Bad Rumors From Philadelphia Regarding Rt. 15

Hi Folks:

  According to some writers from Subchat,  a source states that SEPTA is having trouble getting parts for their reconstructed PCC cars on Girard Avenue.  One source asked " How come San Francisco does not have trouble getting parts for their PCC streetcars?   Once service is temporarily suspended, it is possible that you could kiss service good bye, just like route 23- Germantown Avenue.  Since it is not clear yet if battery buses are successful,  I would say, salvage the overhead and convert it to trolleybus and buy in motion charging trolleybuses, if the streetcars have to go.  Remember what I said ages ago:  If Philadelphia did not have a trolley subway and private right of way running, Philadelphia would today be without streetcars for several decades already, just like New York.

SEPTA did not come out with an official statement yet about service on the number 15.

October 31, 1956 Again

 When streetcar service stopped on October 31, 1956, service on the McDonald Avenue branch ended as well.   In the picture above,   I am sorry, I lost the reference, a south bound PCC car is about to cross Cortelyou Road and McDonald Avenue.  In the foreground and above and perpendicular to the picture is the wooden support for the B-23 Cortelyou Road trolleybus which also ended on the same day.  The car shown, may make a short turn at the Kensington Loop on the next street or may go all the way to Coney Island.   PCC cars entered Church Avenue service around 1951  and notice above that the wooden ties are missing to three of the four tracks on the structure.  Through service to Coney Island started on October-November 1954 on the elevated structure above, so this picture can be dated from 1951 to 1954.

In the sixty years plus that Brooklyn lost it's trolleys, trolleys have made a comeback in various forms to even cities that were hostile to them, such as Los Angeles, Paris, London and other cities.   Of the world class cities, only New York and Chicago and some others cannot, will not, or simply cannot bring trolleys back, even for a demonstration line running a few hundred feet.

Many years ago, I posted a video of the Volgograd tram subway from the former Russia.   There, PCC type cares run on the street then descend into a tunnel with nice stations.   I would if I could would build such a line between Brooklyn and Staten Island.   Why not a subway?   I believe  that modern PCC cars can make up the grade on the roadway of the Verazano Bridge.  Thus you would not need to build a billion dollar tunnel.  The line can go underground in Bay Ridge and meet at platform level at one of the "R" stations on 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge for a cross platform transfer.  In Staten Island, the line can run underground like in Volgograd, or private right of way or in the middle of an important but wide street.

Just a suggestion.
Tramway Null