Boston – AC for PCCs
Rail Transit Online, May 2007
The 10 venerable PCC
cars that provide service on the Mattapan trolley line will be retrofitted
with air conditioning once they return to service in the fall. The 2.5-mi.
(4 km) streetcar route connects the Red Line terminal at Ashmont station
with the Mattapan neighborhood, carrying 7,000 weekday passengers. Trolley
service is currently suspended as part of a project to rehabilitate the line
— including new catenary, cosmetic upgrades to the eight stations and new
seats and paint for the cars — and to replace Ashmont station. The air
conditioning scheme will borrow engineering designs used by Philadelphia's
SEPTA when it had PCCs, also built in the 1940s, refurbished for the
reopening of Route 15. “They're charming old cars, but they lack one thing
that every other vehicle has: air conditioning,” MBTA General Manager Dan
Grabauskas told Boston Metro. The estimated cost is between $900,000 and
$1.1 million, said Grabauskas. The air conditioning project appears to put
to rest rumors that the PCCs will be replaced with modern cars anytime
soon. (MBTA Photo) |
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