Growing Movement to Save Seattle Streetcars

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3011

A while back we were discussing what happened to the Seattle Waterfront Streetcar. Apparently the folks here at RYPN aren't the only ones wondering about that...

KING 5 TV in Seattle offers this report:

Quote:

SEATTLE – Five vintage streetcars sit in a SODO warehouse, covered in seven years of dust and lined with advertisements from the day they were retired in 2005.

The future of the trolleys, which once ran along Seattle’s waterfront, is uncertain, but other cities have expressed interest in buying the cars. In fact, representatives from St. Louis visited Seattle last week to look at them in person.

“You’ve got an asset here that could be of value to either our community or other communities, if people actually have a plan,” said Jim Jacobson, Metro’s deputy general manager.

But there’s a growing movement to keep the streetcars in Seattle. Some think they should return to the city’s waterfront once the Alaskan Way Viaduct disappears.

“It would be a shame, putting it bluntly, for us to work to produce the kind of waterfront park we’re going to have with the opportunity to use streetcars, only to find that they were gone,” said Tom Gibbs, former executive director of Metro.
There are currently no plans to include the vintage streetcars in Seattle’s waterfront development.

Metro hopes someone will make a serious offer to get the streetcars out of the warehouse and back on some tracks – whether it’s here or somewhere else. The county would have to approve any sale.

Video here:

http://www.king5.com/news/cities/seattl ... 09185.html

trolley323 · **Joined:** Thu May 03, 2012 8:01 am **Posts:** 23

I still say it was a crying shame that Seattle retired those cars in 2005. To me, it was the example of how dealing with the city could go horribly wrong and what to look out for to stop it from repeating elsewhere. Yet even so while I would love to see them running in other cities like St. Louis on their future line, or even down here in Dallas (just me and my wishful thinking), I think that if Seattle can muster the funds and support to bring the cars back, it would prove the be a great victory for Transit and Rail supporters here in the states! It would turn the story of Seattle from what NOT to do to something that is, as far as I know, unheard of in railroad history. A good number of cities have tried to have a second coming of the trolley, some have succeeded, but I can't think of any that have ever had a THIRD coming of the classic streetcar.

Best of luck for you folks up in Seattle!

robertmacdowell · **Posted:** Fri Jun 22, 2012 7:54 pm

Those cars really remind me of Melbourne trams - note the funny side doors for the operator.

mikefrommontana · **Posted:** Fri Jun 22, 2012 8:52 pm

I believe they are Melbourne trams.... Rather a shame that they can't figure a way to put them back to work.

Michael Seitz
Missoula MT

Zak Lybrand · **Joined:** Tue Jul 06, 2010 1:57 am **Posts:** 210

robertmacdowell wrote:

Those cars really remind me of Melbourne trams - note the funny side doors for the operator.

They are indeed Melbourne trams!

jollygreenslugg · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:26 am

They are indeed Melbourne W2 class cars. I grew up in Melbourne and as a teenager in the 80s, rode many interesting trams and services, reminiscent of fifty years earlier.

What a great time to be a kid keen on traction! Here's hoping that the Seattle cars have a future.

Cheers,
Matt

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3011

robertmacdowell wrote:

Those cars really remind me of Melbourne trams - note the funny side doors for the operator.

For many years I was the track inspector on the line. One day I was walking the track and a fellow on the platform asked when the next car was due. I informed him it should be along any moment now, noting his Australian accent.

He then went on to tell me how this was his first visit to the US and how he was really looking forward to seeing a modern LRV.

Uh, um, err, you're not familiar with this system are you?

Well, no, why?

Well, it's not a... Ding! Ding! Here comes the trolley.

In a voice worth of Crocodile Dundee "It's a bleeding Melbourne Tram! I came halfway around the world, and I get a Melbourne Tram!?!?"

FVHRS · **Posted:** Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:17 am

Bobharbison wrote:

robertmacdowell wrote:

Those cars really remind me of Melbourne trams - note the funny side doors for the operator.

For many years I was the track inspector on the line. One day I was walking the track and a fellow on the platform asked when the next car was due. I informed him it should be along any moment now, noting his Australian accent.

He then went on to tell me how this was his first visit to the US and how he was really looking forward to seeing a modern LRV.

Uh, um, err, you're not familiar with this system are you?

Well, no, why?

Well, it's not a... Ding! Ding! Here comes the trolley.

In a voice worth of Crocodile Dundee "It's a bleeding Melbourne Tram! I came halfway around the world, and I get a Melbourne Tram!?!?"

LOL. Great Story.

Enjoyed riding the cars, when visiting Seattle. Good Luck!

Bob Davis · **Joined:** Sat Aug 28, 2004 3:25 am **Posts:** 1025

There's a similar story about a man from Milan, Italy visiting San Francisco. One of the locals (possibly a relative) was showing him around The City, and was especially proud of the Milan trams running on the "F" line. Our visitor from the old country wasn't impressed, saying something like, "I ride those old clunkers every day back home."

I could even mention my wife, who went to college in Boston back in the 60's. When I get all gung-ho about going up to San Francisco to ride the PCC cars, she will bid me bon voyage, and remind me that she got in enough streetcar riding to last a lifetime in MBTA-land. Her idea of a good way to travel by rail is Amtrak. She still loves to recall the time we got to ride a private car built in the 1920's from Santa Barbara to LA and how she enjoyed riding the Surfliner up the coast in the late afternoon to meet the Starlight.