For us LA history enthusiasts, this is a sad photo indeed. What we’re seeing is Pacific Electric streetcar #5146 on Van Nuys Blvd at Sherman Way as it prepares to make the final run on the San Fernando Valley line to the Subway Terminal building opposite Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles. This explains the sign “’By ’By Big Red” (To be honest, the author in me wants to add an ‘e’ at the end of the ‘By’s.) The date was December 29, 1952, after which the buses took over that route, thus ensuring there was still public transit, but it wasn’t quite the same. My thanks to Ralph Cantos for sending me this photo.
Pacific Electric streetcar (#5146) on Van Nuys Blvd at Sherman Way prepares to make the final run on the San Fernando Valley line to the Subway Terminal in downtown Los Angeles, December 29, 1952
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Who and why did the powers that be decide the street cars had to go???
Were they not working well?? I think they were a charming part of American life and should still me running today rather than the lousy buses on the roads today. I also believe cars should never have been made to go more than 60 or 70 mile per hour. Progress STINKS!!!!
The reality is that, outside of WWII when ridership was high because of gas and rubber rationing, there was never enough people using the system to cover the costs. I’m sure that the car companies and the gas companies saw an opportunity to move a lot of product and thereby hasten the end of the streetcars, but it was never a financially viable system. Which isn’t to say that perhaps the government shouldn’t have subsidized it as happens in many other countries, but that’s not what happened in LA.
I was attending Notre Dame High School in the San Fernando Valley at the time. Luckily Norman Mathers (father of Jerry Mathers the child actor) was teaching at Notre Dame. He and his family moved into a rental in front of our house, and I was able to ride to school with him.