San Francisco’s historic cable cars are back
with a bang. The iconic ride will be plying for free for the entire month of
August starting from Monday.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation
Agency(SFMTA) is testing cable car service after it was suspended last year
because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

San Francisco mayor London Breed had a message
for the riders of cable cars on Monday. She was joined by the city officials at
the cable car turnaround at Powell and Market Streets.

“These operators that are with me today
would normally be testing the equipment, making sure things are running
smoothly, making sure that they are safe and making sure that the public is
safe. So please, listen to your operators, be patient, be understanding,”  Mayor Breed was quoted as saying by ABC News.

The full service of the cable cars is expected
to be back in the city early next month.

The San Francisco cable car system is the
world’s last manually operated cable car system. An icon of San Francisco, the
cable car system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated
by the San Francisco Municipal Railway. Of the 23 lines established between
1873 and 1890,only three remain (one of which combines parts of two earlier
lines): two routes from downtown near Union Square to Fisherman’s Wharf, and a
third route along California Street.

The cable cars are separate from San
Francisco’s heritage streetcars, which operate on Market Street and the
Embarcadero, as well as from the more modern Muni Metro light rail system.