Unveiled; First American-Made Street Car in 60 Years

[DetroitDad]

http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009...r-in-60-years/

Pictures at Link.

Let it not be said that we don’t make anything in this country anymore. As of today, we’ve made a streetcar.

The vehicle in question was unveiled in a ceremony on streets of Portland, Oregon, where it will go into service with a fleet of Czech-made brethren. The city’s much-admired streetcar network recently got $75 million in stimulus funds for an expansion. On hand for the festivities today were DOT chief Ray LaHood and transportation savvy Oregon congressmen Peter DeFazio and Earl Blumenauer. [[The latter dignitary, whose sartorial trademark is a bow tie, today donned a straight tie to “mess� with Sec. LaHood.)
Local company Oregon Iron Works made the machine at a nearby factory that employs hundreds of skilled laborers. The company has a pending order from Portland for a half dozen streetcars and one worth $26 million from the city of Tuscon for seven more. OIW aims to get at least 60 percent of its parts from other US companies and to help seed an urban transit industry in Oregon.
Since about 1950, building modern streetcars has been a lost art in this country. OIW decided, based on the success of Portland’s streetcar line, to try to rediscover it and claims that their product is already of a higher quality than European competitors.

If our Spidey sense is right–as, well, it usually is–this company and Oregon have seized an incredibly valuable first-mover advantage in what could prove to be an important domestic industry in years to come. After American cities tore up streetcar tracks and junked their rolling stock en masse in the middle of last century, dozens of are now planning or considering a new system. With oil at $70 a barrel in the depths of brutal global recession, our guess is that number will only grow in the years ahead.

[Jimaz]

There are videos here: Oregon Iron Works, Inc. and here: United Streetcar.

They're insourcing jobs from the Czech Republic! lol

Where's Jjaba?!

[ccbatson]

Heck, with the Marxist in charge now, we would be lucky not to go as far back as the horse and buggy.

[d.mcc]

Heck, with the Marxist in charge now, we would be lucky not to go as far back as the horse and buggy.

Yes indeed...Damn Public transportation because it reduces the dependence on foreign oil!

[rb336]

Heck, with the Marxist in charge now, we would be lucky not to go as far back as the horse and buggy.

And with this, Bats reaches a new level of stupidity. he now goes on the ignore list

[gibran]

And with this, Bats reaches a new level of stupidity. he now goes on the ignore list

guess this thread should be called a "street car called desire"...for cc it must represent socialism at it's finest ...collecting people together...transporting them collectively...to sites where people collect.

[ccbatson]

It comes down to choice....if people want to use mass transportation, and there is a market for it..great. To the extent that mass transportation has been declining, and the fact that it is largely a "public" utility [[meaning progressively more costly and less efficient), the paucity is a reflection of people voting with their dollars.

[Jimaz]

I emailed a link to this thread to Jjaba but he's "not been on The Forum because of huge time constraints."

I hope he doesn't mind me carefully paraphrasing his insight into the subject:

At the dedication of the new Oregon Iron Works Streetcar, Boise, Idaho Mayor Beiter was also shopping. They want to plan a streetcar there and yes, Tuscon is already ordered. The last USA made cars were in 1952, St. Louis Car Company. They made the PCC cars used on Woodward, Michigan, and Jefferson Avenues, Detroit. I thanked Ray La Hood for his support.

The street car line on the Westside of 4 miles loop will be soon expanded to another 4 miles on the Eastside. That's 8 miles of streetcar lines since the 2001 opening. They are run FARELESS, no charge, without conductors. They are run by one motorman operator.

The new car is exactly to the inch the same cars used by Portland built in Czech Republic. Portland Streetcar Lines owns 11 of them; It takes 7 to be on the road to run at good headways. Also, there are some vintage cars, replicas, which are also run in revenue service on weekends.

[ccbatson]

"Fareless" preposterous, that means that taxpayers are forced to pay for it regardless of consent or use.

[jams]

"Fareless" preposterous, that means that taxpayers are forced to pay for it regardless of consent or use.

...just like roads, zoning restrictions, etc. based on the "Common Good"

[ccbatson]

"Common good" is a communist/socialist catch phrase btw and for future reference [[IOW, not good).

[ccbatson]

Who's good, according to whom? Not the individual in either case...meaning authoritarianism philosophically.

[jams]

"Common good" is a communist/socialist catch phrase btw and for future reference [[IOW, not good).

Yeppers, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero were all good Party members as they wrote their notions about "Common Good" 1000 years ago.

Try to remember that as you daily take advantage of those things brought into existence because of that concept.

[ccbatson]

Not so much Aristotle, the others yes. Why do you believe them to be forces of good?

[jams]

Gawd, I thought the John Birch Society went away in the 70s, I guess I was mistaken.

Please don't let history get in the way of your view of the world, just drive on those roads that others who had a different vision of the world than you to the job that others made possible by the creation of a public school system, as well as the University system which you have taken full advantage.

Jerimiah Johnson, you ain't.

[gazhekwe]

Not to mention actually living off health care, for which we have been paying by employment benefits, which caused us to lose jobs as the system could not compete with foreign subsidized or completely absent health care. As we spiral down that drain of costs, doctors still want to be paid, big pharma frantically scrambles to keep its revenues up, and we get more and more out of balance, with fewer and fewer people able to support the health care system.

It is great to see a manufacturing sector potentially opening up in this country That will put some cash back in the pockets of the formerly middle class factory workers, which will infuse the economy as they begin to use their increased spending power. I do hope we can keep the business costs down so the company can prosper here.

[ccbatson]

What choice does a citizen of a progressively oppressive socialistic society have? We must deal with the evil to the extent that we must while we endeavor to reverse it.

[jams]

Doctor Zhivago, you ain't either!

Still making the Big Bucks?

[Lorax]

What choice does a citizen of a progressively oppressive socialistic society have? We must deal with the evil to the extent that we must while we endeavor to reverse it.

Tell that to the Communist Chinese. The same Chinese that the Rethuglican corporatist machine has made a devil's deal with over the last 30 years. Thanks to them, the Communist Chinese own more of America and it's GDP than we do.

Thanks fascists, great job. Nice to clarify just where all that "evil" is.

[ccbatson]

Nixon and Clinton were the 2 that got the most friendly with the Chicoms....not a great idea, I agree with you on that count.

[oladub]

The OP article says that Tuscon is paying $26M for seven of these streetcars. [[$26M/7= $3,714,000 each) I went to the United Streetcar link provided and found that these streetcars seat 30 and have floorspace for 140 standing passengers. They are articulated to make turns easily. My memories of DSR streetcars on the Gratiot route was that they seated many more and did not need to do much turning.

vs.

[ghettopalmetto]

It comes down to choice....if people want to use mass transportation, and there is a market for it..great. To the extent that mass transportation has been declining, and the fact that it is largely a "public" utility [[meaning progressively more costly and less efficient), the paucity is a reflection of people voting with their dollars.

Have you been paying *any* attention the past ten years? Where people DO have a choice, transit ridership has been going through the roof, to levels not seen since World War II. On the other hand, Vehicle Miles Traveled [[i.e. cars) have been decreasing the past two years.

What does that tell your free-market Spidey Sense?

[ccbatson]

Subsidized [[by tax dollars) mass transit is fairly popular. Why? Someone else is being forced to pay for much of the cost for the riders. In the meanwhile, the quality of the service and costs [[although hidden in increased taxes) go up.