SFMTA – Powell & Market Cable Car Kiosk

Today I went to SFMTA for my annual street parking permit. What it requires are my car info, my name, my address, and proof of insurance. So I brought my drive ID, my 2016 registration letter, and proof of insurance. However, the proof of insurance doesn’t have my address on it, but all the info else. Then an Indian lady said it won’t get approved because the proof of insurance has no address. I tried my best to explain that the car has a vin number, it’s under my name, and the info on the annual registration letter has all the same info to confirm. So does my drive ID. And the vin number means the car is unique in the world, it’s matched on registration letter and proof on insurance, so why doesn’t that matter? But the lady just simply repeated there’s no address on proof on insurance. I really doubt that the skill of understanding of this lady is suitable to work as customer service, since she could not even understand by both letter and oral explanations. It took me close to an hour to explain to 3 people and finally got my sticker. It’s really wasting time and make the work inefficiently !!

My 8 year old was insistent about riding the cable cars on our trip to San Francisco. I couldn’t deny his request. We waited about 20 minutes for the first trip and got off at the end of the line, Fishermans Wharf. The locals who hoped on and off were really nice. The scenery was beautiful. we all enjoyed the ride. We weren’t expecting to visit Fishermans Wharf till the next day so it was a pleasant surprise. The driver let us know that Ghirardelli was still open and a must stop. after a few stops and some great pics, we headed back to the cable car. We waited around 40 minutes for the return trip. My kids were irritable but we survived. The driver made the trip back fun so in the end, the wait didn’t matter. Our kids loved it.

The beginning of the Cable Car pickup to the City, goes through Union Square, passes all the main streets, including the California Street, Jefferson Street main stops for the crooked driving people. Pictures everywhere, scenic, fun, one of the best $ 12.00 round trip investment you will make in your lifetime, to say you rode the SF Cable Car which is a historic mark and active museum that you have the honor, and privaledge to actually be a part of. Document the day, time, and take pictures, the drivers are awesome! The stops breathetaking. This is #1 San Francisco anything. These cable cars are on the cover or Rice-​A-​Roni, Sourdough Bread, and traditional San Francisco everything. This is what touring is all about in the City. You must and have to take the Cable Car.

What a miserable way to spend a vacation. You stand in line forever, and then sit/​stand on a slowly moving cable car for another hour. The modern electric trolleys were quite practical outside of the historic cable cars, but this is a waste of time. You are better off walking the path of the trolley line.

My wife wanted the kids to expirience the cable cars for the first time. Even though there was a constant row of 4 – 5 empty cars they only loaded 1 car every 30 minutes or more! One local resident commented that the reason was because no one was minding the store. While a small minority of workers wanted to keep things moving, the majority seemed to haze them. I left the family at one point and walked up the row of empty cars. The workers were sleeping on some of them. Might be part of the job description. If the system is too old to handle the load… update it. Being a San Francisco icon it should be a priority to make it a pleasant experience. They should at least place restrooms at the turn around stations. Come on SF your better than this.

Like other Unilocalers have said the wait is like a century long. If you’re into people watching surrounded by foreigners, this is your spot.
As my group waited about an hour and 20, we finally got on, but did one of those **slaps self on forehead in stupidity** and realized the first stop around the corner they pick up folks that didn’t have to wait in line.
Yes you don’t get a seat, but you’re suppose to stand, hang off the side, and smile anyway like the movies!

I guess people had more time in 1902 to take a cable car places. Great way to see the city but get in line and wait for an inside seat. And bring an umbrella cause it rains. Often.
I am curious about cable car related decapitations.

It May Not Be Too Practical Now, But It Sure Is Fun And A Vision Of Our Future Selves We Should Have Pursued Ardently More Than 100 Years Ago.
SITREP
I love cable cars. They are fun. Great to ride. Great to catch on Powell Street. And great to ride up the hills of San Francisco. For me, it’s a time-​trip up & down memory lane.
It’s sad that this costs $ 6 as a single-​rate trip, rather than as a free community-​sponsored endeavor to convince people of the benefits of mass transit.
Both Muni and BART our outgrowths of these modest cable car-​beginnings. But in addition, it’s critical to drive home to the citizenry with these tangible object-​lessons when comparing the vast amounts of money that were poured into fossil fuels and cars, and how little that accomplished for the community good by comparison.
SAD SAD HISTORY
As such, cable cars on this line remain a vestige of a bygone era when we, as a society, were on the «right track» (har har, I love puns) to creating a transportation infrastructure that was both useful and did not have a huge carbon footprint such as the one created by cars & gad that are imperiling our lives today.
However, the very tragic greedy collusion of oil magnates, coal barons, and car company overlords at the turn of the 19^th to 20^th centuries, ensured that for at least for a full century (and until well into another century) that fossil fuels, such as gas and coal, would continue to drive our cars and trains. And not only was it greedy, but it has damaged our planet.
If we had remained an enlightened American society — instead of a greedy capitalist one — we would not be facing be the level of global warming we are today. And perhaps we would not have implicitly set a bar for industrialization that the Chinese and Indian sub-​continent feel the need to duplicate now, furthering endangering our planet.
MORE THAN A TOY OR TOURIST TRAP
So when I see the beloved cable cars today, I think a lot of «what if?». What if the cable car had led to the earlier development a bullet trains? What if the cable car tracking mechanisms had been advanced faster, from chains, cables and tracks, to high-​speed levitation? What if the trains of some future Sci-​Fi dream were in fact the trains of NOW, a hundred years earlier, because we had actually engineered them to be?
THE LOWDOWN
If not for a greedy hiccup in time, this would have been the path we would have firmly remained upon.

Just got back from a vacation in San Francisco and we could not have been happier with the transportation system there. I had researched how we would get around prior to going because we did not want to drive from Southern California due to the length of time we had and because of the cost to park your car per night at hotels. We decided to get the 7-​day pass for $ 28/​per ticket. We rode the «F» line daily and several times a day at that. We also took the cable cars several times which if paid for separately are $ 6/​ride. I would say if you are thinking about driving… don’t you not only will safe yourself money but you can and will meet all those that make San Francisco the place you hear so much about. You can take everything but BART with this pass.

Efficient enough — they will get you your tickets if asked. Otherwise, they seem more interested in resuming their personal conversations she the transactions is complete.

This is the end of the line, so to speak. Buy a ticket (a multi-​day pass is good, as individual rides are rapaciously priced at $ 6 a pop) from the nearby ticket booth adjacent to the entrance to the BART/​Muni station and line up with the rest of the tourists to board the only mobile national monument in the USA — San Francisco’s famed cable cars.
From your vantage point in line, observe firsthand the turning of the cable cars on the turntable, and then jump aboard for a ride up San Francisco’s perilously steep streets. Ignore the snotty cable car attendant who gets in the way, and then rebukes you for slipping past him to your seat — this is the big city, and it’s just part of the experience. Make like a local and debark and embark right in the middle of the street; don’t worry, the cars really won’t run you over. Stop and peek through the slit in the street to see the moving cable, and marvel that after over 100 years, the system is still running.
If you have time, visit the free municipal cable car museum, where you can learn all about the history of the whole system.

Beautiful sunny SF day, excitement in the line of 10 or so waiting to buy cable car tickets. Lots of foreign accents joking in the breeze– laughing and anticipating the fun ahead. But the line, now 17 long, hasn’t moved forward at all. The ticket guy, and a customer at the head of the line are arguing about something. I’m hoping I’ll get to the front in time to buy tickets before my family boards the car without me (their line is moving at a normal pace.)
Finally, whoo hoo, it’s my turn:
Me (handing over credit card): I’d like a round trip for two adults and a senior.
Him: Don’t you have cash?
Me (looking at the card reader next to his hand): No
Him (runs my card and hands over 4 adult tickets): Here
Me: Uhm, sir, I need tickets for 2 adults and a senior.
Him (reruns my card, and passes me 2 more adult tickets): Here
Me: Uhm, I thought there were discounted senior tickets?
Him: Take it or leave it.
Now the line is about 35 deep. I decide not to comment and walk away. But, I’m fuming about the extra 8 bucks I just paid. This guy is helping foreign tourists to believe that the US is full of scammers, and that SF is a corrupt city. At least my non-​American family members were not a witness to this shady transaction.
By contrast, the cable car jockeys were friendly, charming and upbeat– just the kind of
people who make this city delightful. In the end we had a great day.

It seems like a rite of passage for visiting San Francisco is the wait in the line to get a Muni pass.
As you don’t need a car in downtown SF (parking is upwards of $ 60 per day) going by rail, cable car, and bus is the way to go.
While waiting in this line it was amateur open mike hour in Union Square.
Nothing like seeing a plastered homeless white guy singing «Sexual Healing» with a karaōke machine to get your juices flowing.
7 day pass= 28 bucks.
Unlimited cable car, street car, and bus rides for a week… priceless!

We were here back in October. We had never ridden a cable car before on all our past trips to San Francisco so we were very excited to experience it! We almost changed our mind because of the awful customer service by the guy at the ticket booth. The dude was RUDE!!! Maybe he was having a bad day, but he shouldn’t be mad at us because of it.
Thankfully, the cable car ride was so much fun! Next time, we’ll make sure to buy our tickets somewhere else.

I’m a bit bitter that i waited in this line to purchase cable car tickets only to later find out that you can purchase them on the ride itself anyway. What’s the point then?
Location:
It’s right near the turn-​around for the Powell & Hyde Cable Car that leads directly to Fisherman’s Wharf from Powell Street. If you get in the long queue for the cable car though, you won’t be able to see it because it’s around the corner. If you don’t want to purchase tickets in cash on the cable car or you only have a credit card, I suggest having someone save your spot in line while you head over and buy tickets. The queue isn’t usually that long.
Customer Service:
The employees were quite friendly and efficient. The queue was small, but they moved it quickly and also provided me with a map of Fisherman’s Wharf.
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Overall, Powell & Hyde Cable Car Ticket Booth isn’t bad. It looks pretty cool as well. However, since you can purchase tickets on the car itself it seems a bit redundant.

This is a newer booth that is like a large aluminum looking box. Their credit card terminal was not working but ironically there was a Bank of America ATM like 30 feet behind it where tons of tourists were withdrawing cash thus making a ton of fees for a giant greedy bank.

I bought tickets from the booth, but I only learned later you can purchase on the cable car itself. Clean, fast, takes credit cards, in a modern looking ticket booth.

I don’t really understand how Muni does its budgeting. I realize that certain projects are funded by particular federal grants and that it makes no sense to stop work on them because there is a risk of losing the funding altogether, but I also know that it’s sometimes better to cut one’s losses than to keep throwing money away. So if there’s such a budget shortfall at SFMTA, how do they have enough money to continue to install the new, expensive, and useless bus shelters – the ones that don’t protect you from the rain? And how is spending a billion dollars on a subway that will go exactly 1.4 miles rational? (Actually, even if they had an extra $ 1,000,000,000 lying around, I can think of much better uses for it than to run a subway to Chinatown.)
I’m asking all of this because Muni has recently spent all this money to construct new vending kiosks. The one on Geary makes some sense, as it was strange and somewhat confusing to have to enter that building and find the right floor and window (although it was really fun). But at the foot of Powell Street? Right behind the little kiosk that’s still there? I’m sorry, Muni, but until you remove the old one, I’ll question this new one’s usefulness.
It’s much bigger than the old one, and the person working inside seemed much more relaxed than the harried, tired workers I always dealt with at the old one, back when I bought a Fast Pass every month. (Clipper is so much simpler, but I do miss the virtual roulette of where to buy my pass.) So if the workers are happier, maybe it’s a good thing. But I’m still kind of angry about the fact that they moved it from right in front of the escalators to around the corner from them.
But the hours are longer. And if they needed to construct a new kiosk to lengthen the hours, I guess that’s a good tradeoff.

safest bet to purchase cable car tickets/​visitor passports from because this place will always be stocked. walgreens might run out, so you might as well just try it here first.
was here to purchase a 3 day passport (unlimited ride on muni and cable car) on a monday and there were no one in line :) i can imagine this place being complete chaos when the tourists pour in on the wkends though. so good luck.
and yes, you can just pay the conductor cash when you get on the cable car. you’re not required to get a ticket. getting a cable car ticket is not standard procedure. just pay as you go with cash.

Fantastic! These folks keep a line moving while being informative. I like coming here to buy my monthly SFMTA pass because my bank is right there to get cash & while waiting in line there is entertainment, the cable car line, the bustling city life, the BART, and the true city feel! Anyways, here is some vital information!
Powell & Market Cable Car Kiosk
Location: Powell & Market Cable Car Turnaround.
Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Days: Monday through Sunday.
Sales Period:
Last five business days of prior month.
Throughout month for which pass is valid.
As of ⁰¹⁄₂₀₁₀ prices have gone up!
* $ 70 = Adult Fast Pass with Muni & Bart within the city
* $ 60 = Muni-​Only Fast Pass
* $ 13 = 1 Day Passport
* $ 20 = 3 Day Passport
* $ 26 = 7 Day Passport
Anyways happy new Year, I hope this was helpful information for everyone.