Springfield Street Railway
| Springfield Street Railway | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Logo of the Springfield Street Railway Co., c. 1940 | |||
Cars of the Springfield Street Railway on Main Street, c. 1910 | |||
The 'Trolley Barn', Former Main Street headquarters of the Springfield Street Railway, pictured in 2018. | |||
| Overview | |||
| Owner | New York, New Haven & Hartford | ||
| Area served |
Through Routes (jointly operated) | ||
| Transit type | Light rail
| ||
| Annual ridership | 44 million (1916) | ||
| Chief executive | George Atwater (founder) | ||
| Headquarters | 2257 Main Street Springfield, Massachusetts | ||
| Operation | |||
| Began operation | March 10, 1870 June 6, 1890 (electrified) 1923 (bus) | ||
| Ended operation | June 24, 1940 (rail) November 3, 1981 (bus, merged with PVTA) | ||
| Infrastructure managers | Worcester, Holyoke, Northampton and Hartford & Springfield Street Railways (through routes only) | ||
| Character | At-grade, some private rights-of-way. | ||
| Number of vehicles | 500~ | ||
| Headway | 12-60 minutes | ||
| Technical | |||
| System length | 208+ miles | ||
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge | ||
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The Springfield Street Railway (SSR) was an interurban streetcar and bus system based in Springfield, Massachusetts that connected the Springfield metropolitan area and the Pioneer Valley, serving over 44 million annual passengers across more than 208 miles of track at the height of its operations, which included through services to the downtown hubs of the Holyoke/Northampton, Worcester Consolidated and Hartford & Springfield Street Railways which it operated jointly with those railways on shared routes, as well as a connection (by transfer) to the Berkshire Street Railway in Huntington at one point.
Shortly after its acquisition by National City Lines in 1939, the Springfield Street Railway's final two tram runs returned to the Trolley Barn for the very last time in the pre-dawn darkness of June 24, 1940. What followed was several decades of municipal bus operation, after which the former railway was formally dissolved in 1984, and absorbed into the PVTA.