Property or Recipient?

Skyway image from Wikipedia A recent post about the soon-to-be constructed Atlanta Streetcar/downtown circulator prompted a reader to forward an article from Jacksonville about their downtown circulator, which happens to be an automated guideway, or people mover, JTA calls the Skyway.  Ridership is low, 30% of their pre-construction estimates, and the service is very expensive to the tune of a $4...

Frankly MARTA, I don’t Give a Tram

So let me guess: it’s gonna run in a circle, right?  A July 2011 press release from FTA gives a succinct overview of what are some ill-conceived notions about streetcar in America.  The document is the public go-ahead to build a streetcar system for Atlanta with a $47.6 million TIGER II grant awarded in October 2010.  “The electric streetcar will run 2.6 miles through the heart of Atlanta’s...

Appreciation: Mattapan High Speed Line

I’m standing on the narrow platform of the Mattapan High-Speed Line at Ashmont terminal. The platform flanks an elevated, hairpin turn-around loop abutting the station mezzanine. It is a sweltering July day, and I can’t help but notice that what appear to be sprinklers spraying the rails in the turning loop. Never having encountered this feature on a transit line, I was momentarily puzzled. Was...

How to build a streetcar in 6 easy steps

United Streetcar is now building modern streetcars in the United States (click here for the story).  This graphic illustrates the process of building one.  Click on the image to enlarge and use Ctrl+mouse wheel to zoom.

Streetcar Maiden, USA

Portland's first streetcars made in USA. Courtesy United Streetcar Skoda is a legendary firm dating from 1859 that has made weapons, brewing equipment, bridge parts, airplanes, and automobiles (now a separate division owned by Volkswagen).  Today the Czech company makes steam turbines and condensers, but the few Americans who are aware of Skoda probably know the company because of its transit...

Streetcar Timeline

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

Cutting the Cord: Streetcars without Wires

  At the Americana at Brand in Glendale, CA, the money saved on overhead wires could be spent on lavish appointments for the streetcars themselves. Photo Gomaco Trolley Company. We tend to think of streetcars as operating on a fixed guideway.  The majority of the world’s streetcar systems, however, move between two of them, the unobtrusive rails in the ground and the power lines that run overhead...

A Distinction Subtle and Broad

A SEPTA maintenance streetcar is followed by a passenger streetcar in west Philadelphia. Photo by Bill Mohnahan of Friends of the Philadelphia Trolleys. It is one of the great ironies of American life that suburban sprawl—a low-density pattern of development that is difficult to serve with public transit—was created by public transit.  Frank J. Sprague created the first successful electric...