A glimpse at today’s streetcars

One of the benefits of streetcars is that they introduce mass transit on the city streets where people park their cars, drive to work, and walk. A perfect example of that is with Portland’s original streetcar line where a person is about to cross in front of a northbound streetcar on SW 10^th Avenue.

This shot of Seattle’s South Lake Union Streetcar, is another example of streetcars moving with and through traffic. The difference is that it also captures a hint of elegance in blurs, evoking thoughts of speed, and something we expect more of streamlined passenger trains.

For a look at the really new and interesting, here is a streetcar from Seville, Spain. It has everything a modern streetcar is supposed to have: low-floor boarding, slightly raised boarding platforms, and all the accoutrements of modern propulsion design, running through an urban center.

Certain cities are ripe for a streetcar revival. County Canada’s largest city, Toronto, among them. Toronto was one of the few cities in North America that retained its streetcar system during the booming car culture of the 1960s and 1970s. That puts the city on Lake Ontario in a good place to quickly update and adapt to the latest in streetcar technology.

What makes a modern streetcar “modern?” Well, one item is the design and function of the powered trucks, with wheels, gears, traction motors, and wiring reduced to the bare essentials. The trucks’ components are compressed to the point that they will fit underneath low-floor streetcars enabling low-floor boarding without a hitch. Everything else goes inside the car, or on the roof.

Two things modern streetcars share with wooden ancestors are colorful paint schemes and route stops. Here this Seattle streetcar stands out on an otherwise bland street corner.

On second thought, the Seattle streetcar might just blend in better than we thought.

What says Portland better than a street café? A street café with a streetcar! This shot shows Portland’s Pearl District north of downtown, built on the former Burlington Northern 9^th Street roundhouse and yard site.

This shot from Portland shows once again that not only are streetcars brightly colored, they are work horses. Dozens of people who ride a streetcar in town (or a bus too, but that’s not fun) means that many fewer automobiles on roads, bridges, and highways. Here, a Portland Streetcar crosses the Broadway Bridge downtown.