Photo by SFMTA Photography Department
SFMTA and SF Public Works received transportation sales tax funds to implement projects that will improve two of San Francisco’s most important assets: cable cars and trees.
Cable Car Restoration Project
Cable cars are one of the most iconic and unique symbols of San Francisco, and maintaining the fleet’s reliability, safety, and historical integrity for passengers and operators is vital.
This month, the Transportation Authority Board allocated $900,000 in transportation sales tax dollars to fund SFMTA’s comprehensive program to restore and refurbish four cable cars in San Francisco's historic cable car fleet.
The restoration project is focused on maintaining the functionality and extending the service life of each cable car in the fleet. Key components of the restoration include:
- Overhauling and rehabilitating full vehicles, mechanical systems, and bodywork
- Restoring and reinforcing car bodies
- Manufacturing replacement parts
- Paintwork to preserve the iconic appearance of the cars
This project will perform restoration work on four of the 42 cable cars in the fleet. Two cable cars at a time are rotated out of service for restoration, with each restoration taking approximately 24 months to complete. All four cars will return to service by December 2028.
Tree Planting and Establishment
Trees are integral to San Francisco’s ecosystem and provide several environmental, social, and safety benefits including reducing air pollution, managing stormwater, calming traffic, and providing a more pleasant pedestrian experience, to name a few.
The Transportation Authority Board is providing $1.1 million in transportation sales tax funds to support this SF Public Works project, expected to be completed by June 2026. SF Public Works is supplementing sales tax funds with $2 million in Capital Improvement Program funds and $3 million in federal Inflation Reduction Act funds toward tree planting for a total of up to 2,500 trees through June 2026.
The San Francisco Public Works Tree Planting and Establishment project will plant and establish approximately 407 street trees in Districts 9, 10, and 11. The districts were identified and prioritized based on tree census data, which highlights areas in the city with low canopy coverage and a heightened exposure to extreme heat and air pollution as a result; and based on equity indicators such as Equity Priority Communities and Environmental Justice Communities.
The project will help improve public health outcomes, enhance neighborhood livability, and promote a more equitable distribution of urban trees across southeast San Francisco communities.
San Francisco Public Works staff and community partners, including Friends of the Urban Forest and San Francisco Clean City Coalition, will maintain the trees through weekly watering over a three year period. After three years, the trees will receive lifetime maintenance care through the StreetTreeSF guaranteed funding program.