Comments on: Back to the Future: To Resurrect the Hillsborough St. Streetcar Line?

By: Thor

Thor — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 04:57:44 +0000

My grandfather was a streetcar conductor in Raleigh in 1910. I don’t know how long he worked at the job. At that time workers on the transit companies in NC were barely paid a living wage. By 1920 he was back on the farm

By: dbearhug

dbearhug — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:14:36 +0000

It’s a pity. Actually, I had envisioned a subway tunnel running westward under Hillsborough Street and then fanning out on the surface as do the Green Line or Silver Line streetcars/trolleys in Boston, the SEPTA trolleys in Philadelphia, or the Newark, NJ subway.

By: Raleigh Boy

Raleigh Boy — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:29:34 +0000

Steve B — The tracks your crew stumbled upon ran all the way out to what is now the Carolina Country Club. In 1912 CP&L ran the city’s electric streetcar system, and opened Bloomsbury Park on 100 acres located three miles from the center of town out Glenwood Avenue. The idea was to promote ridership (and thus revenue) on weekends. Because the park was illumniated by thousands of electric lights and relied on streetcar service for transportation to and from, it was nicknamed the “electric park.” Among the park’s features were a lake for boating, a pavilion where orchestras played for dances, a roller coaster, a penny arcade and a Dentzel carousel, or merry-go-round, with a Wurlitzer organ. After Bloomsbury Park closed in 1920, the carousel was relocated to Pullen Park, where it continues to operate today.

By: Paxton

Paxton — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:46:06 +0000

I think Raleigh was one of the cities hoodwinked by GM in the early 20th century where the streetcar system was bought up and the trolleys were scrapped to encourage people to ride GM buses and buy cars.
Can anyone verify this is the case in Raleigh?

By: Bruce

Bruce — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:40:43 +0000

Thanks for dreaming about streetcars as part of our transit future. I always wondered how a sustainable street-car system functioned back in the 30s-40s around here when the population was just a small fraction of what it is today. With so many more people now, it should be considered. Even if it costs us more money initially, we need to look at options such as streetcars down Hillsborough and Glenwood. They really do revitalize the neighborhoods they service. Just look at Portland or Salt Lake City as examples.

By: Steve B

Steve B — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:17:33 +0000

About 15 years ago I participated in a downtown tree planting initiative. We were planting trees in the median of Glenwood Avenue north of Five Points and hit tracks (I still recall the “steel on steel”)….

By: Andrew B

Andrew B — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:22:50 +0000

“I’m staring at the asphalt wondering what’s buried underneath…”

By: dwight

dwight — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:07:04 +0000

It was sad working in downtown Durham 2 years ago – we had a birds-eye view as they re-did main street. They tore up the old road, took up the 100 year old rails underneath, cut them into itty-bitty pieces to haul them away to the scrap yard.