[5] United Streetcar was a limited liability company and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Oregon Iron Works, Inc. (OIW), which has been in business since 1944.

It was originally reported to have been established in early 2007, after OIW was the successful bidder for a contract to construct a prototype streetcar for the city of Portland,[1] but in 2010 the company clarified that it had been formed in December 2005.

[9] In 2005, Congress approved a federal transportation spending bill which included a US$4 million grant to TriMet for the acquisition, on behalf of the city of Portland, of a prototype domestically manufactured streetcar.

With a goal of fostering the domestic production of modern streetcars,[1] the grant had been added into the $286 billion spending bill by Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio, but did not specify a particular company to be the recipient.

[12] Only two formal proposals were received by the city, and after that of the other bidder was "deemed not to have met the minimum requirement",[10][11] the contract was awarded to Oregon Iron Works, in January 2007.

[21] During acceptance testing of car 015 in late summer and autumn 2009, certain (unspecified) problems were encountered, and Škoda and Portland Streetcar were unable to reach agreement on resolving them.

It was stated that the change would increase the overall U.S. content of the car from around 70% to around 90%,[24][25] and this was the main factor in gaining federal officials' approval of the $2.4 million in "research funds" needed to allow project to proceed.

[2] FTA approved the plans in late September 2009 and (jointly with the United States Department of Transportation) granted $69 million in early 2010 to help complete the project.

As a relative newcomer to the market, with a single design offering, United Streetcar found it difficult to compete with more well-established builders such as Siemens and Bombardier.

[44][45] In February 2015, after United Streetcar had declined to produce an annual report, the Oregon Secretary of State's office acted to administratively dissolve the company,[46][47] but formal dissolution did not take place until December 22, 2018.

[48] Parent Oregon Iron Works has re-purposed the U.S. facilities for boat construction, though the company has stated that they may return to rail-based equipment in the future (streetcars or otherwise).