Reconnecting America, a national non-profit transit research and advocacy think-tank, has released a report that explores the “next generation” of transit in midsize cities, with a focus on best practices in transit planning, funding strategies, and outcomes:

Midsize Cities on the Move: A Look at the Next Generation of Rapid Bus, Bus Rapid Transit, and Streetcar Projects in the United States

Much of the report is off-topic for RYPN; however, page 21 of the PDF file is a informative illustration of the four different categories of streetcars:

• Survivor Streetcar: Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Francisco.
• Heritage (Vintage) Streetcar: Memphis, Kenosha, and San Francisco
• Replica Streetcar: Tampa, Little Rock, and Charlotte
• Modern Streetcars: Tacoma

The page also explains why modern streetcars typically cost more than the other categories:

Not to mention that the new systems are legally bound to accommodate wheelchairs and the like, which takes up room, requires such things as flip-up seats and wheelchair latches, and mandates access ramps, "kneeling" cars, etc.

Also add Portland, Oregon, to the list of Modern Streetcars. Portland is interesting as it has both streetcars and interurbans.

A quick difference between "interurban" and "streetcar" is that streetcars stop every couple of blocks while the modern "Light Rail" fills the interurban function by running between communities and have the distance between stops often measured in miles.

Charlotte has gone over to the dark side, and (assuming the disinvestment idiots get thwarted) will be building their streetcar system with modern cars, both in appearance and construction. I blame the lack of a city inspired vision blindly accepting the advice of a consultant with a narrow perspective.

dave

Brian, while the lists are only examples many more cities can be added as having street cars. On your coast Seattle (modern), Portland (modern and heritage/replica), San Jose (heritage/replica), and San Diego (survivor/heritage). East Coast: Boston (survivor with the Mattapan PCCs), except for the PCCs Philadelphia's streetcars are modern but of a different design (and we could add Toronto's here since it is in America). Charlotte's streetcars don't run (no longer allowed on the light rail).

Dave, Charlotte made the right choice for their starter system and is in the mainstream of streetcar thinking across the U.S. Riders want modern, low floor, quiet state-of-the-art cars. We buffs want things that look decades old, mainly so we can photograph them. Hey, Charlotte has an in-town trolley museum!

I know...I built it.

The streetcar line is planned to connect old streetcar suburbs for about 85% of the route. The remainder - from Plaza-Midwood out Central Avenue to Eastland Mall connects to 1930's to 1950's auto era neighborhoods of reasonably sized lots and houses with an unfortunate intercession of tacky 1970's era apartment complexes on major roads near the defunct mall.

Something akin to the San Francisco historic line, but with pre PCC styling - which can be newly built with low floors and modern control and climate control systems - would have fit in very well without losing the other amenities you correctly mention while contributing to the branding of the older on-line neighborhoods much better. We could even.....keep the $ in Charlotte by building them ourselves, just as the Duke Power systems did with car 85, the centerpiece of the museum.

So, I agree about the amenities, just not the esthetics and strategy....which is to my way of thinking a missed chance to build something unique in hardware, concept and branding of the areas served. The East Side deserves better, but we'd gladly take anything that works at this point even if it is obtrusive and ugly.

dave

As someone who has worked as a consultant in the light rail transit industry for over three decades, I think I know a bit about the topic here and have a couple of observations:

• Within the industry, the preferred term for those traditional streetcar cities that avoided complete bustitution during the post World War II decades is "Legacy Systems". That's a somewhat more genteel adjective than "Survivor" although I have to admit that the latter perhaps more accurately reflects how imperiled these systems were during the dark ages prior to the LRT renaissance.

• Arguably, Pittsburgh can be included in the Legacy/Survivor category. While it now uses all modern light rail vehicles, it still has significant segments of route that run in mixed traffic in city streets just like they have for over a century. The infrastructure along the Library line, while it is all private right-of-way, is very nearly all right out of the 1930s or earlier.

• While vintage/heritage/replicar streetcars of classic appearance are nice to look at and fun for the occasional rider, folks that have to ride them five days a week generally don’t think so. Handling the differently-abled on such cars is tedious and slows down service. Plus, mobility-impaired persons really don’t like being - to put it bluntly – handled like baggage on a wheelchair lift. They would much rather be able to move directly onto the streetcar completely unassisted just like everybody else. Modern, level-entry, low floor streetcars/light rail vehicles make that possible while speeding up entry and exit for everybody.

• That said, there no reason that a modern streetcar has to look modern. The front ends of these cars are generally plastic and could be molded to look like a legacy streetcar (the public is easily fooled) while still retaining the low floor center section. The Pacific Electric “Dragon” at Orange Empire could be the prototype for a low floor streetcar that’s antique-looking on the outside but totally modern inside and underneath.

• Shameless plug here: Some of the bullet points above are discussed in more detail in Transit Cooperative Research Program Report 155, Track Design Handbook for Light Rail Transit, 2nd Edition. I was the principal researcher for that project and did final editing of the entire handbook (all 696 pages of it!) TCRP Report 155 can be downloaded for free from the TCRP website: http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/tc ... pt_155.pdf

• Finally, a recruitment plug: The rail transit industry needs young people with practical hands-on experience and there’s probably no better source than the cadre found at a railway museum. When I started this gig three decades ago, one of the old heads confided to me that the problem with most consultants in the rail transit business was that they didn’t have enough trolley museum experience……….

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.