The Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT), also known as Twin City Lines (TCL), was a transportation company that operated
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...
s and buses in the
Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in the U.S. state of
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...
. Other types of transportation were tested including
taxicab
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choi ...
s and
steamboats, along with the operation of some destination sites such as
amusement park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
s. It existed under the TCRT name from a merger in the 1890s until it was purchased in 1962. At its height in the early 20th century, the company operated an intercity streetcar system that was believed to be one of the best in the United States. It is a predecessor of the current
Metro Transit bus and
light rail system that operates in the metro area.
Establishment

The origins of street rail transport in the Twin Cities are not entirely known. Some sources state that it dates back to 1865, when businessman and mayor
Dorilus Morrison
Dorilus Morrison (December 27, 1814 – June 26, 1897) was an American banker, businessman, and Republican politician. He was the first and third Mayor of Minneapolis and was a member of the Minnesota Senate.
Life and career
Morrison was born ...
began building rails in downtown
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...
. He quickly joined forces with Colonel
William S. King
William Smith King (December 16, 1828 – February 24, 1900) was a Republican Party (United States), Republican United States Representative, U.S. Representative for Minnesota from March 4, 1875 to March 3, 1877. He was a journalist and bu ...
and other Minneapolis businessmen to create the Minneapolis Street Railway. However, the lines didn't go very far and the railway was useless for a time. There are some indications that a streetcar was purchased but never used, collecting dust for several years.
On the other side of the Mississippi River, the St. Paul Railway Company started the first successful
horse-drawn streetcar system of the metro area in
St. Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
. Then in 1875, the reformed Minneapolis Street Railway made a deal with the Minneapolis City Council where the company would have exclusive access to street rails for 50 years if they could be up and operating in four months. The company recruited
real-estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
mogul
Thomas Lowry
Thomas Lowry (February 27, 1843 – February 4, 1909) was an American lawyer, real-estate magnate, and businessman who oversaw much of the early growth of the streetcar lines in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and surrounding co ...
, who on September 2, 1875, brought on line a route between downtown Minneapolis and the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
.
The streetcars became popular because they rode on smooth rails, while most of the streets of the era were dirt or made of
cobblestone pavers. These roads became treacherous to pedestrians and uncomfortable to ride on in horse-drawn
buggies, especially during
Minnesota winters.
Thomas Lowry envisioned linking together the various railways that were cropping up around Minneapolis. While other systems were popping up with more horse-drawn carriages or
cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems:
* Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable
** Aerial tramway
** Chairlift
** Gondola lift
** ...
s, Lowry pushed forward with
electrification
Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source.
The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histo ...
of the lines. Starting in the late-1880s, electric streetcars began moving in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. Cable cars quickly lost favor as they struggled through snowy Minnesota winters and the public quickly grew weary of slow horsecars.
Rise of the system
In 1890, the two cities were connected with a railway along
University Avenue
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
, the first of four rail lines linking them together. A merger of the two city systems, the St. Paul City Railway Co. and Minneapolis Street Railway, formed the Twin City Rapid Transit Company. It went on a building spree, quickly doubling the amount of electrified track in the system.
The company continued absorbing smaller competitors for the next 40 years. In 1898, the company began a transition to using company-built streetcars and machinery (such as
crane
Crane or cranes may refer to:
Common meanings
* Crane (bird), a large, long-necked bird
* Crane (machine), industrial machinery for lifting
** Crane (rail), a crane suited for use on railroads
People and fictional characters
* Crane (surname) ...
s and
snowplow
A snowplow (also snow plow, snowplough or snow plough) is a device intended for mounting on a vehicle, used for removing snow and ice from outdoor surfaces, typically those serving transportation purposes. Although this term is often used to re ...
s) rather than purchasing the cars from other companies. The first such car was built as a personal streetcar for company president Thomas Lowry, although his was a special-order. The car featured one end with large windows, to make the scenery more visible. This car was used on special occasions, such as the opening of new lines and a visit by United States President
William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in t ...
.
TCRT built some of the largest streetcars in the country. The Twin City Rapid Transit Company got into the business of building street cars at its Nicolett Shops in 1898 after concluding that cars it was operating from Eastern manufactures couldn't hold up to Minnesota's harsh winters. By 1906 they opened a manufacturing facility at its Snelling Shops where they not only manufactured cars for TCRT but also Chattanooga, Duluth, Seattle and Chicago among others. These cars were larger than traditional streetcars, being long and wide.

Old track was also upgraded. In the early days, a number of lines had been laid down with
narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller struc ...
track. These were all
upgraded
Upgrading is the process of replacing a product with a newer version of the same product. In computing and consumer electronics an upgrade is generally a replacement of hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better version, in order to b ...
to (
standard gauge). In addition, the basic construction of the lines improved. The rails of the Twin Cities were upgraded to the most expensive track in the country, running
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
60,000 per mile. Tracks featured
welded
Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as braz ...
(
thermite
Thermite () is a pyrotechnic composition of metal powder and metal oxide. When ignited by heat or chemical reaction, thermite undergoes an exothermic reduction-oxidation (redox) reaction. Most varieties are not explosive, but can create br ...
) joints, and were commonly surrounded by cobblestone or
asphalt
Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...
. By 1909, 95 percent of the rails were of this type of construction. They were used until the company ended streetcar service.

From 1906 to 1926, TCRT experimented with "streetcar boats." Officially known as Express Boats, they were steam-powered vessels with designs reminiscent of the streetcars of the day. The boats operated between communities on
Lake Minnetonka
Lake Minnetonka (Dakota: ''Mní iá Tháŋka'') is a lake located about west-southwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lake Minnetonka has about 23 named bays and areas. The lake lies within Hennepin and Carver counties and is surrounded by 13 in ...
, but improved roads in that area hit ridership hard in the 1920s. Ultimately, seven were built, but most of them were scuttled in the lake in 1926.
TCRT also expanded into the suburban
amusement park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
business by opening the Wildwood Amusement Park on
White Bear Lake and
Big Island Park on Lake Minnetonka. The park on Big Island was serviced by three large
ferry boats
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...
from
Excelsior
Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry
* "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
* ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...
.
The
internal combustion engine
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal co ...
didn't escape notice. The Twin City Rapid Transit acquired several bus lines that began to pop up around the time of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. They also acquired a taxicab company in the 1920s.
When the transportation system peaked in 1922, it had nearly of track and 1021 streetcars. Rail extended a distance of about from
Stillwater on the bank of the
St. Croix River in the east to Lake Minnetonka in the west. For a time, TCRT was the largest employer in the area.
It is rumored that anyone who lived in Minneapolis was no farther than (less than ) from the nearest station at that time.
Changing labor conditions

In 1917, a major labor
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
* Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
took place in the months after the United States entered World War I. It began on October 6, and was influenced by the organization
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines gener ...
(IWW, also known as the "Wobblies"), a militant group that had been organizing
unions in the region, particularly in the northern
Mesabi Iron Range
The Mesabi Iron Range is a mining district in northeastern Minnesota following an elongate trend containing large deposits of iron ore. It is the largest of four major iron ranges in the region collectively known as the Iron Range of Minnesota. ...
. Horace Lowry, son of Thomas Lowry, headed the company at this time and absolutely refused to negotiate with the striking workers. This angered workers and others who felt sympathy for them.
Angry strikers in St. Paul damaged streetcars and harassed those who had continued to work. The Minnesota Commission of Public Safety ordered the workers back on the job and they complied for a while. People again left work in late-November. On December 2, a crowd energized by speakers from the
Nonpartisan League
The Nonpartisan League (NPL) was a left-wing political party founded in 1915 in North Dakota by Arthur C. Townley, a former organizer for the Socialist Party of America. On behalf of small farmers and merchants, the Nonpartisan League advocat ...
again grew angry after TCRT cut off electricity to the streetcars in downtown St. Paul, making it impossible for many people to return home. Over the following days, many were arrested and the strike was effectively broken. 800 people were eventually replaced by non-union workers.
Things turned out differently in the 1930s, although it was not a smooth transition. In 1932, most of the system's streetcars were converted to "one-man operation" where, rather than requiring both a motorman to drive in front and a conductor to take fares in the rear, the motorman took over both operations. The doors on the streetcars were modified to allow easier boarding in front. So-called "gate cars" which had used open grating on the rear of the cars mostly disappeared from the lines. The transition from two-man to one-man operation was taking place on many streetcar lines across the country around this time.
The conversion to single-man operation meant that about half of the company's workforce was suddenly surplus. Many employees found it hard to get work and were often forced to take strange shifts. One worker recorded having a 17-hour shift from 4:24 p.m. on Sunday to 9:49 a.m. on Monday. There was a company union, although it hadn't done much good. By October 1933, the workers had gained backing from Minnesota Governor
Floyd B. Olson, St. Paul Mayor
William Mahoney and the
National Recovery Administration
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was a prime agency established by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in 1933. The goal of the administration was to eliminate " cut throat competition" by bringing industry, labor, and governm ...
, among others. The next year, the workers voted to join the
Amalgamated Transit Union
The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) is a labor organization in the United States and Canada that represents employees in the public transit industry. Established in 1892 as the Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees of America, the un ...
.
Competition from automobiles
With the
Great Depression and the rise of the
automobile
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded ...
, the rail lines began to decline. Buses were frequently used toward the edges of the system as long routes, especially those with low ridership, were cut back.
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
allowed the system to bounce back for a time, since strict fuel
rationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...
and citizens' efforts to conserve resources made automobile use rather un-patriotic. However, the restrictions also hit TCRT itself since they could not afford to build many new streetcars. The company was forced to add more buses to shore up the system's various routes.
After the war, trolley riders returned to their automobiles. TCRT's management explored ways to upgrade the line to bring people back. Heavy wartime use meant that the rails needed to be repaired. Competition from other forms of transportation required modernization. In 1945, the company received its first streamlined
PCC streetcar
The PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the ...
. The following years saw dozens of new PCC cars on the streets, although the first one remained unique in the fleet because it was the only one to have
air brakes. All of the PCCs were several inches wider than standard, to match the width of the company's older streetcars.
Company takeover and decline

The company had a long-standing policy of reinvestment in the rail system. When profits appeared, they were usually used to pay off loans and improve the rails, streetcars and other hardware the company owned. It was rare for the company to pay out
dividend
A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-inv ...
s. In 1948,
Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for ...
speculator Charles Green bought 6000 shares of TCRT stock. He expected to quickly gain profit, but found he had purchased stock just as the company decided to set forth on some major construction. Knowing this would demolish his anticipated dividends, Green contacted other shareholders and urged them to vote out the company's president, D. J. Strouse and put him in charge instead.
Green took control of the company in 1949 and quickly started dismantling the railway system, announcing that the company would completely switch to buses by 1958. The system's PCCs were sold to Mexico City (91), Newark NJ (30) and Shaker Heights OH (20). Green sold his shares in 1950 to be briefly replaced by Emil B. Anderson before local lawyer
Fred Ossanna
Fred Albin Ossanna (August 13, 1893 – September 1978) was a Minnesota lawyer who, along with Kid Cann, oversaw the dismantling of the Minneapolis-St. Paul streetcar system as head of Twin City Rapid Transit Company in the 1950s. Ossanna ha ...
ascended to head the company the next year. Ossanna held off on the teardown for a short while, but soon announced that the process would be accelerated. Lines would be removed and replaced by buses in two years.
End of the streetcar system

On June 19, 1954, four years before Green had envisioned, the very last streetcars ran in Minneapolis. The leftover vehicles were burned to recover the scrap metal they contained. The last streetcar was famously photographed alight behind Fred Ossanna and James Towley as Towley presented Ossanna with a
check
Check or cheque, may refer to:
Places
* Check, Virginia
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Check'' (film), a 2021 Indian Telugu-language film
* '' The Checks'' (episode), a 1996 TV episode of ''Seinfeld''
Games and sports
* Check (chess), a th ...
.
At the time there were a range of issues facing TCRT. Highway development enabled settlement over a wider area. Minneapolis' population peaked in the late 1940s and St. Paul's a decade later in the late 1950s. Population growth and job growth was spread out in less dense suburbs where capital requirements for building new rail were too high compared to the potential ridership. Building rails to service these areas was cost prohibitive. Buses though could be profitable on such routes. More so other streetcar lines without connection to NCL also converted to buses, frequently having done so long before the TCRT began the process.
Fred Ossanna came to work at TCRT as a lawyer for Charles Green in the 1949 takeover of the company. Reportedly, Ossanna planned to order 25 buses from General Motors and was instead offered 525. The vast majority of buses in TCRT's eventual bus fleet were built by GM.
Most of the activity was geared toward stripping TCRT of its
asset
In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that ca ...
s to fill the pockets of owners and investors. Ossanna was convicted in 1960 of illegally taking personal profit from the company during the transition period. He was
imprisoned
Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is "false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessari ...
along with other accomplices.
Carl Pohlad
Carl Ray Pohlad (August 23, 1915 – January 5, 2009) was an American financier from Minnesota. Pohlad is best known as the owner of the Minnesota Twins baseball franchise from 1984 (succeeding Calvin Griffith) until his death in 2009.
In 2 ...
, who became the owner of the
Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area ...
in 1984, was the eventual successor of Fred Ossanna as head of Twin City Lines in the 1960s. He ultimately sold the company in 1970.
Streetcar preservation
Before the dismantling began, TCRT had purchased a significant number of
PCC streetcar
The PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the ...
s. These were sold off in 1952 and 1953, still in very good operating condition. The cars ended up in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...
(91 cars),
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat, seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and the second largest city within the New Yo ...
(30) and
Shaker Heights, Ohio
Shaker Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 Census, the city population was 29,439. Shaker Heights is an inner-ring streetcar suburb of Cleveland, abutting the eastern edge of the city's limits. In July 1911, ...
(20). Relatively few places could have taken them because of their extra width and each of these buyers had significant amounts of dedicated
right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
. For instance, the
Shaker Heights Rapid Transit
RTA Rapid Transit (generally known as The Rapid) is a rapid transit, light rail, and bus rapid transit system. The system is owned and operated by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA).
The system serves Cleveland and surroundi ...
commuter line in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...
was grade-separated in many areas. The vast majority of the older wooden streetcars, mostly built by TCRT itself, were destroyed. Out of 1240 built by the company, only five have survived to be restored and operated by rail museums.
Only two of the wooden streetcars in use in the 1950s had been given away to
railfan
A railfan, rail buff or train buff (American English), railway enthusiast, railway buff or trainspotter ( Australian/British English), or ferroequinologist is a person who is recreationally interested in trains and rail transport systems.
Rai ...
groups before the rest of the fleet was burned. They are owned by the
Minnesota Streetcar Museum
The Minnesota Streetcar Museum (MSM) is a transport museum that operates two heritage streetcar lines in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the western suburb of Excelsior, Minnesota, Excelsior.
Museum
The Museum was created as a result of the restructu ...
(TCRT No. 1300) and the
Seashore Trolley Museum
Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, is the world's first and largest museum of mass transit vehicles. While the main focus of the collection is trolley cars (trams), it also includes rapid transit trains, ...
(TCRT No. 1267) in
Maine
Maine () is a U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...
. One other steel-sheathed car (TCRT No. 1583) had been sent to a railway to the north in
Duluth
, settlement_type = City
, nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City
, motto =
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...
-
Superior
Superior may refer to:
*Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind
Places
* Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state
*Lak ...
, but it was never used. It now resides at the
East Troy Electric Railroad Museum
The East Troy Electric Railroad is an interurban heritage railroad owned and operated by the East Troy Railroad Museum. Passenger excursions run on a stretch of track from East Troy to Mukwonago, Wisconsin.
History
The line dates back to 19 ...
in
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
. A few additional cars escaped the burn pits, but they were still subjected to harsh conditions and only two are restored.

One of the streetcar boats, the ''Minnehaha'', was found by divers and then brought to the surface in 1980. After a long wait, it was restored and has been operating on Lake Minnetonka from 1996 to 2004 by the
Minnesota Transportation Museum
The Minnesota Transportation Museum (MTM, reporting mark MNTX) is a transportation museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States.
MTM operates several heritage transportation sites in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin. The museum is actively invol ...
and since then by the
Museum of Lake Minnetonka
''Minnehaha'' is a steam-powered excursion vessel on Lake Minnetonka in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The vessel was originally in service between 1906 and 1926. After being scuttled in 1926, ''Minnehaha'' was raised from the bottom of Lake Minne ...
. MTM also restored one of TCRT's old PCC cars (TCRT No. 322), operated now by the
Minnesota Streetcar Museum
The Minnesota Streetcar Museum (MSM) is a transport museum that operates two heritage streetcar lines in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the western suburb of Excelsior, Minnesota, Excelsior.
Museum
The Museum was created as a result of the restructu ...
.
A number of PCC cars once owned by Twin City Rapid Transit are just beginning their lives as museum pieces. The
Newark City Subway
The Newark Light Rail (NLR) is a light rail system serving Newark, New Jersey and surrounding areas, operated by New Jersey Transit Bus Operations. The service consists of two segments, the original Newark City Subway (NCS), and the extension t ...
finished operation of their 24 remaining cars on August 24, 2001, replacing the cars with new light-rail trainsets. Fifteen have been sold to the
San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni), is the public transit system for the City and County of San Francisco. It operates a system of bus routes (including trolleybuses), the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic c ...
(Muni), for their collection of classic streetcars on the
Market Street Railway. In addition, 12 PCCs that ran on the Shaker Heights line are now owned by the
Brooklyn Historic Railway Association
The Brooklyn Historic Railway Association (BHRA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a shop, trolley barn and offices located in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York, on the historic Beard Street Piers (c. 1870). BHRA had a fleet of 16 trolleys (1 ...
. Many of these cars owe their longevity to the fact that the Twin Cities area makes heavy use of salt to de-ice roadways in the winter. In anticipation of this, the cars were largely made of
stainless steel to prevent
corrosion
Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engi ...
.
Historical remnants
Other vestiges of the company's streetcar history remained in the Twin Cities, and some surviving elements are now listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...
. One of the oldest structures to survive is a building in Minneapolis now known as the
Colonial Warehouse
Colonial Warehouse is a building in Minneapolis. It was built 1885–1909 as a series of buildings with a common façade. It is part of Minneapolis's historic Warehouse District and a contributing property
In the law regulating historic d ...
. First built in 1885, it housed the headquarters of the Minneapolis Street Railway Co. during the early horsecar era and also later served as a powerhouse as the system was converted. The lines needed a lot of electricity, so
hydroelectric generators were installed at
Saint Anthony Falls
Saint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony ( dak, italics=no, Owámniyomni, ) located at the northeastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River. Throughout the mid-to-late 1 ...
about a mile away and the
Southeast Steam Plant
The Southeast Steam Plant, formerly known as the Twin City Rapid Transit Company Steam Power Plant, is a combined heat and power plant on the Mississippi River in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States owned by the University of ...
was also constructed nearby. The old headquarters was sold in 1908, soon after these were constructed. The steam plant was bought by the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
, which now uses it for providing heat to the campus downriver.
A large building on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul first served as the main construction and repair shop for the streetcars when it was built in 1907. It was expanded and remodeled over the years, later becoming a major garage for the bus system. However, the complex became outdated, with poor ventilation, a leaky roof and other problems. It was finally shut down and demolished in September 2001.
Selby Hill in St. Paul was a steep climb and was a place where cable cars were used in the late 19th century before Selby Hill Tunnel was constructed in 1905 to provide a more gradual incline. The tunnel still exists, but the ends have been blocked off, and as of July 2022 has largely become a
homeless encampment
A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents or other temporary structures.
State governments or military organizations set up tent cities to house evacuees, refugees, or soldiers. UNICEF's Supply Division supplies expandable ten ...
. It is near the
Cathedral of St. Paul.
Billboards
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
across the area were originally laid out to target passengers of the rail lines with advertising. Many of these billboards remained for decades afterward, despite the fact that automobile traffic frequently favored different routes. These finally disappeared due to city beautification efforts in the 1990s.
Legacy to 21st century rail
In the 1970s, the bus lines (some of which still trace former horse-drawn buggy paths) were shifted to a partially publicly funded operation overseen by the
Metropolitan Council
The Metropolitan Council, commonly abbreviated Met Council or Metro Council, is the regional governmental agency and metropolitan planning organization in Minnesota serving the Minneapolis – Saint Paul, Twin Cities seven-county metropolitan are ...
. All regional transportation for the metropolitan area was soon overseen by the Met Council's transit agency which would take on the name
Metro Transit. Twenty years after rails disappeared from Twin Cities streets, politicians and planners began proposing new
light rail systems. Congestion was bad enough in 1972 that there were proposals to build new
subway
Subway, Subways, The Subway, or The Subways may refer to:
Transportation
* Subway, a term for underground rapid transit rail systems
* Subway (underpass), a type of walkway that passes underneath an obstacle
* Subway (George Bush Intercontin ...
s or
people mover
A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...
s, but excessively high costs prevented any of the projects from getting anywhere until the end of the century. The University of Minnesota did a fair amount of research on
personal rapid transit (PRT) systems and has held a number of patents on the idea.
Rail transport returned to the Twin Cities with the construction of the
Blue Line, which began operations in 2004. A proposal for 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 ...
line running east-west through the city, possibly including PCC cars once owned by TCRT, has been examined. A
Northstar Northstar may refer to:
* Polaris, a star
Arts and entertainment
* Northstar (band), an emo band from Alabama
* Northstar (rap group), a rap group affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan
* "Northstar", a 2019 song by XXXTentacion from the album ''Bad ...
commuter rail
Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are co ...
line, tracing
U.S. Highway 10
U.S. Route 10 or U.S. Highway 10 (US 10) is an east–west United States highway located in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the United States. Unlike most U.S. routes with "0" as the last digit of its route number, US 10 ...
northwest out of Minneapolis, opened in 2009.
A connection between both of the twin cities, called the Green Line, opened on June 14, 2014.
Light rail west from Minneapolis to the southwest suburbs is being constructed as of 2020. Other proposals have included adding both a commuter connection to
the complete North and
Southeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
of downtown Saint Paul. A light rail alignment to
the Southwest of downtown Saint Paul has been previously discussed, but dismissed due to the expectation of low ridership.
See also
*
General Motors streetcar conspiracy
The General Motors streetcar conspiracy refers to the convictions of General Motors (GM) and related companies that were involved in the monopolizing of the sale of buses and supplies to National City Lines (NCL) and subsidiaries, as well as t ...
*
Light rail in Minnesota
*
Minnesota Streetcar Museum
The Minnesota Streetcar Museum (MSM) is a transport museum that operates two heritage streetcar lines in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the western suburb of Excelsior, Minnesota, Excelsior.
Museum
The Museum was created as a result of the restructu ...
References
Get Rail! Retrieved January 29, 2004, from
The Rake'
Retrieved January 30, 2004, fro
The Shore Line Trolley Museum(
East Haven, Connecticut
East Haven is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 27,923. Located east of New Haven, it is part of the Greater New Haven area. East Haven is from Hartford, from New Yo ...
)
*Russel L. Olson (1976). ''The Electric Railways of Minnesota''. Minnesota Transportation Museum, Hopkins/H. M. Smyth Co., St. Paul.
1917 Twin City Rapid Transit Company Street Railway Strike Retrieved May 25, 2004, from th
Minnesota Historical Society*Bill Millikan
Bustin' unions: Under 'Crape-Hanger' Davidson, businesses perfected ways to crush workers Retrieved May 25, 2004, fro
Workday Minnesota*Robert E. and Ruth Linsley Forman
Hennepin History. ''Minneapolis Star Tribune''. Retrieved July 22, 2004.
External links
Minnesota Streetcar MuseumMinnesota Transportation MuseumMinneapolis Public Library: Intercity transport historywith the infamous burning car photo
Market Street Railwayin San Francisco owns some old TCRT PCC cars
Seashore Trolley MuseumEast Troy Electric Railroad
{{DEFAULTSORT:Twin City Rapid Transit Company
History of Minnesota
Streetcars in Minnesota
Transportation in Minneapolis–Saint Paul
Interurban railways in Minnesota
Light rail in Minnesota
Commuter rail in Minnesota
Industrial Workers of the World in Minnesota
Defunct public transport operators in the United States
Defunct Minnesota railroads
Electric railways in Minnesota
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...