 |
Re: Electric over gasoline buses to replace streetcars
Author: fkrock
Date: 07-05-2016 - 08:56
San Francisco had very low cost electricity because the city owned a larde hydro-electric generating dam so it made economic sense to use that electricity for city owned transportation. Seattle also had access to very low cost hydro-electric power in the Pacific Northwest.
Oakland also intended to convert some streetcar lines to trolley bus operation. The trolley coaches had arrived in Oakland when National City Lines decided to send them to Los Angeles where NCL already had operating trolley coaches. The Oakland coaches replaced some pre-war worn out coaches.
Additional cost of maintaining overhead wires and paying property taxes on power substations encouraged privately owned transit companies to convert to bus operation.
Also some city fathers thought overhead wires were ugly. None of the "city of the future" drawings had overhead wires so they wanted to get rid of those "ugly" overhead wires in their cities.
Oakland also intended to convert some streetcar lines to trolley bus operation. The trolley coaches had arrived in Oakland when National City Lines decided to send them to Los Angeles where NCL already had operating trolley coaches. The Oakland coaches replaced some pre-war worn out coaches.
Additional cost of maintaining overhead wires and paying property taxes on power substations encouraged privately owned transit companies to convert to bus operation.
Also some city fathers thought overhead wires were ugly. None of the "city of the future" drawings had overhead wires so they wanted to get rid of those "ugly" overhead wires in their cities.
