TRANSIT HISTORY

Los Angeles killed the final Pacific Electric Interurban train route in 1963, but not before it convinced the public that service would be so much better with a dedicated quality bus network. Today the 'Dreamliner 60's' are long gone and Los Angeles is vigorously building Light-Rail.

Walt Disney visited Pittsburgh to speak with Westinghouse about the bus transit system of the future, best of bus and monorail Disney was told the Skybus would soon sweep the nation.

Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, Great Britain, where trains once ran, they have taken up the tracks for bus rapid transit. According to the BRT literature when ridership reaches a certain point, it will be converted to rail, needless to say that has never been done.

People who have been riding JTA since the 1970's should immediately recognize the slogan, 'Freeway Flyer.' The idea largely failed and the 'Flyers' vanished from the freeways at both ends of I-10.

Here's a snapshot of the City of Pittsburgh transportation in 1941, not long afterwards the City started planning to replace it's trolley routes, many on private right-of-ways, with the nations first comprehensive BRT-busway network. Ridership on new improved busways went into free fall and Pittsburgh halted the abandonments of any more streetcar lines.

1954, The highway builders convinced Los Angeleno's that the MTA would modernize the city's mass transit system with a bus subway system. Somewhere along the way a reality check thankfully killed the idea.

1970-1996 – in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, the Shirley Busway was deemed a great success upon its opening in 1970. The pre-existing Route 18 was expanded from three trips per day (without subsidy) to approximately thirty trips with subsidy – yielding a substantial increase in ridership. However, with long gaps between buses, political pressure grew to convert the busway into an HOV lane, opening it up for use by automobiles. Ridership peaked in 1980-81 during the second energy crisis. Subsequently it declined 67% as costs increased sharply. At the same time, transit ridership in the National Capital area ballooned from 135 million per year to 270 million, mainly because of the introduction of the MetroRail system. (LIGHT RAIL NOW)

Where the trains once ran, this is the abandoned railroad in the UK where the bus guided bus is being built. The idea again is to grow the ridership so the BRT can be converted to rail, pretty amazing.

An excellent photo of the ultra modern Charlotte Light Rail system, note the trail alongside and imagine what Jacksonville could do with the 'S' line or former Jacksonville Belt Railroad.

If Skyway like monorails were the trains of the future, as JTA led Jacksonville to believe, then why did Burbanks Aerial Swallow, never get beyond it's 1912 demonstration.This 'Skyway' was known as 'Fawkes Folly' for it's inventor.

In the UK, the Cheshunt Railway was constructed as a quart monorail patented in 1821 and put in service in 1825. This amazing railway actually carried passengers on it's opening day and it is every bit as old as any of the modern railways of the world. Had monorail really been the 'train of the future,' instead of a Golden Spike in 1869, we would have celebrated the 'Golden Girder'.

Here is another headline grabbing monorail attempt, New Yorks City Island Railway was unique. It's very first run in 1901, packed with excited passengers, promptly flipped onto it's side. It finally did get into regular operation and was quickly replaced with a streetcar route.

We've been told the Skyway cannot go down to ground level for a station at Atlantic Avenue and the FEC RY, somebody forgot to tell that to Disney in Tokyo. There is no reason to believe that the Skyway couldn't get down to a ground level platform level at the station. Of course the balance of the line would be elevated as a ground level monorail is impossible to cross.

Train of the future? Meet the Patiala State Monorail Trainways (PSMT) was a unique rail guided, partially road-borne railways system running in Patiala in the State of Punjab from 1907 to 1927. PSMT was the only operational locomotive-hauled railway system built using the Ewing System in the world. Today it is preserved operational in New Delhi.

This pilot monorail line, organized by Monorail Inc., made its debut (albeit two hours late because of a mechanical holdup) on Feb. 18, 1956, at Arrowhead Park near Old Spanish Trail and Main. A Houston Chronicle article from that day said the 55-passenger coach made three trips at speeds not over 10 mph. Reaction to the trip was varied. The most general comment was that it was interesting and had possibilities, but more investigation into the costs is needed. Supported by 18 standards shaped like an inverted J, the project is the $100,000 pilot model of a system designed to provide express service for commuters. Some people refer to the monorail as Trailblazer. According to an earlier Chronicle article, that name refers to the monorail coach. The name Skyway refers to the 1,600-foot monorail line.

Here is the Train of the Future circa 1900 in Wuppertal, Germany. This amazing antique is maintained and still operates.

Die Wuppertaler Schwebebahn, ein innovativer Meilenstein in der Geschichte der MAN. The suspension train in Wuppertal, an innovative milestone in MAN Corporation history. Here we see a very early monorail / streetcar multimodal station.

This Brookline streetcar is rolling along on private right-of-way in 1966, literally on borrowed time. It would be replaced by a dedicated busway was has failed to post the ridership numbers of the old trolleys.

When Brookline (Pittsburgh) was in it's early development stages, the streetcar promised a long lived rapid transit mode, as it turned out it's bus replacement failed to equal the ridership of the streetcars.

In Jacksonville the original proposal in 1980 was for a historic, vintage streetcar line. It was explained to the city that new streetcars could use the same system at a future date. The idea was mocked and JCCI told the city that the streetcars 'must' operate in a street, that they are slow and outdated. Of course it was a set up deal, the Skyway was going to be free.