November 29–December 6, 2001

news

Will Light Rail Prevail?

Mass transit advocates hope the seasonal trolley runs prove that the public wants to ride.

by Daniel Brook

Back in style? Light rail advocates see this vintage 1947 streetcar as the wave of the future.

This holiday season, vintage 1940s trolleys will be snaking their way through University City from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays through Sundays. An exercise in nostalgia? Not entirely. Light rail advocates see trolleys as the wave of the future and hope West Philadelphia’s holiday trolley loop will give them a boost in their push to expand Philadelphia’s streetcar system.

As it is, Philadelphia is the largest city in the nation in which trolley service is still part of the everyday mass transit system. A century ago, every decent-sized city in the country had streetcars, but with the rise of the automobile (and the sneaky purchase and dismantling of private trolley lines by Detroit automakers) the number of cities with light rail service dwindled… until now.

Today, streetcars are making a comeback. Service has been revived in more than 20 cities, with new lines proposed in 23 more. Trolleys have even caught on in transit-phobic Sun Belt metropolises like Dallas and San Diego. But with so much interest in so few federal transit dollars, competition between cities is fierce.

Light rail advocates like Scott Maits of the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers believe Philadelphia has an edge over most other cities seeking new or expanded trolley service since it already has unused trolleys and tracks. SEPTA has 50 vintage 1940s art deco-style cars in storage, and the city has intact trolley lines running up major streets, like Germantown Avenue, which are currently served by buses. Put the two together and it would be relatively easy to replace bouncy, exhaust-spewing buses with smooth-riding, eco-friendly trolleys. It would also be cheaper than in cities starting from scratch, where new track would have to be laid and new trolleys purchased.

Plans for converting bus lines to trolley lines don’t just exist inside the minds of trolley-obsessed Philadelphians like Maits. SEPTA has already committed to replacing buses with trolleys along Girard Avenue. Service is scheduled to begin in 2004 using vintage cars refurbished with modern interiors. According to SEPTA press officer Gary Fairfax, however, no other conversions are in the works. "The only line slated for rehabilitation is Girard Avenue," he says.

Despite SEPTA’s motto, "Serious about change," it has been the city government that has been pushing for increased trolley service, often dragging SEPTA along as its managers complain of high conversion costs.

Christopher Zearfoss, director of the mayor’s Office of Transportation, says the city backs light rail because it is quieter, more energy efficient and easier to use than bus service.

Riders also prefer it. On Girard Avenue, where trolley service ended in 1992 and where it will be restored in 2004, ridership dropped 38 percent in the years since buses replaced trolleys. During that period, the area’s population declined by less than 10 percent. Zearfoss notes that the decline in ridership took place despite the fact that the trolleys used until 1992 were "superannuated," lacking basic amenities like air conditioning while the buses that replaced them were state of the art.

Light rail advocates plan to invite local city planners and politicians to ride the University City holiday trolley loop in the hopes of getting them on board with plans to push trolley expansion plans further. But expanded service in trolley-rich West Philadelphia is less likely than in other neighborhoods (with the exception of the West Philadelphia stretch of Girard Avenue). There has been talk of putting a city-owned rail tunnel under Pennsylvania Avenue near the Art Museum to use as a trolley line. Plans for the conversion were cut from the final federal funding proposal for the Schuylkill Valley MetroRail project. That plan calls for a hybrid train — a part subway, part commuter train, much like PATCO — to be built from Wyomissing in Berks County to Center City. Still, the tunnel remains in the city’s hands, fueling light rail advocates’ hopes of linking the Art Museum area into the city’s rapid transit system. SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney was dismissive of any conversion plans in the near future, calling it "a very expensive project."

Certainly such a plan would be costly, but it would be less costly in Philadelphia than in most other cities. While other cities need millions of dollars to build tracks and tunnels, Philadelphia is, in the words of one mass transit advocate, "sitting on a gold mine."