Muni’s R-Howard 80 Years On By Jeremy Menzies Eighty years ago on September 7, 1941, the San Francisco Municipal Railway launched its first all-electric bus route, the R Howard. Today the route no longer survives in its original form but the legacy of the R lives on in our electric trolley bus fleet and bus routes that serve the same area. Two Muni buses lay over at the “Bridge Terminal” at Beale and Howard Streets in this November 1941 photograph. At left is the 4 Embarcadero, which ran along the waterfront and the recently established R Howard trolley bus at right. The R traces its lineage back to the 35 Howard streetcar line, operated by the Market Street Railway Company. This line ran from the Ferry Building to 24th and Rhode Island Streets on Howard and South Van Ness. In 1939, when the company’s agreement to run the 35 expired, the city decided to establish the R Howard in its place. Electric trolley buses were chosen for the new service for their low cost of operation and to...
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