The evolution of the Philadelphia Trolley system from its take over in 1968 by SEPTA to the present day. Map from Open Street Map. Correction: I say Route 49 was abandoned in 1969. It should read that Route 47 was abandoned.
The city should have forced septa into reinstating the 23 and 56 first because more people used them. While route 15 would have eventually been brought back since it was still connected to the active trolley network(Callowhill Depot)
Many of the streetcar routes (and trackless trolley routes) were indeed well used and profitable. SEPTA management was ant-electric transit and supported stinky, polluting buses. The electric vehicles were efficient and environmentally friendly.
Imagine SEPTA never got rid of almost all of the Trolley system we only got half that the Kawasaki running down but still imagine SEPTA never got rid of most of their trolley lines but my question is why they only order 112 Kawasaki trolleys and they still have a lot of lines
The tracks that were on the Broad/Vine area are long gone and torn out, those lines will not come back. It is as dead as a doorknob in all areas of Center City except 13th St. for the most part.
You didn't mention that Rt. 50 was also killed by SEPTA. SEPTA did more to destroy trolley and trackless trolley lines than National City Lines GM did with the PTC. SEPTA management hates surface electric transit and does not try to hide the fact. It took them a while, but they finally killed Rt. 15 on Girard Ave. Their excuse is that the PCC II cars are falling apart, but who deliberately let them get that way. So far, only a few PCC II cars have gone through a half-assed rebuild. Wrong colors, nothing to correct the horrible windshields, etc. Don't hold your breath waiting for trolleys to ever run on Girard Avenue again. SEPTA would like you to forget the PCC II cars are rotting away with outside storage at Elmwood. Then they'll say the cars are too old to spend any money on. I know these characters better than they know themselves. SEPTA is a bus company, period. SEPTA couldn't wait to cut the trackless trolley wires down in South Philly on the 79 and 29. The battery buses that replaced the trackless trolleys were a colossal failure and have been hidden away in dead storage for over a year. SEPTA hopes you forget about them. Only Philly would have streets with new rail and wires where a trolley will never run. Included is Germantown Avenue in Mt. Airy and Richmond Street in Port Richmond. This while city after city builds new streetcar lines in North America.
Your posts are extremely negative and try to be self-fulfilling in defeat. I have just read in the Philadelphia Inquirer that the PCC cars are scheduled to return to service this September 10th. So maybe you should hold your breath until 9/10/23.@@Jeff-uj8xi
@@Direction-North Much of the 23 is paved over with asphalt and wires cut down in many places.Don't hold your breath waiting for the 23 to ever come back. Much switches and special work on 23 is paved over or removed.
I wish that SEPTA would 😪 and should acquired all the PCCs from TTC and perhaps Bombardier cars from Toronto and have them run on Routes 53,56 and 23 😂😅.
Is the mission statement of SEPTA to remove all electric trains as they are in direct competition with the personal automobile and must make all former rail routes into bus routes that only those without any other option will take because the have to provide some type of transit service? Are there no other type of trolley car that can run on those tracks besides the PTC?
The trolley tracks are capable of running non-PCC trains. I suspect that not ordering cars for the North Philadelphia system was a ploy to get rid of that system.
This is stupid why would they close most trolly lines into carbon producing buses if I was the manger of septa I would bring back all those streetcars and suburban streetcars and extended the R2 to New hope And extend the sub surface to Camden and order trolly cars that look like Toronto in Canada and Manchester in the UK