Pacific Electric, also known as the Red Car system, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, light rail, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County. Electric trolleys first traveled in Los Angeles in 1887 of the Pasadena and Los Angeles Railway and the Los Angeles Pacific Railway (to Santa Monica.) The Pasadena and Pacific Railway boosted Southern California tourism, living up to its motto from the mountains to the sea. The last line ran until April 1961 when the bus systems took over. Waterfront Red Car 1.5-mile (2 km) streetcar line connecting the World Cruise Center south to Ports O Call and the 22nd St. terminal, where a shuttle bus connects other attractions along the San Pedro waterfront. Two newly constructed Red Car replicas, #500 & #501, provide service along the line on cruise ship arrival/departure days as well as weekends – Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In addition, a restored 1907-vintage Pacific Electric car, No. #1508 originally rebuilt from two wrecks as a unique motor coach, is available for special rail excursions. It began operation as a tourist attraction on July 19, 2003. The Port of Los Angeles financed, constructed and operates the replica equipment on heritage PE track, one of many of its waterfront revival projects. A new pedestrian esplanade featuring public art and fountains, sculpture and fountains has been built alongside the track from the World Cruise Center to the Maritime Museum and Fire Boat Station. It connects to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and other San Pedro attractions when using the Waterfront Red Car trolley/shuttle. There are plans to extend the Waterfront Red Car line approximately two more miles south to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and the tidepools of Cabrillo Beach. Current plans for an extension of the line north into Wilmington to Avalon Blvd. along existing trackage is in effect as a part of the waterfront improvement plan. Trackage is in place, but funding for additional improvements has not yet been identified. Some transit advocates have proposed linking this line to the Metro Blue Line Long Beach terminus, a very intensive and expensive expansion.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 11:36:59 +0000
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