Streetcars Making A Comeback In U.S. Cities

Above, a Nagasaki streetcar (or trolley).  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

There's a mode of transportation that is making a comeback in U.S. cities: the streetcar.

The Wall Street Journal posted:

Cities from Los Angeles to Atlanta are making big bets to revitalize their downtowns by bringing back a form of transportation many abandoned decades ago: the streetcar. 

Some cities are counting on help from federal stimulus dollars, but a few are going it alone. 

Late last month, about 500 residents in one part of Kansas City, Mo., voted to create a special taxing district to raise $75 million over about two decades for a streetcar. In the same week, Cincinnati officials passed a measure to allow about $15 million to be spent on a 3.6-mile loop. And in Los Angeles, the city council approved a plan to ask voters if they are willing to pay additional taxes for a four-mile downtown streetcar loop. 

Proponents say the streetcars would boost economic growth and catch the fancy of younger generations.

I remember the Los Angeles streetcars and remember riding them.  I relived those "thrilling days of yesteryear" in 2007 when I rode the streetcars (or trolley) in Nagasaki, Japan. The last streetcar line in Los Angeles was closed down in 1963.  Old streetcar tracks occasionally are exposed in cracks in street asphalt.

To read the full article, go here.