Trolleys

The head of the Boston-area transit authority said Saturday that he would ban all train and bus operators from even carrying cellphones on board after a trolley driver told police that he was texting his girlfriend before a collision Friday. About 50 people were hurt in the underground crash in downtown Boston, though none of the injuries was life-threatening.

As attractive as it sounds, a new proposal for a light-rail system down the Ventura Freeway, funded entirely by private money, was greeted with skepticism and even exasperation Thursday by officials who doubt that the political or financial support could actually be mustered for yet another mass-transit alternative across the San Fernando Valley. "It doesn't ring true," county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. "If it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true."

Using unusually strong terms, nine members of the Los Angeles City Council have urged regional transportation officials not to pursue a private company's proposal for a trolley line along the median of the Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley. In a letter to Larry Zarian, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the nine members said that if the MTA pursues the project, its future relationship with the city "would be drastically impaired."

Using unusually strong terms, nine members of the Los Angeles City Council have urged regional transportation officials not to pursue a private company's proposal for a trolley line along the median of the Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley. In a letter to Larry Zarian, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the nine members said that if the MTA pursues the project, its future relationship with the city "would be drastically impaired."

A private engineering firm said Wednesday it has received tentative approval from state and county officials to study the feasibility of building a 60-mph trolley in the median of the Ventura Freeway from Burbank to Woodland Hills at no cost to taxpayers. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the MTA regards the offer by the New York-based engineering firm, Frederic R. Harris Inc.

A private engineering firm has received tentative approval from state and county officials to study the feasibility of building a 60-mph trolley in the median of the Ventura Freeway from Burbank to Woodland Hills at no cost to taxpayers. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Wednesday that the MTA regards the offer by the New York-based firm, Frederic R. Harris Inc.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on Tuesday began soliciting proposals for the operation and maintenance of an electric shuttle bus system in the Los Angeles Harbor area. The selected contractor will be responsible for operation of the three battery-powered trolleys in the system, in addition to daily vehicle inspections, battery charging and maintenance, collection of passenger fares and other activities associated with the program.

Amid a Carnival-like atmosphere, streetcars began rolling past the historic mansions of New Orlean's Garden District for the first time since Hurricane Katrina halted the St. Charles Avenue line more than two years ago. Though only about half of the line has been reopened, many see the return of the 1920s-era green cars as a sign of progress in the city's recovery and a morale booster.

A new study that will probably reinvigorate a decades-old debate about mass transit in Los Angeles concludes that bringing back streetcars to downtown would spur more development and attract riders. It also contends that trolleys could peaceably share the road with cars. The report, expected to be released this week by the Community Redevelopment Agency, also makes another point: Reintroduced trolleys have met with success in many other cities, and there's no reason they can't in Los Angeles.

Residents of Los Angeles' oldest suburb say they know how to steer their forgotten neighborhood back on track. They want to resurrect a trolley line that for 60 years carried passengers between Angelino Heights and downtown. Service on the Angelino-Crown Hill Line lurched to a halt in 1946 after Los Angeles Railway Corp. was sold to a consortium of automobile, truck and tire companies and oil firms that replaced its trademark Yellow Car electric-powered trolleys with buses.