Thanks! Hilariously ironic that the answer to my question is the city where I was born 
Great work on these maps!
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I believe these have been overrun by turtles
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The history of that particular system notwithstanding, actually I’m not sure a public transit system is supposed to operate on a profit.
Mass transit and public transit are not necessarily synonyms. You can certainly argue that mass transit is a public good and doesn’t need to make a profit to justify itself, but many current public systems like the NYC subway began as for-profit services and even today many systems in Japan (where mass transit is more popular than in the West) are still private for-profit systems.
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I say the MTA should get a few of these babies loaded with paying riders and take them for a ride on those very tracks… for a trip into the past (but further back than when said riders had 15 bucks more in their pockets). 
I’m sure you know this, but Toronto has a full subway station that was used briefly in 1966 and then abandoned.
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Unused more than abandoned. Lower Bay is still used for TV and movie shoots, and as a transfer bypass for out-of-service trains and cleaners. A few years ago, on a weekend when they were doing track work, they did divert passenger trains through the station. They didn’t stop obviously, but I got to see it.
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I love maps. I think they would look cool printed on fabric. What are the originals made out of? Are they digital drawings?
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Welcome aboard, Comrade!
Those maps are an interesting window into the past.
If you fancy doing a series on “Pointless Tramway Systems”, I’d suggest the one in Birmingham (UK). It is still in construction and just reminds me of the Springfield Monorail from the Simpsons.
My favorite of “pointless transit systems” is the Detroit People Mover. It runs in a one-way loop around downtown for no reason in particular, and the U.S. government spent $600 million to build it.
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Actually, it was his predecessor, Charles Green, who did it. Green was a corporate raider who jumped in and seized control of the company from the more conservative previous managers who kept the trains running. Pohlad just finished the job.
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I love Miami’s Metromover!
(watch for the Goodyear blimp at 0:03)
In case anyone thinks this refers to ancient history, I used to ride one of those referenced Chicago L lines as an adult, before they tore it down. It’s not that long ago.
Ironically, now they’re trying to force the city to allow the Obama Center on public park land, and one of the (many) reasons it isn’t a good idea is because other than two bus routes, one which remains local to the south side only, there’s no public transportation there…BECAUSE they demolished the L line that terminated exactly in the perfect spot for the Center. And now, thanks to re-zoning and new construction in the meantime, there’s no way to build it back up again.
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“Cost effective” might be better here. Metropolitan Coach Lines, which had bought out Pacific Electric, was taken over by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1958. Red Cars were still runnning, and continued to do so under public ownership for a few more years, ending in 1961 with service being replaced by buses. The Yellow Car trolleys formerly of the Los Angeles Railway kept running a bit longer under public ownership, until 1963.
That’s also the key thing about the streetcar conspiracy - it’s goal wasn’t to replace mass transit with private autos. It’s goal was to replace street trolleys with buses (and tires and gas) exclusively sold by the conspirators. The transition to buses itself wasn’t terribly contrversial at the time, and didn’t start to look like a bad idea until the oil shocks of the 70s.
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