Trolley Tuesday 6/30/20 - New Orleans Regional Transit Authority

While light rail is commonplace amongst city transit agencies, it's not everyday an entire heritage streetcar system serves as a municipal light rail system. Most of the time, you see smaller heritage streetcar services operated as side hustles like Dallas' McKinney Avenue Trolley or Portland's Vintage Trolley, either through a private nonprofit or through the agency itself. New Orleans' Regional Transit Authority (RTA), on the other hand, uses its historic St. Charles Streetcar Line and the four rebuilt "streetcars" (their own parlance for lines) as its primary rail transit network. After all, when you're the home of the world's oldest rapid transit line, you might as well make it the backbone of your entire operation!

Trolley Thursday 6/25/20 - The Perley A. Thomas Carworks

On Tuesday, we covered the general history of New Orleans' famous streetcar system, but you may be surprised to realize that not once did I ever refer to the streetcars used on the line that I would in other episodes. That was deliberate, because New Orleans holds the unique distinction of having just one iconic type of streetcar rather than two, three, or even more, from one manufacturer. Much like an oyster's pearl, the 173 800- and 900-series cars built for the New Orleans Public Service Inc (NOPSI) have become desirable antiques that carry on the legacy of the Crescent City no matter where they operate, and it is thanks to the Perley A. Thomas Car Works that such an icon was born.

Trolley Tuesday 6/23/20 - New Orleans Streetcars, 1893-1983

You've no doubt heard of Tennessee Williams' famous theater production, A Streetcar Named Desire, which takes place in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Since its first run in 1947, the play's name has lent itself to being referenced by many heritage streetcar operations in New Orleans and all over the United States. The "Desire" in the title is a reference to the Desire Street line, one of the over 24 individual streetcar lines that filled in the Big Easy between 1893 and 1974, when the Rapid Transit Authority took over operations. So, grab your coat, grab your hat, leave your worries on the doorstep, and direct your feet over to the sunny side of the streetcar on this brief overview of the New Orleans streetcar system!

Trolley Thursday 6/18/20 - DART Light Rail

Historically, the Texas Electric Railway Company was one of the largest transit systems in the Southern United States with a route length spanning more than 200 miles. All of of those route-miles were gone by 1948 following the TER's closure to increased bus and auto traffic, but the right of ways through Plano and Dallas never really went away. Today, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit continues to maintain its status as the largest street railway company in the southern United States with its own light rail system spanning about 93 miles and connecting Dallas with Plano, Fort Worth, DFW Airport, and even the Dallas Zoo. For our last jaunt into Texas, hop aboard the DART for today's Trolley Thursday!

Trolley Tuesday 6/16/20 - The New El Paso Streetcar

Heritage streetcar service is nothing new today, as almost every city has some way of celebrating its transit heritage. Some, like the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority, maintain a fleet of heritage cars to run on lines that have been in service since the 19th century, while others prefer creating new streetcar lines and loops that function more as moving museums on brand new alignments like the San Francisco MUNI. Indeed, to appeal to both tourists and nostalgia-bait-takers alike, you have to have a heritage streetcar. Today, we look at one of the more recent systems to pop up in the 21st century, the long awaited return of the El Paso Not-Quite-International-Anymore Streetcar!

Trolley Thursday 6/11/20 - The Interurban Railway Museum

Welcome back to part two of the Texas Electric Railroad Saga! When we last left what was once the largest electric railroad in Texas, the TER had just gone under due to severely decreased passenger use and a massive labor strike that the company could not recover from. Today, through the eyes of the only survivor of the TER, we look at not only the many car classes she encountered, but also how she ended up as one of the last cars of the TER. Grab a cup of Texas tea and a slice of Texas toast, because this is big finale of the TER saga!

Trolley Tuesday 6/9/20 - The Texas Electric Railway

For Today's Trolley Tuesday post, I'd first off like to thank the Interurban Railway Museum of Plano, Texas, for their wonderful geniality and massive archive collection. Working with railroad museums like this is great because I get to utilize the nichest of niche information while the museum gets embarrassingly-fanboyish levels of free advertising. Today, the IRM will be helping me tell the brief (but long-lived) history of one of the last independent interurban lines in the state of Texas, and how this Lone Star shone so bright yet faded like a falling star into obscurity. Find the rest of the story after the break!

Trolley Thursday 6/4/20 - El Paso International Streetcar

Today's Trolley Thursday continues a theme began on Tuesday when we started our journey deep into the heart of the Lone Star State, or at least its borders. Laredo's small-town system, while being the first electric streetcar west of the Mississippi River, was not the only international streetcar. Just 600 miles to the Northwest, the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez also contained its own Tex-Mex streetcar. The story of the El Paso International Streetcar, later the El Paso City Lines, is one that's both tragic and hopeful; a streetcar line driven to destruction by National City Lines was able to defy expectations and return to run in the modern day. This, and more, after the break. (A fancy new break!)

Trolley Tuesday 6/2/20 - The Laredo Electric Railway Company

Welcome to the sixth month of Trolley History posts! This month, we'll be looking at electric railroads from Texas and Louisiana, and considering how big the two states are, I can't imagine we'll be strapped for content anytime soon! For our first street railway of the month, we're taking a look at what's considered the first electric street railway west of the Mississippi River: The Laredo Street Railway.