SF’s Muni Heritage Weekend 2025: Free Rides on Vintage Buses + Streetcars (Sept 20-21)

Our signature annual event is back! Join us for Muni Heritage Weekend 2025 on Saturday, September 20 and Sunday, September 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Celebrate San Francisco’s rich transit history and Transit Month with a two-day experience.

What to Expect:
Step aboard unique vintage transit vehicles rarely seen on the modern streets of San Francisco. The festivities will unfold near the San Francisco Railway Museum, conveniently located near the Ferry Building and Embarcadero Plaza. All vintage buses and special excursion streetcars depart for round trip rides from the plaza directly across from the museum.

You’ll be able to ride — FREE — one of Muni’s beloved 1934 Blackpool Boat Trams, along with Muni’s irreplaceable Car 1, (America’s first publicly-owned streetcar, from 1912), the delightful single truck “Dinky” streetcar from 1896, international trams and, we hope, a surprise or two.

Beyond riding streetcars your great-grandparents might have ridden, you can ride a cable car even more venerable: “Big 19”, that started its life on Market Street in 1883! It’ll be running on the California Street cable car line, just a block from our museum.

While you’re there, be sure to check out the great new plaza with its I  SF sculpture and cable car history panels (which we helped put together). The last surviving cable car in the livery of the disappeared O’Farrell, Jones & Hyde line will be out on California Street as well.

At our museum, we’ll have our biggest sale of transit/railroad books and memorabilia ever along with great new merchandise AND our 2026 calendar, fresh off the presses. Get your holiday shopping for friends, family, and yourself (!) done early.

In the plaza next to our museum, lots of activities for kids and families, plus even more shopping choices. Muni will have a pop-up version of its own online store. Other transit history and support groups will have booths with information and displays. Besides learning about history, you can learn about the threats posed by prospective Muni budget cuts to the F-line and perhaps even the cable cars, and how you can help keep them on track and overall Muni service strong.

And after you’ve enjoyed touring that bus, you can ride a similar one — a 1990 Orion 30-foot model, FREE, along the southern Embarcadero to the Giants’ ballpark and Caltrain Depot, and back as well. If that’s too new for you, try the 87-year old little bus that ran up to Coit Tower for almost 40 years. Or the bus Muni bought in 1947 to replace the Powell cable cars (oops). Or the absolute classic Mack bus from the 1950s, and other vintage motor coaches to ride or admire (including the all-time “Leave the Driving to Us” bus.

More buses? Yep. You can take a free ride on vintage Muni trolley coaches from 1950 or 1975 up to Washington Square in North Beach.

All buses and special vintage streetcars are free. Regular F-line streetcars and cable cars will charge their regular fares.