Transit systems expand streetcar fleets
Norfolk, Va. – Two of the country’s most transportation-savvy mass transit organizations recently reordered streetcars to cope with the increasing popularity of their trolley lines.
The two, Tidewater Regional Transit, which serves historic Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach; and the El Paso (Texas) Sun Metro, recently honored as the fifth best public bus system in America by the Department of Transportation Studies at the University of North Carolina – Charlotte, ordered new American Heritage Streetcars from Wichita, Kan.-based Chance Coach.
TRT was one of the first transit organizations in the United States to use rubber-tired streetcars. Since 1980, the trolleys have been popular with both local residents and tourists to the vacation/resort area.
El Paso chose the CNG-powered streetcar because it has a no-attainment rating in three categories. Now, more than 50 percent of the city’s fleet is comprised of natural gas-fueled vehicles.
“The trolleys will be used as a circulator service between the [U.S./Mexico] border and the system’s main routes, one of our most difficult attainment problem areas,” says Sun Metro Director Teresa Murphy. “They will help us come into compliance.”
The trolleys meet the country’s most stringent emissions control regulations to date.