Market Street Railway (transit operator)

Market Street Railway
Market Street Railway brass logo.
Overview
LocaleSan Francisco, California
Dates of operation1857 (1857)–1944 (1944)
SuccessorSan Francisco Municipal Railway
Technical
Length284 miles (457 km) (in 1929)[1]

The Market Street Railway Company was a commercial streetcar and bus operator in San Francisco. The company was named after the famous Market Street of that city, which formed the core of its transportation network. Over the years, the company was also known as the Market Street Railroad Company, the Market Street Cable Railway Company and the United Railroads of San Francisco. Once the largest transit operator in the city, the company folded in 1944 and its assets and services were acquired by the city-owned San Francisco Municipal Railway. Many of the former routes continue to exist into the 2020s, but served by buses.

The company should not be mistaken for the current Market Street Railway, which is named after its predecessor but is actually a legally unconnected non-profit support group for San Francisco's heritage streetcar lines.

  1. ^ O'Shaughnessy, Michael (May 1929). Report on the street railway transportation requirements of San Francisco with special consideration to the unification of existing facilities (Report). City and County of San Francisco Department of Public Works. Retrieved October 30, 2018.