21 Hayes

21 Hayes was a trolleybus line operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni). It connected the Civic Center to the neighborhoods northeast of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. On June 21, 2025, the 21 Hayes merged with the 6 Haight/Parnassus.

21 Hayes
21 trolleybus at Ferry Plaza, July 2019
Overview
System	Muni trolleybus network
Operator	San Francisco Municipal Railway
Vehicle	New Flyer XT40 New Flyer XDE40
Began service	1860 (1860) (horsecar) 1906 (1906) (electric streetcar)
Ended service	June 20, 2025 (2025-06-20)
Route
Locale	San Francisco, California
Start	Fulton and Stanyan Fulton and 8th Avenue (nights and weekends)
Via	Hayes Street
End	Hyde and Grove
Length	3.2 mi (5.1 km)
Service
Level	Daily
Daily ridership	6,600 (2019)[1]
Map	21 Hayes Map
Route map ← 19 Polk  List of San Francisco Municipal Railway lines  22 Fillmore →

History

Horsecar service was established on Hayes Street in 1860 by Thomas Hayes.^[2] By the time the Market Street Railway was incorporated in 1883, the Hayes line had been rebuilt to run cable cars and terminated at the Ferry Building.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake crippled the line.^[2] Though it was back in operation as an electrified streetcar less than two months after the disaster, the steep grade between Pierce and Scott was unsuitable for electric traction.^[2] United Railroads (successor to the Market Street Railway) compensated for this by establishing two new routes; the new "Hayes and Ellis" line ran from Ellis and Market outbound on Ellis, Divisadero, Hayes, and Stanyan to terminate at Fulton.^[2] This line was assigned the number 21 in 1911.^[2] A cutting to ease the grade between Pierce and Scott was cleared in 1914,^[3] allowing through-running the whole length of Hayes.^[2] In the 1930s, the line was extended west and north to terminate at 8th and Clement in the Inner Richmond.^[2][4] Streetcar service ended on June 5, 1948 and the line was converted to trolleybus operations the following year.^[3][5]

Service was discontinued in March 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The line returned to operation in July 2022, though with motor coaches and the inbound terminal truncated to Market Street.^[2][6] Due to a budget crisis as part of the Summer 2025 Muni Service Cuts, the 6 Haight/Parnassus and 21 were merged together on June 21, 2025.^[7]