The MATA Trolley is a
heritage streetcar
Conservation and restoration of rail vehicles aims to preserve historic rail vehicles.
Trains
It may concern trains that have been removed from service and later restored to their past condition, or have never been removed from service, like UP ...
transit system operating in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
. It began operating on April 29, 1993.
Service was suspended in June 2014, following fires on two cars.
After nearly four years and repeated postponements, the reopening of the
Main Street Line took place on April 30, 2018.
In , the system had a ridership of .
The last line of Memphis’ original streetcar network closed on June 15, 1947.
Since opening the system has been extended twice and now consists of three lines, operated by the
Memphis Area Transit Authority
The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) is the public transportation provider for Memphis, Tennessee. It is one of the largest transit providers in the state of Tennessee; MATA transports customers in the City of Memphis and parts of Shelby C ...
(MATA). These lines are the
Main Street Line, the
Riverfront Loop and the
Madison Avenue Line; however, service on the last two lines remains indefinitely suspended in 2021.
In the 2011–12 fiscal year, 1.34 million trips were made on the system, a 23.1% year-on-year growth the highest of any light rail system in the contiguous United States.
History
![Main Street Trolley Depot Memphis TN 07 MATA Trolley](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Main_Street_Trolley_Depot_Memphis_TN_07_MATA_Trolley.jpg)
Originally proposed as a line along the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
, the Memphis City Council voted 9-4 in January 1990 to build the , $33 million Main Street route.
After multiple delays, construction of the line commenced in February 1991 for completion by December 1992.
However, due to the longer-than-anticipated restoration of the vintage streetcars, the opening of the line was delayed until spring 1993.
After further delay, testing of the first of the restored cars began on March 10, 1993,
and the system opened to the public on April 29, 1993.
On October 1, 1997, the Riverfront line opened. The system's third line, running east from Main Street along Madison Avenue for about , opened on March 15, 2004. It was completed at a cost of about $56 million, which was approximately 25 percent below the original budget forecast for the project. The Main Street Line was extended to
Memphis Central Station
Memphis Central Station, referred to as Grand Central Station prior to 1944, is a passenger terminal in Memphis, Tennessee. Located along Main Street and G.E. Patterson Boulevard in Downtown Memphis, it currently a service stop for Amtrak's ''Cit ...
in February 2021.
On November 3, 2021, MATA announced a plan to test a modern streetcar from San Diego on the Madison Avenue Line, on which rail service has been suspended since 2014. The vehicle is
light rail car 1035 from the
San Diego Trolley
The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. It is known colloquially as "The Trolley". The Trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. (SDTI), is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Tra ...
light rail system. MATA acquired the 1988-built
Siemens–Duewag U2
The Siemens–Duewag U2 is a type of light rail vehicle (LRV), built by consortium of Siemens, Duewag and Wegmann & Co built between 1968 and 1990.
The design was based on the prototype U1 tram built in 1965 for the Frankfurt U-Bahn. The U2 was a ...
from San Diego in fall 2020, and the car arrived in Memphis in April 2021.
Rolling stock
![South Main Street Historic District Memphis TN 2012-04-15 011](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/South_Main_Street_Historic_District_Memphis_TN_2012-04-15_011.jpg)
The trolleys used are almost all restored, vintage streetcars.
The original three cars in operation on opening day were all formerly used in
Porto, Portugal
Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...
, and are Car 187, circa 1927; Car 194, circa 1935; and Car 204, circa 1940.
These cars are each long,
wide and weigh without passengers. The cars were restored by Kerns-Wilcheck Associates of Memphis.
Three additional ex-Porto cars (156, 164 and 180) joined them within weeks, and the fleet had six cars (all ex-Porto single-truckers) by May 1993.
![Memphis car 1979 with trolley pole](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Memphis_car_1979_with_trolley_pole.jpg)
Between the mid-1990s and 2003, the fleet expanded considerably in both number and capacity with the arrival of ten reconditioned
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
W2-class cars, all but one (Car 417) supplied by
Gomaco Trolley Company
The Gomaco Trolley Company is a manufacturer of vintage-style streetcars (alternatively called ''trolleys'' in the US, or ''trams'' in much of the world), located in Ida Grove, Iowa, United States. The company has supplied replica-vintage str ...
. Other additions were single-truck Car 1979 that was built new by Gomaco in 1993, as a demonstrator; double-truck Car 1794 that was originally an open-sided car from
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, but was heavily rebuilt and enclosed before entering service in Memphis, and, in early 2004, a replica
Birney
A Birney or Birney Safety Car is a type of streetcar that was manufactured in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s. The design was small and light and was intended to be an economical means of providing frequent service at a lower infrastruc ...
Safety Car – again, manufactured by Gomaco, similar to those used on the
TECO Line Streetcar
The TECO Line Streetcar is a heritage streetcar transit line in Tampa, Florida, run by the Hillsborough Area Regional Transportation Authority (HART), owned by the city of Tampa, and managed by Tampa Historic Streetcar, Inc. It connects Downtown ...
in Tampa, Florida, and the
Metro Streetcar
The Metro Streetcar, formerly known as the River Rail Streetcar, is a two line heritage streetcar system operating in Little Rock and North Little Rock, Arkansas. It has operated since November 1, 2004. Most recently expanded in 2007, the street ...
in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The fleet and
overhead wires
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as:
* Overhead catenary
* Overhead contact system (OCS)
* Overhead equipmen ...
were converted from
trolley pole
A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a "live" (electrified) overhead wire to the control and the electric traction motors of a tram or trolley bus. It is a type of current collector. Th ...
to
pantograph
A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...
current collection in early 2003, during a three-month suspension of service which started on January 5, 2003.
An eleventh reconditioned Melbourne car, W5-class 799, was purchased in 2006 by MATA with a view toward eventual restarting of trolley service.
In late 2020, MATA acquired three more Gomaco-built replica Birney streetcars, secondhand from the
Charlotte Area Transit System
The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) is the agency responsible for public transportation in the Charlotte metropolitan area. CATS operates bus and rail transit services in Mecklenburg County and surrounding areas. Established in 1999, CATS' b ...
, which had used them from 2004 to 2019 on its
Charlotte Trolley
The Charlotte Trolley was a heritage streetcar that operated in Charlotte in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The line ran along the former Norfolk Southern right of way between Tremont Avenue in the Historic South End in a northerly direction to ...
System and
CityLynx Gold Line
The CityLynx Gold Line is a streetcar line in Charlotte, North Carolina. A component of the Charlotte Area Transit System's Lynx rail system, it follows a primarily east-west path along Beatties Ford Road, Trade Street and Central Avenue through c ...
.
After a planned refurbishment, they are projected to enter service by late 2022.
In 2021, MATA acquired one secondhand
Siemens-Duewag U2 LRV from
San Diego Trolley
The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. It is known colloquially as "The Trolley". The Trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. (SDTI), is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Tra ...
to be used for testing on the
Madison Avenue Line. The vehicle began testing on the line in March 2022.
Lines
The MATA Trolley network consists of three lines. There are stations at 24 locations (inbound and outbound stations are counted as a single location), and 35 of the stations are sheltered and
ADA-accessible
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ...
.
Accidents and incidents
On June 1, 2011, two trolleysa Melbourne W2-class and Porto number 194traveling on Main Street collided due to a power failure.
Two of the Melbourne cars caught fire, in December 2013 and April 2014. Both incidents occurred along the Madison Avenue line. In May 2014, the line was shut down in order to conduct an investigation, since the speeds along it are higher. On June 10, the suspension was expanded to include all MATA trolley lines after it was determined that much of the fleet would need to be renovated. At that time, the suspension was expected to last at least six months until a feasible solution could be found. Options included restoring the existing fleet at a cost of $6 million, or replacing them with new heritage streetcars at a cost of $40 million.
After thorough inspection of the fleet, MATA decided to overhaul several cars rather than purchase new ones, and to eventually reinstate service using only overhauled cars.
In December 2014, MATA announced that it was not yet able to give an estimated date for the resumption of service.
In March 2015, it was announced that limited trolley service might be possible in May or June, but there was still no timetable for full restoration of service.
In October 2016, Memphis Mayor
Jim Strickland said trolleys would not be back in service before 2017.
Reopening
Service on the Main Street Line restarted April 30, 2018.
At that time, the other two lines were forecast to reopen within two years,
but as of 2021 they both remained indefinitely suspended (routes served by buses).
As of September 2021, the Riverfront Loop was planned to reopen when three used Birney-replica cars acquired from Memphis in late 2020 were ready to enter service, circa late 2022.
As of March 2022, service on the Madison Avenue Line is planned to be restored sometime after 2022 after the testing of the
Siemens-Duewag U2 LRV on the line is completed and more vehicles are purchased.
See also
*
Memphis Area Transit Authority
The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) is the public transportation provider for Memphis, Tennessee. It is one of the largest transit providers in the state of Tennessee; MATA transports customers in the City of Memphis and parts of Shelby C ...
*
Memphis Suspension Railway
The Memphis Suspension Railway or Mud Island Monorail is a suspended monorail that connects the city center of Memphis with the entertainment park on Mud Island. Celebrating its grand opening on July 3, 1982, it is located beneath a footbridge ove ...
*
Memphis Street Railway Company
*
List of heritage railroads in the United States
This is a list of heritage railroads in the United States. There are currently no such railroads in the states of Mississippi or North Dakota.
Heritage railroads by state
Alabama
* Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum, Shelby & Southern Railroad and ...
*
List of rail transit systems in the United States
*
Streetcars in North America
Streetcars or trolley(car)s (North American English for the European word ''tram'') were once the chief mode of public transit in hundreds of North American cities and towns. Most of the original urban streetcar systems were either dismantled in ...
References
External links
MATA: Trolley LinesA Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan for the Memphis Area – MATA(
APTA)
Railwaypreservation.com page on Memphis(with many photos)
Memphis Main Street Trolley(page by Jon Bell)
{{Memphis, Tennessee
Heritage railroads in Tennessee
Heritage streetcar systems
Trolley
Streetcars in Tennessee
Electric railways in Tennessee
1993 establishments in Tennessee
600 V DC railway electrification
Railway lines opened in 1993