The loss of the Red Car streetcar lines was deemed by readers as one of the worst decisions in the history of Long Beach. The closure of the Red Car meant the loss of streetcar routes along Ocean Boulevard, Broadway, Seventh Street, Livingston Drive, Long Beach Boulevard, California Avenue, Daisy Avenue and obviously the Pacific Electric right-of-way. We once again can develop a local streetcar network that serves Long Beach, one that would augment the Long Beach Transit bus system to enhance capacity, improve efficiency and increase ridership.

The original Red Car streetcar lines served the most developed portions of Long Beach, but over a half-century later, culture and the city’s urban fabric have changed, as have the best locations for such large investments in public transportation. Should the streetcar be a tram ferrying visitors between attractions, a shuttle for college students, or should it be a people mover connecting citizens to the city’s jobs and amenities? Is the new streetcar meant to deliver more efficient travel for those with no other transportation options or to encourage drivers to take transit?

Not to say that those prioritizes are mutually exclusive, in fact the challenge should be to find a proper balance between various users groups. But in the end Long Beach’s mobility infrastructure should be integrated into its land-use strategy. An intensity of residents, jobs and amenities should exist along these streetcar routes to support their operation and hopefully reduce private vehicle trips within the city. While Long Beach’s streetcar network can expand as ridership grows, a few initial routes seem essential to establishing an effective system. Like most of the bus routes of Long Beach Transit, the streetcar lines would all originate from downtown. From there they would extend into most corners of the city connecting to significant commercial centers, regional transit nodes and large pockets of residents.

The Crosstown Line would travel along Magnolia Avenue from the Queen Mary, through the downtown to Anaheim Street where it goes east through one of the most vibrant commercial corridors in the city. From there it travels north along Clark Avenue to Carson Street, where it turns west to travel north on Long Beach Boulevard before turning onto Del Amo Boulevard to its terminus at the Blue Line Station. Along this line riders will be within a five minute walk of four major commercial nodes, CSU Long Beach’s Brooks College Campus, Long Beach City College’s Eastside campus and two of the city’s largest parks.

The streetcar system would provide a local connection for the MTA Blue Line via the Top of Town Line running along Atlantic Avenue the entire length of the city, originating at First Street in the East Village to terminate at the Artesia Boulevard MTA Station to the west of Atlantic. This route would have stops adjacent to two hospitals, four neighborhood retail centers and over twenty schools including Compton Community College. The Top of Town Line would serve some of the densest communities while traveling through the heart of the Central Area, Bixby Knolls and North Long Beach.

The last link in the chain for the initial streetcar network for Long Beach would be the Midtown Line which connects a number of the city’s major job centers. It would follow the Top of Town Line route out of downtown, going west along Anaheim Street where it travels through the Westside along Santa Fe to then go east on Wardlow Road. From there the route travels past Cherry Avenue to an existing railroad right-of-way to Carson Street where it goes east to its terminus at the city’s largest concentration of retail at the Long Beach Town Center. The Midtown Line will connect riders to jobs in the Downtown, Central Long Beach, the Westside, the two Boeing Facilities and Douglas Park.

While not connecting every neighborhood and destination, these three streetcar lines could serve a large portion of the city’s population. Along these initial lines are a substantial opportunities to develop the land-use strategy necessary for the long term growth of transit ridership. If these routes prove popular, new ones can be developed to expand the service area across the rest of Long Beach.

For more on Brian's streetcar ideas, read this post from September 2007.

Illustration by Andrew Wilson

In response to commenter rallenr below, here is a map of some proposed streetcar routes through Long Beach.



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