The Silver Line is a 2.7-mile (4.3 km) heritage streetcar light rail line operated by the San Diego Trolley, an operating division of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System. It currently operates the "downtown loop"; a circle of tracks around Downtown San Diego, and is operated using renovated PCC streetcars. Service for the line currently only operates every 30 minutes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, weekends and select holidays during midday hours.
The line is one of four lines in the Trolley system, the others include the Blue, Orange, and Green lines.
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History
The Silver Line is the fourth line in the San Diego Trolley system as well as the first circular route with service beginning in 2011. Planning for the Silver Line dates back to the early 1990s, upon the completion of the Downtown Loop, consideration was given to providing a downtown trolley service that circles around the loop. MTS (then MTDB) originally considered using three Vienna Class N1 cars formerly used on the Wiener Stadtbahn in Vienna, Austria, but their age and limited power proved incompatible with the present trolley system, and renovations to make them so were considered unfeasible.
Eventually in 2005, MTS would settle on using PCC streetcars; which were formerly used by the San Diego Electric Railway, San Diego's former transit service, in the 1930s and 40s. Between 2005 and 2010, MTS acquired six PCC streetcars formerly used in San Francisco and Philadelphia, and would partner with the San Diego historic streetcar society, a non-profit organization developed to educate the public of the history of the San Diego Electric Railway, to help restore these streetcars for use on the eventual line.
In early 2011 the first of these streetcars, Car 529, was completed and inauguration of the Silver Line began on August 27, 2011. Restoring this car for use in the trolley system required over 3,000 volunteer hours and $850,000 in donations. For the first two weeks of the vintage trolley's run, riders who boarded at the 12th & Imperial Transit Center received "commemorative tickets" to use for boarding the trolley. Due to the limited amount of streetcars, initial service for the line was limited to weekends and holidays every 30 minutes between the hours of 10 am to 2 pm. On December 20, 2011, service was expanded to Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 2 pm as well as weekends and holidays from 11 am to 3:30 pm. It was expected that more service hours will be added upon the completion of additional streetcars.
Vintage Silver Video
Operations
Hours of operation
Due to the limited amount of streetcars, service for the line currently only operates every 30 minutes during Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:52 am to 1:52pm pm, as well as on weekends and select holidays from 10:52 am to 3:22 pm.
Stations
As the heritage PCC streetcars are single-ended, the Silver Line operates one-way in a clockwise-only rotation around downtown San Diego.
Rolling Stock
All PCC cars operating on the Silver Line are Post-War St. Louis Car Company "all-electric" units.
The Silver Line began service in August 2011 with one operational heritage 1946 Presidents Conference Committee (PCC) streetcar, Car #529.
In March 2014, MTS took possession of a second 1946 Presidents Conference Committee (PCC) streetcar, destined to join the Silver Line fleet as Car #530. Restoration work on this trolley car took one year, and Car #530 entered service on the Silver Line on March 2, 2015.
Car #531, a former SEPTA PCC manufactured in 1948, has been funded for and is currently undergoing restoration at the MTS PCC shop. This car is expected to enter service sometime in the next couple of years.
All cars have had pantograph current collection equipment added to them, as the overhead contact system that MTS operates is not compatible with trolley poles. The cars on the Silver Line retain their trolley poles, however, for visual effect.
Additional streetcars
MTS has longer-term plans to restore an additional five PCC streetcars to expand heritage streetcar service operations. It is yet to be announced when these streetcars will be restored for service operations.
Ridership
Due to its limited days and hours of operation, and due to some service interruptions throughout 2014, the Silver Line transported just 29,104 riders during FY 2014. In FY 2015, 32,944 riders rode the Silver Line according to the MTS.
Future service plans
Trolley Renewal Project
While the Silver Line has no plans to use the new Siemens S70 models, the stations along the line were scheduled to undergo restoration to improve service on the trolley system and to enable usage of the Siemens S70 on the Orange and Blue Lines, as part of the Trolley Renewal Project. All the stations served by the Silver Line have been renovated as of Fall 2013, so no further disruptions of service on this line are expected.
Balboa Park streetcar line
One of the future proposals for trolley expansion is to potentially extend the Silver Line from Downtown up towards Balboa Park and the Uptown communities. MTS began work in March 2011 on a study to evaluate the feasibility of reconnecting Balboa Park, the San Diego Zoo and Downtown San Diego through a fixed-guideway, electrified 1.5-mile (2.4 km) streetcar line. The project study corridor runs between the City College Trolley Station area, and Balboa Park, in the vicinity of the San Diego Zoo. An alignment similar to the proposed one was last served by a streetcar system in 1949 on Line 7 (Park Boulevard-University Avenue to East San Diego) & Line 11 (Park Boulevard-Adams Avenue to Kensington). In October 2012, MTS released a study to evaluate the feasibility of reconnecting Balboa Park and downtown San Diego via an electrified streetcar corridor. This is the first step in the process to construct such a project. An initial timeline offered in the study for the project's completion was 5 years.
Proposed Balboa Park streetcar alignment
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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