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[CNJRoss]

Railway Age, 9/15/21

 

Mishap Mars Return of Iconic Muni Cable Cars

San Francisco's unique and historic cable cars on Sept. 4 returned to the streets of the City by the Bay, but an incident at their barn shut them down six days later.

 

Their original purpose was to provide transportation to San Franciscans and visitors to the city, which they have done for 148 years. Today, they provide a transit experience that is available nowhere else in the world, when they run, but riders will have to wait another week or two before re-boarding.

 

After a shutdown of nearly 18 months due to the COVID-19 virus, the cars made their official comeback on Sept. 4, beginning on the Powell-Hyde line. Service was also restored on the other two lines, but it abruptly came to a halt on Sept. 9. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (Muni) on Sept. 13 explained why: “Last Thursday at approximately 1:30 p.m., the fire suppression system in the electrical room at the Cable Car Barn at Mason and Washington streets discharged. This caused the electrical room to fill with fire retardant material resembling smoke, which prompted a response from SFFD [San Francisco Fire Department] as a safety precaution. Upon the discharge of the fire suppression system, other automated safety systems were activated resulting in a loss of electrical power to the entire facility, including the propulsion system for the cable cars.”

 

The suppression system discharge, Muni said, “was due to the failure of an aged release valve which has been in service since the last cable car renovation in the 1980’s. Regular inspections by outside fire safety experts of the fire suppression system have not shown any signs of defect, but the system is almost four decades old and is not considered current best practice. The wider loss of electric power at the facility was the outcome of the systems shutting down safely.” The agency went on to explain that “A 305-pound canister of the fire suppression system’s halon material will need to be assembled over the next week, and then delivered by truck from Ohio, followed by installation and testing.”

 

Continue here.

 

Cross-posted in 'Rail Transit' and 'San Francisco Muni & Coronavirus'

[KevinKorell]

Mass Transit magazine, 10/5/21:

 

 

    SFMTA’s J Church Pilot eases subway congestion for Muni Metro    

 

 

 

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (SFMTA) J Church returned in December 2020 as a surface-only route, much like its earliest predecessor, which opened in 1917.   

 

Full story

 

Cross posted in Coronavirus and regular forums.

[KevinKorell]

San Francisco, CA Examiner, 12/8/21:

 

 

   San Francisco’s J Church train to resume downtown subway service    

 

Just like that, the J Church train is going back underground.

 

The Muni line, which historically connected the Outer Mission and Noe Valley to the Financial District, has been truncated for much of the pandemic, terminating at Market and Church Streets rather than entering The City’s downtown subway system.

 

Update

 

Cross posted in Coronavirus and regular forums.

[KevinKorell]

SFist, 2/15/22:
 

    J Trains Return to Downtown Tunnels as Muni Slowly Comes Back to Life   

 
 
 
After two years of mostly abbreviated service, SF Muni lines are nearly all back and up and running at near pre-pandemic levels. And this weekend marks the return of Sunday night service until midnight, and the return of continuous J-Church service to Embarcadero.

 
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