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The Brooklyn City Streetcar Company has been lobbying to bring trolleys back to Brooklyn lately, according to the NY Post. With plans in the works to improve Brooklyn Bridge Park and revitalize Coney Island, the group thinks the time is now for trolleys (they say trolleys are "fuel-efficient, pollution-free and they lend an ambience to the area"). So far, Brooklyn Bridge Park doesn't seem like it will be a taker while Coney Island is still considering the trolley plan. The The Brooklyn City Streetcar Company website seems very new and/or in-progress, but the most interesting part was its explanatin of how the trolleys will essentially cost the city nothing: "Federal and private money can cover all costs. Federal programs exist to provide funding for projects of this sort. By working together with local government agencies, enough money can be obtained through these programs to cover most major expenses and, as a not-for-profit, BCSC is eligible for numerous private grants." We wonder how much funding would need to be in place for any project to agree to bring the trolleys back - federal grants are never a sure thing. But advertising dollars on trolleys might be.
Forgotten NY has some Brooklyn trolley images. And you know your heartstrings are zinging: Sing The Trolley Song!, from Meet Me in St. Louis.
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I'm so for bringing trolleys back to Brooklyn for one big reason: that way when the Nets move to Brooklyn they can legitimately be renamed the Brooklyn Dodgers (why? because, if I remember correctly, the Dodgers were technically the Trolley Dodgers...)
Yes, the Dodgers were the named that because the good citizens of Brooklyn dodged streetcars, since the borough was filled with them at one time.
Some thoughts about streetcars:
1. Streetcars cannot go around double parked cars. A grade separated line would be the best option, , as was mostly done with the Hudson-Bergen line in New Jersey.
This means they would not be running with normal traffic except where they cross streets.
2. Streetcar tracks in the street pose a hazzard. If youe ever get your bike tire stuck in a streetcar track you would not like them. I had that happen in Toronto and it was not fun.
3. Boarding streetcars that run in the middle of the street can lead to pedestrians getting hit. Again, you would need a grade separated line.
4. Streetcars create noise polution. Steel wheels on steel rails can make some wicked noises.
5. Streetcars are not polution free, as there is the noise polution mentioned above and the electrical generation causes polution, however not where the streetcar actually is, but at the power generation plant.
6. Why not trolley buses? Toronto used to have them, San Francisco has them. Since they are basically rubber wheeled streetcars, they have many of the same advantages as the steelwheeled streetcars, but they have some pluses like no need to lay dangerous streetcar tracks, they can go around double parked cars, and go pick up passengers at the curb.
7. A lot of people think streetcars are this nice quaint reminder of times gone by. If you want to ride on old streetcars, go to a museum, but don't clog city streets with these dangerous antiques. It looks like this "Brooklyn City Streetcar Company, Inc" wants to use old streetcars instead of new ones. One thing I remember about those old streetcars in Toronto, which were doppelgangers for the ones on their website. was they had no air conditioning. Do you want that on a hot humid August day? (They were nice and toasty warm on cold days, though.) Do we really want tax funds going to subsidize a bunch of foamers who want to drive old streetcars around Brooklyn? No. Build something useful and modern which serves legitimate transportation needs, like Hudson-Bergen over in New Jersey, instead of some rolling museum for "Trolley Jollies".
Didn't someone try to do something like this in Redhook a few years ago. They laid a bunch of track and refurbished a bunch of cars, then something happened and the city made them pull up most of the tracks.
Done right, trolleys are great. I lived in San Francisco during the design, construction, and growth of the F line, which goes down Market Street -- yes, with vintage trolleys -- and it was transformational. While bus rapid transit has many advantages, streetcars (modern or vintage) have one thing they can match: user experience, as the web crowd says.
Simply put, trolleys put smiles on the faces of everyone riding them. In San Francisco, even if you're a local going to work, every ride is a different one. It's the early 1900s car from Milan one day, a '50s Boston one the next. Every car is a reflection of the architectural and human diversity outside the window. Sure, I love San Francisco's various BRT lines, but would I ever ride them just for the joy of it? Unlikely.
As for noise, pollution, and danger to pedestrians and cyclists, streetcars aren't perfect, but I think cars have pretty much cornered the market in "negative externalities," as the economists say. The sooner we get them off the street the better.