Trolley cars vs light rail

[MaryL]

Think about it: back in the 50's GM fought light rail AKA trolley cars. Buses where the future, being that say Firestone and GM fought to remove Trolleys...here we are, all of a sudden, "POOF" , we need trolley cars, err light rail again? Says who?

 

[Mushroom]

Think about it: back in the 50's GM fought light rail AKA trolley cars. Buses where the future, being that say Firestone and GM fought to remove Trolleys...here we are, all of a sudden, "POOF" , we need trolley cars, err light rail again? Says who?

That is all conspiracy theory hogwash.

Streetcars failed because they were almost all universally private enterprises, and were very expensive to maintain and operate. At a time when few owned private cars, there was a place for them. But as car ownership increased, they had increased competition as well as were competing for the city streets themselves. Look at almost any film of the era, and street cars took away 2 or more lanes of streets that were already growing increasingly congested.

Plus as time went by, maintenance costs only increased. Even a minor task like replacing a sewer line became a major undertaking, as it would interrupt service, and require the tracks to be laid yet again before service could resume. However, the only casualty was the surface lines, the subsurface and elevated ones continued to be used and over the decades have expanded.

But there is a huge difference between trolley service and light rail. One is intended purely for local service, and is akin to a bus. The other is for longer routes with few intermediate stops, like a subway.

Now I actually am a "rail fan". And we once had some extensive streetcar services in California. You could once catch one from the southern end of San Francisco, and ride it all the way to Sacramento north to Chico. But the same thing killed it that gave rise to our Interstate system, cars. There was no "conspiracy" between GM and Firestone needed, people simply could afford cars so bought them, and stopped taking the street cars. Now the only remnants are a few "Heritage" lines, more for tourists than actual use.

And for those that remained private enterprises, busses were simply much more economical than trolleys to operate. And as the cities expanded into the suburbs in the 1950s, they could expand with them quickly and inexpensively. Got a new subdivision, you can add 3 busses to service a route, or spend a huge amount of money obtaining a right of way, then actually constructing the damned thing to the new destination. And hope that your plans for future growth did not hit some kind of snag, or all future plans were destroyed as you had to actually purchase land to run the things on. Unlike a bus.