Cleveland’s Red Line challenges the notion that the term “heavy rail” means anything.
Check out Caleb’s video where we explore Cleveland’s “abandoned” Waterfront Line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0wskAB3VLs
Cleveland’s Red Line challenges the notion that the term “heavy rail” means anything.
Check out Caleb’s video where we explore Cleveland’s “abandoned” Waterfront Line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0wskAB3VLs
Another great job guys!
I grew up in Cleveland in the 1970s riding “The Rapid” to go downtown to the public library, or out to the airport to fish coins out of a fountain to buy food in the food court. ( never got caught!). “the rapid” has about withered into insignificance, with Cleveland’s deindustrialization & depopulation. The story of how it was built should make you see a kindred soul across the years. The right-of-way was put in as part of the Union terminal project in the 1920s, originally intended for the city’s interurban lines to go into the terminal. By the time the terminal opened in 1930 the interurban’s were all either abandoned or moribund. During the depression a teenaged transit fan named Harry Christiansen walked the unused right of way and came up with a transit proposal that would route Cleveland streetcars onto the right-of-way and lead them to downtown avoiding a long haul from the inner ring streetcar suburbs. kind of like what Boston has. He presented his plan to one of the Cleveland newspapers, and ended up getting hired as a reporter & that became his career , with a lot of it spent on transit reporting. The transit system was taken over by the city in 1940 and during World War II during the huge crush of riding, they moved forward with this, Cleveland Transit System even bought a fleet of PCC streetcars that were equipped for multiple unit use . It would’ve been grand, one seat ride from your street corner to downtown. . Then they made a big mistake: they hired a consulting engineering firm, and they came back with a proposal to build a high platform system with bus feeders. Sadly, they went for this. What it meant customers would have to walk to a street corner, catch a bus, transfer to the high platform line, and then walk to their destination downtown. It turned out to be too many transfers and ridership never really took off. The PCC streetcars were sold to Toronto where they ran for many years. As Cleveland depopulated, ridership has continued to plummet. I think the waterfront line was a dumb idea- by the time the line was built, the ” Flats” entertainment district was no longer a happening place. You could read Harry Christiansen’s book “trolley trails through greater Cleveland volume 3” which tells the story. He was rather saddened with the lack of success of the rapid. You can find the book secondhand online if you care to read it in detail. The book came out in 1975, when I was a teenage transit fan. I actually wrote to him & he called me on the phone once! I heard RTA recently had requested bid for new rolling stock,(the current fleet is from the 80s) which would be able to run on all lines, low & high platform, which they should have done long ago.
I remember the overhead announcement –
‘Next stop downtown, Public Square, Cleveland Union Terminal. Please make sure you have all your belongings before leaving the train and thank you for riding CTS’
It would just take about all the time from W 25th st station to the terminal to say it.