A new downtown trolley route will take riders down memory lane on weekends and holidays.
Metropolitan Transit System’s newest “Silver Line” features a vintage trolley from 1949. The trolley is a restored PCC, or President’s Conference Committee trolley.
MTS held a ceremony Thursday afternoon by the clock tower on 1255 Imperial Ave., by Petco Park to unveil the restored trolley, which is one of five in possession of MTS.
The Silver Line will begin service on August 27 and will operate 110 days of the year.
“San Diego has a really proud history of trolleys,” said Harry Mathis, MTS Board Chairman and father of the Silver Line Vintage Trolley Project.
One of the original conductors of the PCC trolley, Eddy Herold, 92, appeared at the ceremony to flag in the new trolley. Herold conducted the last trolley into storage in 1949.
The project was supported by outside agencies and donors, so MTS officials say the cost to operate the Silver Line is low.
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Developed after the Great Depression, the PCC was designed to bring the public back to streetcars. San Diego was the first city in the west to buy the trolleys, Mathis said.
