E Embarcadero

E Embarcadero
Cars 130 and 1010 at the Ferry Building stop. Notice they have the same livery.
Overview
Type	Heritage streetcar
System	San Francisco Municipal Railway
Locale	San Francisco, California
Termini	Jones and Beach (initial) Fort Mason (planned) 4th and King Station (initial) 3rd and 19th Street (planned)
Stations	18
Operation
Opened	August 1, 2015 (weekend service) 2016 (projected start of daily service)
Owner	San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA)
Operator(s)	San Francisco Municipal Railway
Character	Route mostly in own right-of-way (e.g. in street median)
Rolling stock	Historic streetcars
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)
Electrification	Overhead lines, DC
Highest elevation	At-grade, street-level
Route map Legend Jones and Beach F  Jefferson and Taylor Beach and Mason Jefferson and Powell Beach and Stockton Pier 39 Jefferson Bay Chestnut Greenwich Green Broadway Washington Transbay Tube Market File:BSicon ulHSTl.svg File:BSicon ulHSTr.svg  F  Market Street Subway Folsom I-80 (Bay Bridge) Brannan 2nd & King AT&T Park Central Subway (2018) 4th & King

The E Embarcadero is a light rail line that is the San Francisco Municipal Railway's second heritage streetcar line in San Francisco, California. Trial service first ran during the Sunday Streets events on The Embarcadero in 2008. The line runs weekends only, but is proposed to expand to week-long service in 2016.

Route

The line runs along the length of the Embarcadero, along pre-existing track used by the F Market & Wharves historic streetcar and the N Judah and T Third Street Muni Metro lines. Service runs from Jones Street and Jefferson Street in Fisherman's Wharf to the Caltrain station at King Street and 4th Street in the Mission Bay neighborhood, but 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.

To the north, the line may extend west past Aquatic Park and through an unused railroad tunnel to Fort Mason. The initial routing of the line will is nearly identical to the 32 Embarcadero bus line, which was discontinued after the F Market & Wharves line began operating along the Embarcadero in 2000.

Stations

Though the right-of-way will be shared with the two Muni Metro lines on the South of Market segment, the stations themselves will not be shared with Muni Metro because historic cars cannot access elevated median boarding platforms. 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.

History

Muni's original E streetcar line was the E Union line, running north from the Ferry Building via The Embarcadero to Washington/Jackson streets, where it turned west to eventually reach the Presidio. This line was discontinued in 1947.

Proposals for historic streetcar service along The Embarcadero were first put forward in 1974, and the first mention of separate E Embarcadero and F Market lines was in 1981.

Light rail service on the section of The Embarcadero south of Folsom Street and on King Street to the Caltrain Depot began on January 10, 1998, using a Muni Metro shuttle line between Embarcadero Station and the Caltrain station. 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 Fisherman's Wharf. That extension and the 1998 light rail extension to the Caltrain Depot make up almost the entirety of the proposed E line route, and they are connected by currently unused tracks on The Embarcadero between Don Chee Way and Folsom Street. The new E Embarcadero line operated on a temporary basis during the 2013 America's Cup racing. On March 28, 2014, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) officially approved plans for weekend-only service of the E Embarcadero heritage streetcar line starting in summer 2015, with service seven days a week planned to begin in 2016. Weekend operation began on August 1, 2015.

This line will also benefit from the National Park Service's planned extension of the Embarcadero streetcar through the existing Fort Mason Tunnel and into Fort Mason Center, serving Fort Mason Center and the Marina district, identified by the NPS as areas with "inadequate regional transit access" and "limited transportation options for transit-dependent residents," and providing those areas with a rail connection to regional transportation networks via the Market Street Subway and 4th and King Caltrain Station.

External links

• Official website
• Market Street Railway website
• San Francisco Railway Museum
• Streetcar Fleet Status
• Fort Mason Center website