New York, NY – A plan to bring trolley cars back to parts of Brooklyn may be getting back on track.
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Officials with the Department of Transportation say they plan to meet with local groups and businesses about the idea of reviving streetcar service between Red Hook and Downtown Brooklyn.
Last summer, when he was campaigning for re-election, Mayor Michael Bloomberg backed taking a closer look.
“We’ll look into the feasibility of using the city’s old trolley tracks to create new streetcar service in growing waterfront neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn, starting in Red Hook,” said the mayor.
City officials had hoped at the time to begin looking at the possibilities by the end of last year. But the five-month study is only starting now, using federal money secured by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez.
Advocates cheered the mayor’s initial enthusiasm, saying the streetcars that once served the neighborhood are much cheaper than subways, carry more people than buses and have zero emissions.
In fact, only one bus, the B61, runs between Red Hook and Downtown. Trolley proponents say that’s not enough for an area that has become home to major new stores, including IKEA, and the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
Too bad they ripped up the trolley tracks under McDonald Ave a few years ago.
Only if they can bring back the old “Green Torpedo” PCC cars, like San Francisco did. New light rail would be a great boondoggle.
sure, put up trolleys and bike lanes. time to get rid of cars altogether
This means we will loose hundreds of parking spaces to make room for those trolleys to pass and probably going to add many fatalities to the increasing dangerous streets in NYC…
I really miss the trolleys in Brooklyn, having last been a passenger on the Brooklyn trolleys in 1955. The Coney Island Avenue trolley was great, as it would take us south on Coney Island Avenue, over the ramp of the Belt Parkway (just past Avenue Z) to Brighton Beach Avenue, and west to Coney Island. In 1954, my Hebrew school class from the Young Israel of Flatbush boarded that trolley to see the Coney Island fireworks; it was great. Also, in either 1953, or 1954, a student at the Hebrew class at the Talmud Torah of Flatbush took another student’s sneaker and threw it on top of a passing Coney Island Avenue trolley. The trolley continued with the sneaker on top of it.
oh man thats a great idea.i mean its scenic romantic artistic.it would be a great tourist attraction.i like it.i’m old enough to remember them.they ran on 86 street in bensonhurst.
itll make illegal turns harder
This city is going backwards these days, First they force everyone onto Bikes then they shut down major cross streets, before you know they will force us into Horse& Buggy and into using Candles as a source for light.
Twelve years ago, in a suburban town south-east of London, UK called Croydon, the city fathers decided to revive the streetcar network that had been closed down in 1952.
It took a lot of hard work and fiscal sacrifice. Storekeepers in the central business district complained about the nuisance caused by construction works. But B”S, in April 2000, the new Tramlink opened. The new transport system is clean, runs on time, and has proved a real boon to business people and townsfolk alike.
The system has 39 stations, spread over three interlinking routes, and carries >27 million passengers a year. The tram cars are specially designed to carry babies in their buggies and their parents, as well as disabled passengers who use electric wheelchairs.
Since the Croydon Tramlink opened in 2000, there has been but one fatal accident R”L.
Brooklyn could – and must – learn from the Limies.
The trolleys should never have been discontinued; however, the bus manufacturers sold the major cities the idea of doing away with the trolleys. The fact of the matter is that the trolleys did not pollute the air, and they lasted much longer than the buses. There are only a few north American cities which still have trolleys, both with tracks, and trackless (trolley buses).