Streetcars have been gone from Sacramento since 1947, but they're coming back! Well, maybe. This fall, the City's transportation department will undertake a study to look at a streetcar route to connect Sacramento to West Sacramento. So far, they have not obtained the funds to actually build the system. Sacramento has also had a light rail system in place since 1987.
This classic card shows a Sacramento streetcar sometime before 1943. Sacramento had horse-drawn cars back in the 1870s, and converted to electric batteries briefly before moving to the overhead electric trolley lines. As in many other cities, the streetcar enabled people to move out to the suburbs and still enjoy the benefits of working and shopping in Sacramento. Weekend service took people out to Joyland, an amusement park in Oak Park.
Streetcar service flourished throughout the 1920s and early 30s. It was then that competition from cars and buses began to take its toll. Some of Sacramento's streetcar lines were abandoned in the late 1930s. World War II and various resource shortages slowed down the demise of the streetcar, but as soon as the war ended, the push for cars and buses led to the rapid abandonment of streetcar lines.
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