A Tale of Two Cities’ Streetcars

Philadelphia and San Francisco are rarely compared to one another.  One is America’s founding city, the other America’s European city.  One is east, the other west.  The city by the bay is known for its mild winters and cold summers and the City of Brotherly Love isn’t.  But there are some interesting similarities, and unfortunate differences, in the streetcar lines both cities operate the...

Round Up: Transit Property Names

Transit property names make for a lean alphabet soup.  Especially among older agencies, acronyms condense the lengthy and the specific (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District) into the pat and the convenient (SEPTA, NICTD), monikers small enough to fit on tokens and double as logos.  But there are only so many words available for describing...

Streetcar Timeline

  From horse-drawn to recent hurricanes, here is the short history of the streetcar. Click to enlarge.

Like Peas and Carrots: Co-locating facilities and transit

  For more than 100 Years the Reading Terminal Market has been the grocer, deli, cheese shop, bakery, and so mucyh else to commuters in Philadelphia. Steam Locamotives once stopped overhead but now Reading is served underground by SEPTA. Photo Scheib Shoppers could always tell when the train arrived by the sound of 700,000 pounds of steel laboring to a halt a few dozen feet overhead.  The Reading...

Through the Looking Glass

This is a visual metaphor of the Philly streetcar, an anachronistic machine that does not fit well into the contemporary urban fabric. Photo by Scheib. It looks like transit, sounds like money, and smells like politics.  It must be Philly’s Girard Streetcar Line. Philadelphia is home to over 118 miles of bona fide, in-the-asphalt, exposed streetcar rails, the greatest quantity in the country. ...