The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.
Streetcars have been an integral part of the public transportation network of New Orleans since the first half of the 19th century. The longest of the city's streetcar lines, the St. Charles Avenue line, is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world. Today, the streetcars are operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA).
The Tōhoku Main Line is a 575.7-kilometre-long (357.7 mi) railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company. The line starts from Tokyo Station in Chiyoda, Tokyo and passes through such cities as Saitama, Utsunomiya, Fukushima, and Sendai, before reaching the end of the line in Morioka. The line originally extended to Aomori, but was truncated upon the extension of the Tōhoku Shinkansen beyond Morioka, which mostly parallels the Tōhoku Main Line. A portion of the Tōhoku Main Line is also shared with the Keihin–Tōhoku Line and the Saikyō Line.
A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered tram or streetcar.
The F Market & Wharves line is one of several light rail lines in San Francisco, California. Unlike most other lines in the system, the F line runs as a heritage streetcar service, almost exclusively using historic equipment from San Francisco's retired fleet and from cities around the world. While the F line is operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), its operation is supported by Market Street Railway, a nonprofit organization of streetcar enthusiasts which raises funds and helps to restore vintage streetcars.
The Toronto Street Railway (TSR) was the operator of a horse-drawn streetcar system from 1861 to 1891 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its successor, the Toronto Railway Company, inherited the horsecar system and electrified it between 1892 and 1894.
The Toronto and York Radial Railway was a transit operator providing services to the suburbs of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was a subsidiary of the Toronto Railway Company. The company was created by merging four Toronto-area interurban operations. The company was part of the empire of railway entrepreneurs Sir William Mackenzie and Donald Mann which included the Canadian Northern Railway and the parent Toronto Railway Company. The line was abandoned by the TTC in 1948.
The San Diego Electric Railway (SDERy) was a mass transit system in San Diego County, California, United States. The system utilized 600 volt direct current streetcars and buses.
The San Francisco Belt Railroad was a short-line railroad along the Embarcadero in San Francisco, California. It began as the State Belt Railroad in 1889, and was renamed when the city bought the Port of San Francisco in 1969. As a state owned enterprise, the railroad asserted several unsuccessful claims to immunity from federal regulation. The railroad ceased operation in 1993.
The Los Angeles Railway was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent local services which complemented the Pacific Electric "Red Car" system's largely commuter-based interurban routes. The company carried many more passengers than the Red Cars, which served a larger and sparser area of Los Angeles.
The Louisville Railway Company (LRC) was a streetcar and interurban rail operator in Louisville, Kentucky. It began under the name Louisville City Railway in 1859 as a horsecar operator and slowly acquired other rival companies. It was renamed in 1880 following the merger of all Mule operations as the Louisville Railway Company. All tracks were 5 ft gauge.
Streetcars or trolley(car)s were once the chief mode of public transit in hundreds of North American cities and towns. Most of the original urban streetcar systems were either dismantled in the mid-20th century or converted to other modes of operation, such as light rail. Today, only Toronto still operates a streetcar network essentially unchanged in layout and mode of operation.
The Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District (MTD) is a public transit agency providing bus service in the southern portion of Santa Barbara County, California. It serves the cities of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, and Goleta as well as the unincorporated areas of Montecito, Summerland, and Isla Vista. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 4,579,600, or about 13,300 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2024.
The Sierra Vista Line was a streetcar route mostly operated by the Pacific Electric Railway. It ran from 1895 to 1951 as the short turn making local stops along the Pasadena Short Line on the outside tracks of the Northern Division quadruple-track system.
The Bakersfield and Kern Electric Railway was a streetcar company which operated between Bakersfield and Sumner, in California. Later, after Kern City was annexed by Bakersfield, the streetcar company operated completely in Bakersfield. The company was originally formed in 1887, under the name Bakersfield and Sumner Railroad. At its height, in 1915, the company operated five streetcar lines, totaling 10.5 miles (16.9 km). It also operated three feeder bus lines, one of the first companies in the nation to offer that type of service. Also, with the exception of one-way sections, the entire system was double tracked.
Streetcars in Los Angeles over history have included horse-drawn streetcars and cable cars, and later extensive electric streetcar networks of the Los Angeles Railway and Pacific Electric Railway and their predecessors. Also included are modern light rail lines.
The Portland Street Railway Company was the first mass transit company and streetcar line in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1872 by transportation magnate Ben Holladay, it operated horsecars on a two-mile (3.2 km) narrow gauge line on First Street, from a barn on Glisan Street in the north to Porter Street in the south.
The Los Angeles Pacific Railroad (1896−1911) (LAP) was an electric public transit and freight railway system in Los Angeles County, California. At its peak it had 230 miles (370 km) of track extending from Downtown Los Angeles to the Westside, Santa Monica, and the South Bay towns along Santa Monica Bay.
Fresno Traction Company operated electric trams in Fresno, California, from 1903 to 1939. Earlier horsecar tracks were improved and electrified under consolidated ownership which passed to Southern Pacific Transportation Company operation in 1910. A separate Fresno Interurban Railway shared some lines along Fresno city streets.
Toronto-gauge railways are tram and rapid transit lines built to Toronto gauge, a broad gauge of 4 ft 10+7⁄8 in. This is 2+3⁄8 in (60 mm) wider than standard gauge of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in which is by far the most common track gauge in Canada. The gauge is unique to the Greater Toronto Area and is currently used on the Toronto streetcar system and the Toronto subway, both operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. Several now-defunct interurban rail systems also once used this gauge. The Halton County Radial Railway, a transport museum is located on one of the former interurban lines and uses the Toronto gauge.
