The journalist didn’t have his facts straight about FDR and the PCC, but it is a good story for a change.
T
On Dec 3, 2017, at 9:59 AM, Edward Havens edhavens@gmail.com [SouthernStatesTraction] <SouthernStatesTraction@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
An op-ed column in the EL PASO Times says heritage PCC streetcars will be returning to the west Texas city after an absence of 44 years:
Remember seeing those cars stored formany years about 1 mile east of the east west runway of El Paso airport. Main difference we remember they were painted with a green design ?
I remember seeing those “buses on rails” in downtown El Paso back in 1962. It was the first time I saw PCC cars.
I was in El Paso at the end of October. The tracks for the streetcar have been laid, and the crews are stringing the wire. Supposedly the cars will begin operating early in 2018.
I rode them some when I was stationed at Ft. Bliss. I recall they were pretty crowded whenever I was on them with many of the passengers coming from or going to the border. Riding them brought back memories of when I was a boy in Philadelphia.
<https://tinyurl.com/ybnwmv97>
Driving a streetcar
It’s harder than you think
(Monday, December `8, 2017)
he 4.8-mile route includes 27 stops and stretches from Downtown to the University of Texas at El Paso. At that rate we will get there by next week.
Hey! Thats my home town. Rode the tram as a kid. And yes, they were green. Sort of a light green.
The light green and tan color scheme you remember is the color scheme National City Lines used (GM-Firestone-Texaco) after they bought the transit system. The think that the blue-grey scheme was used by the earlier company, and/or by the city after they took over from NCL. I think the intention is to use both or maybe three historically correct color schemes to give variety, somewhat like SF’s F Line, but all El Paso.