A CLRV streetcar in Toronto. The TTC maintains the most extensive system in the Americas (in terms of total track length, number of cars, and ridership).

A Green Line "E" Branch streetcar entering the Huntington Avenue subway tunnel in Boston

PCC car in San Francisco

Electric streetcars, often called trams outside North America, once served transit needs in scores of North American cities. Most municipal systems were dismantled in the mid-20th century.

Today, only New Orleans and Toronto still operate streetcar networks that are essentially unchanged in their layout and mode of operation.

Boston, Cleveland, Mexico City, Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco have rebuilt their streetcar systems as light rail systems. Buffalo, Calgary, Dallas, Edmonton, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Diego, Charlotte, and St. Louis have installed new light rail systems, parts of which run along historic streetcar corridors and in a few cases feature mixed-traffic operation like a streetcar. Portland, Oregon and Seattle have built both modern light rail and modern streetcar systems.

Edmonton, Seattle, Vancouver, Whitehorse, and other cities have restored a small number of streetcars to run as heritage lines for tourists.

[edit] History

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An 1877 horsecar on display in Manchester, New Hampshire, 1908

North America's first streetcar lines opened in 1832 from downtown Manhattan to Harlem by the New York and Harlem Railroad, and in 1834 in New Orleans, and in 1849 in Toronto along the Williams Omnibus Bus Line.

Streetcars contributed to congestion on the surface roads, which led to elevated or buried lines. Boston created the first subway line with its Tremont Street tunnel. The automobile increased congestion and streetcars, with their static right-of-way, became an increasing part of the problem. City buses were seen as more economical and flexible: a bus could carry a number of people similar to that in a streetcar without tracks and associated infrastructure. Most U.S. streetcar systems were removed by the 1950s. Cambridge, Mass., San Francisco, Calif. and Seattle, Wash. removed the tracks but kept the electric infrastructure to run electrified trackless trolley buses.

The survival of the lines that made it past the 1950s was aided by the introduction of the successful PCC streetcar (Presidents' Conference Committee car) in the 1940s and 1950s in all these cities except New Orleans.

[edit] Conspiracy

Many North American cities abandoned their streetcar systems in the mid-twentieth century, largely as a result of the popularity of the automobile and government policies favoring it. This has prompted a popular conspiracy theory which touts that a union of automobile, oil, and tire industries shut down tram and streetcar systems in order to further the use of buses and private automobiles. The struggling Depression-era streetcar companies were bought up by this union of competitors who, over the following decades, dismantled several of the North American streetcar systems.

While it is true that General Motors, Firestone Tire, and two oil companies purchased several dozen of the hundreds of transit systems across America, their real goal was to sell their products—buses, tires, and fuel—to those companies as they converted to buses. During the time these companies owned an interest in American transit system, more than 300 cities converted from streetcars to buses. These companies owned an interest in the transit systems of less than two dozen of those cities. The claims of a conspiracy have been repeatedly debunked by scholars from the University of California,^[1][2] Portland State University,^[3] and elsewhere.^[4]

[edit] Surviving systems

Not all streetcars systems were removed; the San Francisco cable car system and New Orleans' streetcars are the most famous examples in the United States. San Francisco's conventional electric streetcar system also avoided abandonment, as did portions of the streetcar systems in Boston, Newark, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, together with those of Toronto in Canada and Mexico City in Mexico. The Newark, Philadelphia, and Boston systems ran into subways downtown, while the Pittsburgh and San Francisco systems had tunnels under large hills that had no acceptable road alternatives for bus replacements. The St. Charles Avenue line in New Orleans runs down the park-like "neutral ground" in the center of St. Charles Avenue. The only system without these alternatives to street-running to survive was Toronto's. All of these systems have received new equipment. Some of these cities have also rehabilitated lines, and Newark, New Orleans, and San Francisco have added trackage in recent years. In Philadelphia, a former trolley line that was "bustituted" recently resumed trolley service using rebuilt historic cars.

In Canada, most cities once had a streetcar system, but today Toronto's TTC is the only traditional operator of streetcars, and maintains the Western Hemisphere's most extensive system in terms of track length, number of cars, and ridership. The city added two lines in recent years, and is upgrading its other lines. Expansion is planned in combination with the city's plans for the rejuvenation of its waterfront.

[edit] New systems

Siemens-Duewag U2 in San Diego

Several North American cities have built light rail systems, some of which operate partially in the right-of-way of city streets. Other new systems are genuine tramways, with smaller vehicles and mixed-traffic street running (no separation from other vehicles), similar to those in New Orleans and San Francisco, although the term streetcar—rather than the European term, tramway—is the name used by the residents there. The pioneering light rail system in Edmonton, which used mostly European technology, does not use street running, and tunneling in the central area accounted for much of the high expense of building that system. It was soon followed by installations in San Diego and Calgary that used similar vehicles but which avoided the expense of tunnels by using partial street running instead.

Prior to 2001, the new streetcar systems opened in North America were heritage lines, alternatively known as vintage trolley or ‘historic’ trolley lines. Several cities built new heritage streetcar lines in the 1980s and 1990s, some served only on weekends while others operate daily, year-round and all day, providing true public transit service as opposed to being a tourist- or history-oriented excursion service. New streetcar systems providing daily, year-round service included ones opened in Seattle (the Waterfront Streetcar) (1982), Galveston (1988), Dallas (McKinney Avenue line) (1989), Memphis (1993) and Kenosha, Wisconsin (2000). All of these were newly constructed systems, but all are served by historic streetcars or replicas of historic streetcars (although the Seattle Waterfront line has since closed). Others have since opened in Tampa and Little Rock; see Heritage streetcar systems, below.

In 2001, Portland, Oregon, which already boasted a successful light rail system, MAX, became the first city in North America in more than 50 years to open a new streetcar system served by modern vehicles,^[5][6] with the opening of the Portland Streetcar. It uses low-floor cars built in the Czech Republic, but the system's first US-built streetcar was delivered in 2009.^[7] The line serves as a downtown circulator between the central city core, the trendy Pearl District and Northwest Portland, Portland State University, and in 2005 was extended to the South Waterfront district, a new mixed-use development along the Willamette River shoreline. Running almost entirely on streets and without any separation from other traffic on most sections, it complements the MAX light rail system, which covers much longer distances and serves as a regional, higher-capacity rail system for the metropolitan area. The MAX system also runs along streets in central Portland, but is separated from traffic (other than buses) even in those areas, via reserved light-rail-only lanes. Construction of a second streetcar line, to the city's east side, began in August 2009.^[8]

The new Portland system and several of the new heritage streetcar systems have been intended, in part, as a way of influencing property development in the corridors served, in such a way as to increase density while attracting residents interested in relatively car-free living.^[9] The Portland Streetcar is considered to have been very successful in this regard.^[10]

North America's second modern streetcar system opened in 2007 in Seattle,^[11] where the city's transportation department led the project to construct the South Lake Union Streetcar, but has contracted with local transit authority King County Metro to operate the service. Connecting the neighborhood south of Lake Union with the transit core of downtown Seattle, it operates every 15 minutes and is served by three low-floor streetcars of the same type as some of those in Portland. Residents of the area began referring to the system as the "South Lake Union Trolley" giving it the amusing but unfortunate acronym of "SLUT".^[12] Subsequently (in 2009), Seattle has also opened a light rail system (Central Link). Expansion of the streetcar system is planned, with a line serving First Hill.^[13]

A new rail line which opened in Tacoma, Washington in 2003, Tacoma Link, is sometimes referred to as a streetcar line, due to its short length and use of single vehicles (rather than trains) of the same type as the low-floor streetcar as used by the Portland Streetcar. However, the line is separated from other traffic over nearly its entire length, making it less a streetcar than light rail, which is what its operator (Sound Transit) considers it to be.^[14]

New light rail systems have now opened in many other cities, starting with the ground-breaking system in Edmonton in 1978, and now including Baltimore, Buffalo, Calgary, Charlotte, Dallas (DART), Denver, Edmonton, Houston, Greater Jersey City (HBLR), Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Ottawa, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, St Louis, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Jose, and Vancouver.

Additionally, all of the surviving PCC operators have replaced their PCC cars with light rail vehicles, although restored vintage PCC cars are still in regular operation on Boston's MBTA Red line Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line, and on San Francisco's F Market line, a line popular among tourists. This line was extended to the Fisherman's Wharf area in 2000, and a second line along the Embarcadero to the east is in the planning stages.

[edit] In development

Some 70 US cities have studied the idea of bringing back streetcars as transit,^[9] although to date the number that have come to fruition has been small. In the 2000s, one factor in this was opposition from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) under the Bush Administration.^[15][16] However, under the Obama Administration the FTA has indicated it supports cities interested in building new streetcar systems.^[17][18][16]

Construction of a new streetcar line in Washington, D.C., the DC Streetcar, got under way in 2009 following several delays.^[19]

Vancouver is building a new system around the Olympic Village connecting parts of the south central areas and will open with the 2010 Winter Olympics and will go for a one-year trial run using the route of the Vancouver Downtown Historic Railway. There have been proposals for it to loop around to Stanley Park and go around Pacific Boulevard.

In Tucson, Arizona, where the Old Pueblo Trolley heritage streetcar line has been in operation since 1993, the city government is planning construction of a modern streetcar line.^[20][21] In late September 2009, the FTA gave its approval for the City of Tucson to proceed with the final design phase of the project,^[22] and construction of the 3.9-mile line should begin in 2010.

The First Hill Streetcar is a proposal to build a new streetcar line in Seattle, Washington.^[13]

The Atlanta Streetcar organization in Atlanta, Georgia, is involved in developing plans for a modern streetcar to connect the downtown tourist attractions with the King Center area just east of Downtown (see also the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site).

[edit] Recently closed systems

A heritage trolley in Detroit, Michigan operated from 1976 until 2003. The Detroit trolley faced a steep decline in ridership after the Detroit People Mover system was installed and the tracks and carbarn for the former narrow gauge trolley have been removed.

The Waterfront Streetcar in Seattle, Washington operated from 1982 until 2005 when the line's carbarn was demolished to make room for the Olympic Sculpture Park.

[edit] Heritage streetcar systems

An historic tram from 1905 still running in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Heritage streetcar systems are used in public transit service, combining light rail efficiency with tourist's nostalgia interests. Proponents claim that using a simple, reliable form of transit from 50 or 100 years ago can bring history to life for 21st century visitors. Systems are operating successfully in over 30 U.S. cities, and are in planning or construction stages in 40 more. Heritage systems currently operate in Charlotte, North Carolina; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; Dallas, Texas; Tampa, Florida; Kenosha, Wisconsin; and New Orleans, Louisiana are among the larger.

In the province of British Columbia, Vancouver has the Vancouver Downtown Historic Railway system that will be expanded to cover the south downtown area. In Nelson, British Columbia, a small town to the north of Spokane, Washington, the Nelson Electric Tramway Society has rebuilt and runs a restored Streetcar 23 along the lakeside and Baker Street.^[23] In Whitehorse, Yukon the Miles Canyon Historic Railway Society has operated the Whitehorse Waterfront Trolley along the Yukon River since 2000.^[24]

The new streetcar system which opened in 2000 in Kenosha is a downtown circulator also serving government offices, the upscale HarborPark recreational/cultural/residential district, and public bus and Metra rail service. It is served exclusively by restored 1940s-vintage PCC streetcars acquired secondhand from Toronto.

Over 50 years after the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway, the revival of streetcar operations in New Orleans is credited by many to the worldwide fame gained by the streetcars made by the Perley A. Thomas Car Works. These cars were operating on the system's Desire route in the 1947 play and later movie of the same name. Some of the original cars have been carefully restored locally and continue to operate in the 21st century.

Examples in North America include San Pedro, Little Rock, Dallas, Denver, Memphis, Tampa, Seattle, Charlotte, the new Canal Street line in New Orleans, and the reintroduction of the historic Girard Street line in Philadelphia.

Other individual heritage streetcar lines include:

[edit] Museums

Unlike a heritage system a streetcar museum may offer little or no transport service. If there are working streetcars in a museum's collection any service provided may be seasonal, not follow a schedule, offer limited stops, service only remote areas, or otherwise differ from a regularly scheduled heritage line. Some North American streetcar museums include:

[edit] See also

[edit] General articles

[edit] System lists

[edit] Specific systems

[edit] Operating

[edit] Not operating

[edit] Car builders and types

[edit] Structures

[edit] Standing

[edit] Not standing

[edit] Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Trams in North America

v • d • e Rail transport in Central America Sovereign states Belize · Costa Rica · El Salvador · Guatemala · Honduras · Nicaragua · Panama1 Mexico2 (Campeche • Chiapas • Quintana Roo • Tabasco • Yucatan) 1Also in or commonly considered to be part of South America. 2Physiographically, Mexico east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is sometimes included.