Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Streetcars

Currently, streetcars get bogged down down in private car traffic on King Street, Toronto's busiest surface transit route. A new plan would divert private vehicles out of the path of transit. Photo: booledozer/Flickr

Toronto Has a Plan to Clear the Way for Streetcars Stuck in Traffic

By Stephen Miller | May 15, 2017 | 4 Comments

Toronto's busiest surface transit route could get a big upgrade as part of a year-long pilot project -- if it clears the Toronto City Council this summer, where suburban interests have a history of rejecting transit initiatives.

Detroit’s Big Transit Success Story Isn’t Its New Streetcar — It’s the Buses

By Stephen Miller | May 12, 2017 | 11 Comments

Today is the grand opening for the QLine, Detroit's 3.3-mile, mixed-traffic streetcar on Woodward Avenue. It's getting tons of local press attention, but TransitCenter reports that the Motor City's true transit renaissance is not due to the streetcar, but the city's successful, under-the-radar turnaround of its bus system.

Reminder: Just Laying Track Is No Guarantee Riders Will Come

By Angie Schmitt | May 12, 2016 | 55 Comments

Laying track isn’t enough to build a successful transit system — as some cities are learning the hard way. A slate of new rail projects — mostly mixed-traffic streetcars, but that’s not the only way to mess up — are attracting embarrassingly few passengers. Some of these projects may be salvageable to some extent, but for now, they don’t […]

Tourists Keep Their Trolleys While Memphis Bus Riders Face Devastating Cuts

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 31, 2016 | 7 Comments

Memphis’s transit system is in crisis. For a long time, the Memphis Area Transit Authority redirected funds intended for repairing buses and trolleys to instead pay drivers and buy gas. Now the jig is up. A handful of buses as well as two of the city’s historic trolleys have actually caught fire in recent years. According to MATA CEO Ron […]

Atlanta Streetcar’s Early Ridership Numbers Disappoint

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 20, 2015 | 28 Comments

The first batch of numbers are in for ridership on Atlanta’s brand new $98 million, 2.7-mile downtown streetcar — and the project is off to a rocky start. The streetcar, which opened December 30, is carrying 18 percent fewer riders than anticipated, according to data released by the city this week. That’s actually worse than […]

Will Arlington Streetcar Foes Support BRT Instead?

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 19, 2014

Arlington’s streetcar plans are kaput. Photo: Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization News broke yesterday that Arlington, Virginia, is abandoning plans for a 7-mile streetcar along Columbia Pike. Proponents had advanced the streetcar for more than a decade and had secured some $65 million in state support for the $333 million project. But this month’s election delivered […]

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