Cable Car Turnaround Powell St. — Attraction in San Francisco

There are three different cable car lines that operate in San Francisco, The Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde, and California Street lines. Following is a brief description of the routes of each line and their inbound destinations.

The Powell-Hyde & Powell-Mason Lines

Two of San Francisco’s three cable car lines connect downtown with Fisherman’s Wharf. The Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde lines begin their inbound runs at the most-photographed cable car turntable, where Powell meets Market Street.

Both Powell Street lines (Powell-Mason cars carry yellow destination signs, Powell-Hyde cars maroon) share the tracks on Powell Street, past Union Square and up Nob Hill, where they cross the California Street cable car line. When you’re on an inbound Powell car, watch the gripman as you approach California Street. Because the California Street cable crosses above the Powell cable, the Powell cable must be dropped lest it slice the California cable in half, and the cable car must coast across the intersection. The cable car gripman must “drop the rope” precisely as the Powell car crests the hill, or the car will lose its momentum and slide backwards to Pine Street. It’s probably the trickiest maneuver a grip has to execute on the system. Once California Street has been crossed, gravity takes over and the Powell cars coast downhill, off the cable, for three and a half blocks until the tracks split between Washington and Jackson Streets. There, cars on each respective line pick up a separate cable to continue their trips to different parts of Fisherman’s Wharf. This is also a good place to get off to explore Chinatown by walking downhill to Stockton Street and Grant Avenue.

Powell-Mason Line

Powell-Mason cars continue one block up Jackson, then lurch right onto Mason Street (the Cable Car Museum is a block away, at Mason & Washington), which they follow along the eastern shoulder of Russian Hill into North Beach (get off at Union Street to enter the heart of North Beach at Washington Square). After a short jaunt down Columbus Avenue—the diagonal ‘main drag’ of North Beach—the Powell-Mason cars swing onto Taylor Street to their final destination at the Bay & Taylor turntable. Since opening in 1888, the Powell-Mason line has run the exact same route with the same type of equipment and propulsion—that’s longer than any other transit line in the world. When the line opened, Bay Street was, well…where the bay began. But subsequent landfill means you have to get off and walk three blocks farther on Taylor to reach Restaurant Row, at the heart of Fisherman’s Wharf, where the fishing fleet is docked along Jefferson Street. (On the way, you’ll cross the rails of the historic F-line streetcars that run back toward downtown along Beach Street to The Embarcadero). This is also the cable car line which brings you...

This is the starting point for the Powell - Hyde and Powell - Mason cable car rides that take you up to Fisherman's Wharf at the northern end of the bay area. The cars run quite frequently, but as mentioned by many other reviewers, I too agree that the wait to get on one can be a bit frustrating as so many people are waiting in the snaking queue that sometimes doesn't budge for several minutes.

Having said that, it also depends on what time of the day and what day of the week you get there to join the queue (after 10am on any day and weekends can be pretty busy with long waiting times). I used the facility twice. When I went on my own on a Monday morning at around 0930 hrs, there was a huge queue already built-up there. It took me a good 25 minutes to actually get on a cable car. Another issue is that the holding capacity of each car is limited although they allow people to stand on the sides (as long as they hold on to the railings firmly). This further increases the waiting time.

On the second occasion, I went with my wife on a friday morning at 0845: there was hardly anyone around! We went straight to the front of the (non-existent) "queue" and boarded the cable car within a minute or so. It wasn't even full when it left. That came as a bit of a surprise.

The approach and turning of the cars is fun to watch: everyone captured their own videos of this unique process. The staff will check your tickets before the journey begins. It's probably better to board from an intermediate point to avoid waiting in the queue, but you may not get a seat.

The journey lasts only about 15 - 20 mins, but it's great fun. It's definitely worth the wait. It's interesting to see the cars being pulled up along the steep roads. It would be hard work walking that route!

I think $8 is a bit too much for a one-way ticket, but considering that it's a unique mode of transportation, it's OK to pay that. Highly recommended for first-time...

If I could give no stars, I would. I've never been so embarrassed in my life. We got the cable car from Fisherman's Wharf earlier today. Bought a single trip as we didn't expect to get it back. The trip to union Square terminus was great, and the driver and conductor was entertaining and fun... Later, we decided to get it back to Fisherman's wharf. At union terminus, the woman there said we could buy the tickets on the car and that cash was accepted. A the car the conductor asked for tickets and asked to buy two singles to the terminus like a couple of other people did. We were told he had no change and to use the app. He told me the app was the only way to get a ticket. I was having issues with my Internet and there was no WiFi. There was another couple frantically trying to download the app. The conductor was still waiting for them to do so as we were told to get off the car... We got off embarrased and not wanting to make a scene, so I am not sure if the others got it downloaded.. Totally mixed policy about paying which left a sour note to 2 irish people on a very joyous St Patrick's day...There needs to be a clear policy rolled out to ALL staff on how customers can pay for tickets. Not acceptable that customers be made to feel...