Tommy Rails wrote:I visit Philly often and the only trolley I've seen is the 69th street trolley...
Philadelphia has 5 currently active lines, all part of the subway-surface system that runs from City Hall underground out to access portals west of 30th St. and then on into various parts of West Philadelphia where they operate as traditional streetcars. The fact that the cars run underground is often cited as the main reason SEPTA hasn't bustituted them since even they can't figure out how to put a diesel bus in a tunnel. These lines all use Kawasaki cars acquired around 1981. There's a lot of information at
http://www.phillytrolley.org/routes.html
In addition the city government has forced SEPTA to restore service on the Route 15 line which runs mostly on Girard Avenue. This line is supposed to go back in service sometime this year (we hope!) using rebuilt PCC cars called PCC-IIs. Pix at
http://www.phillytrolley.org/girardavenue.html and other related links.
There are two interurban trolley lines from 69th Street. They serve Delaware County; the 101 runs to Media and the 102 to Sharon Hill. Most of the trackage is grade-separated, with some street running near the outer ends of the lines. See
http://www.phillytrolley.org/redarrow.html.
There is also the Route 100 which is rather erroneously called a trolley even though (at least on this board) there's pretty much a consensus that it's a railroad. It uses 3rd rail power collection, standard (4' 8.5" / 1435 mm) gauge track that's fully grade-separated and railroad-type signalling. There's more at
http://www.phillytrolley.org/philwest.html.
Sadly/obscenely/stupidly/pick your pejorative there are no active plans to restore service to any city other lines that SEPTA has bustituted in recent years. Between National City Lines semi-criminal elimination of rail lines in the 1950s and SEPTA's fixation with running a bus-only transit system, much of the "trolley city" that characterized Philadelphia is gone for the forseeable future.