Trolley Tuesday 8/31/21 - Cars of the San Diego MTS

Welcome to the last Trolley post of this very inconsistent month! On behalf of my editor and I, thank you to all our generous rider and supporters who continue to read our articles and learn more about everything that we write here. We promise September will be a return to form with no gaps or inconsistent posting times.

For our last Trolley Tuesday of the month, we thought it would be a good idea to look at the light-rail cars of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) and see how forward-thinking this pioneering system really was. Because they were among the first real light-rail comebacks in America (as systems like Muni never really stopped running at all), San Diego's light rail fleet was able to pioneer a lot of light rail tropes that we take for granted today while also handling eventual problems that many of us see as normal. So, without further ado, let's jump right into the cars!

Trolley Thursday 8/26/21 - The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System

After long delays and your patient understanding, we are now at the end of our San Diegan streetcar story! Before Los Angeles re-embraced its light rail, and so did the rest of the country, America's Finest City led the rallying cry for better light rail in defiance of filthy motor buses and car culture that choked city streets and the citizens that rolled upon them. However, unlike many of these stories, San Diego was not doing this to spark a revolution; rather they did it to fix a problem that had plagued them for 31 years after the last PCC pulled its pole off the wire and went into storage. Today, the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) stands as a testament to what modern light rail can do to reinvigorate a city, and it is appropriate that a story started by John D. Spreckels deserves to have a sweet ending.