Ride on a streetcar from Denver to Golden in the 1940s. (Lakeside: amusement park, construction)

[KaaBoom]

This is pretty cool video I came across on YouTube. It's a nice color video shot in the 1940s, of a ride on a Denver Tramway streetcar from Denver to Golden and the return trip. Showing shots of the Coors Brewery and the Lakeside Amusement Park, and a lot of open space in between.

I thought there might be some Colorado history buffs here who would enjoy seeing it.


YouTube - ‪Streetcar 1940s‬‏

[ColoWeb]

That's Pretty Cool!

[woob]

and to think now we're spending billions of dollars to rebuild what we tore up 50 years ago.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by woob

and to think now we're spending billions of dollars to rebuild what we tore up 50 years ago.

Exactly. RTD's West Light Rail Line currently under construction, is 90% an exact rebuild of the Denver Tramway's Route 84 interurban line to Golden. The Denver Tramway's Route 83, shown in this video can't even be rebuilt. Because the right-a-way has been destroyed by the construction of I-70 and development in Wheatridge.

The ridiculousness of their decision to abandon these lines in 1950 is evident right here in this video. As you can see, this route was fairly well patronized, at that time. The cars shown in this video, look to be pretty well filled up, even though the video appears to have been shot around noon time. They were probably a lot more crowded in the rush-hour. Also consider that this line was: 1. Obviously serving a very lightly developed area at that the time. 2. Being operated by a private company, with fares covering 100% of the operating costs, and still returning profit for the investors.

If The Denver Tramway, and the City of Denver had just had the vision to maintain the interurban lines, ridership would have increased dramatically. But they abandoned the lines just as post WW2 development was taking off in that area. Even with increased competition from private automobiles, the rapid rise in population of the western suburbs in the 1950s and 60s would have pushed ridership way higher.

But of course they choose to replace the streetcars with crappy busses, that nobody wanted to ride. That decision coupled with endless fare increases, caused the company to lose 85% of their ridership in the next 20 years, and ultimately put them out of business.

And as you said, now taxpayers are stuck with the bill for billions of dollars to correct that mistake.