Modern Streetcars: Waste of Money or City-Building Miracle?

You aren't stuck in tourism, Ray, you are tourism!

I live in Nottingham (England) which has a modern 'second generation' tram system. There is absolutely no doubt that there is a quite significant section of the public who will ride on trams, but will not ride on buses. This is something which is certainly Europe-wide, and perhaps worldwide.

For anyone who had the closest bus stop taken away because their local transit agency “reconfigured routes to better server riders” I would say the inflexibility of trams looks like a big pro instead of a con.

I once read in a transit paper that the biggest strength of street cars was that people appear to like them and prefer to ride on them over stuff like buses. Problem is that the question of what we ride on can get in the way of getting our cities to implement the best strategies for good transit and urban development

I only want to live in cities that resemble Studio Ghibli movie locations and I don't care how impractical that may be

As someone who lives in Kansas City, seeing them actually invest in multiple trams is such a good sight.

The Portland Streetcar also has very good destinations. It goes from the relatively "inexpensive" alphabet district through Portland State University, with it's 30,000 students, and connects to the Aerial Tram to OHSU, the state's largest employer. The presence of higher density origins and destinations in the same line, helps a ton. Edited to fix the names.

That moment when you realize that your small city with 134k inhabitants (Bern, CH (yes, the one with tram to Wankdorf)) and a tram/streetcar system with only 4.5 lines boasts almost the same ridership (47,903,000) as the US top 10 combined (48,223,000) in 2019. That's bonkers! Thanks for the video.

I'm a bit less cynical about streetcars. They aren't just a less flexible bus: They exchange that flexibility for ease of electrification and the improved rolling efficiency that comes with steel wheels on steel rails. If you can build separated light rail, it's an objective improvement compared to streetcars, but with streetcar vs bus there are pros and cons to both.

As an American who was fortunate enough to live in Melbourne for a couple years, I can say their tram network was an eye opening experience for me. We were able to live car free and enjoyed it because of their dense network and high frequency. It totally spoiled me though, I'm always comparing the cities I live in to Melb and I'm always left wanting. Hope to get back one day.

I’ve used trams my whole life living in Helsinki Finland, love them quite a bit, easier to use than buses when carrying a lot of stuff for example (thanks to a tram going to the harbor I’ve never taken a car to cruise ship parking)

Trams work well in car free inner cities. The mix of trams with bikes, pedestrians and the occasional delivery van is a very well functioning traffic system that makes a city really attractive. For pedestrians and cyclists, trams are more predictable than buses, and these modes of transport complement each other very well. Think of cities like Augsburg, Erfurt, Bern, Zürich, Basel, Dresden, Bordeaux, Strassbourg...

I think another issue with modern streetcars in the US is that they are often plopped down in a downtown that already has poor transit and doesn't connect people to any of the points of interest (*cough* Detroit Q-Line *cough*). Once you add in being stuck in traffic and being slower than a bus, it makes sense why no one wants to take it. I took the Q Line once and there were buses going around us because it kept getting stuck in traffic, and we only used it because my spouse worked near a station and we were going to a game at Comerica. And of course, the line stops short of most homes along Woodward, and the Amtrak station along the line only sees 6 trains a day, so it really doesn't connect people to points of interest. But if it gets built as a last-mile option to support other transit lines, connect people to points of interest, and make fewer stops than a bus with signal prioritization, then it can be a good option. I think that streetcars aren't meant to be somewhere in between a bus a dedicated light rail/heavy metro line. But too often they are poorly planned and then used as examples as to why cities/states shouldn't invest in transit.

One thing to think about, especially in the US, is the perception of the different modes (streetcar vs. bus). I've been carless in Seattle for 6 years now and with the exception of the height of the pandemic, I ride public transit for 90% of trips (friends and Ubers the rest of the time). The streetcar isn't nearly as convenient, but I prefer it to a bus... based on the ride, the stops, and the "clientele" on each. The streetcars feel more modern and cleaner and smoother. And if you take someone who doesn't always ride transit, there is definitely a stigma to riding a bus. Tourists are more likely to ride a streetcar than a bus (routes are usually easier to figure out and the tracks alert you to their presence if you're not from the city)... and locals who might not ride a bus would be more likely to ride a streetcar. Your mileage may vary, as they say. I wish ours was more like Portland's, but at least we have a decent lightrail (getting moreso every month).

Spoken like a true American, my friend. The tram is SO MUCH more than just a less flexible bus. They are faster, can be higher capacity, need less space (especially in tight corners and at stations), are more energy efficient regardless of energy source, are safer when operated in the same manner as a bus, are more predictable, are better scalable when expansion in the network and/or ridership numbers change demand and not least of all the operating cost per passenger-mile is way less than for busses (usually reimbursing the higher head cost after 5 to 7 years.

I take the Lisbon old school trams all the time. Barring the times when they are packed with tourists, they are great!

I think we gotta differentiate between streetcars, that primarily serve the down town, like in Lisbon, or most modern american streetcar systems. And the streetcar or tram systems, that really are the backbone of a city's transit, as it is common in most big cities in Central or Eastern Europe. These streetcars don't necessarily run entirely on their own tracks, and have some street running. So they aren't light rail. But they still have a higher role than busses.

Well, trams also have upsides: you can make them longer on high demand lines, where a double bendy bus (25m) just doesn’t cut it anymore, you might wanna upgrade to a double + bendy tram with 30, 40 or even 60m of passenger room

I’ve ridden a streetcar when I was visiting my sister in Toronto back in 2015. It was awesome.

I like streetcars. They're charming. I like the sound of rails instead of roaring bus engines. I like the dedicated lane they usually get, like on Spadina in Toronto. My city would be unrecognizable to me without streetcars.