Streetcars in St. Louis
During the first forty years of the streetcar in the city, a variety of private companies operated several dozen lines.
In 1898, the City of St. Louis passed a Central Traction Bill that required franchises for streetcar companies.
[1] Other private companies, such as those serving the Metro East region or St. Charles, Missouri, continued separate operations.
Since 2022, the Loop Trolley has been operated in summer and fall by the Metro Transit division of the Bi-State Development Agency.
[6] Early operations were marred by difficulty in securing quality rails, and construction problems caused derailments of the cars.
[7] After the Civil War, other lines opened in St. Louis that connected the central city with western areas.
In 1905, United Railways was acquired by North American Company which also owned Laclede Gas and Union Electric.
United Railways stopped making a profit and couldn't pay the city's mill fare tax.
A referendum petition cancelling the agreement was prepared, but was stolen by burglars who drilled a safe where it was stored in the Cigarmakers Union office.
[25] In the 1920s, streetcars began to be replaced by motor buses that could route freely over public streets, paying only vehicle and gas taxes, while streetcar operators had fixed routes by the tracks, and had to pay additional property taxes for the infrastructure they placed in the road.
[citation needed] The construction of Highway I-70 through downtown St. Louis, ended service to many street lines.
The route numbering system of St. Louis streetcars was released by Public Service Co on June 28, 1929.
In September 1898, the St. Louis and Kirkwood Railroad and Suburban was franchised to build a line south on Central Avenue through Clayton.
To reach Webster the route crossed Edgebrook trestle over the Missouri Pacific tracks and Deere Creek.
It began near where Brentwood Blvd crosses the Missouri Pacific tracks and ran northeast crossing Hanley Rd just north of Manchester and then through Maplewood and Richmond Heights on Lindbergh Dr. to the loop on Dale Ave a few blocks east of Big Bend at Murphy and Hawthorne (now mostly under Highway 40).
The loop was the west end of #51 Forest Park, which ran east on Oakland, north on Euclid and then downtown on Laclede.
From Forest Park at the city limit it ran to the Dale Avenue loop over Wise Ave south of St. Mary's Hospital.
George W. Baumhoff, a Lindell executive, acted as General Contractor to build the Brentwood line.
[40] Lindell and Houseman ran an excursion train on the new line on February 2, 1896 from 3rd and Washington in downtown St. Louis to Kirkwood and then Meramec Highlands and back.
[41] On March 8, the Houseman Airline had a disastrous head-on when two streetcars collided on their single track line killing three.
[45] A photo of the Brentwood line taken from the Terminal Railroad overpass shows that section was still single track in 1947.
The Loop Trolley shut down in 2019 after ridership and revenue fell far short of projections, but was reopened in 2022 after the federal government threatened to demand the return of funds used to build it.
[54][page needed] In the early 20th century, the Loop was adjacent to the Delmar Gardens Amusement Park.
[54] Until its abandonment on July 25, 1950, the loop was also the terminus of the 05 Creve Coeur Lake line famous for its open "moonlight" cars.
