Streetcars in North America
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- See also: Light rail in North America
The streetcar, often called trams outside North America, were largely dismantled in the mid-20th century; exception include New Orleans' streetcars and Newark which still have operating streetcar systems. Since then, many cities in North American now opting to install light rail systems often along the same corridors as the old streetcars. Some cities have even restored their old streetcars and run them as a heritage line for tourists like the Vancouver Downtown Historic Railway.
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[edit] History
In Canada, most cities once had a streetcar system, but today Toronto's TTC is the only traditional operator of streetcars, and maintains the most extensive system in The Americas (in terms of total track length, number of cars, and ridership). New light rail systems are operated in Edmonton, Alberta and Calgary, Alberta, and Ottawa. Nelson BC, a small town to the north of Spokane, has rebuilt and runs a restored tram that once originally ran in that city.
The first lines built in the U.S. (and indeed the world) were in 1832 from downtown New York City to Harlem by the New York and Harlem Railroad, and in 1834 in New Orleans.
Most U.S. streetcar systems were removed by the 1950s as a result of the popularity of the automobile and government policies in favour of it.
[edit] Surviving systems
Not all streetcars systems were removed; the San Francisco cable cars and New Orleans' streetcars are the most famous examples in the United States. More conventional streetcar operations survived complete abandonment in Boston, Newark, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco in the U.S., together with Toronto in Canada. 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 Toronto, the city has added two new lines in recent years, and is actively upgrading its other lines. Further expansion is planned in combination with the city's plans for the rejuvenation of its waterfront.
More recently a number of cities in North America have built new light rail systems, some of which operate partially in the right-of-way of city streets. Other new systems are genuine tramways, such as in New Orleans and San Francisco, although the term "streetcar" is the only name used by the residents there. The pioneering light rail system in Edmonton, Alberta, which substantially utilised European technology, does not use street running, and tunneling in the central area accounted for much of the expense of the system. It was soon followed by installations in San Diego, California and Calgary, Alberta that used similar vehicles but which avoided the expense of tunnels by using partial street running instead. (see Edmonton Transit System, San Diego Trolley, C-Train).
In 2000, Kenosha, Wisconsin became the first city in North America to open a modern streetcar system since the heyday of the PCC streetcar, followed in 2001 by Portland, Oregon, the latter of which already boasted a successful light rail system. The Kenosha system is a downtown circulator also serving government offices, the upscale HarborPark recreational/cultural/residential district, and public bus and Metra rail service. The Portland Streetcar serves as a downtown circulator between the central city core, the trendy Pearl District and Northwest Portland, Portland State University, and a new mixed-use development along the Willamette River shoreline. Running entirely on streets, it complements MAX light rail, which also runs along streets in central Portland, but which covers longer distance along routes segregated from vehicular traffic.
New light rail systems have since opened in many other cities, starting with the ground-breaking system in Edmonton , and now including Baltimore, Buffalo, Calgary, Dallas (DART), Denver, Edmonton, Houston, Jersey City-Hoboken, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Ottawa, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, St Louis, Salt Lake City, San Jose, and Vancouver. Additionally, all 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 recently underwent an expansion to the Fisherman's Wharf area and a second line along the Embarcadero to the east is in the planning stages.
[edit] Heritage streetcar systems
Heritage streetcar systems are used in public transit service, combining light rail efficiency with America'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 Americans. Systems are operating successfully in over 20 U.S. cities, and are in planning or construction stages in 40 more. Heritage systems currently operate in Little Rock, Arkansas, Memphis, Tennessee, Dallas, Texas, Tampa, Florida, Kenosha, Wisconsin, and New Orleans are among the larger.
In the Canadian province of British Columbia, Vancouver has the heritage streetcar system that will be expanded to cover the south downtown area, and in Nelson the restored Streetcar 23 runs along the lakeside.
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 2006.
Examples in North America include San Pedro, Little Rock, Dallas, Denver, Memphis, Tampa, Seattle, Charlotte, North Carolina, the new Canal Street line in New Orleans, and the reintroduction of the historic Girard Street line in Philadelphia. Atlanta is also considering putting a streetcar back on Peachtree Street for an increase in public transportation on the city's main thoroughfare.
[edit] Conspiracy
Many North American cities abandoned their streetcar systems in the mid-twentieth century, due to the popularity of the automobile and government policies favoring it. In fact, there was a conspiracy to shut down city tram systems by automobile, oil and tyre interests, as they wanted cities to move to buses, which the companies profited from. In fact, the city of Detroit, which once had a population bordering two million people in 1950, never implemented any type of subway or elevated rail service, unusual for a city that size. It seems the city did not want to ruffle the feathers of the big automotive corporations that were headquartered in the area. The city today now has half the population it did five decades ago. The struggling depression era streetcar companies were bought up by outside interests in many U.S. cities, who, twenty years later, gutted most North American streetcars and interurbans. (see General Motors streetcar conspiracy). However, traditional systems survived in Boston (MBTA Green Line), Newark, New Orleans, Philadelphia (Subway-Surface Lines), Pittsburgh, San Francisco (F Market line), and Toronto (Toronto Streetcar System). This survival was aided by the introduction of the modern PCC car in the 1940s and 1950s in all these cities except New Orleans.
