CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Old Street Cars May Replace New Fleet

The city’s troublesome light-rail vehicles may be replaced by a 40-year-old fleet of street cars that has been off the rails since 1980, transit officials said. The 130-car light-rail fleet that succeeded the aging street cars has been plagued lately by flat wheels. The actual number of available vehicles in the past month has fallen as low as 78, according to Municipal Railway officials. “They’re the most complicated LRVs (light-rail vehicles) ever built,” said Johnny Stein, Muni acting general manager. “There is only one other transit system in the world that bought them--Boston--and they’ve scrapped theirs already.” San Francisco officials hope to do the same by 1998. It will be expensive to maintain the current fleet, even for eight more years. Daily maintenance costs $3.42 per mile, compared with 39 cents per mile per car for the San Diego Trolley, officials said.