Operating results with PCC cars

Abstract

The PCC trolley car, designed several years ago by a committee of street-railway-company executives, has now been in operation long enough to appraise its contribution to the industry. Its quietness, higher speed, improved operating characteristics, and greater passenger convenience and comfort as compared with older cars have attracted new passenger traffic, with the result that the general downward trend of traffic has been reversed on lines where these cars have been substituted for older ones. NOTHING in recent years has so completely changed the outlook of the transit industry as the PCC car. From 1931 to 1934 relatively few city surface cars were purchased. During the last six years almost 2,000 PCC cars have been purchased, as well as similar types which have essentially the same electrical equipment and represent similar improvement over the older vehicles. On May 1, 1941, 1,467 PCC cars were in operation in 14 cities of the United States and Canada. These cars had accumulated a total mileage of more than 146,000,000, or 100,000 miles per car. The 100 cars in Brooklyn, N. Y., had an average mileage of 188,000; the first 201 cars in Pittsburgh, Pa., 206,000; and the 83 cars in Chicago, Ill., 173,500. It is evident that sufficient experience covering a wide variety of conditions is available to form a reliable basis of judgment.