Other types of transportation were tested including taxicabs and steamboats, along with the operation of some destination sites such as amusement parks.

The company recruited real-estate mogul Thomas Lowry, who on September 2, 1875, brought on line a route between downtown Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota.

While other systems were popping up with more horse-drawn carriages or cable cars, Lowry pushed forward with electrification of the lines.

This car was used on special occasions, such as the opening of new lines and a visit by United States President William McKinley.

The boats operated between communities on Lake Minnetonka, but improved roads in that area hit ridership hard in the 1920s.

As the rise of the internal combustion engine in transportation grew, the Twin City Rapid Transit acquired several bus lines that began to pop up around the time of World War I.

[3] Rail extended a distance of about 50 miles (80 km) from Stillwater on the bank of the St. Croix River in the east to Lake Minnetonka in the west.

On December 2, a crowd energized by speakers from the Nonpartisan League again grew angry after TCRT cut off electricity to the streetcars in downtown St. Paul, making it impossible for many people to return home.

By October 1933, the workers had gained backing from Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson, St. Paul Mayor William Mahoney and the National Recovery Administration, among others.

World War II allowed the system to bounce back for a time, since strict fuel rationing and citizens' efforts to conserve resources made automobile use rather un-patriotic.

He expected to quickly gain profit, but found he had purchased stock just as the company decided to set forth on some major construction.

Knowing this would demolish his anticipated dividends, Green contacted other shareholders and urged them to vote out the company's president, D. J. Strouse and put him in charge instead.

Green sold his shares in 1950 to be briefly replaced by Emil B. Anderson before local lawyer Fred Ossanna ascended to head the company the next year.

[citation needed] More so other streetcar lines without connection to NCL also converted to buses, frequently having done so long before the TCRT began the process.

[citation needed] Fred Ossanna came to work at TCRT as a lawyer for Charles Green in the 1949 takeover of the company.

A number of PCC cars once owned by Twin City Rapid Transit are just beginning their lives as museum pieces.

In addition, 12 PCCs that ran on the Shaker Heights line are now owned by the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association.

Many of these cars owe their longevity to the fact that the Twin Cities area makes heavy use of salt to de-ice roadways in the winter.

Other vestiges of the company's streetcar history remained in the Twin Cities, and some surviving elements are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

First built in 1885, it housed the headquarters of the Minneapolis Street Railway Co. during the early horsecar era and also later served as a powerhouse as the system was converted.

The lines needed a lot of electricity, so hydroelectric generators were installed at Saint Anthony Falls about a mile away and the Southeast Steam Plant was also constructed nearby.

A large building on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul first served as the main construction and repair shop for the streetcars when it was built in 1907.

Many of these billboards remained for decades afterward, despite the fact that automobile traffic frequently favored different routes.

In the 1970s, the bus lines (some of which still trace former horse-drawn buggy paths) were shifted to a partially publicly funded operation overseen by the Metropolitan Council.

Congestion was bad enough in 1972 that there were proposals to build new subways or people movers, but excessively high costs prevented any of the projects from getting anywhere until the end of the century.

The University of Minnesota did a fair amount of research on personal rapid transit (PRT) systems and has held a number of patents on the idea.

A proposal for a heritage streetcar line running east–west through the city, possibly including PCC cars once owned by TCRT, has been examined.

[citation needed] A Northstar commuter rail line, tracing U.S. Highway 10 northwest out of Minneapolis, opened in 2009.

Other proposals have included adding both a commuter connection to the complete North and Southeast of downtown Saint Paul.

A light rail alignment to the Southwest of downtown Saint Paul has been previously discussed, but dismissed due to the expectation of low ridership.