page_title: US Standard Light Rail Vehicle
hierarchical_section_title: US Standard Light Rail Vehicle
caption_attribution_description: San Francisco Muni LRV (Light Rail Vehicle) 1243, built in 1979 by Boeing, is eastbound on Duboce Avenue at Church Street, on the N-Judah line, on March 24, 1980. As its rollsign shows, it was en route to Embarcadero Station, through the then-new "Muni Metro" light-rail subway, the portal to which (for routes J and N) is located just behind the photographer. At the time of the photo, the Muni Metro had opened for passenger service only five weeks earlier (on February 18, 1980), and the N-line was the only line using it (and using it on weekdays only). All four other streetcar/tram routes were still using PCC cars at all times and running on the surface of Market Street through downtown. Although the Muni Metro did not open until 1980, the Boeing LRVs had first run in service in April 1979, on a K-line shuttle service operating only on the outer portion of that line. The tracks in the foreground were for the J-Church line, and car 1243 was also crossing trolleybus wires for route 22-Fillmore.
context_page_description: The US Standard Light Rail Vehicle was a light rail vehicle built by Boeing Vertol in the 1970s. The Urban Mass Transportation Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation promoted it as a standardized vehicle for U.S. cities. Part of a series of defense conversion projects in the waning days of the Vietnam War, the SLRV was seen as both a replacement for older PCC streetcars in many cities and as a catalyst for cities to construct new light rail systems. The US SLRV was marketed as and is popularly known as the Boeing LRV or SLRV, and should not be confused with their prior lunar roving vehicles for NASA.
  The US SLRV was purchased by the public transportation operators of Boston and San Francisco; in service by 1976, the US SLRV proved to be unreliable and scrapping started as early as 1987, but the US SLRV were not completely replaced in both systems until 2007. Although the SLRV itself was not successful due to poor reliability, it did set the general size and configuration for succeeding LRVs in the United States.
context_section_description: The US Standard Light Rail Vehicle (US SLRV) was a light rail vehicle (LRV) built by Boeing Vertol in the 1970s. The Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) promoted it as a standardized vehicle for U.S. cities. Part of a series of defense conversion projects in the waning days of the Vietnam War, the SLRV was seen as both a replacement for older PCC streetcars in many cities and as a catalyst for cities to construct new light rail systems. The US SLRV was marketed as and is popularly known as the Boeing LRV or SLRV, and should not be confused with their prior lunar roving vehicles for NASA.
  The US SLRV was purchased by the public transportation operators of Boston and San Francisco; in service by 1976, the US SLRV proved to be unreliable and scrapping started as early as 1987, but the US SLRV were not completely replaced in both systems until 2007. Although the SLRV itself was not successful due to poor reliability, it did set the general size and configuration for succeeding LRVs in the United States.
caption: A Boeing Vertol US SLRV in service for the San Francisco Municipal Railway in 1980, on the then-newly opened Muni Metro
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