Reader Question: From what year to what year did the Red Car Run To Venice? ( Thanks to T.E. for the fab question )
Answer: We believe 1898 - 1950 For you young whipper snappers… the Red Cars were one of the original transit lines in Los Angeles, and were comprised of trains and buses that expanded to connect the expanding Los Angeles to what at the time were just area suburbs.
Pacific Electric Railway was created with Henry Edwards Huntington as principal stockholder.
Pacfiic Electric was sold to Southern Pacific in 1910.
In 1911 Southern Pacific combined Pacific Electric with nearly all of the interurban railways in a four-county region of Southern Caliornia, which continued operating under the Pacific Electric name.
Its passenger operations (both rail and bus) were sold to newly-formed Metropolitan Coach Lines in 1953.
The last Pacific Electric Railway was converted to buses in 1961. Parent company Southern Pacific ended Pacific Electric’s existence in 1965, folding what little millage of freight operation remained into its own operation.
- The Western District comprised the network of lines formerly belonging to the Los Angeles Pacific Company plus several other lines. Lines included the Hollywood Subway, Sherman - West Hollywood Line, West Sixteenth Street Line, Venice Short Line, Santa Monica via Sawtelle Line, Westgate Line, Santa Monica Local Lines, Redondo Beach - Del Rey Line, Lagoon Line, Coldwater Canyon Line, Santa Monica Canyon Line, Cahuenga Valley Line, Quint Cutoff, Sherman Cutoff, Santa Monica Air Line, Inglewood Line, Hollywood Lines, South Hollywood - Sherman Line, Western & Franklin Line, Echo Park Avenue Line, San Fernando Valley Line, Glendale - Burbank Line, Edendale Line. As of December, 1916, the Western District totaled 260 miles of trackage, divided into 12 lines over which operated 395 trains each day comprised of 566 cars.
During the 1920s the popularity of automobiles increased and service to some communities was discontinued. Increasing automobile traffic also led to decreasing Red Car speeds in urban areas as much of the Pacific Electric trackage was in streets shared with automobiles and trucks, and virtually all street crossings were at-grade.
The Great Depression during the 1930′s also caused ridership to drop. Unable to purchase new trolleys, the PE began bus substitution in the late 30′s and closed the line to Pasadena. World War II brought a brief resurgence in popularity to rail travel, ridership numbers hit an all-time high in 1944. But by the 1950s it was clear, however, that the automobile had become the premier means of travel in L.A. Northern District service was discontinued in September 1951 after the PE was forced to abandon its Northern District lines near downtown LA for construction of a new freeway.
In 1953, the Metropolitan Coach Lines gained control of the bus lines and red car lines. Western District service ended in 1955. In 1958 the newly created Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority took over both bus and rail passenger service in southern California. The Los Angeles to Long Beach line ceased operation on April 8, 1961.
Today the MTA Blue Line uses much the same route that was the Pacific Electric’s route between Los Angeles and Long Beach. There is street trackage at both the Long Beach and Los Angeles ends of the line, and a short subway section at the Los Angeles terminus.
Here are more links:
http://www.veniceheritagemuseum.org/Site/RED_CAR_HISTORY.html
http://www.metro.net/about/library/about/home/los-angeles-transit-history/
http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/la/historic/redcars/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrolibraryarchive/collections/72157617190097302/
