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Show MD YiroQDey One of the most shortsighted shortsight-ed evolutions in U.S. transportation trans-portation was the race to get rid of the much-loved trolley car after world war II. The motor industry persuaded the city fathers of one metropolis after another that petroleum-burning petroleum-burning buses were superior to track trolleys. RIDERS, WHO liked the steadier ride of track street cars and who disliked the greater sideward motion and fume-smelling buses, were disregarded as old-hat or sentimentalists. And, largely, street cars disappeared from the scene. Now the trolley is staging a comback--with light rails, separate right-of-ways and in the conventional form. IN MANY European cities, where the trolley never was discontinued, passengers fill trolley cars to overflowing every working day-as traffic congestion, auto fumes and costs have beset the internal combustion engine boom. Especially on surburban runs, the , trolley offered riders scenic, romantic rides in past years. One recalls the fight in the national capital to save these famous trolley routes. THE "CABIN JOHN" trolley in Washington ran into Maryland, along the Potomac, Po-tomac, and to the amusement park, Glen Echo. It was worth . riding even if one only came back. There was nothing else on the throughway, the track was between beautiful trees, with a nice view of the hills and river. There were no gasoline fumes, no horns and no congestion. It was, in other words, like a drive in the country. YET THAT, in so many cities, ci-ties, was discarded for exhaust-polluting buses. The trolley can't come back too soon. |