Were you out and about in Seattle last weekend and noticed something… different about some of the buses on the street? Yep, they looked straight out of the fifties.
Did sleeping in a few hours really cause you to enter a time warp? No, don’t worry, you weren’t caught up in time — you were just caught up in a Metro Employee Historic Vehicle Association excursion. It turns out the MEHVA does tours with many legacy buses they maintain, and their next trolley adventure is in just a few months:
Saturday, September 26: NIGHT TROLLEY TOUR
A 3-hour tour of Seattle’s distinctive and varied nightlife neighborhoods; Pioneer Square, Broadway, lower Queen Anne and the University District. Stops for photos and coffee. Trackless trolleys depart at 7 p.m.
Head to their site for more details.
How well I remember riding those electric buses as a kid. Growing up near the Fauntleroy ferry dock, we rode the 18 (now 54) past Lincoln Park to the West Seattle Junction and downtown, and as a student at Garfield I took the 12 (now 4) downtown to head back to West Seattle on the (after 1963) dieselized 18. Student fare was a nickel, then a dime.
I saw a couple of them pass while waiting at a light on University. They drove past me west on 50th and then turned up Brooklyn to stop at the community center there. I was just waiting for an open thread because i knew someone would know what the heck was going on.
They weren’t labeled, so the first thing I thought of was that someone had rented some old trolley buses for transportation for an event, or something. Quite a sight to see.
has anyone ever discussed doing an “f-line” but for electric trolley buses in downtown seattle? run a loop of 1 or 2 historic trolley buses around downtown seattle catering to tourists, probably have to add a wheelchair lift to the back door and take out some of the front seats for ada. i know the electric railway museum in brooks, oregon has some old mid-century etbs sitting out in a field.
These vehicles are now nearly 70 years old and very delicate – they could never stand up to daily revenue service the way the F cars do on the Muni in San Francisco. Keep attuned to MEHVA web-site – that’s the only way we’ll ever be able to ride these particular vehicles. Go, ride, enjoy!
I rode the Pullman on Sunday along with my Grandfather, who retired from Metro in 1989 and likely drove the actual bus we were riding while it was still in service.
By the way – you don’t have to wait until September for the next excursion hosted by MEHVA – the web site is woefully out of date. The next excursion will be to Snohomish for Kla-Ha-Ya days. Diesels only, natch as the wires don’t run quite that far.
You can view the classic bus and trolley fleet at http://www.mehva.org – drop them an e-mail and ask them to update the flippin’ web site already.
-Jeff
Whoops – sorry. July 19th is the Kla-Ha-Ya days. All excursions leave from 2nd Ave. S. and South Main (near Pioneer Square) at 11:00. Cost is $5.00 and reservations are no accepted.
Can you use your ORCA card? :=
No ORCA, no passes, no checks or VIP coupons. :(
In God we trust, all others pay cash!
Electric trolley buses are a great example of an old technology whose time has come again (streetcars are another example!). They are zero-emissions, getting hydropower from Seattle City Light. It will be years, perhaps decades, before a comparable zero-emissions technology is perfected. Metro needs to bring trolleys back to North Seattle, West Seattle, and Madison Park.
Bobby,
Perhaps – but there are downsides and other carbon-costs related to creating and expanding a new network of trolley wires. Running and maintaining miles and miles of wiring is an expensive and laborious process – and one of the major reasons that while buses are zero-tailpipe emissions, Seattle’s “trackless trolleys” are still more expensive to maintain than even the new hybrid buses.
On the other hand – a heck of a lot cheaper than light rail.
Me, I’d like to see an expansion of the fleet of hybrid buses and other buses incorporating alternative fuels and hybrid technologies. The rail thing is neato (sorry seattletransitblog folks) but I guess I have to count myself among the ‘shortsighted’ bunch who sees it as overly expensive, inflexible, and largely inaccessible given our geology, history, and urban development progression.
I’ll ride the Link, and hopefully even get to drive it someday – but I can’t help wondering how much new bus service could have been added for comparable cost.