Why did Chicago get rid of street cars?

Between 1947 and 1958 all streetcars were eliminated (and 700 new ones scrapped or turned into El cars) because busses had a lower overhead cost (no track or wire) and trolleys got in the way of automobiles. In the same ten years, about sixteen miles of elevated in the inner city were abandoned and demolished.



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The new public agency Chicago Transit Authority took over the streetcar system in 1947 and began to integrate the surface lines with the city's elevated train network. In the 1950s, CTA decided to phase out streetcars in favor of motor and electric trolley buses, and Chicago's last streetcar ran in June 1958.

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The real problem was that once cars appeared on the road, they could drive on streetcar tracks — and the streetcars could no longer operate efficiently. Once just 10 percent or so of people were driving, the tracks were so crowded that [the streetcars] weren't making their schedules, Norton says.

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Streetcar systems went bankrupt and were dismantled in virtually every metro area in the United States, and National City was only involved in about 10 percent of cases. The Los Angeles Streetcar system developed into the largest trolley system in the world by the 1920's, according to Los Angeles Streetcar, Inc.

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However, the demise of the streetcar came when lines were torn out of the major cities by bus manufacturing or oil marketing companies for the specific purpose of replacing rail service with buses. In many cases, postwar buses were cited as providing a smoother ride and a faster journey than the older, pre-war trams.

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New York City Trolley or Streetcar service ended in New York City on April 6th, 1957 on Welfare (now Roosevelt) Island.

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In 1883 New York City's first steam-driven Cable Car emerged, which ran until 1909 when electric trolleys hit the urban scene of all five boroughs.

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1909: Electric trolleys replaced the steam-powered cable cars in all five boroughs, giving NYC transportation a sudden boost in speed and efficiency. 1957: The last streetcars disappeared, fully replaced by the city's bus system.

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LISTEN: Unearthing London's transportation history introduced the horse-drawn trolleys in 1875. Two decades later, the system was converted to electric streetcars.

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Boston's “Green Line” is more accurately a system of four streetcar / light rail lines serving Boston that converge into a common subway in the downtown area. The subway is America's oldest, the first portion having opened in 1897.

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