Copyright 2016 by Richard O. Aichele & Information Works Inc.

 

 

Streetcars - Trolleys - Interurban Rail Transit

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berlin1967The pair of S-Bahn streetcars on the left operated in the suburbs of Berlin, Germany in 1967. It was typical of the streetcar rail systems of many American and European cities that formed the transportation webs allowing cities to grow in a well planned and environmentally acceptable manner. Some regions had Interurban cars and rail systems that provided fast passenger and small package freight service between towns and cities often competeing with the heavy rail passenger trains. Both systems strongly developed in the early 1900s were even at that time very energy efficient and clean since they relied totally on electric power. Although, streetcars have remained in service in Europe and other cities of the world, they almost totally disappeared in American cities to be replaced by internal combustion engine powered buses.

San Francisco, California is one of the few American cities that has successfully retained a streetcar system and is now expanding it now using the vintage streetcars that operated in various cities of the world in the past while also preserving the famous cable cars, .

"From a peak of fifty lines in the late 1920s, streetcar service waned in San Francisco for the rest of the twentieth century. By 1982, the last five streetcar lines went into a subway beneath Market Street and the popular PCC streetcars were retired. But neighborhood and business leaders joined with Muni and Mayor Dianne Feinstein to mount the historic Trolley Festivate in 1983, bringing vintage streetcars from around the world to run on Market Street. With support from a nonprofit volunteer group named after the old Market Street Railway Company, five successful years of the Trolley Festival spurred development of the permanent F-Line which opened in 1995," according to the San Francisco Municipal Railway. Today, using the vintage streetcars thousands of riders daily travel smoothly and cleanly though the heart of the city.

PCC Car from Washington, DC

PCC Car from Cincinnati, Ohio

Car 1818 from Milan, Italy operated there 1930s - 1970s

 

 

Visit www.streetcar.org for more information on San Francisco's streetcars including streetcar images and their history. The website includes a map http://www.nextmuni.com/googleMap/googleMap.jsp?a=sf-muni&r=F of the F Line from 17th St. & Castro to the Fisherman's Wharf area showing the cars in service and their movement as they are tracked by GPS.

 

 

 

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