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Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

Posted August 05, 2009 10:00 AM by John Loz

During the first half of the 1930s, the heyday of the electric streetcar seemed to be over. To halt the decline in trolley ridership, the heads of 25 leading electric railway companies organized the Electric Railway Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC). The PCC held numerous meetings to discuss ways to draw passengers back to the trolley lines. The result of these meetings was a redesigned trolley car that would make the electric streetcar more appealing to the traveling public.

The PCC Car

The PCC developed a modern-looking streetcar that was equipped with better, more comfortable seats. The ride along the rails became smoother, and the exterior of the car was redesigned to make the electric railway more visually pleasing. That this design looked suspiciously like modern buses was no accident.

This new trolley was given a new name (the "PCC car"), but was still an electrified streetcar. As part of its marketing campaign, the electric railway industry claimed that the new vehicle was better than its predecessors in terms of acceleration, braking, passenger comfort, and noise.

The PCC car was indeed a much nicer streetcar. The first one appeared on the streets of Brooklyn, New York in 1935. By 1940, 1100 of these cars had hit America's streets.

Rationing and Railways

The PCC car's emergence on the eve of World Word War II benefited the electric railway industry, the traveling public, and the U.S. government. Once the United States became involved in the global conflict, large-scale rationing was enforced. One of the many directives from the federal government was for owners of automobiles to stop using their cars for idle transport. This wasn't necessarily because of a gas shortage, however, for the United States had domestic oil reserves to help carry it through the war.

The problem was a shortage of rubber for automobile tires. The Japanese had cut-off the prime source of natural rubber that the United States imported from Southeast Asia. If motorists continued to drive their cars, the supply of tires would run out. Moreover, the supply network for the war effort was at risk of collapse, especially since the United States now relied upon trucks to move goods across the country.

Mass Transit vs. The Good Life

Wartime limitations on automobile travel forced stateside Americans to return to mass transit for the duration of the war. The years 1941 to 1946 saw the highest recorded passenger totals on the nation's mass transit system with 23.4 billion annual trips. In 1946, over 9 million of those trips were on electrified streetcars. This figure represented the highest passenger total since the electric streetcar's peak in 1923.

After the war, returning GIs who wanted "the good life" for their families were drawn to the freedom of mobility found in the automobile. The automobile industry quickly responded to that demand. In 1945, automobile production totaled 70,000 vehicles. A year later, that number jumped to 2 million vehicles produced.

The dream of raising a family in the pastoral suburbs and leaving the deteriorating downtown streets seemed achievable with the easy availability of the personal automobile. Now that the war was over, what would become of the electric streetcar?

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#1

Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/05/2009 10:37 AM

An interesting read once again...
Del

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#12
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Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/12/2009 9:36 AM

Thanks, Del!

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#2

Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/05/2009 11:01 AM

Ditto.

Keep it going!

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#3
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Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/05/2009 11:09 AM

Oi are you following me today?
Or am I following you?...Oh no I've confused myself now.
Del

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#4
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Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/05/2009 11:41 AM

Well, stop wearing that lead like a dog, then.

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#13
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Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/12/2009 9:38 AM

Thanks!

There's about three more parts to this Trolley series and then it'll launch into short posts of modern systems and ultimately transportation planning in general for later posts.

Keep your eyes peeled!

John

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#5

Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/05/2009 12:11 PM

Do you ever think that America would have been better off if instead of focusing on what they don't have and finding a means to get it that they rather focused on what they do have? There was a lack of rubber, because the importation means that they had before was gone. So they didn't produce automobiles when they couldn't obtain necessary materials. This would have been a really good time to have revolutionized the public transportation industry. I don't know what happens to electric streetcars after WWII, but I think that America should have put more focus on the public transport while they had the chance and didn't have the resources.

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#14
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Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/12/2009 9:50 AM

Hey Jaxy,

In the next couple posts you'll see what happened to the streetcar industry after WWII. The articles I read and pictures I found were just plain sad to say the least.

As far as revolutionizing duirng the war - yeah that would have been great opportunity, but WWII was an animal the world had never ween before, so the focus was definitely on survival against the ultimate tyranny AND coming out of the Depression - and that's it! Would it have been a really good opportunity during that time? We can speculate and wish that the American mass transit system could have taken hold and flourished, but I think it was just timing. The increased production of the automobile, hence freedom to travel this vast 'undiscovered' nation, was new and still the rage.

There is quite a bit of evidence that mass transit is taking on a new role and gaining poularity again across the nation and I reveal that in my future posts.

Thanks!

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#6

Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/05/2009 5:04 PM

Dear John, Really this work of yours on this subject deserves to become either a textbook, or coffee table book, or both.

If I had any editorial influence I would suggest a "future scenario" that due to the need for integrating all renewables into The Grid, Electric Roads, are called for.

Would be fun to pretend that the book covering the history had been written 30 years from now.

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#15
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Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/12/2009 10:02 AM

Thank you very much Trancendian. You are too kind.

I've done quite a bit of research to write these and honestly, I'd like to credit my editor. Without him to fine-tune the posts, they might be just average reads.

I have written short stories in my days and maybe this would be a good opportunity to expand into coffee table books. I love taking pictures, so maybe I'll pool them to create something everyone can enjoy.

The future scenario book is very interesting to me. Maybe I can post some stuff along those lines. There's certainly lots of urban planners, designers and theorists who have put their ideas out there to draw from.

Glad you're enjoying the series.

John

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#7

Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/05/2009 10:57 PM

Excellent article John.

Are there any streetcars anymore in the US other than SanFran?

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#10
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Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/07/2009 3:33 PM

Yes.

Boston has electric street cars. While they also run underground, several of thel Green Line trolleys run obove ground powered by overhead catenary (sp?) lines. We also have buses, yes buses, that still run on overhead lines in parts of greater Boston.

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#16
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Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/12/2009 10:52 AM

Thanks, stevem.

Our Guest (from Boston?) is absolutely right. PCC cars still run regularily on the Ashmont to Mattapan red line, but I'm not sure if there are any other lines that run the PCC's in Boston. Guest can you confirm?

Besides San Franscisco and Boston, Philadelphia and Toronto run revenue collecting PCC cars and recently Memphis now boast lines that serve the typical commuter, as well as visiting tourists. Memphis runs quite a number of pre-PCC-era streetcars that were built in Portugal and Australia. New Orleans' Charles Street and the lines in Kenosha, Wisconsin seem to be more tourist lines, although there are plans to expand Kenosha's system. There are many more short run tourist and museum restricted operating lines in other cities as well.

It's amazing what we were able to build for long term use and durability starting in the 1930's. I don't like to use Wiki for a primary resource, but this Wiki link has a good summary of the PCC cars' life around the US and the world.

John

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#8

Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/06/2009 7:33 AM

Hi,

Not in U.S but we have street cars in India in Calcutta (Eastern India). They are still poor man's mode of transport.

Suresh Sharma.

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Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/12/2009 11:34 AM

That's very, very interesting. Does it have anything to do with the caste system as well, or is it based primarily on the 'economic' status?

I just did a search and found out that Calcutta (Kolkata) just opened India's first 'underground' mass transit line. I see that the Metro Railway of Kolkata has been running since 1984.

I also found information on high-speed trams in Calcutta along with the Metro Railway. Do you know if one is more for the working class and one is more for the business class?

Thanks for your comment!

John

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#18
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Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/13/2009 9:10 AM

Hi John,

Sorry it has nothing to do with caste system. Yes, Tram is considered as poor man's friendly transport, but some times even middle income group also use it. I travelled once by tram in Kolkata to refresh my old memory of tram travel in Mumbai.

There is Metro in Kolkata which was started first time in India. Now we also have Metro in New Delhi.Next year we will have Metro in Mumbai too.

Business class have there own cars they normally travel by cars. Middle class travel by Metro. While poor and lower middle class travel by tram.

We in Mumbai now realise that it was great mistake to withdraw trams as cost of travel was not related to oil price. Do you have any information on electric trolley busses?.

Suresh Sharma.

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#19
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Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/13/2009 9:51 AM

Dayton, Ohio, USA was one of the cities which used electric trolley busses. I think they still do, but I haven't been there for years.

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#9

Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/06/2009 5:24 PM

Great read, John. Interesting to think, that while we Americans were giving up the streetcar following WWII, simultaneously, via the Marshall Plan, were helping to finance the rebuilding of a world-class suburban and urban train system in Germany - the S-Bahn and U-Bahn systems. Rode on those myself in the 80's and 90's, while inter-railing across Europe, and was incredibly impressed with how utilized the systems were by business people and young (at the time) travelers like myself. Marvels of engineering, and maybe inspiration for our own future. A taste of the German New Wave music that was popular in Berlin and across Europe, summer 1985. :) - Larry

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#11

Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

08/07/2009 4:31 PM

Hi John - To add to my earlier comment, Cologne in particular had/has an amazing network of streetcars, aka Stadtbahn (images courtesy Wikipedia):

I remember being a little intimidated when seeing the "Barbarossa Platz" stop - memories of WWII history still in my head. :)

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#20

Re: Electric Streetcars: The PCC and Wartime Mobility

10/03/2010 3:18 PM

Great article on electric street cars of the past!

Mobility scooters are an innovative example of street cars of the future. Check out the Pride Mobility Go-Chair here:

http://www.allegromedical.com/wheelchairs-c540/go-chair-4-wheel-travel-power-chair-p561219.html

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