A Streetcar Plan For Brooklyn, 25 Years In The Making

The borough hasn't seen a trolley since 1956, but a series of new projects and traffic concerns suggest that a system would be a real possibility.

1 minute read

January 18, 2006, 6:00 AM PST

By David Gest

"In 1930, 1,800 [trolleys] crisscrossed Brooklyn, traveling on a 300-mile latticework of steel track. But as city residents moved to the suburbs after World War II, the trolley infrastructure grew increasingly rundown, and tracks were pulled up and sold as scrap...In 2002, [Arthur Melnick] formed the nonprofit Brooklyn City Streetcar Company, and he has spent the last three years meeting quietly with community leaders and city officials as a one-man advocate for trolley lines in Brooklyn."

Melnick began his trolley crusade as part of the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association, founded way back in 1982. By 2006, the idea of trolleys in Brooklyn has caught the attention of a number of key players in the borough's transportation landscape, suggesting that a rebirth of the streetcar may indeed take place.

Read the full story: A Desire Named Streetcar

Sunday, January 15, 2006 in The New York Times

History / Preservation Transportation New York

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