San Francisco cable cars returning after brief hiatus

A Cable Car sits idle during a citywide power outage on April 21, 2017 in San Francisco, California.
A Cable Car sits idle during a citywide power outage on April 21, 2017 in San Francisco, California. Photo credit Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The city’s famous cable cars are coming back Saturday after a power outage shut down service for nine days, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency announced Thursday evening.

All three lines had only been running full service for five days before a fire suppression system at the agency’s cable car barn discharged and triggered a power outage on Sept. 9.

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Before that, the cars had been out of service for the majority of the pandemic and SFMTA officials weren’t unsure whether they would return this year due to financial difficulties.

The agency allowed people to board the cars for free in August as operators tested the cable cars during mock service runs and the three cable lines began running full-service on Sept. 4.

The discharge of the fire suppression system that led to the power outage was "due to the failure of an aged release valve which has been in service since the last cable car renovation in the 1980’s," SFMTA wrote in a blog post earlier this week.

According to the agency, prior inspections of the fire suppression system did not show any defects but the system is almost 40 years and out of date.

The city’s cable cars have not been significantly renovated since the 1980s, and the agency projects it would cost $625 million to completely renovate the aging system.

"Thanks to our maintenance crews who found a workaround to reopen cable cars this Saturday while we wait for replacement parts," SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin said in a tweet Thursday night.

Featured Image Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images