Who Wants to Charter a Historic Streetcar This Year?

If you’ve never been on a “charter” ride on Muni’s network of rails, you’re really missing out on a fun afternoon. Last year I had the opportunity to participate in a ride via Market Street Railway celebrating Muni’s 100th Anniversary, and we managed to tour the entire network (minus the T-Third Line, the subway, and the N-Judah line). Even with those omissions, it was fun, especially when our vintage car would stop, and people would ask what we were doing and take photos of our ride.
There’s been discussion that said charter rides could be returning to the N-Judah line this year, and word is that some testing will be done once again late at night to ensure that almost all of the cars can go through (Right now there’s only a few that can’t make the turn at Arguello by UCSF because they are too wide). This could include…the Blackpool “Boat Tram.”
At a meeting earlier this year I had with Ed Reiskin, the SFMTA’s CEO, I told him that the moment they “legalize” the boat tram, I’d be down at cash-strapped Muni with a big bag of cash with a dollar sign on it, and sign up for one. I’m serious, and now I would like to gauge if there’s interest in such a charter ride. Also, it’s not unprecdented to do such a ride – after all there’s photos online of people taking the “boat tram” through the Sunset Tunnel and Cole Valley, so technically it’s already happened, right?
Setting up one of these is not that difficult – Market Street Railway posted info on how to do so recently (the charters are handled directly by Muni). Personally I think a ride from the Ferry Building to Ocean Beach would be a lot of fun, especially if the weather cooperates.
Lead time is a minimum of 2 months, and I’ll need to do some figuring on costs, since while I’m happy to pony up the cash up front, I’m no Rob Conway so I can’t afford to pay for everyone to ride for free. For now, I’d be interested in hearing from readers if a) they’d consider riding said charter and b) any suggestions to the route we might take, in the comments section below. AND, if anyone would be interested in helping sponsor said ride, please send me an email and let me know what you think.
This could be a really fun event, and if nothing else, I’ll bring the boom box for the music!