San Francisco Municipal Railway fleet

The San Francisco Municipal Railway, or Muni as it is commonly known, runs one of the most diverse fleets of vehicles in the United States. Roughly 1,000 buses, 200 streetcars, and 40 cable cars see active duty. A summary of the current and historic vehicles follows below.

Current Operating Fleet

Type	Manufacturer	Ordered	Number of vehicles (Current)
40ft. Diesel Bus	North American Bus Industries	1999	45
	Neoplan USA	2000-2003	206
30ft. Diesel Bus	Orion Bus Industries	1990	5
40ft. Diesel-Electric Hybrid Bus	Orion Bus Industries	2007	56
30ft. Diesel-Electric Hybrid Bus	Orion Bus Industries	2007	30
Articulated Diesel Bus	Neoplan USA	2002-2003	124
Trolleybus	ETI Skoda	1999-2003	240
Articulated Trolleybus	New Flyer Industries	1992-1994	60
	ETI Skoda	2003	33
Light-Rail Vehicle	Ansaldobreda, S.P.A.	1997-2003	151
Historic Streetcar	Various	1912-	41
Cable Car	Various	1873-	40
40ft. Double-decker Diesel bus	Alexander Dennis Limited	2007	1

Buses

Diesel buses

Muni's active diesel fleet contains vehicles from Neoplan (now defunct), NABI (the American arm of Ikarus), and Orion. There are a handful of Gillig Phantoms in reserve duty. All of the buses meet ADA standards. The most recent Orions, the Orion VIIs, are hybrid diesel-electric buses.

Muni also operates an articulated diesel fleet mostly comprised of Neoplans. Historically, Muni has run those types of buses from MAN and New Flyer, which were just retired earlier in 2007.

Electric Trolleybuses

While many cities have replaced their electric trolleybuses (ETB) with diesel powered vehicles, Muni continues to operate ETBs all across the city. In fact, Muni's ETB fleet is one of the largest in the nation. Initially the ETBs were met with resistance, as residents preferred the uncluttereed skylines that the streetcars provided. However, after the 1906 earthquake, ETBs were seen as a cheaper option than rebuilding the cable car infrastructure. Indeed, there are plans in the works to electrify existing diesel lines.

Muni's active ETB fleet consists of articulated coaches from New Flyer and ETI Skoda, as well as standard 40ft coaches from ETI Skoda. Historically, Muni has run ETBs from Flyer

Cable Cars

Around the turn of the century, there were numerous cable car lines providing service to many sections of the city. Currently only three lines and forty cars remain.

Streetcars

Contemporary light rail vehicles

The Muni Metro has run two types of light rail vehicles. Originally, Boeing-Vertol cars were used. However, these proved extremely troublesome and were phased out of service begining in 1997. The Boeing cars were replaced by Italian built Breda LRV2 and LRV3 models. Initally the Breda vehicles were hailed as more reliable and easier to service than their predecessors. However, deferred maintenance and design defects have taken their toll on Muni riders.

Historic streetcars

Historic streetcars are run on the F Market & Wharves line. Formally introduced in the 1990s, the F line started out as a replacement tourist attraction for the cable cars, while major cable car infrastructre maintenance took place. The F line is comprised mostly of PCC cars painted in livery from cities around the United States, as well as vintage Peter Witt cars from Milan. Streetcars from many other cities, including London round out the vintage fleet.