Add Charleston, S.C., to the list of U.S. cities pondering reinstallation of streetcar service, at least on an unofficial level.
Proposals for streetcars have floated and died during the past decade, but a recent tour for transit activists, at a meeting last September aboard the Lowcountry Loop Trolley service utilizing rubber-tired tourist "trolleys," has revived the idea again.
An advocacy group, Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, announced its founding on Dec. 17, 2014, in part to pursue rail transit options. The group is an offshoot of another group, Hungryneck Straphangers, which has existed for five years.
Both groups plan to work to persuade Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA), the regional public transit authority, to consider the idea.
Streetcar service in Charleston ended in February 1938.