Street cars

Sheridan ‘Trolley Car, notice the horses sharing the road. Photo courtesy of Wyoming State Archives, Elsa Spear Byron Photo.

In August 1911, residents of Sheridan were treated to a whole new mode of transportation, the electric streetcar.

In 1900, eleven years earlier, there were only 4,192 passenger cars built in the United States, the only country to manufacture cars. Most of the farmers, ranchers and residents of Sheridan still traveled by buggy or on horseback.

Due to the fact that automobiles were a new and scarce commodity – along with their cost, around $ 850 – in 1910, there were few automobiles in Sheridan. However, more and more people started to jump on the automobile train.

In a Semi Weekly Enterprise article for March 13, 1908, advertisements for rail cars and auto repairs appeared virtually side by side.

If you are looking for a wagon, buggy, cart or runabout, a trip to our warehouse will convince you that our range of vehicles is up to date and that our products are good and that the prices are correct. D. & D. Co.

Scotts Repair Shop, 90 East Brundage St. Sheridan, Shafting, injections, lubricators. Bicycles and miscellaneous items, the automobile is a specialty.

With horse and buggy still the primary form of transportation for most people, there was a need for faster and more modern transportation in Sheridan. Albert Emanuel and William Sullivan of the Electric Street Railway in Dayton, Ohio, proposed an electric streetcar system for Sheridan in 1910.

The line would pass through Sheridan and serve as a direct line to nearby coal camps. The town of Sheridan quickly approved the proposal and by July 1910 the rails were laid. In just over a year, the City Line was completed and service began on August 11, 1911.

Two articles from the Sheridan Daily Enterprise describe the excitement.

August 8, 1911– Trams at Sheridan today will arrive at no. 46 around 6:30 a.m. this afternoon. skip the road tomorrow

The first streetcar ever used in northern Wyoming will leave Car Barn at 8:30 a.m. Sheridan trams will arrive at 5.30am this afternoon on freight train 45 westbound. or as soon as the plating leading to the ground can be fitted out. The cars will be placed on the tracks at the Sheridan Inn and taken to the tram barn with their own electricity.

And August 12, 1911

With businessmen celebrating today in appreciation of the advent of streetcars, a meeting of rejoicing takes place. Travel the route accompanied by a group, the three new street cars leave Algiers and the main street.

The Sheridan Business Men’s Club, which has more than 100 members, has proven to be a dynamic organization, working for the well-being of Sheridan Town and County.

They saw the commercial importance of a streetcar system for Sheridan and this afternoon they are celebrating the event with a “reunion of rejoicing”.

The three Sheridan trams were chartered for the occasion and at the time of going to press, they were gathering at the corner of the avenue d’Alger and the main street North to travel the route inside the city ​​limits.

A group of sixteen pieces boarded the first car and were followed by club members and their guests, all “wearing souvenir badges proclaiming the opening of the Sheridan railroad system.”
Following the enormous success of the City Line, a second route, the Fort Line, was established. The Fort Line went from Main Street, up Lewis Hill to the fairgrounds, passed through Fort McKenzie, with a trestle crossing Deadman’s Draw. There was a hub at the fort, and passengers helped turn the streetcar on it back into town.

Once the town line was completed, the rails began to push north to the coal camps.

The Daily Company October 20, 1911

Intercity tram line pushing cars north towards Dietz on November 1– Then on to Monarch – Construction camps swarm with men One of the most powerful factors in elevating Sheridan to a seemingly metropolitan city is the railroad system, owned by local and outside capitalists.

The local streetcar company, a sign of its faith in the future prospects of Sheridan and Sheridan County, is now actively engaged in establishing an intercity line to Dietz, New Acme, Carneyville and to Monarch.

The steel rails for this line are actually laid within a mile of Dietz, or two-thirds of the way through the Wrench Ranch, estimated to be five miles away. In two to three weeks, this interurban line will be built to Dietz and will be open to public traffic.

Goose Creek will be bridged three times on the trunk line, all near Dietz.

The Tongue River will not be crossed by the intercity line all the way to the Monarch destination. Two large intercity cars from the St. Louis Car company, which manufactured the cars currently in service, will be received at Sheridan next week and will be ready for the initial ride to Dietz when that line opens. They are a little different in design than the Sheridan or Fort Mackenzie cars and have double the capacity.

Several hundred men and crews are employed in the construction of this rank.

Note that horse teams are still used to build the modern rail bed.

For those who might wonder how electric streetcars worked, the Sheridan Enterprise, September 29, 1914, had this detailed description: The tram. How the electric current moves it along the rails. its motors and mechanism. An explanation of how they work and the method by which the mysterious force is conducted from the overhead wire to the undercarriage. … .. In a vague way the vast majority of people who drive… (trams) know that it is driven by electrical energy which mysteriously arrives on the wires of the tram.

Let’s take the car apart, figuratively speaking, and see how it’s made. Under the regular streetcar you will find two to four powerful electric motors directly matched to the axles of the car. These engines are very powerful and are almost completely hidden under the car. The electrical energy to drive the streetcars is sent over the wires of the trolley. Electrical energy is generated in the power station,… The cable of the trolley is suspended above the street on poles and guy ropes. Electricity is maintained on the wires of the carriage by suitable insulators made of glass, porcelain or composition, over which current cannot flow. Electric current flows smoothly and smoothly along the cart cable, like water in a pipe, although it is not visible.

Each trolley is fitted with a trolley wheel at the end of the pole that runs along the underside of the trolley wire. The power supply for the cart cable passes through this wheel and down the cart pole to a heavily insulated cable concealed on top of the car. This cable carries electricity to the “controller” located at the front of the car. The controller is the iron box that sits in front of the motor … When the motor turns the controller handle a few notches, a certain amount of electricity is allowed to flow from the wire of the overhead cart along the pole, through the cable and the control box to the motors under the car.

The current starts the motors, which in turn spins the wheels of the car, the car starts and the driver turns the handle of the controller more, feeding the motors more current, and the car resumes its normal operating speed. Electric current flows through the car over the wire of the trolley. After passing through the car, through the cables, through the controller, resistor and motors, it exits the car through the iron wheels and returns to the power station along the steel rails, thus completing the circuit. . A Whistler Story

At one time, the rail system consisted of about 18 miles of track, including a branch line leading to Holly Sugar Factory on Coffeen. Over the years the system worked without further modifications and the operations were quite routine.

In a Sheridan company in January 1913, the rates for the Sheridan Railway were published as follows: Simple rates. Monarch 50 cents; Carneyville 30 cents; New Acme 25 cents; Dietz 15 cents. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the light rail company implemented excursion fares from the coal camps to Sheridan and carried large crowds of people. The rates that prevailed those two days were 55 cents from Monarch. 50 cents from Carneyville, 45 cents from Acme and 25 cents from Dietz, round trip fare.

The line operated for many years in Sheridan, but by 1923 as automobiles grew in popularity in the area – by 1923 there were 3.7 million cars produced in the United States – The city of Sheridan decided to repave downtown Main Street and abandoned the city streetcar system. The Fort Line, however, continued to operate until March 1924 when it was replaced by a bus. The coal mine line lasted longer, until 1926, when it was also abandoned.

About 50 years after the streetcars had made their last runs, the dilapidated body of car No.115 was discovered in a field outside Sheridan. As part of the bicentennial celebration in 1976, Fort Line No.115 was rescued and moved to Sheridan. Today, No. 115 is the only streetcar remaining in the state of Wyoming. It sits near the old sales barn on Higby Road, a reminder of Sheridan’s growth from a border town to a modern, bustling town.

The main one broke at 67th Avenue and 210th Street in Oakland Gardens, closing the street.

NewsCopter7 was at the scene, showing the damage.

Emergency teams from the Ministry of Environmental Protection intervened to assess the situation and make necessary repairs, and it was said to be a race to contain the fallout.

Also Read: New York’s Pandemic Restrictions Relaxed As Problems Spread Upstate

The owner of one of the submerged cars, who said she parked there Thursday night, counts her blessings despite losing her vehicle.

“I’m lucky to be alive, that’s all,” she said.

Resident Huang Yisheng ended up with 2 feet of water in his basement, which is actually the least of his problems.

“It’s so bad for us,” he said. “But the biggest problem is my (flooded) boiler and water heater … My wife is sick. She has lung cancer. That’s the problem. No heat, no hot water.”

He had sandbags to contain the floods and a rake to clean up the mud.

Also Read: NYPD Officer Charged With Prejudice, Sexist Comments Online

Workers searched for the drain plugs, which ultimately did the trick and allowed the water to drain out – but not before large numbers of residents waded through the mess or had to make a detour.

“So we have trails everywhere,” said cyclist Ralphie Carvajal. “And I guess today is white water rafting.”

The water was turned off and workers cleaned out sumps to help alleviate flooding on the streets.

DEP later determined that the rupture had occurred on a 12-inch main pipe and that about 20 homes were without water as of 8:30 p.m. Friday.

The investigation continues into the cause of the rupture.

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On a sunny July weekend, The Hop was the hottest thing in town. Standing crowds filled the streetcars of Milwaukee and filled the platform at Cathedral Square on the way to and around Bastille Day. Almost 9,000 people rode The Hop that Saturday, more than four times the average daily attendance for the first seven months of this year. Mayor Tom Barrett, who proposed the streetcar and pushed it through to completion, trumpeted the new summit. After decades of debate, it looked like Milwaukee finally had a modern rail transportation system.

And yet, as The Hop nears its first anniversary on November 2, questions remain as to whether streetcars – here and across the country – are a good use of transit dollars, especially since the city ​​plans to maintain free fares in the second year. This criticism comes not just from the usual suspects in the crowd with no rail, no path, no how, but public transport advocates and academics who argue that the light rail and buses serve commuters and other dependent people better. public transport. In contrast, the Conservatives are attacking the cost and rigid routes of streetcars and streetcars.

Joel Rast, director of the Center for Economic Development at UW-Milwaukee, calls the streetcar “a much better way to get to different parts of the city.” He questions the wisdom of spending transit money on a system that primarily serves tourists and inner-city workers instead of helping car-less urban workers access suburban jobs, a question that ‘he studied at length.

Why, then, have Milwaukee, Kenosha, and 30 other American cities built streetcar lines, nearly half of which have been opened in the past 10+ years? This is because supporters see streetcars not only as public transport vehicles, but as engines of economic development, attracting new construction, tourists and convention-goers by making it easier to get around their city centers.

Streetcars are often “more focused on growth” than on commuters, says Chris McCahill, deputy director of the State Smart Transportation Initiative at UW-Madison. Like other transportation infrastructure, streetcars do not directly initiate development, but support it by improving access, says Kevin Muhs, executive director of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. And the rails that the Conservatives scoff at for their inflexibility assure developers that access won’t evaporate as easily as a bus could be hijacked, supporters say.

The Hop’s funding reflects its purpose. Milwaukee is the only city to pay the local share of streetcar construction ($ 59 million of the original $ 128.1 million) entirely through tax-boosting funding districts designed to help development, study finds of the Wisconsin Policy Forum. However, state law excludes most sources of revenue used elsewhere, the study added, and GOP lawmakers have even restricted the use of the TIF for the streetcar.

Hop’s development ties are also manifested in their much-delayed lakefront hub project at the Couture Building and in an expansion debate in which the key words were neighborhood growth and gentrification.

If development is the mission, does The Hop accomplish it? Supporters say it’s too early to tell. City officials are reporting above-average property value growth on the route, but cannot say how much is from The Hop and how much is from a booming downtown. City development manager Dan Casanova points to new buildings on a previously stagnant stretch of Broadway, where developers have referred to the streetcar as a postman.

Barrett remains optimistic. “I’ve always promoted economic development as a big part of it,” he says. “There is no question [the benefits] are tangible and long term.

Expressway

THE HOP IS NOT Milwaukee’s only transit innovation. Milwaukee County officials are planning a $ 53.4 million rapid transit line that could share transfer points with the streetcar.

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is designed to mimic the light rail, with buses in reserved lanes, traffic lights favoring them, and train-like platforms where passengers pay in advance. The 9-mile line would run from the lakeside to the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center in Wauwatosa.

Authorities in Milwaukee and Wauwatosa will allow reserved lanes on only half of the route. But Milwaukee County Transit System spokesperson Matt Sliker, Kevin Muhs of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and Rob Henken of the Wisconsin Policy Forum said the BRT line would still be effective.

If federal and local authorities approve, the BRT line would begin in 2021. Passengers could proceed to The Hop at the proposed level of Vel Phillips Plaza near Wisconsin Center and at the planned lakeside stitching point, the Commissioner said. city ​​public works, Jeff Polenske.

Different tracks: trams vs. tram

“LIGHT RAIL LIGHT” So then County Executive Scott Walker and other critics rejected the Milwaukee Streetcar when Mayor Tom Barrett proposed it in 2007.

This term encapsulated how much nuance was drowned – or ignored – in the monotony of the long ideological battle. Since neither side’s arguments have changed much as the discussion has moved from light rail to modern streetcars, which look like light rail vehicles, many people may not see a light rail vehicle. difference.

Yet understanding this difference could be the key to understanding The Hop’s first year and its future. The comparison of The Hop and its streetcar siblings with their urban rail cousins, the country’s 23 light rail systems (as in Minneapolis) and 14 subway and elevated train systems (as in Chicago), illustrates how streetcars are treated more as economic tools than as public transport.

Or they will:

Each urban rail transport system connects a city’s inner-city to outlying neighborhoods. They usually run on rails separate from road traffic, and many reach airports and nearby suburbs. In contrast, most trams remain in the city center and surrounding areas. No tram serves the airports.

The Hop’s 2.1-mile start line runs from the Milwaukee Intermodal Station to the northeast corner of downtown, with a second 0.4-mile line under construction to the lakefront. The proposed expansions would take it to the Wisconsin Center, then to the Fiserv Forum, Bronzeville and Walker’s Point.

As long as they work in traffic, streetcars perform best for relatively short trips, says Kevin Muhs of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. They are not fast enough or long enough to meet the demands of airport journeys, he says.

Who straddles them:

Commuters use light rail and heavy rail lines, as do students, visitors and others. People who live near the city center can get around by tram. But in a dozen cities, including Kenosha, streetcar schedules skip the morning rush hour, bypassing commuters to target tourists and residents visiting local attractions.

The Hop is one of 20 tram lines with frequent service all day and all year round. Of the nine most recent light rail lines with comparable service and vehicles, The Hop’s average daily ridership of 2,061 for the first seven months of this year sits roughly in the middle.

Who runs them:

Each urban rail transport system is operated by a transport agency, usually the same one that operates the local buses. But bus authorities only operate about half of the tram systems, including the 19-year-old Kenosha line. Cities and nonprofits handle the rest.

In Milwaukee, the city owns The Hop and contracts with the French company Transdev to operate it. The Milwaukee County Transit System lost a late bid to operate the line, but is in talks to add real-time tracking of The Hop to its app and website, the public works commissioner said. Jeff Polenske and bus system spokesperson Matt Sliker.

Who pays for them:

Federal, state and local taxes, supplemented by tariffs, pay for the operation of urban rail transport systems. Some streetcars are funded in the same way, but commercial sponsorships and advertising often underpin operations.

A federal grant and sponsorship from the Potawatomi Bingo Casino pay most of The Hop’s $ 4.4 million annual operating costs. Riding The Hop was free for its first year, and city officials surprised Joint Council by dropping plans to start charging fares in November. Polenske says the idea is to give people more time to try The Hop and see its value.

At least seven other tram systems are free, and at least six more saw ridership drop when fares started. Yet users value convenience and safety over cost, says Chris McCahill of UW-Madison’s State Smart Transportation initiative: “Even though they’re free, people won’t use them if they don’t meet a need. “

“A Hopping Downtown” appears in the November 2019 issue of Milwaukee Magazine.

Find it on newsstands or buy a copy at milwaukeemag.com/shop.

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It’s officially day three of the Toronto Police Road Safety Blitz and today’s agenda includes hunting distracted drivers … as they are perched inside TTC vehicles. .

During the week-long security blitz, officers search for motorists using their cell phones while driving.

Officers ride in the backs of streetcars and buses on Wednesday and when they see distracted drivers on the road, they call officers in patrol cars following in front of and behind the TTC vehicle to stop the drivers and issue them a ticket.

In a video shared on Twitter by Toronto Police Services, Seargent Brett Moore said drivers don’t trick anyone by having their phones next to their knees when driving or when stopped at traffic lights.

“The perspective of these vehicles allows us to see better inside the vehicles,” Moore said.

Day 3 of @torontopolice #Distracted driving Campaign. Application of zero tolerance. We will be on #TTC vehicles 2 days … https://t.co/TU24xUONZn

– TPS traffic services (@TrafficServices) January 16, 2019

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, Toronto police had already issued their first distracted driving ticket.

“We just finished writing the first ticket when we saw this driver and passenger both on their cell phones. The passenger should be the navigator, not the driver, ”said Constable Giancarlo Marrelli.

We just finished writing the first ticket when we saw this driver and passenger both on their cell phones. The passenger should be the navigator, not the driver. #DoYouSEEWhatsHappening #PutDownThePhone @ CP24 @CityNews pic.twitter.com/SwWLU0pN1Y

– Giancarlo Marrelli (@YourTrafficCop) January 16, 2019

Effective January 1, those caught using a portable device, such as a cell phone, while driving will be fined up to $ 1,000.

Those captured will also receive a three-day license suspension and three demerit points.

The fines will double if there is a second conviction within five years, and they will triple if there is a third.

Collection boxes and a fundraiser page will be used to raise funds for gifts and toys that the drivers and owners of the business will deliver over Christmas.

Sonia Nijjar, 22, daughter of owner Sat Nijjar and fundraiser organizer, told Adver:

“I love giving back to sick children, especially at Christmas. The hospital is not a very nice place for Christmas and I have seen the effect it has on children when you give them a gift.

“It’s nice to give back and see where your money is going, to see a sick little kid who doesn’t have much to smile about.

“And just by talking to these kids they obviously see their parents and doctors and nurses and they don’t get a chance to interact with other people it’s nice to sit and talk to them. and make them feel better and tell them that whatever the disease they are in because they will get better.

“We’re lucky to have family and friends, but you forget there are people out there who don’t. It’s good to make sure that as many people as possible feel happy. ”

The company’s drivers work closely with the retirement home, many of which have dementia, and have completed training with the home, often getting to know their clients well.

“Drivers build relationships with the customers they pick up,” added Sonia.

“We have one lady in particular that we pick up once a week to take her to the one-day session she’s going to.

“With Abbey House, we work very closely with them, it can be a lonely place.

“Christmas should be the complete opposite of that. So we’re going to go out there and spend time with the residents at the house and give them the presents, just to make them feel good and happy.”

Donation boxes will be dropped off at the station and at the Cross Street Cars garage, located next to the transfer bridge roundabout.

There is also a Justgiving page at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/crossstreetcars for those who wish to donate online.

The organizers requested that the toys donated for the children be in their original packaging and cannot be used.

Mr Ferguson confirmed the move during an interview with the Echo.

He said: “I have come to an arrangement to purchase Street Cars and as of next month (September) I will be the official operator.”

Street Cars will keep its name, but Mr Ferguson aims to return it to its ‘former glory’.

He explained: “It’s not always been a bad firm, but I want to get it back to being a viable and safe option for passengers.”

He added that the offices in Maiden Street will undergo a six-week refurbishment, but phones will still be answered and the firm will continue to operate all over the borough.

Although this acquisition means Mr Ferguson will own three of the town’s taxi firms, he says he does not own a monopoly, with taxi firms, including Fleetline and Nicky’s Taxis, still operating in the area.

He also said that there are still plenty of private hire operators.

“In this game it’s very difficult to grow organically, so growth by acquisition is the only viable option” he added.

Mr Ferguson first moved to Weymouth in 2009 and has been working in the taxi business for 37 years.

He says he is responsible for bringing automated dispatch systems to Weymouth taxis, which he introduced five years ago.

“The system we use can dispatch five cars in the space of two minutes.

“We track every vehicle and can play a journey back on our link” he said.

Since introducing this dispatch system Weyline and Bee Cars have completed more than half a million jobs.

Mr Ferguson is also Vice Chairman of Weymouth BID.

He said: “I live in Weymouth and am committed to the town as a business owner and member of the community. We at Weyline have always worked very closely with charity organizations and provide a taxi to and from the homeless bus shelter. I like to think I am doing my bit. ”

One of the benefits of running a stand-alone EFI system is the ability to record many levels of information through its built-in data logger. With this information, a tuner can learn how to get even higher performance from a combo in response to the track, weather conditions, or part changes. Thanks to the new AQ-1 OBD-II Data logger (PN 30-2501; $ 649.95), owners of streetcars with original EFI systems can easily record data from the factory PCM and external sensors.

To learn more about this powerful new tool, we reached out to Eric Holiday at JPC Racing, who recently started using the AQ-1 for logging, which makes his job of tuning cars a lot easier.

“We get the question every week, ‘Hey, how can I make my car faster? ” I do not know. You have to give me more information, ”explained Eric. “Say someone has a car and mentally you think it should be a lot faster than it is. You start asking ‘How fast is the boost coming in?’ Or ‘How is that? is it or how is it going? ”If they have a journal they can send you, from there we can basically say“ Here’s where we think you need to improve ” and try to help them grab it. ”

Because the AQ-1 is designed to tap into the factory OBD-II data stream, it’s really easy for people to provide that information to a tuner. Simply plug the unit in for power, plug in the OBD-II connector and configure the free software on your computer and you are ready to save factory data. It will even read and clear diagnostic trouble codes like a portable tuner.

If this was not enough, the AQ-1 records data from the factory electronics, but it can be supplemented with data from eight analog inputs provided.

“The other advantage is that it is not limited to AEM sensors. Any 0-5 volt sensor, whether it’s an automatic meter, GM MAP sensor or whatever, you can just hook up to those signals, ”Eric explained. “So if you have an Auto Meter electric fuel pressure gauge, you can attach that wire to your gauge and it will record the fuel pressure. You just have to manually configure the sensor, but it’s pretty straightforward.

It also has three switched digital inputs, which can record data in response to a switch; say a nitrous switch or transbrake. It is even wired with the AEMnet CAN bus and an RS232 serial connection, which offers even more possibilities for recording data.

“The AEM gauges you have, especially the new X-series CAN bus, don’t take any input out of the box,” Eric enthused. “You can just ADCs right into the recorder and you basically have a free channel. “

These flexible inputs even make the AQ-1 useful on pre-OBD-II vehicles, as it has many channels ready to record non-factory data.

“If you have an old Fox body, for example, and it’s not OBD-II but you want to see the voltage of your air mass meter, you can attach your air mass meter to one. digital inputs and it will record your air mass meter running on the track, ”Eric said.

It even includes an on-board three-axis accelerometer to record the car’s movements during a pass or lap. This data and all other settings are saved on an SD card like the one you put in a digital camera. This makes the data infinitely scalable and easy to share.

“Even if you are in open-tracking, you can just put a map and for that lap and record all the time you spend racing,” added Eric. “Then you can come back and just replace the card, go back and compare the two tracks. “

It’s not serious business, however. If you want to overlay some of this data on a video of your car in action and share it with your friends, AEM data analysis software offers HD video encoding to get the job done.

To learn more about the AQ-1, you can visit the AEM website here.

A streetcar that operated in the Hill District in the 1920s

The South Side Streetcar, instead of “Let’s Go Pens”, featured “Lake Erie Depots”

Trolley cars in Oakland, a sprawling traffic jam

Streetcars in East Liberty

Tram # 82, going ‘Dahtahn’, passengers of Port Authority bus line 82 would know.

It was a double-decker streetcar, the experiment that didn’t quite work in Pittsburgh.

Special streetcar on Liberty Ave, downtown Pittsburgh, with Penn Station in the background.

Going up the tram line …

Bloomfield Tram, 1910s

Good things come to an end. But sometimes in Pittsburgh they’re replaced with better things – better defined by the generations that bestow those things on the world – which ultimately aren’t necessarily more environmentally friendly, just more efficient.

Streetcars, the fictionalized predecessors of the Port Authority buses much hated by today’s motorists, were a big step forward for Pittsburgh when they first saw the light of day.

They were so popular that overcrowding was a frequent complaint brought to the attention of the Pittsburgh Railways Co. which operated the streetcars. Social germs in the winter, drivers and passengers smokers, ladies exchanging the latest gossip, vendors pushing their wares – you might find it all on a Pittsburgh streetcar. Scoring a siege was a feat, attempts to get out of the crowded wagon have been compared to assassination.

In 1918, at its peak, the Pittsburgh Railways Co. operated 99 streetcar lines over 600 miles of track.

They were appreciated for their convenience and affordability, they were signs of progress in the city at the turn of the 20th century. They were sometimes luxurious… At one point there was talk of double-decker streetcars, but after a failed experiment with a double-decker motorized streetcar, this experiment was abandoned. They didn’t quite work here, because – as the caption of the photo we found says – they made the passengers dizzy and some of the tender hearts even “flew to the front” of the car. as the driver got stuck during breaks.

They were hated. Hated by car owners, by thugs, by people who have never used them, a familiar feeling we see with PAT buses today.

Wars between streetcar and car operators were frequent and heated. In 1934, streetcar drivers channeled their anger into the pages of the Post-Gazette because they were fed up with those occasions when it was necessary to reroute streetcars to avoid parked cars blocking the tracks. There were traffic jams that lasted for hours. These violations… and these strong complaints were well documented by the Post-Gazette, but the Pittsburgh Police Department had no way of enforcing the rules.

“The machine blocked the lanes used by the Crosstown-Bedford and Charles Street lines, the former one of the busiest in the city,” a Post-Gazette article detailed.

“The driver of the first streetcar to attempt to use the tracks called a nearby traffic cop, but he said there was nothing he could do. Then an inspector from the Pittsburgh Railways Co. rushed to the scene to see why the traffic was blocked. He couldn’t do anything either.

“Meanwhile, the streetcars were rerouted on Liberty Avenue to Fancourt Street to Duquesne Road to the Sixth Street Bridge, with operators reporting that they were delayed for 15 minutes by the change. . An emergency team from the Railway Co. fixed the problem by attaching chains to the sedan and pulling it off the tracks with their truck.

But while the auto industry was booming across the country, Pittsburgh was no exception. More and more Americans could buy cars, afford a house in suburban areas. And Pittsburgh has fallen in love with its streetcars. Congestion has become a big, big problem.

In the 1940s, two New York engineers and traffic experts, Robert Moses and WS Menden, discussed what was best for Pittsburgh. They conducted investigations and wrote reports. The Menden report insisted that “efficient and rapid mass transport to and from the Golden Triangle of Pittsburgh must be based on a modern high-speed streetcar system”.

In contrast, the Moses Report concluded that carts were the reason for Pittsburgh’s traffic difficulties.

“Streetcars are obsolete in most of the country’s major cities. Buses are replaced almost everywhere …

“The trams are clumsy, relatively immobile and greatly obstruct traffic.

Unless there is something quite extraordinary about the streetcar situation in Pittsburgh that is not immediately obvious and which we have not been able to fathom, it would seem advisable to prepare for the permanent abandonment of the vehicles. trolleybuses in favor of buses and immediately re-study the possibility of partial consolidation of lines and of what are called “short loops” in the Triangle… ”

In the end, Moses and the buses won. Twenty years after the reports, the Port Authority started adding bus lines. The trams were gradually phased out.

But as it often happens, sometimes good things come back or, better yet, are reintroduced in their new iterations. Today, the people of Pittsburgh are once again getting closer to intra-city rail lines. Today the T service is known to be a success because of the demand. Maybe we will see more tram lines in the years to come, especially when gas prices go up?

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