Posted May 22, 200718 yr http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070522/NEWS16/70522009/-1/NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article published May 22, 2007 CHERRY STREET REBUILDING RIGHT ON "TRACK" A construction crew tears out the old streetcar tracks buried beneath Cherry Street near St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, in the background, as part of the project to rebuild southbound Cherry between Sherman and Mettler streets. The construction work brought to light the old tracks, which had been buried for decades. The northbound lanes of Cherry were completed recently, and traffi c was switched over from one side of the street to the other last week.
May 22, 200718 yr That is a travesty Not necessarily. When the time comes to reinstate light rail, the old tracks probably wouldn't be serviceable. Usually they were laid on wood crossties that have long since decayed, and because of deferred maintenance during WWII, and later as ridership declined, a lot of systems had rail that was worn out by the time they were shut down. The old infrastructure would probably have to come out, anyway. Bluffton, Indiana (home town) recently had to tear up Washington Street to remove ties that had been left in place when the interurban tracks were pulled up and scrapped in 1941. The street was developing a washboard surface as the ties decayed. I wanted to get down there and take photos, but didn't make it before the project was finished.
May 27, 200718 yr http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070527/NEWS11/705270330 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article published May 27, 2007 Toledo was hub of interurban 100 years ago Electric rails powered travel before car was king of road By DAVID PATCH BLADE STAFF WRITER As the 19th century drew to a close, travel between cities or from farm to market was a tedious affair. Usually it involved a bumpy wagon ride on rutted roads, which could be made impassable by mud or snow. While electric streetcars served city dwellers and steam railroads crisscrossed the nation, passenger service to many smaller communities was relatively infrequent, expensive, and often not tailored for short-distance day trips. More at link above:
May 27, 200718 yr http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070527/NEWS11/705270350 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article published May 27, 2007 Streetcar line conversions went to court The mass conversion of streetcar lines to bus routes in many U.S. cities during the 1930s and 1940s was the subject of a federal anti-trust lawsuit argued in California. The suit was officially resolved with a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court finding that only part of the relationship between National City Lines and its primary backer, General Motors, violated federal law. But debate over the circumstances of the demise of streetcars has persisted since then. More at link above:
May 27, 200718 yr Somewhere around twenty-five years ago, maybe a little more, Harper's Magazine published a detailed story by Jonathan Kwitney titled The Great Transportation Conspiracy. Kwitney researched the complex web that grew after GM started financing National City Lines' acquisition of many rail systems in order to convert them to bus operation. I have a copy of the article stashed somewhere in my archives, but it hasn't worked its way to the surface, lately. I seem to recall that GM's intent, and later that of Firestone, Standard Oil, and highway construction interests, was not simply to sell buses, tires and fuel to the transit systems, but to make transit so unattractive by implementing smelly, uncomfortable buses and gerrymandering schedules to make cross-town connections unworkable except for people who had no alternatives, that transit systems would either shut down or minimize services, creating a larger market among city dwellers for automobile ownership.
May 27, 200718 yr I've heard that as well and the Blade reporter refers to it. Suffice it to say we must learn our lessons from the aftermath of this history and move on with the intent of not making such mistakes again.
November 14, 201113 yr Toledo relics resurface in repaving project BY DAVID PATCH BLADE STAFF WRITER Relics from Toledo's past -- a past when people traveled from city to country aboard electric trains and firefighters drew water from underground cisterns to fight fires -- surfaced last month when The Blade rebuilt its employee parking lot. Among the debris found when contractors dug up the lot's pavement were railroad spikes and a strip of rail perhaps 40 feet long, relics from days when much of what is now The Blade's property belonged to the Toledo Railways & Light Co. and the Lakeshore Electric Railway. The former operated streetcars in Toledo during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the latter had a freight house in the 500 block of North Huron Street, opposite what is now Government Center. Read more at: http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2011/11/14/Toledo-relics-resurface-in-repaving-project.html
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