It carries local commuters and tourists alike, linking residential, business and leisure oriented areas of the city.

All streetcar lines currently operating in the subway previously ran on the surface of Market Street, and were eventually diverted into the upper level of the tunnel.

[4] To provide a more regular alternative tourist attraction during this period, the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festivals began in 1983.

[5][4] These summertime operations of vintage streetcars on Market Street were a joint project of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Muni.

Different types of vintage streetcars were evaluated to provide the backbone of the F-line fleet, resulting in the decision to use the PCC car, due in part to its historic San Francisco transit use.

[citation needed] On September 1, 1995, the F line opened[6][7] with a parade of PCC cars, painted to represent some of the two dozen North American cities that this type of streetcar once served.

In the 1960s the elevated Embarcadero Freeway was built above, dividing the city from the bay, but was condemned and demolished after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

On March 4, 2000, service on the F line began operating along the new extension to Fisherman's Wharf,[10] replacing bus route 32.

[13] A month after the opening of the extension, Muni dedicated a car to Herb Caen, the noted columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle perhaps most famous for coining the phrase Baghdad by the Bay to describe The City.

[16][17] Additional weekend afternoon short turn service between Fisherman's Wharf and the Ferry Building, operated by buses rather than streetcars, was added effective June 10, 2023.

[19] The loop would allow increased service between Fisherman's Wharf and the Civic Center area, which is the section of the line with the highest ridership.

[20] In 2022, the city was forced to return a $15-million federal grant when it was revealed that they did not expect any construction of the loop to begin before the federally-mandated deadline of September 2025.

[21] Muni completed a technical feasibility study to extend the F-Line from the vicinity of the existing Jones Street terminal with the assistance of the National Park Service in December 2004.

An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the extension, again led by the National Park Service, commenced in May 2006,[22] resulting in: The final document classified areas west of the Fort Mason Tunnel as having "inadequate regional transit access...limited transportation options for transit-dependent residents...[and] infrastructure constraints impacting effectiveness and operations of Fort Mason Center."

The Final EIS named a double-tracked extension along Beach Street, a jog north to Aquatic Park, then across Van Ness Avenue to single-tracked service through a retrofitted Fort Mason Tunnel and to a terminus in the Fort Mason Center parking lot as the "preferred alternative".

[30] Many of the restored cars are painted in the color schemes of prominent past and present PCC streetcar operators, including Muni itself and other transit systems.

There are 11 of these cars, all built in 1928 to an Italian derivative of a common streetcar design that operated in many US cities, although never previously in San Francisco.