You bet, the Twin Cities area had a great transit system before Green and Ossanna got in and wrecked the streetcar empire in less than three years time, 1951–1954 [“Get Rail!,” March]. Twin City Lines did have buses to augment the streetcars and a fair amount of private right of way. The vast majority of the train cars were built right here in the Twin Cities. They were high-speed machines, capable of 50 mph. The TCL home-built tanks were comfortable and efficient. One TCL “standard car” could hold a “crush crowd” of 150 bodies. A bus can only do about half that many. Electric traction has quicker acceleration than the noisy, two-speed “slushbox” transmissions on most buses. Electric traction vehicles can be coupled into multiple unit trains. The Twin City area needs many more LRT lines, and commuter rail too. Rip out the “insane lane” of I-394, and put in LRT all the way from Long Lake to Hudson, Wisconsin. Minnesota needs to get into the 21st century.
John Kennedy, St. Paul
Leave a Reply