A Streetcar to Inspire

Once the nation's ubiquitous urban conveyance, electrified streetcar lines all but disappeared during the car-crazy Eisenhower era. San Francisco kept its cable cars and New Orleans kept its streetcar named Desire, but essentially all other urban rail systems were abandoned – casualties of shifting commuter preference for buses and their own cars.

But modern streetcars are riding the rails again. In 2001, Portland, Oregon, launched the nation's first all-new streetcar line in 60 years. And in Seattle, Tucson, Washington, DC, and a dozen cities across the nation, streetcars are inspiring a renewed appreciation of their value in today's public transportation mix. A modern streetcar in action in Portland, OR. For urban planners, they are the key to livability, downtown revitalization, and higher-density development. For environmentalists, they're a big step toward car-free urban living. But for those who actually ride them, modern streetcars are simply the best way to get from point A to point B without having to find a parking space.

And for America's beleaguered manufacturing sector, the most exciting news of all is that the streetcar comeback is a "Made in the USA" phenomenon. First Stop: Nostalgia Streetcars evoke the happy chaos of bustling downtown streets during the ultra-kinetic Gilded Age, before automatic traffic signals brought a modicum of order. The vast, complex, and pedestrian-unfriendly streetcar lines of the late 1890s even helped name one of the great baseball teams of all time, the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers (later shorted to the Dodgers).

The Brooklyn Trolley streetcar from the 1890s. The first urban mass transit vehicles to travel on rails were the horse-drawn omnibuses of the 1820s and 30s – a major advance in speed, efficiency, and profitability over the traditional carriages plying the muddy, rough roads of the day. Operators began experimenting with steam power or, most famously in San Francisco, cable- pulled railcars, and by 1881, streetcar service in the U.S. had gone electric. The era of "rapid transit" was born. But almost as quickly as they had appeared, America's streetcar lines were gone, unable to compete to with the versatility of city buses and the comfort and freedom of car ownership in the booming post World War II era. Next Stop: The Future Yet just a few decades later, cities began experimenting with "heritage" trolley lines repurposing vintage rolling stock traveling on salvaged portions of their disused rail systems. Conceived mainly as a retro pastime for tourists, these old-time railways kept some of the romance of the streetcar era alive while the socio-economic conditions took root that would bring them back into routine service. As cities began to rein in suburban sprawl, reduce their carbon footprints, and reinvest in their urban cores, the streetcar again made sense. Portland's system, for example, carries 4 million riders per year.

Schematic of the United Streetcar 100 In addition to being the first city to launch a new streetcar line, Portland has another commute-by-rail claim to fame: the only U.S.-based manufacturer of modern streetcars, United Streetcar. A subsidiary of an established steel fabricator, United Streetcar has built a dozen streetcars for its home city, seven for the City of Tucson, and has just landed a contract to build two cars for Washington, DC. "Upon discovering all modern streetcars were imported, I knew that we could create and offer an alternative for communities to serve their transportation and urban circulating needs," said Chandra Brown, United Streetcar president. "I've (also) learned what an impact manufacturing jobs have on our economy." The company employs about 400 people. Brown's signature product is the model 100, a four-axle, double-ended, three-section vehicle with a standard track gauge of 1,435 mm. The cars can hold 170 passengers (including straphangers), more than twice as many as a typical city bus. They are 66 feet long, 8 feet wide and a tad over 11 feet high, with low floors for easy-on, easy-off boarding. They cruise along with the stop and go of regular traffic, usually at speeds between 10-20 miles an hour, although top speeds can reach 40 mph or more. Brown says her cars are "fully Buy America compliant," meaning that at least 70 percent of its components were made in the U.S. Like trolleys of old, modern streetcars still "clang, clang, clang" to warn unwary pedestrians. But in today's urban transit landscape, no one is "dodging" them anymore. Michael MacRae is an independent writer.