The Pacific Electric's Pace

Josef K. Lesser, the founder and director of theLos Angeles Railroad Heritage Foundation*, passed along via email the following research on how long it took for a Pacific Electric streetcar to travel fro Long Beach to L.A."With virtually no auto grade crossings in 1910, the streetcars made incredible time," Lesser wrote. "The line between LA and Long Beach was first established in 1902. I have the stats for 1911: 36 minutes on limiteds (express); 1913: 42 minutes; 1926: 51 minutes; 1944: 54 minutes; 1954: 60 minutes.

"Passenger service ended April 8,1961. The total mileage was 20.37 miles. In 1946 there were streetcars leaving from the downtown terminal every 15 minutes between 8 AM and 8:30 PM."

*Disclosure: TTLA's blogger is the Secretary of the Board of Directors for LARHF.

Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user army.arch. It was used under Creative Commons license.