Philadelphia is another one of the handful of
cities that retained trolley service all during the century. The
initial portion of the streetcar subway goes back to the first
decade of last century. The underground portion was extended west
later on.
SEPTA came into being in 1968, at which point the Philadelphia
Transportation Co. -- which I richly remember from my earliest
visits -- became part of history.
Newer vehicles replaced the PCC on the Subway-Surface lines in the
early 1980s. Car 9019, depicted in this scene, represents the more
modern (but rather graceless) Kawasaki vehicles now in use. The
cars appear narrow, but the track gauge is broad, four inches wider
than standard. The use of trolley poles has been retained.
The car is in this photo is at the Darby terminal, and is almost
ready to head back to City Hall.
Route 11 travels through some tired,
sometimes bleak, neighborhoods along Woodland Ave., a route
generally a few blocks away from the Amtrak Northeast Corridor.
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