HERE COMES THE STREETCAR

Ian Pitts PLAN 745 Fall 2010

HERE COMES

THE

STREETCAR

Ian Pitts PLAN 745 Fall 2010

The streetcar is one of the oldest forms of modern public transportation. From its horsecar beginnings through its modern sleek form, it has remained one of the most desirable means to get around a city. Streetcars have always been embedded deep in the American psyche, from the likes of A Streetcar Named Desire to Mister Rogers trolley. However, unlike in Europe, streetcars have faded from the American cities that they once helped create. People have begun to once again realize the importance of the streetcar as a sustainable transportation mode, and cities, some smaller than would seem obvious, are rushing to build new systems to reduce traffic and stimulate economic growth. With the rising costs of ever scarcer oil, cities of ever decreasing size will be exploring the possibility of building a streetcar system. Even Manhattan, Kansas, is a small city where a streetcar system could be successful, and benefit the community in countless ways.

A Brief History of Streetcar Development

Streetcars are one of the oldest public transit technologies in existence. The first streetcars in North America were pulled by horses and known as horsecars.1 These operated on the first streetcar line in North America, New Yorks Forth Avenue Line, when it opened in 1832.2 Eventually steam power was harnessed to replace horses, with small steam engines being placed inside the tram cars. These were called steam dummies, and were implemented on systems as large as Paris, and in places as far away as Queensland, Australia.3 Seeking to combat the often underpowered nature of the small engines in the steam dummies, several cities experimented with cable cars, most notably San Francisco, starting in 1873. Cable car systems were expensive to build and complicated to operate, but proved

effective in hilly cities, leading to the longevity of San Franciscos system.4 The ultimate system of propulsion was eventually found to be electricity, despite many early problems with distribution systems. One early system invented by Werner von Siemens and installed in Berlin in 1881 utilized the rails to carry current, similar to a model train, resulting in many unpleasant shocks to people and animals alike and severely limiting the voltage that could be used. 5 The use of a spring-loaded trolley pole with a rolling wheel at the top to collect current from an overhead wire strung along the tracks eventually emerged as the system of choice, resulting in the streetcar form that we know today.6 The streetcar resulted in increased mobility for citizens of cities around the world, but was used most effectively in North America where it was utilized by land developers to drive city growth. This led to the unique form of the Streetcar City. Developers laid out gridded streets to ensure maximum efficiency in land usage, laying out at least eight living units per acre in order to pay off the capital costs of the streetcar line and ensure there were enough users to make the line profitable. Along the streetcar line itself (which was no more than a five minute walk from any house), they placed highdensity commercial properties, to ensure that the residents had all the services they needed close by, as an added selling point.7 American cities therefore developed with long linear commercial corridors served by streetcars that were bounded by very dense single-family residential neighborhoods for several blocks to each side. This pattern of development can be still be seen in almost any city that grew during the period of streetcar suburbs.

The End of American Streetcars

During the heyday of streetcars in the 1900s, almost every American city of over 5,000 people had a streetcar in one form or another. By the 1920s, the streetcars of small towns lost their business to the automobile, and by 1950 the streetcar networks of major cities were being dismantled. The reason for the demise of these successful big-city networks is a hotly debated topic, with Americans moving to the suburbs, the emergence of automobile culture, and the decline of inner-cities all as possible players.

In the case of Los Angeles, the culprit was National City Lines, a company owned by General Motors, Firestone tires, and Phillips Petroleum. NCL bought up the struggling streetcar lines, completely dismantling them over the course of the 1940s and replacing them with buses, built by GM. 8 NCL is suspected in the demise of the streetcar systems in many other cities as well. By the end of the 1950s, the North American Streetcar City was no more.

The Streetcar Revival

In recent years, rail transport has been picked up once again as a desirable transportation choice by a country fed up with high gas prices and spending most of their lives commuting across the suburban wasteland. Mass transit saw astounding ridership numbers during pre-recession $4 per gallon gasoline prices, and during the tough economic times to follow those numbers have remained steady as commuters look to trim their household transportation budgets, even with gas dipping back below $3. The need for streetcars in many cities has emerged as a way to promote economic growth and downtown revitalization while providing more transit options. Even some conservative editorialists, usually against public transit expenditures, are expounding on the need for streetcars to return life and vitality to city streets.9 Streetcars are a win for the environment as well as commuters, producing no direct greenhouse gas emissions and indirect emissions of only .45 to 23.4 grams of CO 2 per passenger mile through the electricity that they use.10 The most powerful effect of streetcar systems is their ability to drive urban mixed-use development. Portland, Oregon's streetcar system is one of the success stories in this regard. The five-mile system, built for only $57 million generated $2.28 billion in investment within the two blocks on either side of the line. The presence of the streetcar line is believed to be the main factor in this explosion of real estate. Developers in downtown Portland now look for guarantees from city government that the streetcar line will be extended to their area before proceeding with construction.11 Smaller cities are not about to be left at the station. Colorado Springs, a city of 400,000, was

once home to an extensive streetcar network that began operations in 1887 and was booming by 1907. Service frequency on the busiest lines was every few minutes, and every 30 minutes on the least trafficked. However, like most Midwestern streetcar systems, it had succumbed to the automobile by 1932.12 Today, a group called the Pikes Peak Historical Street Railway Foundation has succeeded in bringing streetcars back into the city's transportation thinking. Working since 1982, the group has acquired and restored 15 streetcars to operational status. With public support mounting, the city is spending $330,000 on a feasibility study of possible routes, funded by the availability of federal planning grants. Some questioned the timing of studying a streetcar system during a recession and massive budget shortfalls, but the city's stance is that it is important to have plans in place that can be acted upon once the economy recovers and can support the system. 13 Salt Lake City, roughly half the size of Colorado Springs at 180,000, is also studying the feasibility of a streetcar. Already possessing a regional light rail system, the city is looking to connect the light rail to the thriving Sugar House commercial district by building a 2 mile long modern streetcar line that will also help generate transitoriented development along its route, similar to the effect in Portland. The project was expected to be 25 years away but has been moved to the near future by the acquisition in October of a $26 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for constructing the line.14 Small cities are making their streetcar dreams a reality.

Kenosha's Small City Success

The smallest city in the United States to currently have an operational streetcar system is Kenosha, Wisconsin, with a population of only 97,000. By comparison, Topeka, Kansas has over 20,000 more inhabitants. Kenosha is very small, as American cities go. Sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan, the city has an extensive waterfront that they have been in the process of developing. The city's downtown is also situated on one of the Metra commuter rail lines running north from Chicago. 15 In order to cement the city's investment in the waterfront development, it was decided that a heritage

streetcar line would be built to connect the Metra station with the waterfront. The 2 mile loop line, built for a little under $2 million, was completed in April 2000.16 Since then, the city has seen a 2000% return on the investment in the system.17 The line travels in one direction from the Metra station to the waterfront and back, with each side of the loop separated by only one block, creating in effect a twoway double-track system. The five art-deco-era PCC cars are former Toronto streetcars that were completely restored and painted in historic paint schemes of major transit systems around North America.18 The Kenosha Streetcar Society, chartered by the city of Kenosha, is a non-profit organization that helps promote the streetcar system and educates the public about Kenosha's transportation history.19 Such societies are important to the success of streetcar systems in smaller cities, as they help organize community involvement in the streetcar system. Cities like Kenosha will soon be very glad they had citizens with such passion for seeing streetcar systems built.

Oil's Swift End

The tipping point for streetcars being a viable transportation option in Manhattan will be, ironically, the abrupt end to what killed most of the country's streetcar systems in the first place: cheap oil. Before the 1950s and the growth of automobile-dominated suburbia, most Americans traveled on public transit. Soon that will be the case again. After peaking at 82 million barrels per day in the summer of 2006, total world oil production has been in decline.20 No new major discoveries are coming, and the world's largest oil producers Russia and the OPEC countries are beginning to use more of their oil internally as the riches of the oil trade have begun to fuel growth in their economies. This will result, as well-known energy expert Jeff Rubin notes, in one and a half million barrels of oil per day being taken off the market by 2012 or sooner. The United States' chief source of oil, Mexico, will quickly shrink to half its output as its deepwater oil fields rapidly decline.21 This spells doom for the American automobile, which was already driven 100 billion fewer miles during 2008 when gas prices touched $4 per gallon.22 Without efficient public transit, many people will become trapped in

their homes as gas prices skyrocket past $10 per gallon. The mobility of small cities and towns, like Manhattan, that currently depend on the car, will be greatly diminished. The public's huge investment in roadways will not be quickly abandoned, however. Carpooling, car-sharing, and buses will all be utilized until even their lower fuel costs get to be too much to bear. At that point, the efficiency of rail transit will be the catalyst of streetcar fever across the country. The total cost per passenger mile for a streetcar is $1.23, versus $1.62 for a diesel bus, due to the additional expenses of fuel, tires, and more frequent maintenance.23 Streetcars, whose major mechanical systems can run for upwards of 50 years without replacement, will eventually win.

What Once Was Manhattan City and Interurban Railway

Manhattan, despite its current appearances, once possessed a streetcar system similar to any that once operated all over the Midwest. Begun in 1909, the Manhattan City and Interurban Railway built its first line from the Union Pacific Depot up Second Street, turned west on Poyntz to Ninth Street, where it turned north again, turned west on Fremont to Eleventh Street, north to Moro, and then west to Anderson Avenue and the terminus at Denison Avenue, serving traffic between the train station, the business district of downtown Poyntz, and what was at the time the Kansas State Agricultural College. This simple line, known as the Avenue Line was operated using four cars on twenty-minute schedules, which passed on a siding in the 800 block of Poyntz. Service officially started on June 10, 1909, to great fanfare and crowds of townsfolk eager for a ride on the new system, for five cents.24 The original line was soon supplemented with a line that ran north from the Rock Island depot on Fourth Street, crossed Poyntz, turned west on Fremont to Sixth Street, north to Vattier Street, and then west to North Manhattan Avenue, where it turned south to join the Avenue Line. The Fourth Street Line, as it was called, did not last past 1911 when the College athletic park it served was relocated to build the Bluemont School.25 In the meantime, the Union Power and Light Company in Junction City had extended their

small streetcar line the short distance to Fort Riley, resulting in increased business for merchants in that city. Not wanting to be left out, the Manhattan City and Interurban Railway managed to get $20,000 from the city of Manhattan and $10,000 from Ogden for the construction of a line to connect with the one from Junction City in Fort Riley. By 1912, the track was extended to Eureka Lake Amusement Park, which was an electric park run on spare electricity from the streetcar power plant, as was common practice for streetcar companies of the era. The amusement park at the end of the line generated additional traffic for the streetcar system that did not exist previously. By 1914, the track was connected with that of the Union Power Company, and soon cars were running on an hourly schedule between Manhattan, Ogden, Fort Riley, and Junction City.26 The rise of the automobile during the 1920s soon had the same effect on Manhattan's system as was felt across the Midwest. Increased automobile ownership and improved roads led to the destruction of the vast interurban rail network that linked small midwestern towns and provided transportation to agrarian areas. In Manhattan, the combination of automobiles and a decrease in fort population after World War I led to the system's demise in 1927. The Union Power Company's line between Junction City and Fort Riley limped along until giving up in 1934.27

How Manhattan Can Bring Streetcars Back

With the rise in oil prices, the time for streetcars in Manhattan will soon come. A small city, Manhattan will need to avoid the pitfalls of big-city streetcar projects that make them exorbitantly expensive and find ways to get the community involved in the process of construction. A heritage-style line using historic or replica equipment that draws on the historical preservation forces that are strong within the community will be the most successful for an initial link; it will also be the cheapest. The first thing to do, however, is to determine where it will run. Kansas State University students provide 21,000 potential users of any mass transit that is made available within the city, and are the focus of the city's soon to be implemented bus system, on which

they will ride for free.28 Therefore, any route the streetcar takes, should include a stop to service those who would become its most loyal riders. The other major nodes in the historic parts of the city that provide potential for transit use are the new conference center and the Flint Hills Discovery Center, the Town Center Mall, the Poyntz Avenue commercial district, City Park, and Aggieville. A line linking all of these major assets could begin on the small section of track remaining in front of the Union Pacific Depot, turn north on Third Street, west on Poyntz in front of the mall, traveling in the center of the street until turning north through a meandering route across the center of City Park, meeting North Manhattan Avenue and following one-way traffic flow around the block containing Varney's Bookstore to create a return loop. This line would generally duplicate the Avenue Line of old, linking all the major historic points of Manhattan. The siting of this system also allows for easy expansion in the future, with a logical first step being to connect north past the Union on 17th Street and then up Denison to Kimball, and finally west to the stadium and the large apartment complexes in the area. As the need for streetcars mounts, extensions down Anderson to the Target and Seth Childs shopping area, and finally a loop line encompassing Ft. Riley Boulevard, Tuttle Creek Boulevard, Kimball Avenue, and Seth Child Road are all possibilities. The basic historic link route, at 2 miles in length, would cost $32 million if built to the standards of Portland's $16 million per mile line. However, the cost of this line was greatly inflated due to additional streetscape improvements not related to the construction of the tracks themselves. By contrast, Kenosha's system at $2 million per mile would make Manhattan's two mile line a mere $4 million, much more manageable in terms of the city's budget.29 Portland also paid around $3 million for each of its modern European-style streetcars, while a reproduction heritage streetcar can be had from companies the likes of Gomaco Trolley Company of Ida Grove, Iowa, for as little as $1,000,000. 30 The cheapest source of streetcars, however, are those historic cars that still exist in museum collections and surplus railway equipment inventories across the country. Currently, Ozark Mountain Railcar, a used railroad equipment seller, has an Art-deco-era PCC streetcar from Pittsburgh in operational condition

listed for only $25,000. It even includes a spare set of trucks.31 Bargain basement shopping doesn't just pay off in terms of rolling stock and track work, either. The labor needed to build and operate the streetcar system can also be had on the cheap. The American Public Transportation Association's Streetcar and Heritage Trolley website suggests volunteer labor from military units as a possibility for heavy construction tasks on the line; Manhattan has this source of labor readily available nearby at Fort Riley.32 Running the system can be achieved in part through a volunteer program, through which local history buffs are recruited to operate the streetcars as the motorman or collect fares and provide assistance to passengers as the conductor.33 The organization that would be created to rally the public behind a streetcar line in Manhattan would transition into being the organization that provides the volunteer effort to keep the line running. If the same historic preservation forces that would get behind a streetcar revival in Manhattan would also end up lamenting the possibility of power lines for the cars mucking up the pristine streetscapes along Poyntz, there is a solution that would also cut the initial cost of the line's infrastructure. Savannah, Georgia's new heritage streetcar line, which utilizes old railroad tracks in the streets of the waterfront area, purchased a rebuilt hybrid streetcar. Electricity is generated on-board by a diesel engine, and stored in supercapacitors. The car uses the motors in braking, recapturing about 60% of the energy used start-to-stop. Consuming only of a gallon of biodiesel per hour, the car cost under $1 million to produce. It retains its original trolley poles in case of future electrification of an extended line.34 A cost cutting measure like this makes a streetcar system seem like it could be a possibility today, even without the impetus from high oil prices.

Let's GO!
A mild bite is in the air as students scurry about Aggieville on an early December weekend morning, with the sounds of Christmas music drifting along the street from the speakers mounted high on the light poles. This day, there seems to be a group of people gathering at the corner in front of

Varney's, for what purpose it remains unclear. Then, a faint ding-ding in the distance suddenly takes the scene from 2014 to 1914, as a streetcar rumbles into view. Disgorging a full load of passengers, it picks up the waiting travelers and with another ding-ding starts its way back through town to the Union Pacific Depot. Hooting its whistle at an unwary driver, it disappears south through the City Park. Business is booming all along the line, with new mixed-use developments going up all along Poyntz and 100% occupancy in the new loft apartments above the historic storefronts. Even with waning regional auto traffic, the Manhattan Town Center Mall is firmly fixed as the town's center, situated halfway along the streetcar's route. High gasoline prices and airline fares have increased the popularity of the staycation where families vacation within their region instead of across the country, reinforcing the draw of the Flint Hills Discovery Center, now with historic trolley tours available just outside on Third Street. Conference-goers love the mobility that the streetcar provides, especially to the university campus. The extension of the line down Anderson Avenue is already under construction, in order to link the western half of the city without the need for continuing the ever more expensive bus service. Manhattan is bustling, while all the world around it is suffering from the first pangs of oil starvation. This future can be an easy reality for Manhattan. Streetcar systems do not have to be expensive people-mover light rail systems. Streetcars are simple; that is why they have been around for so long. Streetcars belong in small cities. And for the future of Manhattan, the alternative is very unpleasant. Dependence on automobile transport would eventually put a stranglehold on the city's internal economy, as skyrocketing gas prices cause people to leave their cars in the driveway and modify their lifestyles so that they drive much less. The only clear option for the city is to get behind the construction of a transit system that lets its citizens someday very soon step to a sidewalk corner and say, Here comes the streetcar!

Endnotes
1 2

Tram. (2010, December 11). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tram ibid. 3 ibid. 4 ibid. 5 ibid. 6 ibid. 7 Condon, P. M. (2010). Seven rules for sustainable communities: design strategies for the postcarbon world. Washington Covelo London: Island Press. 18-21. 8 ibid, 24-25. 9 A streetcar named progress? July-August 2008 Saturday Evening Post, 280, 4. p.12(1). Retrieved December 05, 2010, from Academic OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE&userGroupName=ksu 10 Condon 33. 11 ibid, 33-34. 12 Streetcars dominated transportation in Colorado Springs for 45 years. Jan 15, 2010 Colorado Springs Business Journal (CO). Retrieved December 05, 2010, from Academic OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE&userGroupName=ksu 13 Foundation eager to get streetcars rolling again in Colorado Springs. Jan 15, 2010 Colorado Springs Business Journal (CO). Retrieved December 05, 2010, from Academic OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE&userGroupName=ksu 14 Mayor Becker Delivers: Sugar House Streetcar Receives $26 Million in Federal Funding. (2010, October 20). Targeted News Service. Retrieved December 7, 2010, from Research Library. (Document ID: 2169660571). 15 Streetcars in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (2010, October 10). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcars_in_Kenosha,_Wisconsin 16 ibid. 17 A streetcar named progress? July-August 2008 Saturday Evening Post, 280, 4. p.12(1). Retrieved December 05, 2010, from Academic OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE&userGroupName=ksu 18 Streetcars in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (2010, October 10). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcars_in_Kenosha,_Wisconsin 19 Pavelich, T. (n.d.). Kenosha streetcar society: about us. Retrieved from http://kenoshastreetcarsociety.org/aboutus.aspx 20 Steiner, C. (2009). $20 per gallon. New York - Boston: Grand Central Publishing. 12-13. 21 Rubin, J. (2009). Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller. New York: Random House. 81-82. 22 Steiner, 1. 23 Condon, 38. 24 Slagg, W. N. (1968). Riley County Kansas. Manhattan, Kansas: Ted Varney's University Bookstore. 70-71. 25 Slagg, 71-72. 26 Slagg, 72. 27 Slagg, 72-73.

28

City of Manhattan, Community Development. (2010). Transit plan update Manhattan, Kansas: City of Manhattan. Retrieved from http://www.ci.manhattan.ks.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=8461 29 Weyrich, P. M., & Lind, W. S. (2002, June). Appendix i: getting started. Retrieved from http://heritagetrolley.com/artcileBringBackStreetcars12.htm 30 Types and sources of rolling stock. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://heritagetrolley.com/planRollingStock.htm 31 Pittsburgh railways pcc #1772. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/pittsburgh_railways_pcc1772.htm 32 Minimize cost by using inexpensive approaches. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://heritagetrolley.com/planFinancingMinimizing.htm 33 Weyrich and Lind, Step #7. 34 Transystems: hybrid streetcar system. Feb 2010 Mass Transit, 36, 1. p.24(1). Retrieved December 05, 2010, from Academic OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE&userGroupName=ksu

References
A streetcar named progress? July-August 2008 Saturday Evening Post, 280, 4. p.12(1). Retrieved December 05, 2010, from Academic OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE&userGroupName=ksu City of Manhattan, Community Development. (2010). Transit plan update Manhattan, Kansas: City of Manhattan. Retrieved from http://www.ci.manhattan.ks.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=8461 Condon, P. M. (2010). Seven rules for sustainable communities: design strategies for the post-carbon world. Washington Covelo London: Island Press. Foundation eager to get streetcars rolling again in Colorado Springs. Jan 15, 2010 Colorado Springs Business Journal (CO). Retrieved December 05, 2010, from Academic OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE&userGroupName=ksu Mayor Becker Delivers: Sugar House Streetcar Receives $26 Million in Federal Funding. (2010, October 20). Targeted News Service. Retrieved December 7, 2010, from Research Library. (Document ID: 2169660571). Minimize cost by using inexpensive approaches. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://heritagetrolley.com/planFinancingMinimizing.htm Pavelich, T. (n.d.). Kenosha streetcar society: about us. Retrieved from http://kenoshastreetcarsociety.org/aboutus.aspx Pittsburgh railways pcc #1772. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/pittsburgh_railways_pcc1772.htm Rubin, J. (2009). Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller. New York: Random House. Slagg, W. N. (1968). Riley County Kansas. Manhattan, Kansas: Ted Varney's University Bookstore. Steiner, C. (2009). $20 per gallon. New York - Boston: Grand Central Publishing. Streetcars in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (2010, October 10). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcars_in_Kenosha,_Wisconsin Streetcars dominated transportation in Colorado Springs for 45 years. Jan 15, 2010 Colorado Springs Business Journal (CO). Retrieved December 05, 2010, from Academic OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE&userGroupName=ksu Tram. (2010, December 11). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tram Transystems: hybrid streetcar system. Feb 2010 Mass Transit, 36, 1. p.24(1). Retrieved December 05, 2010, from Academic OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE&userGroupName=ksu Types and sources of rolling stock. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://heritagetrolley.com/planRollingStock.htm Weyrich, P. M., & Lind, W. S. (2002, June). Appendix i: getting started. Retrieved from http://heritagetrolley.com/artcileBringBackStreetcars12.htm