DEFINING AN ALTERNATIVE FUTURE: BIRTH OF THE LIGHT RAIL MOVEMENT IN NORTH AMERICA

Abstract

Covering three subjects, this paper sets forth conditions that led to the beginning of the light rail movement in North America. The first subject is a history of ideas and conditions that led to the National Conference on Light Rail held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in June 1975. The second and third subjects are summaries of the ideas and conditions that led to the adoption of light rail transit in Edmonton, Alberta, and San Diego, California, the first regions to adopt light rail in Canada and the United States, respectively. The information presented relies primarily on written documents and interviews with people who participated in events described herein. It is argued that light rail transit was a product of social movements of the late 1960s and 1970s when, for the first time in American history, large numbers of people looked to the future with a sense of foreboding but at the same time felt empowered to control the future. Many thought that they could reverse the fortunes of transit, thereby improving urban conditions, by embracing light rail transit. This was a northern European concept that strove to achieve the level of service of rapid transit at a fraction of the cost. Although the American transit industry was ambivalent to the idea activists championed it, which the National Conference on Light Rail disseminated to the planning and transportation engineering community throughout the United States and Canada. At the same time the same forces led to light rail adoption in Edmonton and San Diego.

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