Tampa's Streetcar History

Steam-powered streetcar, crica 1880s. TBHC collection

By 1885, Tampa had two telegraph lines and a steam-powered street railway system which carried passengers between Tampa and Ybor City.

In 1893, Tampa Street Railway and Power Company converted its steam-powered streetcar system to electric, which sparked a rate war with Tampa’s other streetcar service, Consumers Electric Light and Power Company.  Consumers temporarily lowered its fares from $.05 to $.02, driving the smaller company out of business.  The power company then took over Tampa Street Railway's business, making Consumers the sole supplier of Tampa's electricity.  Later, with the acquisition of the Tampa and Palmetto Beach Railway Company line (which ran from 7th Avenue and 22nd Street to DeSoto Park), Consumers was the only company providing electric transportation in Tampa.

circa 1940s streetcar map. TBHC collection

When Tampa Electric Company took control of Consumers Electric Light and Power in 1899, the streetcar line consisted of 21.5 miles of track, which carried passengers between Ballast Point, DeSoto Park, Ybor City, and West Tampa -- all for a nickel.

Among the most popular streetcars was the "Birney Car", named for the Stone and Webster engineer, Charles O. Birney, who designed it.  Of the 2,000 or so Birneys built between 1914 and the late 1920s, fewer than 30 survive in museums around the world.

Birney Car. TBHC Collection

TECO #163, is a single-truck (four wheeled) Birney.  When the TECO service ended in 1946, the car was sold as a vacation cottage and rested in a backyard in Sulphur Springs, until donated by its owner, Ms. Jeanne MacNeill Mydelski late in 1991.  Tampa Tank and Welding Company hauled the car to a building where it underwent extensive restoration.  The permanent carbarn for the historic Birney is in the old Florida Brewing Company building on Fifth Avenue in Ybor City.

TBHC collection

By the late 1930s, the streetcar was no longer in use in many cities and by the end of World War II, Tampa and St. Petersburg were the only Florida cities with streetcars.  On August 4, 1946, at 2:15 A.M., the last Tampa Electric Birney car retired to its carbarn.  Decades later, the overhead wires were down and the rails paved over. -- Rodney Kite-Powell, Saunders Foundation Curator of History.

Mass Transit In Tampa: Past, Present and Future?

Sixty-seven years ago this week, Tampa Electric Company ended Tampa's electric streetcar service. A popular and efficient method of mass transit that had existed in the city since 1885 came to a halt, replaced by buses and, more importantly, cars.

That the city and county were at the brink of incredible change in 1946 is undeniable. The end of World War II saw millions of people moving to Florida, with Hillsborough County one of the main beneficiaries of this growth. New neighborhoods, mostly outside of Tampa's compact city limits, grew virtually overnight. The idea of mass transit connecting these was almost unheard of. Cars, and new roads to carry them, were the answer. Sprawl wasn't a bad word; it was a new way of life.

The streetcar system, which connected the old neighborhoods of West Tampa, Ybor City, Hyde Park, Tampa Heights, Seminole Heights, Ballast Point and Port Tampa City to downtown Tampa, was seen as a relic of the past rather than a key part of the future. Tracks were pulled up and inventory was sold off soon after the last car entered the TECO carbarn.

We have changed as a city and as a society in those intervening 63 years. The streetcar system was revived, in a very abbreviated way, in October 2002. The current system connects downtown Tampa and Ybor City, but the new streetcar is more tourist attraction than commuter transport. The time it takes to travel between downtown and Ybor -- about 20 minutes -- is unacceptable to many. Part of the reason it takes so long is that streetcars are not given priority in traffic. Cars still rule the roads.

There has been a lot of talk of late concerning mass transit in Florida, specifically high speed rail crisscrossing the state. If we are going to have efficient mass transit connecting Florida's cities, those cities need to have effective intra-urban transportation connecting business and population centers. Perhaps it is time to look to the past for the answer. We probably cannot return to the streetcar system of yesteryear, but maybe there is something to be learned from a system that carried generations of Tampans to work, play, school, and to their homes, every day for over 60 years.

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