San Diego — PCC Plan

Rail Transit Online, September 2005

A former city councilman says he wants to put two refurbished PCC streetcars into service on a loop around downtown using existing San Diego Trolley track.  Harry Mathis hopes to form a non-profit organization that would raise enough money to obtain cars from Gunnar Henrioulle, who purchased 18 PCCs from the San Francisco Municipal Railway and stored them outdoors on his South Lake Tahoe property in hopes of building a heritage streetcar line in Sacramento or in the Lake Tahoe resort area.  The cars have been heavily impacted by their exposure to the elements but are apparently salvageable.  Mathis believes he can haul both cars to San Diego for about $10,000 but has not provided an estimated price tag for their purchase or restoration.  They would operate along C Street, Park Boulevard and along the waterfront on the Trolley’s Bayfront route, serving the convention center, the major league baseball park, the historic Gaslamp Quarter and a growing residential community.  Mathis says the PCCs would run during non-peak hours so as not to interfere with regular Trolley service.  The Metropolitan Transit System has tentatively agreed to store the cars in its downtown yard but will not fund any part of the project.  PCCs ran in San Diego from 1936 to 1949.  Five years ago, a group of business owners in the North Park area proposed a 3.5-mi. (5.63 km) heritage line starting at the San Diego Trolley station at Park Boulevard and C streets downtown, then traveling north on new tracks along Park Boulevard past the San Diego Zoo, then east along University Avenue to 32nd Street.  The proposal included possible restoration of PCCs stored in El Paso, Texas.  However, funding for a $200,000 feasibility study never materialized and the project has remained dormant.