The first bus prepares to leave for Long Beach moments after the retirement of the last Red Car line.
Last Red Car replaced with bus service 50 years ago this week
Los Angeles is currently building out a world-class rail system. Half a century ago, however, the outlook for fixed-guideway transit in L.A. was bleek.
It was 50 years ago this week when the last of the Pacific Electric Red Cars were replaced with buses. At the system’s peak, the Red Cars ran on over 1,000-miles of track and were the largest electric railway in the world.
The Metro Primary Resources blog has several great photos and stories from that last day of service.
Market Street pre-quake video made 105 years ago this week
This week 105 years ago, a camera was mounted on the front of a San Francisco cable car to capture the lively scene that was Market Street. If you haven’t watched it, it’s quite a remarkable video made all the more remarkable by the fact that many of the people pictured had just days to live. On April 18th, of course, the young city had a date with disaster.
Our friends at Market Street Railway have more information on the video and how you can even own a narrated copy of it. The video above is from 60 Minutes, who covered the “Trip Through Market Street” film in 2010.
