Dr. Chavez or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Trolley/Streetcar/Modern Light Rail

Recently, a little spat emerged in the mayoral race between incumbent Martin Chavez and challenger Richard Berry. It started when Berry criticized Chavez for supporting a “trolley” system. Chavez responded that he never supported a trolley; he supported a “modern light rail” system. What it boils down to is that Chavez decided to try and get all technical on Berry’s ass.

Marty, may I kindly request that you shut up and leave the technicalities to the pros? Please, allow me.

Technically, what Chavez and Berry are arguing over isn’t a difference in technology; it’s a difference in appearance. For all the talk about the proposed streetcar system being “modern”, there actually isn’t anything more modern about the fundamental technology between the trolley systems of the 1880s-1940s and this proposed streetcar system.

The term “trolley” is derived from the trolley pole, which is the metal pole that attaches the rail-bound vehicle to the electrical wire above, and thus allows the vehicle to receive energy from the wire and enable it to carry passengers. In fact, buses which use the same technology (such as in San Francisco) are often referred to as “trolley buses”, however we usually use the term “electric buses” in the United States to differentiate them from the rail-bound vehicles.

When people use the term “trolley” or “streetcar” in the United States, people are usually referring to the old-fashioned looking, rail-bound, electrically powered vehicles which were the primary mover of people in cities across the country at the turn of the 20^th century. These vehicles were often wood-paneled with open windows, but later ones (such as the famous PCC streetcars of the 1930s and 40s, which are currently used on San Francisco’s F-Streetcar line) are sleek (for their time), metal vehicles with glass windows.

Starting in the 1980s, cities in the United States began to rebuild rail systems which used the same technology as the trolleys/streetcars that they had torn out decades ago (that is, electricity fed through overhead wires down a trolley pole into the rail-bound vehicle). But the purpose of these systems was usually to connect distant suburbs or points of interest (such as the airport on the edge of town) with central business districts, so a faster and more high-capacity version of the trolley/streetcar had to be used. These systems were referred to as “light rail”, to differentiate them from both the older streetcar/trolley systems and current subway/metro systems (also sometimes referred to as “heavy rail”). Because these systems had to comply with federal regulations (such as ADA), they were designed differently than the old trolleys or streetcars to have features like low floors and ramps for wheelchairs, although the fundamental technology driving the vehicle was the same.

Then you have the most recent development, which only started occurring in this decade. Here we have light rail vehicles being used to for local service, to connect neighborhoods in a central area of the city, rather than connecting the central business district to the suburbs. Because the purpose of these types of systems was different from light rail systems (even though the technology was still the same), the term “modern streetcar” was adopted, because while they looked more like light rail systems, they functioned more like the older trolley and streetcar systems.

So Berry is a little closer to the truth than Marty here, because what Marty is supporting here is a trolley. It’s also a streetcar. It’s also a “modern” light rail vehicle – it’s all the same technology. Where Marty goes wrong is in using the term “light rail”, because light rail refers to systems which have their own right-of-way, stations spaced every half-mile to mile, and large vehicle capacities, all intended for the purpose of carrying large amounts of people quickly from downtown to the suburbs. This is not light rail; this is an updated version of the older trolley/streetcar systems, which move in mixed traffic, have frequent stops, and smaller capacities than their light rail counterparts. That’s not to say they’re useless, they’re just two different types of systems designed for two different purposes, even if the technology is exactly the same.