CA: These Muni trains hit S.F. streets when 'Friends' and Boyz II Men were hot. Now they're retiring

Muni rolled out its first Breda trains when Boyz II Men's "On Bended Knee" was the hottest song on the radio and "the Rachel" haircut was, unironically, in style.

The light rail trains, gray with winking signs on the front cab, and iconic worm logos on the side doors, were cutting-edge for their time. They arrived at San Francisco bus yards on Jan. 12, 1995, assembled partly in Italy but with final tinkering at Pier 80, a shipyard in Potrero Hill.

Now, these iconic trains are ready for retirement. Transit nerds and nostalgists can take one last ride in a Breda on Wednesday, Nov. 12, when the final vehicle returns to the J-Church line.

"We will miss the Bredas, and they will always be part of San Francisco's history," said Julie Kirschbaum, head of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. "They were there for a lot of firsts."

Launched into service in December 1996, the Bredas replaced a decaying fleet of first-generation Boeings that defined Muni Metro in the 1980s. By the end of their useful lives, these Boeings averaged about 2,000 miles before breaking down. Bredas were twice as capable, averaging 4,000 miles before any equipment malfunctioned and caused a delay. The new generation came in two models, LRV2 and LRV3 ("LRV" is an acronym for "light rail vehicle"), both surpassing their antecedents in technology and sophistication.

LRV3s, in particular, were notable for their third brake control unit and step extensions on the middle doors, allowing passengers to board more easily and efficiently at stops with no platforms.

Breda trains helped shape the city through multiple dot-com booms and the rise of new neighborhoods south of Market. They hauled tech workers to downtown office buildings, and powered the T line that began running along Third Street in 2007, carrying Giants fans to what's now Oracle Park.

But every train has an expiration date, a rule that even applies to metro rail vehicles with new gadgetry and European roots. In 2017, Muni began replacing the Bredas with new Siemens LRV4s, which have data-driven systems to detect maintenance issues before they happen. Engineers began tinkering with the design after a few early stumbles that included broken couplers, doors closing on people's hands and complaints about slippery seats.

They emerged with a bespoke model of public transportation: "scalloped" seats with bucket-shaped indentations for passengers' rear ends, couplers with higher-quality pins to link cars, sensors that bleep and blink when a person places a hand or pinky in the doorjamb.

At this point SFMTA has "conditionally accepted" 164 LRV4s for revenue service, with 55 more to be delivered and tested. SFMTA aims to add one more vehicle each week, so all 219 would hit streets by the end of next year. The entire project will cost $1.2 billion over a decade.

According to Kirschbaum, the LRV4s are three to four times more reliable than the Bredas, a quality her staff measures by dividing the total distance traveled by the number of mechanical failures.

Even so, Muni recently faced questions about the safety and performance of its light rail vehicles, following an incident last month in which an N-Judah train suddenly accelerated and barreled past a stop, causing one rider to fall and suffer a head injury.

Agency spokespeople said in a statement that their initial review found the train was "mechanically sound and operating as designed," though they would continue evaluating what happened.

Riders overall seem satisfied with Muni service, with 72% rating it "good" or "excellent" in customer surveys last year.

Anyone who wants to toast the Bredas can join a happy hour from 4 to 8 p.m. on Nov. 12 at Churchill Cocktail Bar on Church and Market streets.

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