Streetcars in Kenosha, Wisconsin
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Streetcars have been running in Kenosha, Wisconsin for more than 100 years through a variety of companies and routes.
[edit] Kenosha Electric Railway
The Kenosha Electric Railway was a street railway serving the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin from February 3, 1903 through February 14, 1932. Although it had several owners, the original name was used throughout its history and is still unofficially attached to the current streetcar line in Kenosha. In 1932 the Kenosha system was converted to electric trolley buses, making Kenosha the first city in the world to utilize these vehicles for all transit operations (and coincidentally the first city to utilize color-coding for transit routes).
[edit] Modern streetcar line
At the turn of the 21st Century, Kenosha constructed a modern electric streetcar system utilizing historic PCC streetcars in coordination with the HarborPark development on the shores of Lake Michigan. The line has become a model project studied by urban planners worldwide, and is used by thirty percent of visitors to Kenosha.
Installation of the rail track sub-base was completed in the fall of 1998, and the streets in HarborPark were completed in the fall of 1999 including the 115-pound continuously welded rail streetcar track over modern concrete ties (except for standard wooden ties under grade crossings). Electric overhead line construction for 600-volt direct current was completed in April 2000 and energized by a modern solid state substation.
Kenosha's five historic 'Red Rocket' PCC A15-class streetcars were built in Montreal for the Toronto Transit Commission in 1951 by Canada Car and Foundry under license by the St. Louis Car Company, and were remanufactured and rebodied from the windows down in 1991. Each Kenosha car is painted in a unique livery representing an historic American transit system that also operated PCC streetcars. The first of Kenosha's streetcars was 4610 'Toronto' (originally 4541), delivered on May 4, 2000. The four other cities and systems thereby represented include Chicago Surface Lines 4606 'Green Hornet', Pittsburgh Railways Company 4609 'Pittsburgh', Johnstown Traction Company 4615 'Johnstown', and Cincinnati Street Railways 4616 'Cincinnati'.
The ceremonial dedication of the streetcar line and the new Transit Center was held on June 17, 2000, and the memorial ribbon was broken at 11 AM by 4610 'Toronto', piloted by Richard Lindgren who had been a motorman for the original Kenosha Electric Railway (KERy) into 1932.
Scheduled streetcar service started on Monday morning, June 19th, 2000.
In addition to its utilitarian purpose, the streetcar system (along with Metra service) has played a major role in the downtown's transit-oriented development (TOD) and, co-incidentally, immediately became one of Kenosha's top tourist attractions. In December of 2005, the City Council voted to study expansion of the current two-mile downtown route (which currently carries about 60,000 passengers yearly) to the city's southwest and through the Uptown business district.
Kenosha's HarborPark Plan, which is served by the streetcar line, comprises over four hundred upscale urban housing units and retail, commercial, restaurant and recreational facilities. The streetcar circulator project demonstrates the feasibility of reintroducing zero-emission electric transit into midwest cities and the application of special short-haul transit applications.
