Originally Posted by
acidfast7
Well as a person who has lived under both conditions (where the teams have stayed in place since their origin and where they've been removed and replaced by auto and/or bus), it's simply superior to live in the former. I don't see any advantage by removing existing tram lines. Most cities run buses in the same physical space.
What suggested benefit am I missing.
Leave my country of birth out of the discussion as it's materially irrelevant.
Where in the U.S. have the tram lines stayed in place since their origin and allowed superior living conditions to thrive or even exist? West Philadelphia is one area where you can find a tram system (known locally as subway surface trolleys since they use Market Street subway for the Center City section of their routes) that includes more than one or two lines serving an area for something other than tourism. It will be hard to make a case that this existing tram line is any kind of factor on the living conditions in West Philadelphia. perhaps New Orleans and Boston still have a working legacy tram system but I am not familiar them.
You can't see any benefits to flexibility in routing public transit service to allow for frequent traffic obstructions/street and utility construction, let alone account for long term shifts in locations of population densities, business and residential movement, and traffic/roadway alternatives?
Fine, those were the good old days weren't they?
I used to take the Rt. 6 trolley to Willow Grove Park via its own right of way through Glenside as a youth.
And crush pennies on the tracks of the Rt. 52 trolley ½ block from my house.
When I turned 16 take my grandmother by car to the 5th Godfrey turn around for the Rt 47 trolley where she could wait in the car for its full trip to the other end of the line which was a block from her house in South Philadelphia.
If only life were still so simple that reminiscing about the good old days would bring them back!