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Urban rail transit is coming back in the USA. A half-century after most cities lost their streetcar systems, many are putting lines back in. These new lines have many critics, including high cost of construction, low ridership, lack of high-density transit-oriented housing, and the relatively lower cost of building "rapidbus" systems. And they haven't gained the broad praise that was bestowed on streetcars.
One criticism rarely aired is the aesthetic differences between old streetcars and new "LRVs" (Light Rail Vehicle). Streetcars had a culture about them, of busy-ness, or romance. People wrote songs about streetcars. They were metaphors for other things in life. They were fodder for poetry.
What did streetcars have that LRVs don't? Is it the catchy name? Was it the style of the car? Was it the streetcar-oriented world they operated in? If it was a product of their time that isn't transferable to the 21st Century, can it be regained? Or is it something that could be replicated, but isn't--like the jauntiness of the ride, the classy lines of the vehicles, the polished wooden seats, or the high perch of the driver?
Some cities have tried to bring back "streetcars" or "trolleys". New Orleans was clever enough to maintain their streetcar tracks and even the streetcars themselves. They recently rebuilt a historic line with new LRVs that look like trolleys--high platform, classic lines, and wood veneer on the carbodies.
Portland built a "streetcar" line, the LRVs look like LRVs, not streetcars, but the line has other elements that are Streecar-eque. Now West Sacramento is talking about building a short streetcar system to connect it with downtown.
Will any of these new innovations result in poetry, screenplays, or songs? What was it really like to *ride* a streetcar? What are the differences? Can we build a new system that will be as desirable to ride as the fabled long-gone systems?
Well, if you're in Northern California, you're in luck. South of Dixon lies the "Western Railway Museum," a little-known mueseum dedicated to the preservation and operation of vintage streetcars. And San Jose and Sacramento have modern LRT systems, so the rail-transit connoisseur can make a side-by-side comparison of the old and the new. (If you're in Davis you're even luckier--the museum is "in the middle of nowhere" on the Sacramento River Delta. And, since Davis is "close to the middle of nowhere" it's only a short hop down there...) In June, 2004, my friend Bill and I did just that. We took a ride on a brand new LRV on the San Jose light rail line, then a day later we went and rode historic streetcars at the museum in Suisun City.
San Jose LRT
We boarded the San Jose LRT in Mountain View, rode it through downtown San Jose, then returned to Mountain View. The ride was pretty okay, ridership was higher than we expected for a Saturday. It wasn't a "zippy" ride by any means, but it moved along at a fairly respectable pace.
Here are two sample pics from the ride.
We noted that the LRVs had good climate control, reasonably confortable seats, and a fairly smooth ride. We didn't see anyone composing poetry on-board, but we could have missed it. It wasn't a great ride, though. The ventilation system was pretty loud, the colors were bland, and the whole affair was uninspiring.
Suisun City Streetcar Museum (AKA Western Railway Museum
The Western Railway Museum has been around for many decades, it lies in the middle of the Sacramento River Delta, between Suisun City, Rio Vista, and Dixon. For the past 20 years, the museum has adopted a streetcar/trolley/interurban focus, and has steadily been trading away it's traditional railroad collection and gathered in streetcars from around the world.
They now have fully operational streetcars from about a dozen cities in the US and a few other countries. The Northern California collection includes a trolley from Yuba City, an "N Judah" line car from San Francisco, some of the "Boeing" cars from San Francisco in the 1960s, and a Key System line that ran in the East Bay.
Every Saturday and Sunday the museum is open, and docents hook up the catenarys to the overhead wire, run the streetcars out of the barn, ring the bell, and take riders on a 1 to 9 mile trip, clickity-clacking across the delta. You can climb aboard 20 different streetcars, ride a couple, and see dozens of others in various states of arrested decay. The streetcars run on an 4.5 mile portion of the original Sacramento-Oakland interurban line. We rode them, and experienced the "Streetcar Experience," riding vintage streetcars at 35 mph back and forth on the line. Here's some photos from our trip
Car Barn with a MUNI Judah Line
South end of the museum line with an Oakland Key System car
This one is going to the game
I think this is an original Sacramento-San Francisco interurban car,
undergoing a full restoration (all work done by volunteers)
Bill enjoyed his streetcar experience
The docents do a good job of keeping things on schedule
Changing the catenaries at the south end of the line
We found the streetcars to be far more photogenic than the LRT, then had windows that opened, easy communication with the driver, and a zippier feel. The woodwork was beautiful, and the ride pleasant overall. Most of these features have been eliminated from the LRTs, for safety, climate control, ease of maintenance, or ADA reasons. But, could LRT designers have taken a different approach that would meet the needs of modern transportation, and still leave some "desire" in the ride? If so, it seems plausible that an increased enjoyment of the ride should make it easier for people to switch from cars to streetcars/LRVs for their daily travel needs.
Did streetcars really have an enjoyment of the ride that LRVs lack? You can make the decision for yourself--Come to the Western Railway Museum and go for a ride!