…The Grand Avenue Rail Project (GARP, for short) is a plan to connect the modern [METRO] rail route with a relic from the city’s transportation past: a restored 82-year-old streetcar, part of the original Phoenix Street Railway system, which, if funded, will one day roll west down Van Buren and make a wide right on Grand to retrace its original path down the center of the storied street…

What’s more, Graham proposed, they could actually run the trolley that’s already been restored there (and the second in the works) up and down Grand, without a lot of additional construction.

“The great thing about this idea is, because the streetcars were here before, it’d be relatively easy to do it again,” says Graham, looking out on the lightly traveled street just outside his office window, where the railway system ran until 1948. “My civil engineer found out that no utilities were ever put in under the street, and the median is just wide enough to accommodate the streetcars without reducing the traffic lanes. So all they’d really have to do is cast a strip of concrete with a couple of rails in it and extend a single overhead electrical cable down the middle, and you’re done!”

Rest of the story: http://citycircles.com/posts/437

Car #116 sits at Collier Center, 27 December 2008

Car #116 at Phoenix Civic Plaza

Our thanks to Western Towing for making the display possible. They made the impossible look easy.

Western Towing moves Car #116 -- 3:30am

Printable flyer (click)

On Saturday, December 27, 2008, we will be displaying Car #116 on Third Street between Washington and Jefferson in downtown Phoenix, a few feet from where it historically operated.

Come visit us at Valley Metro’s light rail opening party and step back in time as we step forward into the future.  9am to 5pm in Downtown Phoenix. Ride the new light rail system and we will see you there!

Full-Color Special Souvenir shirts will be available — Don’t miss out!

Generations before the first track of Phoenix’s new light-rail system was laid, an electric-ran system carried Phoenix residents throughout the city. It ran for six decades, from 1887 to 1948…

“During the time of the original streetcar, it went everywhere worth going,” said Ernie Workman, president of the Phoenix Trolley Museum.

Officials at the museum, as well as a former streetcar driver, hope the opening of a new light-rail system on Dec. 27 will spark interest in the old trolley system by reminding locals that a public rail system once flourished in Phoenix…

Rest of the story in the Arizona Republic

I’m sitting on a brown leather bench seat, in front of large wood-casement windows in Trolley Car 116, and it isn’t hard to imagine Old Phoenix…

Most of Phoenix doesn’t even know this town had a thriving trolley system for 61 glorious years – from 1887 to 1948. Think about that. When this town still had nothing but dirt streets and adobe buildings, it had a mass transit system for the few folks who lived here. As the city grew, so did the lines, allowing the trolley to boast: “It comes every 10 minutes and goes everywhere worth going.”

Read the rest of the story in the Phoenix Magazine…

May 28, 1927 — Electric Railway Journal

PHOENIX — Street Railway Properties, Phoenix, Ariz., shortly will purchase a number of one-man, pay-as-you-enter cars due to the passage of a $750,000 bond issue by the municipal authorities on April 30, referred to recently in the Electric Railway Journal. According to law 30 days must elapse before the bonds are marketable.

PHOENIX — The proposed $750,000 bond issue for the complete rehabilitation of the Phoenix Street Railway, Phoenix, Ariz., was carried at the special election on April 30 by a 95 majority vote. An ordinance calling for the special election and approved by the City Commission calls for the purchase of new cars, rails, ties and other necessities for bringing the present municipal railway up to date. It means the rehabilitation of the entire system. Under the plan the system will be operated for a period of five years before the sinking fund provided to amortize the payment of the principal of the bonds begins to function.

The city of Phoenix acquired the properties of the railway by purchase on June 4, 1925, for $20,000 and assumed direct operation on Nov. 1, 1925.

December 11, 1926 — Electric Railway Journal

Surplus of approximately $18,000 is the result of operation of the Phoenix Street Railway, Phoenix, Ariz., under municipal operations for one year ended Nov. 1., This fact was disclosed in a report submitted to the City Commission recently by City Manager Henry Rieger. In his report he recommends the rehabilitation of the line.

The report shows total receipts during the year at $160,896 and total disbursements, including expenses and other costs, $143,056. If the lines had been rehabilited and up-to-date rolling stock secured it would have been possible to cut maintenance charges to $26,666. Added to the cash on hand, it would have made $44,506 cash on hand, and with a 7-cent fare the surplus for the year would have reached $75,000 under proper operating conditions, according to General Manager Rieger.  He recommends complete rehabilitation “as a decidedly good paying investment for the city and for the citizens of the city at large.” He stresses the need for new, up-to-date, light one-man cars, which would net a savings of at least 25 percent on power bills and possibly give a six-minute headway service.

Another factor in lowering the surplus for the past year has been the change in status of the employees. When all employees were placed on an eight-hour basis, it was done without any loss in salary to the employees. Where men were working eight, ten and twelve hours a day, the eight-hour rate was computed so as to give them an amount of salary equal to what they had been drawing under the longer day plan. The placing fo the men on the eight-hour basis necessitated the employing of additional help, which raised the payroll about 20 per cent over previous years.

The city of Phoenix acquired the properties of the street railway by purchase on June 4, 1925, for $20,000 and assumed direction operation and control on Nov. 1, 1925. Various circumstances leading up to the city’s taking over the lines were reviewed in the Electric Railway Journal from time to time.