RR: How will the project be financed? How much will each ride cost and will we be taxed? Fares have not been determined, though the current assumption is that Streetcar fares will match standard bus fares. As they collect feedback on proposed routes, VIA will take into consideration connecting destinations, operations frequency and coordination with other modes of transportation like buses and bike hubs , costs, ridership who would ride which.
VIA asks the public to think long-term, and even make suggestions for future phases of the rail system and integration with other forms of mass transit. Bekah is a native San Antonian. She made it back home and now works for Ker and Downey. She is one of the founding members of Read the Change , a web-based philanthropy. You can also find her at her blog, Free Bekah. Bekah McNeel is a native San Antonian.
You can also find her at her blog, FreeBekah. More by Bekah McNeel. Skip to content A crowded bus stop on Houston Street. Photo by Iris Dimmick. SmartWay SA, used with permission. San Antonio streetcar on Avenue C before it was renamed Broadway in In the four remaining companies - there had already been several consolidations - were unified into the San Antonio Traction Company.
A major benefit of this was that folks did not have to buy a separate ticket each time they switched cars. The concept of using different colors for each route, however, stayed in place for quite some time. The decision was made to reduce the standard gauge width of the newer lines to match the narrow gauge installed in heart of the system, which would continue to be the busiest, most used and most profitable part of the operation.
By the increase in automobile ownership led to the paving of down town streets and the gradual disappearance of horse drawn wagons and carriages. Commerce Street street was widened in and streetcars could finally pass through, but by this time it had already become far less important to the daily commerce of the city.
However it did allow better service to the Southern Pacific's Sunset Station, opened in , which had had to rely on horse drawn omnibuses.
Early scene showing streetcar at the Bexar County court house in San Antonio. San Antonio Traction Co. San Antonio streetcar heading towards the Hot Wells spa.
Note ad for boxing event. It was privately owned and operated. In the same year the new company literally built its first bus using a truck chassis in its own shops to transports passengers-to, from and inside Fort Sam.
No streetcar lines were ever laid within the huge military base. It's worth mentioning that the streetcars were not supposed to exceed 10 MPH on crowded downtown streets and did not not go much faster away from the city center. Only A very few downtown streets had double tracks, so in most cases cars had to wait patiently at all track intersections for another to com through in the opposite direction.
It also meant that any mechanical breakdown on just one car could paralyze the entire system, and such issues were quite common. Early electric powered San Antonio streetcar.
Open side streetcars were banned under a Texas law passed in Rare open air street car in San Antonio. This style was deemed an immediate failure and ended up being transformed to haul freight on the Pearl Brewery's tracts to and from the Southern Pacific mainline. San Antonio's streetcar system reached its peak at ninety miles of track in But soon new communities, such as Terrel Hills and Olmos Park, were developed further and further away from the city center, in hilly areas unsuitable for streetcars.
As the Great Depression hit, the declining amount of people still living in the downtown areas, where the bulk of the system's ridership always occurred, were less and less able to afford to buy tickets, and ridership declined.
By this time the streetcars, which had no air-conditioning, had gained a reputation for being both slow and filled with unsavory passengers. Buses were far cheaper to buy, operate and maintain, and far more flexible. Speed had become a crucial factor. In , as land values in the city center fell as wealthier people moved away, often to unincorporated areas on the then outskirts of the city, tax revenue fell so badly that the city faced bankruptcy.
Streetcars were considered old and slow. This map representing the San Antonio streetcar and bus system in was made on behalf of the City Water Board, which itself was created in It eveolved into SAWS in Using a map and information supplied by TTM founding member John Kight, the map shows not only the streetcars but also the bus routes as well. San Antonio streetcar shops on San Pedro.
The SAC campus now occupies this space. San Antonio became the first major US city to abandon streetcar service.
It would soon be followed by almost every other city as the service contracts expired in due course. The last streetcar in San Antonio ran on April 29, A mule drawn car was brought out on the final day.
Pretty soon the tracks were either ripped up or paved over. Most were sold for scrap or simply abandoned. Reproduction token, the last year for streetcars in San Antonio. The company's policy was for small buses running frequently. Retired San Antonio streetcars being used as dwelling in the s during the Great Depression.
The ATD — and the related quarter-cent sales tax increase — won overwhelming approval. Almost 60 percent of the voters approved. The ATD won approval because VIA learned from the election, recognizing that the citizens of Bexar County want a balanced and incremental approach to transportation improvements.
The ATD carefully allocated public monies between public transportation and roadway improvements throughout the county. In its first 10 years of operation, ATD funding built major roadway improvements like northeast I from Highway to I , while providing an additional one-eighth penny for public transit.
Today, VIA operates on five-eighth of a penny sales tax — still much less than its counterparts across the state and nation. VIA's proposed Modern Streetcar project — a 4- to 5-mile downtown circulator reaching into the near south, east, west and north sides of the city's core — continues the voters' demand for an incremental and balanced approach, as reflected in the ATD. And a streetcar system's total capital expenditure pales in comparison to funding for all roadway improvements in the entire county, from all funding sources.
Modern streetcar also responds to the growing mobility demands of our city's core. Housing densities in the core are already exploding, and the demand for reliable public transportation and reduced emissions will follow.
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