Thread 2052186

>throw away the based PE because gas will be cheap forever and freeway is big
>have to rebuild it again not even 30 years later because gas is fucking expensive and the freeway clogged to shit
>It's not even as much track or usable as PE because public owned rail is slow and shit
I hate post WWII America so much it's unreal

>>2052186 (OP)
They were already in financial trouble by the 1920s and converting lines to bus before even the stock crash of 1929. By the 1940s the real money was made with freight service, with Pacific Electric Company selling off its transit operations to Los Angeles' transit authority and eventually merging with Southern Pacific.

Did you think Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a documentary or something?

Pacific Electric was glorious but like traction systems it was built on a shaky foundation of land speculation and robber baron finances. The real problem was that what was a dirt road with horse and wagon traffic in 1900 was a paved street or highway by the 1920s, swarming with cars blocking streetcars and causing collisions. Without a separate right of way there’s no rapid transit. Street running for local trolleys is ok but interurbans stuck in traffic can’t make those last miles to the city center.

>>2052186 (OP)
Many problems with the Pacific electric system
- trains were too slow because of the heavy steel construction and underpowered electric motors
- gets stuck in traffic because the idea of traffic separated track hadn't been invented yet
- fare set by California State Railroad Commission
Los Angeles simply wasn't visionary enough to see that traffic would become such a huge problem in the future when they got rid of it in the 40s
It wasn't until the 70s that Europe started to revive the tram

>>2052576
S O V L

>>2052579
Another thing is that they didn't have any air conditioning.

>>2052576
>tfw born to late to take PE from Huntington Beach pier to LA
>born just in time to get stuck in traffic and find a place to park this bastard
grim

>>2052663
>Huntington Beach pier
The Pier was also longer back then, it was partially destroyed in a storm which took out the old End Cafe and had to be rebuilt. Although to be honest, looking at old photos of the pier, it doesn't look anywhere near as iconic as it does now, it used to look way more generic in my opinion. Sucks that the only restaurant there now is a smelly oyster shack

>>2052664
>Sucks that the only restaurant there now is a smelly oyster shack
It's very sad to see Ruby's go, my mom and I still walk on the pier but eating an inexpensive burger with a view was kino, now it's $25 for a fucking lobster roll, at least it was the last time my sister wanted to try it, she liked it but holy fuck.

>>2052665
It was nice being able to just get a burger and fries and have a simple diner to sit at. I don't see this new place lasting though, it doesn't look anywhere near as crowded as Ruby's was and not even tourists seem to give a shit about it. The only other Ruby's I know of is at South Coast Plaza. I think there's one at Newport but I've never been to it.

>>2052666
The one in newport beach is small but you get that nice feel of eating on the pier, it may not have a second level but they have chairs to eat outside on the pier, but yeah I don't know how long the oyster place is gonna last, I was just walking the pier last night and a bunch of rich ass kids had rented the whole place for a private thing, but I've never seen that place pull a crowd the way Ruby's did.

No reserved-lane for trams is what really killed it I think
Once the volume of cars began increasing on the roads after the war, it really damaged the avg speed of PE's routes

>>2052724
Definitely, even on Washington blvd with all the retards, the based blue line moves along nicely because people can't stop on the tracks, the thing still stops for lights but it never gets stuck because it was built with cars in mind, people didn't think about cars in 1904 when PE was becoming a thing

>>2052186 (OP)
>No A/C in CA where it's hot as shit
>city infrastructure never made to accommodate it because private rail
>stuck in traffic with cars because it had no right of way when street running
>nothing in the way of platforms so people stood in the middle of LA streets to get hit by cars when getting on or off
>have to climb onto the train so fuck you if you're disabled in any way, and try not to eat shit getting off
>38 mph at the fastest when it did have right of way and you were averaging 13 mph overall
>basically unsustainable from the beginning because it's not publicly funded and was originally the draw to land the creator wanted to sell to developers before doomping it all and walking away because he new
>never maintained anything or got new rolling stock because it had no money because people weren't riding it
It's a shame, but it is what it is.

REE I don't want your stupid plaque and monument, I just want the based red cars to get from Santa Ana to LA with

>>2053978
Stop reminiscing and just build it reee

>>2052186 (OP)
The E line stations have this on the concrete tiles