One hundred years ago, electric-powered trolleys rattled along metal tracks through the streets of Ann Arbor. It was a world with no blue buses, no horns honking after a near-collision and no smog radiating from the backs of pickup trucks. As TheRide expands service through their TheRide 2045 plan and the University of Michigan explores an Automated Transit System, some residents and historians are looking back to the history of these streetcars for lessons on what modern public transit in Ann Arbor could be.
The original trolley route, first laid in 1890, began at the former station of the Michigan Central Railroad, now the location of the Gandy Dancer restaurant. The route traveled down Detroit Street into Kerrytown and continued along Main Street through downtown. At the intersection of William and Main streets, riders could choose to take the streetcar around Central Campus or follow Packard Street all the way to Ypsilanti.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Martha Churchill, co-author of “Electric Trolleys of Washtenaw County,” said streetcars provided an economical alternative for Ann Arbor residents who didn’t own a horse and were inexpensive for the company to operate…