San Pedro — Red Car Revival

Rail Transit Online, August 2000

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in the waterfront community of San Pedro on July 17 for a 1.5-mile heritage streetcar line modeled after the long defunct Pacific Electric (see RTOL, June 2000).  The line will run on existing freight track from the World Cruise Center to 22nd and Miner Streets with stops at the Maritime Museum at Harbor Boulevard and 6^th Street, adjacent to the site of the original Pacific Electric San Pedro depot, and at Ports O'Call Village, a reproduction of a quaint seaport.  “The Waterfront Red Car Line is good for the environment and good for tourism as it taps into the potential of the 375,000 people that take Catalina cruises and the one million passengers that move in and out of the World Cruise Center each year,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr., who represents San Pedro.  The $7 million project is designed to spur redevelopment of the area and stimulate tourism in downtown San Pedro.  There will be two newly built PE replicas and one original Red Car that will be rehabilitated and placed on Japanese interurban streetcar trucks.  Service is tentatively set to begin early next year.