S.F. Streetcar Maven Mystified By Muni's Attempt to Charge $5 For F-Line

Deprived of state funds and pillaged by other city departments, it's not as if Muni is submitting draconian budget measures merely for the joy of driving riders from mass transit. But the proposed cable car-like fee for the F-Line seemed nasty -- and nonsensical. All along, Muni has been claiming the F-Line isn't merely a tourist conveyance, but a real and functioning line. So to suddenly act as if the F is simply an attractive device for separating money from out-of-towners is is contrary to what Muni was advocating even last month.

That's how Rick Laubscher sees it. The president of the Market Street Railway -- the organization that refurbishes and donates the F-Line's streetcars -- notes that the F-Line replaced not one but two bus lines: The 8 Market and 32 Embarcadero. "Those lines always functioned primarily for residents," Laubscher says. "The F-Line has drawn even more people -- and drawn them away from automobiles to boost the ridership."

So, for Muni to act as if the F-Line is simply San Francisco's version of the Disneyland monorail baffles Laubscher. Not only did Muni suggest commuters take the F-Line as recently as last month, when the Dec. 5 cuts eliminated the No. 12 bus, the statistics within the power point that will be presented today before the MTA Board assume that only 20 percent of the F-Line's ridership pays in cash.

"If 20 percent is their estimate of what the cash fares is, it seems to me they agree that there's an awful lot of residents riding on the line. So how can they justify more than doubling the fare for residents?" asked Laubscher. "The people in the Castro who ride it are residents. the Fisherman's Wharf Association told me several years ago they have 1,000 trips a day -- hundreds of wharf employees are using the F-Line to get to work. Let me put it this way: I don't think anybody seriously believes that the F-Line is the equivalent of cable cars. But that's what it appears Muni is trying to make it."

SF Weekly's calls to Muni were not returned for this story -- though, to be fair, it was the Martin Luther King holiday yesterday.

Laubscher also found it odd that, within its Power Point presentation, Muni claimed the F serves 18,500 riders a day. In the past, Muni had always quoted SF Weekly a number over 20,000 -- Laubscher recalls estimates exceeding 24,000. "We haven't seen the numbers going down," he notes. "Au contraire since they canceled the No. 12 bus last year. It's interesting that number just went down."

While Laubscher is this city's streetcar maven, he's shaking his head at plenty of the proposed revenue generators that'll be pitched today. Singling out the F-Line, he says, means that no rider can be assured his or her line won't be next. In fact, Muni is already hoping to charge more for "express buses" -- and you'd think that buses with fewer stops and quicker run-times would be more economically expedient for the agency, not less.

"I do not understand these proposals," says Laubscher with a wry laugh. "It almost seems as though if there's anything that is attractive they're doing that actually works they want you to pay more for it so you'll migrate to things that don't work."