There has been a lot of talk recently about adding trolley service to the transportation mix in Washington. Advocates say that it is a highly efficient tool in that it can transport large numbers of people without adding anything to the air quality problem (assuming the vehicles are powered by electricity). They say that trolleys will provide a bit of nostalgia, as trolleys were a bit part of Washington’s transportation system back in the early part of the last century. Photographs from that era show trolley cars sharing the broad boulevards of downtown Washington with horse-drawn carriages and, later, with automobiles that were more often than not carrying only one passenger.
Because of that, I’m down in New Orleans for a couple of days to get a firsthand look at this city’s trolley system; one of the earliest and longest-running trolley systems in the country. My first impression is that these trolleys take up a very large amount of space. The run down the middle of Canal Street in a space that is wide enough for three or even four vehicular travel lanes. These trolleys are also very popular.
Here is a transportation device that more often than not does not have air conditioning in a city that is notorious for its heat and its humidity. Instead, the windows of the trolleys are wide open in hopes of creating a breeze as the trolley gets up to 15 or 20 mph between stops.
I notice that the trolleys are very popular, but with whom? The looks on the faces of the passengers as they pass certain buildings and certain sights (there are more than a few “sights” to be seen in The Big Easy) seem to indicate that these passengers are tourists using the trolley to get from one end of Canal Street’s business district to another. They look very much like the passengers on the D.C. Circulator buses but without the added benefit of air conditioning.
In fact, on first blush these trolleys seem to serve a very similar purpose as the Circulator buses. They carry a large number of out-of-towners on a fix route through a busy business district for one set price (there are some differences as I will detail in the coming days). The trolleys add a very special historic feeling that those big Van Hool buses do not, but they require a significant amount of infrastructure on which to do it. After all, I don’t think that Stanley Kowalski yelling “STELLA !!!!” in “A Van Hool Bus Named Desire” would have been as successful as the other version with the trolley.
It occurs to me on this first day that the Washington region has accomplished what it set out to do and has in fact replicated the service of the trolley with the DC Circulator. The question yet to be answered is whether that is enough and what else a trolley such as the one down here in Na’ Lins can provide.
Questions, comments, random musings? Write to [email protected].
