From the piece " For now, please forward this email to friends and associates who you know love the streetcars and cable cars, and urge them to support us."
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YOUR support needed more than ever in 2025
The F-line faces an existential threat from Muni’s upcoming budget crunch. We need your help for an intense campaign to save the vintage streetcars. Tom Pagel’s photo symbolizes the storm our streetcars face.
Biggest-ever threat to City’s vintage streetcars
As our members who receive our quarterly magazine Inside Track already know, the leadership of Muni’s parent, SFMTA, presented scenarios on November 13 for cuts in Muni service that could occur as soon as this coming summer. They say they need hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenues by July 2026 to avoid catastrophic cuts in Muni routes and service levels. Two such cuts listed as possibilities: “suspend all vintage rail service” — both cable cars and F-line historic streetcars.
The public blowback regarding the cable cars was immediate and forceful. An email we sent on the very day of the announcement to leaders of the visitor community galvanized action. A strongly worded letter from many groups, including us, went to Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie supporting both the cable cars and F-line streetcars. Mayor-elect Lurie quickly posted on social media that as far as he’s concerned, “the cable cars are here to stay”. And since their operation is protected under San Francisco’s City Charter, it would appear a vote of the people would be required to discontinue them, absent something like another pandemic (God forbid!).
But the F-line’s fate is still hanging. Supporters of the streetcars must come together to defend them. We will lead that effort, and are formulating a month-by-month plan now to defend the F. But we need more resources to make our case. Please become a member, renew, or make a year-end tax-deductible donation here.
We’ll keep you updated on our progress, with specific recommendations of things you can do as the situation unfolds. For now, please forward this email to friends and associates who you know love the streetcars and cable cars, and urge them to support us.
Help the F-line survive and thrive
Greg