinating real-time Streetcar Guide that shows where each type of retro streetcar is at any given moment and delves into the unique history of each historic streetcar type.
🎉 It’s live! 🎉
Today, we’re launching our new Streetcar Guide web app. With it, you can:
📍 Find streetcars near you
⏱ See when they’ll arrive with live predictions
🚃 Track all the streetcars in real time
💡 Learn more about each streetcar on the maphttps://t.co/4mDsMRN1AV— Market Street Railway (@sfmsr) April 5, 2019
The map was not developed by Muni or the SFMTA, but instead by two developers at the nonprofit Market Street Railway, a group of transit history enthusiasts dedicated to helping maintain those historic streetcars. They also make vintage streetcar tchotchkes, like the adorable stickers seen below.
My excuse for coming to the city with Adam today was to buy the adorable streetcar stickers by @chrisarvinsf at the @sfmsr museum. Success! pic.twitter.com/q0WFHf48Sg
— Elizabeth K. Joseph (@pleia2) April 3, 2019
“It tells mobile users not only how far away the next streetcar is from their stop, but also which streetcar it is,” Market Street Railway says in a blog post. While the Streetcar Guide is billed as a mobile app, it works just fine on a desktop computer too, and its mobile use does not require an app.
Streetcar 578 is the oldest streetcar in the fleet. Learn more about it from MSR friends Emiliano Echeverria and Robert Parks on @kalw!https://t.co/oHW06Vxtlz pic.twitter.com/9YfLegPTPR
— Market Street Railway (@sfmsr) March 27, 2019
Any good San Francisco transit nerd knows that streetcars and cable cars are not the same thing, though both are historic restorations. Cable cars are pulled by underground cables, whereas streetcars power themselves on the track, and of course S.F. cable cars cost $7 per ride, while the historic streetcars cost only your standard $2.50 (Clipper on MuniMobile) or $2.75 (cash).
Of course, there are already options to see where buses are on your smartphone. Nextbus and Transit app both offer real-time bus locations and Nextbus already had its own (much clunkier) historic streetcar tracker. But vintage streetcar buffs will no doubt rail on about the cute, informative, and very user-friendly Streetcar Guide.
