By Countess Honoria Lick-Wilmerding

SAN FRANCISCO - Taking a cue from the airline industry, San Francisco Municipal Railway officials have announced that Muni streetcar runs to and from the Sunset District will feature in-flight entertainment and beverage service. The move is believed to be a first for a municipal public transit agency in the U.S.

Muni officials said they hit upon the idea after analyzing the schedules of N-Judah and L-Taraval runs, which begin at the far western edge of the City and travel to the heart of downtown. Some Sunset commuters were spending an average of an hour each way on the streetcar on a routine commute, with usual and customary delays pushing "seat time," as Muni calls it, out to 90 minutes.

"That’s longer than it would take you to fly to Los Angeles, San Diego, or many other destinations on the West Coast," said Lucifer Belial, Muni’s director of passenger relations. "We simply realized there was something we had to do to keep these folks occupied during their commute."

Muni is hiring a staff of 200 new "rail attendants" to provide food and drink during N-Judah and L-Taraval runs. Each streetcar will feature a staff of four attendants, who will serve hot meals and complimentary soft drinks. Wine, beer, and cocktails will be available for a nominal charge of $3 apiece. Correct change will be appreciated, Belial said.

Muni is also retrofitting 25% of its Breda streetcar fleet with video monitors for the entertainment portion of the service. Muni officials nixed a plan to provide personal monitors at each seat due to the expense.

One of the disadvantages of the new plan is that the time involved in serving beverages will add some delay to streetcar runs -- up to 60 minutes each way for commuters from the far Outer Sunset. This means that seat times for some Sunset riders will be as long as 2½ hours for the seven-mile trip from the Great Highway to Embarcadero Station. But Belial sees a silver lining here.

"It simply means that we’ll be able to offer full-length movies to our customers, rather than just short subjects," he said. "We think our riders will appreciate that the extra time they’re spending with us is quality time."

Muni has already licensed rights to the full catalog of Ashley Judd movies for all eastbound N-Judah and L-Taraval routes. Westbound riders will be treated to nightly showings of "Nash Bridges" reruns as Muni works on licensing rights to the full cinematic catalog of Don Johnson feature films.

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