The El Paso streetcar opened yesterday.

http://www.sunmetro.net/streetcar

Moved El Paso to complete!

All of a sudden it's a big fall for streetcar openings. Saint Louis' long-delayed Delmar Loop Trolley begins operations this Thursday, 11/15.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...ampaign=LEEDCC

The University City portion of the St Louis Delmar Loop trolley started operation today.

https://www.kmov.com/news/the-loop-t...aef4a1284.html

Moved the St Louis trolley to complete.

Good news on this front. The FTA is moving New Starts grants again. Just over the past week or so they've finally approved the grants for Seattle's Lynnwood LRT and Minneapolis' SWLRT, at least. Real construction should begin in a few months.

Unconfirmed but more FTA New Starts grants are apparently about to clear. Los Angeles Westside Purple Line phase 3, Tempe AZ streetcar, Minneapolis Orange Line BRT all expecting to get their grants this week.

Orange County, CA streetcar is now under construction.

We took this trip to Garden Grove
It smelled like Lou-dog inside the streetcar.


I grew up in Orange County, which has traditionally been the epitome of post-World War II sunbelt sprawl, so this is very exciting to see.

The Oklahoma City streetcar opened today.

https://newsok.com/article/5617688/hitting-the-rails

How come it was so cheap to build?

They took almost every opportunity to reduce costs. They are using off-the-shelf Liberty streetcars built by Brookville, which have a battery mode of operation. Therefore they did not have to run catenary wires over the entire 6 miles length.
Less wires requires less rectifier power units out in the city on the right-of-way.
Stops are not over built, just a small bus shelter with slightly higher platforms than existing sidewalks. There's lots of way to save on construction costs if you decide to do them, i.e. being happy with a Chevy instead of a Caddy.

To make that point slightly more vivid, I was out looking at purchasing a Kia Sportage last week, MSRP ran from around $23,000 to $36,000 depending upon options. If you are happy with standard stuff, you can save $13,000 (one third the price of a fully deck out SUV). Too many of us want fully deck out everything included stuff, then complain about its' cost.

It's also 5.6 miles of one way track, so actual length is more like 2.8 miles.

Moved OKC streetcar to complete.

Gotta say I love the pink livery.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4785/3...39757db0_c.jpg
Tony Gaeddert on Flickr

Same here.
Obviously, the vehicle is still way too short, but the colors are fun.

Too short for what? To operate in Paris? Or in Oklahoma City?

Yeah, the length should not be a problem for Oklahoma City. Even by midwestern American standards, Oklahoma City has terrible transit.

This is an urbanized area with just under one million people, and total region-wide transit ridership per day of only 11,000. OKC's busiest bus line carries only 1,000 people per day. So the streetcar there is starting from a base of almost no existing riders, and it has a short circuitous route--only a few kilometers long, with a lot of back-and-forth. They will be lucky to get 1,000 riders per day.

For reference, the first internet result I get for ridership on Paris' 10 tramways says they average over 30,000 riders per day each. Which is actually so much lower than I'd have guessed that I doubt the number is accurate.

I think OKC is roughly the same size as Toulouse. Toulouse has a subway with 300,000 riders per day, plus a tram line with another 14,000 or so, plus a huge bus system.

Tram length is a fun sidebar. Even on high-ridership systems, the US uses much much shorter railcars than Europe. In the US, standard practice is to couple multiple short cars together to form a train. In Europe, they use longer individual cars with multiple articulated joints.

The longest tramcar/light rail vehicle in the US right now is in Dallas, where they are 124 feet long (38 meters) (photo). But most US streetcars are less than 70 feet long (21 m). Even San Francisco and Boston, the US's two highest-ridership light rail systems, use cars that are 75 feet (23 m) and 74 feet (23 m) long.

Compare that to the longest tram in Europe, Budapest, which is 184 feet long (56 m) (photo).

The US is beginning to change to the European model though. The DC/Maryland Purple Line that's under construction today will have 136 foot (41 m) trams, and Boston's next generation trams will be 112 feet (34 m).

^That's news to me about the future of Boston rolling stock. About the Purple Line CAF cars, I think the spec length is more like 142' not 135'

Bah, that was only a provocative little word to underline some cultural difference here, but of course it wasn't intended to hurt anyone.

I'll tell you about some comparable example in my country, the lovely old town of Bordeaux that everybody likes.

City pop: ~250k
Urban: 760k
Metro: 1.2 million

This is all the same scale as OK City. The average wealth of both metros may be more or less similar too.
I mean this is just our old common developed world, much the same in a lot of respects.
But then, excuse me, but their trams just ain't the same at all.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Quinconces.jpg
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_...ay_de_Bordeaux

They have 3 extensive lines on segregated lanes operating these long-ass trams, still extending their network.
And you know what? Lots of locals complain because their trams are overcrowded on rush hours, so they have to take the bus in case of bad luck.
They want an underground subway that will eventually cost money to the entire nation.
But who wouldn't pay for it when you know their city?

I know it's an overdone cliché on here, repeated over and over again, but really, this cultural gap is still astonishing and funny.

I couldn't even claim this way would be better than the other one. I'm in favor of freedom and of people living what they like anyway.
There's just an ocean in between, and different stories. And that's something sometimes striking.