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Streetcars in San Antonio

Presented by the Texas Transportation Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Click on thumbnails to see larger image.

San Antonio streetcar service began on June 22, 1878, just over one year after the first railroad, the Galveston Harrisburg & San Antonio, reached the city. For the first few years the cars were pulled by horses or mules. The very first line created ran from Alamo Plaza to San Pedro Park. Soon an addition was added to the GH & SA depot located at North Austin and what is now known as Jones Street but was then called Grand Avenue. Real estate values soared along the line which traversed land which was essentially prairie up until this time.

A line was immediately built to the original International & Great Northern depot when it was opened in 1881. A line down South Flores Street to the San Antonio & Aransas Pass depot soon followed in 1884. The service was electrified in 1890, following the completion of San Antonio's first large power generating station. Service to the Missouri Kansas & Texas station was easy to provide as it faced onto Flores at the corner of Durango.

Initially the cars were open to the elements but were later enclosed. To begin with each line was run by a separate company but by 1891 these had been consolidated into just four organizations, The Bellknap, The McCrillis, the West End and the Alamo Heights. The latter built a large maintenance facility near what is now San Antonio College on Broadway.

In 1901 the four remaining companies consolidated into the San Antonio Traction Company. By 1905 the increase in automobile ownership led to the paving of down town streets and the gradual disappearance of horse drawn wagons and carriages. Houston Street became the city's main shopping area following a decision by Commerce Street store owners to deny the use of the narrow thoroughfare to streetcars. By the time the street was widened and streetcars allowed to pass through, Houston Street had already gained the dominant position.

In 1917 the San Antonio Traction Company and the San Antonio Gas & Electric company were merged into the San Antonio Public Service Company. In the same year the new company literally builds the city's first bus and uses it to take service men to Fort Sam. The company acquired it first factory built bus in 1923.

San Antonio was the first major US city to abandon streetcar service. The last car ran on April 29, 1933. 55 years of service came to an inglorious end when the tracks were ripped up and the remaining cars either sold to other cities or for scrap. One or two remained in storage and when old #300 was restored in the late 1980s a plan was floated to recreate part of the lines down town but they never came to fruition and the car has been permanently loaned to various cities in the Pacific Northwest where it remains today. A pale shadow of streetcar service remains in the form of buses built to resemble streetcars which are operated for tourists down town by VIA Trans, the successor to CPS in the bus business.

One of the original mule drawn streetcars was used on the final day of service and then donated to the Witte museum which had it on display for many years. It is currently in storage.

Streetcar service in other Texas cities

Streetcar service existed in many other Texas cities. The three cities closest to San Antonio were Laredo, Seguin and Uvalde.

Images of Laredo's streetcars

Galveston streetcar postcard

For Seguin streetcar images, click •SEGUIN•

For Uvalde streetcar images, click •Uvalde•

For a comprehensive list of all Texas cities that had streetcar service, click •Streetcars in Texas•

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