A Streetcar City Reborn: The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Philadelphia's Trolleys 

It's very generous of SEPTA to even restore these streetcars. Most railroads that owned these put them out of service a while ago. SEPTA clearly put their backs into making these things work again.

As a lifelong Chicagoan, I've been riding public transit for as long as I can remember, and seeing how transit enables a car-free lifestyle and what that offers has really instilled within me a love for cities and public transportation. I gotta admit that Philly isn't a city I've spent a lot of time thinking about in my life. Until recently. Thanks to videos like this and those by Alan Fisher, I can't believe I haven't paid more attention to Philly, especially considering how many similarities they share. It's a city I would love to move to someday. I interviewed for a job in Philly but didn't get it, but I'm still applying to companies in the area with the hope of maybe landing something there someday. Like many East Coast, Rust Belt, and Midwest cities, Philly has incredible bones and I'm glad to see SEPTA is really starting to build more on that foundation.

Its cool that Septa helped support the local trolley manufacturing as well, instead of outsourcing everything to the foreign companies. Hopefully they can trend that direction in the future. Made in PA on Philly lines.

Its really nice to see well put together video about transit in philly that isnt just a robot reading a wikipedia article. Some bus routes that are good contenders to become trolleys again are the 52(52nd Street), and 60(Allegheny Avenue) an maybe also turn the 42(Spruce street) into a subway surface line. Along with those a Washington Avenue trolley with median lanes really would help make it less hostile than it is now. I also believe that Routes 17, 23, 33, 45, 47 and some others would be better of as trolleybuses since they can maneuver the narrow streets of north and south Philly like a normal bus but still use overhead wires.

I always thought what set Philly apart from other cities was our trolleys, it was kinda sad when they got rid of them , I remember riding the 6 trolly as a kid and being so excited to ride the trolley

Thank you for pronouncing Lancaster correctly. That is all.

Got me with the "grab yourself a cheesesteak and a wooder ice" 😂

My family is originally from Philadelphia, I remember seeing the trolley tracks in the Mt. Airy section of the city, when we would visit my grandmother back in the early 70's. This IS definitely a step in the right direction. Awesome video!!!💜

If only SEPTA had kept all those PCCs that they sold to San Francisco and the Market St. Railway. THEN they could REALLY have a Streetcar City.

Great informative video. Glad you identified the tyre, gas and motor vehicle connection with the 1950’s demise of trams and indeed, interurbans. Lot of new supporters don’t know about that corruption.

Great video. I grew up in Media in the 70s and have great memories of riding the trolley.

restoring the trolley tracks may be expensive, but on the upside, seeing a trolley go by my window would be cool

the 15 running again goes against of my doomer inclinations of the future of Philly. I'm so glad they did it, and I think it's a good sign for the future of SEPTA as a whole, not just for its trolleys

I was very glad to see that philly has the 15 running again!

16:33 - I parked my car at Cheltenham Mall, and rode the #6 trolley from Cheltenham Avenue to Olney ane back before the trolley ended. That 6 trolley had, years ago, ran to Willow Grove Park.

I live in NYC and I wish we had trolley service :(

Interesting! I live in a city that partly ripped out their entire network of tram lines. Berlin once had one of the largest tram networks in the world, peaking at 630 km in length. In the 1960s, West Berlin wanted to become a car friendly city, like all western cities at that time. So they ceased operation on all tram lines and ripped out 99% of the tracks. Instead, dozens of kilometers of inner city highways were built. They even had express bus routes along those highways. Rail public transport was not dead though. This era also saw a great expansion of the subway network. Subways are not in the way of cars and cars are not in the way of subways, so it was considered a win-win situation. Meanwhile in East Berlin, trams maintained their role as a vital part of the city's public transport. For some larger new developments in the city outskirts, they even built new tram lines BEFORE the houses were finished. So construction workers could already take the tram to work there. Today - roughly 35 years after the fall of the Berlin wall - the reunified Berlin has slowly re-expanded the tram network back into the western districts. Being a car friendly city is now only a priority for a small minority of enthusiast petrolheads. Most serious planners prioritize the so called "Umweltverbund" (ecomobility), which comprises walking, cycling and public transport as the intended environmentally friendly modes of transport. The network has grown back to currently 200 km, but that does not even make up one third of what it used to be. It will probably take decades to come to rebuild the lines that have been removed for the car in the past.

This video get the stamp of approval with the inclusion of the word "jawn." Excellent job!

Yes renaissance for the trolleys! Justice for route 23 on Germantown Ave❤ great video!

As both a lifelong railroad/trolley fan and resident of the Philadelphia suburbs, I was very excited when I read the news about these trolley cars being restored to service. Unfortunately, though, I don't have much cause to take this particular route, as all my relatives who lived in North Philly have either moved or passed away.

Great video! I'm glad that peple still show interest in Philly's great and historical trolley system that we had. It's amazing to know that in the 30's, 40's and early 50's this city was covered in trolleys but sadly today you's NEVER know it unless you watched videos like this. SEPTA needs to relook at restoring the Route 23 (I know it's a pipe dream) and 56 (I STILL want to know WHY they got rid of THAT route) and a potential Delaware Ave/Columbus Blvd. trolley and I hope they do. (wishful thinking I KNOW!)

Omg I saw one of those yesterday, they're beautiful!!!

i’m excited for the new actual low floor trains for both Philadelphia and Boston. Makes them look like having a European Pre-metro system with modern and longer streetcar vehicles in underground stations. Though be interested if it will be really low floor or raised the platform at least. Though also it would be cool with the Delaware/Columbus Trolley, could possibly have PATCO station from the Ben Frank bridge, if feasible

Man I wish nyc kept its streetcars

Awesome video

Although they are not up on its website, Alstom has updated its design for the new trolleys. The windows now have sharp corners, in line with most other modern LRVs/Trams worldwide. Also, they shortened the cabs, as they now have just two viewer windows instead of the three in the original design. They now also now have "modernized" LED arrows as turning lights. You can see the updated design on Philadelphia Magazine's website.

Great discussion. As with everyone else, I love seeing the PCC cars back. While I agree with preferring trolleys/streetcars generally, I am often surprised that trolleybuses don't get more support/airtime. And fully agreed on Delaware Ave. Every time I'm over there I wonder why we're not taking advantage of the rails that are just sitting there. I didn't know they would need to be re-gauged, which seems like a fairly big hurdle.... But I dunno, even a bespoke vehicle for just that road might be worth it.

Yooooooooooo how awesome 😂😂😂 you got me getting off the route 15 bus at 38:59

love the burn on the high speed outta nowhere

SFMTA has entered the chat, I’m sure :3 Exciting to see these old PCCs getting new life, and hopefully a transit comeback in Philly!

Great video! So happy to see the 15 return, though I haven't been able to catch one yet (lots of busses are still running on the route mixed in with the trolleys)

Slight correction, there is one standard-gauged trolley line in Pennsylvania that operates between Orbisonia and Blacklog Narrows about 10 times a week. /s

15 was my trolley to high school for two years, then it was temporarily replaced with a bus for two more years.

Your videos are entertaining and informative. You have valid suggestions. However, the State Legislature of Pennsylvania controls the allocation of funding. Just a couple days ago, Septa's reqest for funding was $250 million short.

36:41 - A hundred years ago, the Ben Franklin Bridge was built with 8 road lanes, 2 of those lanes intended for trolleys. Those trolley tracks were never built into the road though, as trollys had begun to 'go out of style'. In the 1970s, the road was converted to 7 lanes, with a center median lane vacant. In the 1990s a concrete zipper median wall was installed to use 7 lanes for traffic on the bridge road.

Maybe just restore and run the 23 from Chestnut Hill to the Frankford Loop, resulting in some higher frequencies on a portion of Girard? I remember when the tracks were replaced in Mt Airy back when I was in college by PennDOT. What a waste not to use them. The infrastructure is probably mostly intact north of Girard. There has been a desire to restore the trolley in that part of the city for decades.

Its generally understood if the 23 were to return, it would only be between chestnut hill and erie

i went on one of the overhauled trolleys just a few weeks ago on the first day

I wish it would connect to 69th St. It's so close to it's terminal at 63rd

Just upgrade some of the former trolleys to trolleybuses

Awesome video, man! -Kevin

"Wake Up and smell the pretzels 🥨 " 😂 Most Philly joke ever!! 🥩🧀🏆

Appreciate the thought, but wouldn’t a line used for freight be standard gauge, making incompatible with the Pennsylvania trolley gauge used by the trolleys?

Quick note on teh LA mention at 44:20, while National City Lines did have a tenure in LA transit, they bought the old LARy streetcar system, while the PE sold theirs to a property called Metropolitan Coach Lines. During this period it was MCL (which was following a lead already set in motion by the PE in the 1930's and '40's when the PE abandoned whole lines and divisions over the course of a weekend) abandoned and substituted buses most of the PE network (due to a variety of reasons from cost of upkeep to the cost to upgrade the lines to modern standards) to where it was only 4 lines by the time MCL was taken over by LA's first MTA in 1958. The LARy system would be rebranded as the LATL system in 1944 and pretty much chug along unimpeded to its takeover in 1958 with a few exceptions. In 1947, the LATL would do its only unjustified route elimination (with 2 routes converted to Trolleybus operations); in 1955, the LATL would do this again but this time because of the Harbor Freeway bisecting the intersection of Grand Ave and Santa Barbara Ave (today MLK Blvd) with the company viewing the cost of relocating the tracks to be completely unjustified and instead opted for buses for the 4 lines still utilizing the corridor. In 1958 the last 4 PE Lines and the last 5 LATL streetcar lines would be combined with the bus network into the first LAMTA. Even under semi-public ownership rail was not safe and the last PE lines were gone by 1961 (partly due to cost to upkeep/upgrade the roues, partly because PE/SP wanted passenger trains off of a very lucrative freight feeder network), with the last 5 streetcar lines being eliminated in 1963 (to reasons I have yet to grasp fully, I've heard everything from the cost of operating the lines which had high frequencies, to the maintenance yard being taken by the city for the Convention Center, to the cost of upgrading the 60+ year old electrical infrastructure). While there is a court case with NCL and their involvement with the auto companies, it is far to say that the "great streetcar conspiracy" is a cut and dry historical fact.

i love that "K cars suck" applies to basically anything with wheels

Imagine a future where a trolley could take you from Overbrook, down 63rd to Baltimore/Angora, down 58th and across a new bridge to a South Philly avenue like Snyder or Oregon...

The fact that a loading platform or section of track has been removed means nothing, as reopening a line would have entailed rebuilding them from scratch anyway.

Can remember getting on the center door of trollies in the 1950's and they had a motorman collecting fares. Years latet you could see the round plate that covered the toll box that were removed and driver collected fates.

You forgot to mention the Route 6 trolley. I rode the last day of service in January 1986.

The Delaware Avenue stretch could simply just be made dual gauge to retain capability of freight services if need be. And I think in a more general sense the reason why it’s so frustrating to deal with an entity like SEPTA is that this region has massive potential and outside of a few efforts here & there (Wawa etc) they’re just not tapping into it the way it really needs to be. Funding is one issue, but the mentality of contraction & reduction has left the region feeling like they can’t count on any route being there at all let alone on time. The other issue, which I think still needs to be addressed is to have a more cohesive connection between the more urban core of the region and the surrounding counties. You talk about a streetcar Renaissance … we could totally put so many different streetcar routes into service across Eastern Pennsylvania. Like I said before - so much potential and so little done about it.

I thought there was once an idea of Penn’s Landing-City Hall trolley line as one of the Obama Streetcars or something. It would not be worth it to tunnel from there back to 13th since it would mess with the L (although I personally would make 11th trolley only if that happened since 8th/Market still has a connection to Jefferson). Should still do something there, even if just tourist/Heritage thing from Penn’s Landing to Frankford/Delaware that’s only around in the summers and maybe select Winterfest days. You still have to cross 95 to get to Penn’s Landing from 2nd St unfortunately

37:04 Regauged? The trolleys at the Electric City Traction Museum, including those that formerly operated in Philadelphia, all share space on freight lines currently operated by the Delaware Lackawanna railroad. The original tracks were built by the Erie RR, in Moosic PA, the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley RR (Laurel Line), which was a high speed, third rail interurban line from the Erie interchange near Moosic, through the Crown Ave tunnel to the former location of the L&WV terminal/interchange on Cedar Ave in Scranton. Finally, by the DL&W from the interchange into the nearby rail yard where Steamtown NHS and the Electric City Traction Museum reside. All three railroads were common carriers and interchanged regularly meaning all were built to the standard gauge of 4’8-1/2”. I am guessing that, at least, some lines used the old Pennsylvania RR broad gauge that even the PRR fully phased out in the mid-late 1800’s when the country went all in on standard gauge.

Philly got a very complex transportation system. A mixture of NYC, Boston and San Francisco. The Subway four track section reminds me of the IND. But the trains they use is more like Chicago. NYC don't have lights in front of their subway cars. The car seating arrangement on their older cars are very interesting. Boston. Light rail runs in the tunnel with their subway. Philly just does that much better and it is much more complex. They call their trolleys light rail. SF light rail looks a lot like Philly.

Wow, they had trolleys in Montana.

It's really interesting to me that the dual-cab k-cars have a different power delivery system and pantograph. I always thought that they were rebuilt at one point or something

Very informative video. Loving to see SEPTA investing in more trolley connectivity while simultaneously updating its subway-surface rolling stock and resurrecting classic PCC's (15 line). How about restore the 23 trolley along 11th and 12th street down town and germantown ave in North Philly!

Time to time you do see this happening whenever you watch channel 3 CBS channel 6 ABC channel 10 NBC cars parked alongside the tram line getting into an accident with them. I wonder if you can grade separate and put transit priority signals along the entire tram line. That way there is no accidents on this route. For the SEPTA Alstom Citadis Trams they should order them for the suspended 23 and 56 tram routes. For the 15 Tram Line to 69th st perhaps they should order the ones used in Ottawa modify to Philadelphia designs. The solution for Erie Avenue why not buy electric buses that can run on overhead wires and charge both at the overhead wires and Depot. The same ones can be used to replace the old E40lfrs on 59 66 & 75.

i’ve been thinking about the delaware ave trolley for a while

Glad Philadelphia got the #15 trolley line back. I had my doubts it would return to trolley service when temporarily suspended the last time. I grew up in Baltimore in the '50s and '60s, and still miss our old PCC streetcars. National City Lines did its damage there as well after WWII, but it was the city gov't. and Transit & Traffic Director that wanted the last two lines gone in 1963! The city was modernizing downtown and didn't want relics of the past (streetcars) marring their vision of the future by running through the middle of the new downtown. The T&T Director wanted to change traffic routing and didn't want streetcar tracks and wires in his way, so Baltimore's rich streetcar history became just that - history, until Light Rail came along. The Director was probably rolling over in his grave when tracks were being re-laid on Baltimore's downtown streets.

Rode the route 56 trolley to high school. Almost evety time it rained it was late. Great in smow storms. Worst thing when nogoodnics double park to go into a store or house for 5 or 10 minutes trolley was stuck snd never once saw them get a ticket.

I think their trolley system is the reason why they didn't build their subway out. It kind of makes you think that Philly is a make do city. Subways (Heavy Rail) are still more superior! You can clearly see that in their video showing when a trolley is using the Subway section. HR and Trolley enter the station at the same time. The HR leaves first. It has more entry points for loading. There's no payment system onboard. But even when the trolley leaves the same time as the HR, the HR are faster. Than the trolley has more stops within the Subway, making the HR somewhat of an express.

Shame that they needed major overhaul after the refit done in early 2000s. Was second overhaul warranted? Also what’s the new heavy duty trolley poles going up on Gerard?

There is still a trolley that runs from Media into the city (I think 69th Street Station). I see it numerous times a day.

Very nice job, thank you. Regarding the Columbus Ave / Delaware Ave tracks, did you know there used to be a subway station in the Philly side of the Ben Franklin Bridge? Could make a nice connection to PATCO. I'm not talking about Franklin Square.

They should reactivate all of their former trolley lines, including the ones in Chestnut Hill and in North Philly.

i just hope the trolleymod dosen't slow down how fast the trolley driver go i have a feeling it will tho

Gauge is 5' 2.5" Only the wheel profiles are different

Man they really should just bite the bullet and bring back lines 23 and 56 as trams. Thats my main point Im gonna say. (Also excessively long comment below. Like a wall of text about my own experiences where I'm from with all of this stuff. Read at your own risk) I'm just glad Philly even has trams. I'm not from there, I'm not even from North America, I live just outside of Copenhagen, Denmark. And Copenhagen used to have an excellent tram system! 107km or 67 miles long with 20 different lines at its peak! A massively comprehensive network. But bustitution too came for us, in part by regulators giving buses an unfair advantage, so while trams allowed little to no standees and had 2 man operation with a driver at the front and a conductor at the rear (multiple conductors even if it had multiple carriages), the buses from the early 60's onwards had just the driver, and could permit many MANY more standing passengers, unreasonable amounts even on paper. The initial plan was to shut down many of the lesser tram routes, but keep the 6 busiest ones. The city had long had ambitions of an underground rail system, likely underground expansions of its existing electric S-train system which was launched in the 1930's. So the plan was to keep the 6 busiest lines until they were all replaced with subways. But a highway loving mayor in the 60's named Urban Hansen, who nearly brought America level highway mania to the city, rushed the closing of all the lines. The initial plans were for the last line to shut down in 1975, but that was rushed forward yet again to 1972! Just one year before the oil crisis! Heck the city had even just received 100 brand new articulated Düwag GT6 trams between 1960 and 1968 (The PCC was also trialed but was deemed worse than Düwags offering), but all of these new trams were then sold at scrap value to Alexandria in Egypt as "Third world aid" where they still run to this day. Copenhagen or at least its suburbs are thankfully reviving the trams, as a brand new 28km or 17 mile long orbital light rail line along Ringway 3 is under construction, opening in 2025. This is far beyond where the legacy trams wouldve run but it is the only tram project in the city so far to have gotten of the ground, and the line is probably most comparable to the Maryland Purple line in the outskirts of Washington DC. Other tram revival projects have surfaced, and the city tried to make a comprehensive regional rapid transit plan with both Light rail and BRT corridors extensively mapped out in the mid 2010's under a national left wing government that was happy to invest in Railways and transit. It was under this government that the Ringway 3 line, as well as 2 other light rail schemes in 2 other Danish cities, Aarhus and Odense, were given the green light. However in 2015 a new right wing government was elected and they immediately withdrew funding. Still a few projects continued piecemeal with studies. Namely a new tramline in the northwest which for a large part would directly follow the old Line 5 tram (the last line to shut down in 1972) and the current 5C bus, which is one of the worst cases of BRT creep and actually lost about 3 million annual passenger trips from its conversion to a heavily creeped BRT (A loss from around 20 million annual passengers to 17 million. Simon Andersen has a great video on it). The government even provided co-funding in 2021 as part of a national infrastructure deal, but politicians in the city, namely from the centre left and right wing, immediately declined. Multiple politicians infamously even compared tram tracks to the Berlin Wall, I wish I was making this insanity up. The project after a while continued studies but without national funding and with BRT also thrown into the mix as the preferred option. Though since then, a municipal election has happened and the parties that are pro-tram have gotten more votes. Plus ever since then and the introduction of a new centrist national government in late 2022, support for the centrist parties that were opposed to the tram dropped even further, so the tides may be shifting in the city for more trams, though the risk of BRT still loom for a corridor that BRT will be illsuited to handle the demand on. It doesnt help that the 2 other Light rail projects in the country that opened in 2017 and 2022 have had a very rocky history with low ridership, severe technical issues like being incapable of operating in frost weather in some places, excessive vibrations through the ground and into nearby buildings, shoddy construction work with supports for overhead wires falling apart, and the huge price tags for these projects (relatively, still dirt cheap compared to tram projects in the US), have all caused a lot of public backlash towards trams and made them somewhat taboo, and given rise to massive idolization of BRT instead, as if BRT is everything trams could be but better and cheaper, even if thats not true. Lots of misinformation is around that tries to paint Light rail in a bad light here and BRT as like a mesiah for transit. 2 other BRT projects in the suburbs along other orbital corridors have also gotten government co-funding and broad political support. But they also suffer from other issues now. For tram projects, municipalities were granted excemptions to their imposed investment ceilings to be able to fund the projects, but the national government has declined to do that for BRT, making it practically impossible for them to fund their share of the BRT projects, even though they have the money, without having to resort to BRT creep or cutting important welfare and social services, which are always strained due to national level austerity measures regarding public spending for over 2 decades. Besides all of this, the country's first proper BRT system opened in 2023, and though it also underperforms, the media doesnt cover it as much. Still the light rail systems around the country have also finally started finding their footing and fix some issues, and generally win the public, at least in the respective city they run in over. And people are seeing the realities of BRT, since many of those I mentioned who try to praise BRT as a mesiah dont even want BRT, cause they hate the dedicated lanes and signal priority. They only gawk at the idea of a fancy looking bus with fancy looking stops. And maybe some techbro thing attached to it. I just hope we get tram investments around here on the table and more importantly shovels into the ground. The bus system here is easily the worst part of the city's transit and we have a huge need for something in between our suburban S-train and the buses that isn't gonna be a ponzi growth scheme and take decades at a time like the Metro, and which won't be underbuilt, too low capacity, and at risk of being slow and expensive to operate like BRT. Sorry for rambling so much on this. Just wanted to share my perspective and the struggles happening in my own city.

The 1940s USA PCC streetcars were available in zippy good riding configurations with the major weakness being no A/C. The PCC Presidents Conference Committee streetcars starting in the late 1920s was series of highly developed patents for streetcars with strong interurban influence to compete with traveling by automobile. 2024 European trams are slow and ponderous in comparison even though they purchased many of the USA PCC patents. People reviewing typical European trams have found they are actually slower than the Diesel buses covering the same route That is also the discovery for a reintroduced "streetcar" that is a street running European tram in Washington DC by a rail fan. It is not the zippy PCC Washington DC street car. Washington DC's streetcar system had on its Georgetown Glen Echo streetcar line Route 20 a dual track independent right-of-way where I've talked to an old man by this time in 2014 "George" who live on it remembering how he'd as a youth he would ride it with the Glen Echo PCC streetcar floating at high speed along the right-of-way that they thought was fun. Those DC PCC streetcars could get up to 60 mph. An actual Glen Echo streetcar exited down the the Virginia Transportation museum in Roanoke VA where I saw in the early 1990s. It was under roof and looked like it was ready to take passengers. I sat in it. It can be seen in this video the classic restored Philadelphia PCC steetcars accelerating from a stand still as fast or faster than the cars and gets up to speed quickly. Overwhelmingly a slightly increased performing PCC streetcar with A/C is a superior riding experience and faster than the typical street running European tram. I think it would be a turn off to put those slower European trams on Philadelphia streetcar lines where people are expecting a zippy USA PCC streetcar.

can you do a video about the recent massive redraw of the philly busmap please.

X for doubt on the worlds longest trolley. The kusttram in belgium is 67km long and is running for well over a hundred years now. And while it is hard to find reliable information today there were most certainly longer lines in the former oberschlesien tramcar network of what is today western poland.

But the question is can SEPTA actually pull it off? I actually like SEPTA and tend to be more accepting of them compared to other transit enthusiast/activist. However, there's a reason SEPTA has a lot of backlash too - they have the opportunity to do a lot of improvement and make transit SIGNIFICANTLY better, but then SEPTA does a SEPTA and either executes it horribly or doesn't take the opportunity - which just makes more people in the city mad at them and not trust/like the service. I actually know people who have been in Philadelphia their entire life (people around my age and older) and they haven't even been on a SEPTA bus and some aren't even entirely sure what exactly SEPTA is - they might say bus company, which in hindsight, is kinda true, but they wouldn't make the connection that SEPTA is a full-fledged Transit Authority with multiple modes. I'm not saying SEPTA shouldn't make improvements, they should and we should give them the chance, but let's be honest, how much trust do we have in SEPTA to not fuck up?

Great video - really long however - not sure if you’re able to edit your script down and tell the story in 15 mins? Or break it up into 2 or 3 episodes just with slightly different takes on the issue? You may find you’d get better replies. Good luck! I’ll subscribe and see where you take this!

these are trams... maybe you can call 2324 a trolley since it's that old, uses a pole for electricity, etc...., but "streetcar" is outrageous.

Based on my experience with modern streetcars in other parts of the country, I'm concerned that the new Alstom units will be significantly slower than the current stock - thoughts?

Theyve done the same here in nyc

These were running in 2002.

Anyone notice that suburban car 115 has Lexus badges on it? 😂

When we get a new trolly?

My cuz saw someone go under the Rt23 outside my house on 11th and Bainbridge

Is that the same Brookville that makes the locomotives?

sounds dangerous

With the price of cars and the lack of interest in Electric cars, an electric public transportation might be a backup plan for the poor people in the city who won't be able to fulfill the "dream" of all electric by 2030 (or whatever goal year Biden called for).

First of all, the horse cars of the 1800s were not trolleys, since they were powered by horses and not by trolley poles and electric wires. They could however, be called streetcars since they did run on rails in the streets. Second, I have NO idea what you mean by one of the most confusing junction stations (at 13th & Market Sts.). It always seemed very easy to board the correct trolley for where you want to go. All five routes end there and start from there. I will say that I am thrilled to see the PCCs back in service on route 15, while it is depressing to think about what happened to other routes that should have remained trolleys (23, 47, 50, 53, 56, and 60). I like the idea of new streetcars to replace our K cars, I hate the way those new "light rail" trains look.

Somebody mentioned LA. That shows you how effed up the Automobile Empire really is. Second largest city and nothing but BUSES? Gimmie a break. Thank God that's starting to get better, but for decades everyone thought that was OK.

So sad. Dedicated transit funding from gas taxes!!

that so racist .... 10:15

THE STREET IS G IRARD,NOT GERARD C'MON GET YOUR PROOF READER ACT TOGETHER!!