Mule Cars to Light Rail
1887: In December 1887, the Valley Street Railway Company started operation using horse cars pulled by mules.
1890: 6 miles of track (3 on Washington, 1/4 on 7th Street; 1/2 on Center Street (Central Avenue), 1 1/2 on Grand Avenue)
1891: Income of $6,040, expenses of $3,300.00
1892: 8 miles of track, 5 cars, 25 mules and horses
1893: Electrification begins on the Washington Street line. The line begins at 17th Avenue and runs eastward to Eastlake Park at 16 1/2 Street. A second main track on Washington is added between the 7th Avenue interchange of the Grand Avenue Line, and 7th Street.
1895: The “Brill Line” opens, traveling north from Washington Street along 1st Street to Pierce (four blocks north of Van Buren), east along Pierce to 10th Street, and north to Brill Street (one block south of McDowell Road).
1899: Financial trouble. The system was sold by its creditors. Assets were purchased by General Sherman’s New Phoenix Railway Company for $33,442.25. General Sherman is back in the street railway business.
1901: A line was built north from 1st Street and Pierce to Roosevelt and then north along 3rd Street to the Phoenix Indian School.
The Washington Line, which bisected the new site of the Arizona Territorial Capitol, is moved one block north between 17th Avenue and 23rd Avenue.
The Depot line which served the Maricopa and Phoenix Railway depot on a 7th Street spur south of Washington, is abandoned, and replaced by a new spur at 12th Street which connects to the AT&SF.
1909: Horse cars last used on the Fairground Line on Grand Avenue.
May 5, 1911. The Interurban Glendale Line opened through a developing farm district called Orangewood, connecting to the AT&SF Railway at the Glendale station. This is billed as being just the first of several lines to Ingleside (present-day Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix), Scottsdale, and South Central Phoenix. The line is financed by area property owners. Power comes from a substation at 3rd Street and Maryland. Economic challenges, high maintenance caused by hasty construction, and competition from the steam railway (AT&SF) leads to the interurban never being the success it might have been; service ends west of Central Avenue on July 31, 1926.
May 11, 1911. The Phoenix Railway Company becomes the Phoenix Railway Company of Arizona.
July 26, 1911. The Salt River Valley Electric Railway Company incorporates, billing itself as a “a strictly home institution…. the money necessary to construct and operate the line will be furnished largely by the people of the Salt River valley, so it is intended that all this money, or at least as much as is possible, shall be kept here. All the officers live either in Phoenix or in this vicinity and no outside aid will be asked.” This was perhaps intended as a dig at Sherman’s California interests.
1912: The 2nd Avenue Line opens. Also known as the Kenilworth Line, as it passes the Kenilworth School at 5th Avenue and Culver (three blocks south of McDowell Road).
1913: A downtown loop along Monroe St. between 2nd Avenue and 4th Street is added, as is an approximately 1/2 mile extension of the Brill Line north of McDowell to Sheridan Street.
1914: The Indian School Line is double-tracked, and sidings are added on the Washington Street Line at 12th Street and near 17th Avenue to improve operations.
The Hollywood (Asylum Road) Extension line was built along Washington, serving the State Hospital east of 24th Street. A single trolley operates the one mile as a “shuttle” service, with transfers given to the Washington Street mainline cars.
1925: The system reaches its greatest expansion, but lines built to support real estate development and not intended to last, were worn out. Improvement was not financially feasible. General Sherman abandons the entire system.
The City of Phoenix reluctantly takes over. A $750,000 bond issue to rehabilitate the lines, and buy 18 new cars, is approved by the voters.
1928: Improvements are completed, and the first of the new streetcars arrive for an opening ceremony on December 25, 1928. The new cars and rebuilt lines prove popular and profitable.
1929: Best year ever for the street railway system. 6,555,000 riders, revenues of $298,000 at 5 cents a ride.
In the Great Depression, riders and revenues decline. The Orangewood, Hollywood, and Fairgrounds Lines are abandoned. Buses are added and streetcar service reduced.
1942: World War II has reversed the fortunes of the system, with heavy ridership for the war effort. Bus service connects from the downtown terminals to new airfields and wartime factories across the Valley, and as many as 13 trains at a time cram into Phoenix Union Station with its six through platforms.
1946: The city replaces Brill Line streetcars with buses after the end of the War. In 1947, the Kenilworth and Indian School Lines suffer the same fate.
1947: The Washington Street Line remains popular and profitable as Phoenix enjoys the beginnings of the postwar boom. There is substantial opposition to replacing the streetcars, but a disastrous (and suspicious) fire in October destroys the car barn and all but six cars — setting the stage for a complete motorbus system. Service formally ends on February 17, 1948 when car #116 and two others made their Last Run.
2008: 27 December, the new METRO rail line opens — ending nearly sixty years of complete reliance on rubber tires for transit in the Valley, and nearly eighty years to the day after the city’s last new trolleys. (see also: Valley Metro site)
2009: METRO ends its first year, having carried 11.3 million riders, more than twice the Phoenix Street Railway’s record.
2010: February: METRO carries over 43,500 passengers on an average weekday, almost 28,000 on Saturdays and 20,000 on Sundays.
