-
An Amsterdam Streetcar Street
The Portland delegation is trickling into Amsterdam, with most of the group at an arrival dinner tonight, and the rest arriving tomorrow. Here’s a typical streetcar street in a shopping district. There are other configurations on different street types that I’ll try to get examples of later in the week. Note that the purpose of…
-
Three More Streetcars
www.flickr.com portlandtransport’s 3 More Streetcars photoset Here are photos from our visit to the plant in Ostrava where the next three Portland Streetcars, of the new Trio design, are under construction. We saw two end sections and a center section at the framing stage. We also saw several cars of a very similar design being…
-
The Streetcar Builders: Inekon, Skoda, Dopravní Podnik Ostrava … and Oregon Iron Works?
Josef Hušek (center), founder and chairman of Inekon Group So why are we in the Czech Republic anyway? How did Portland come to source its streetcars here? A little Cold War history is required. Under Comecon – the economic compact among the Warsaw Pact nations – different countries were assigned responsibility for manufactured goods. What…
-
All Aboard!
www.flickr.com portlandtransport’s Ostrava Boardings photoset One of the implications of the ubiquity of streetcars here in the Czech Republic is that they are more casual about their platforms. In the first photo you can a large group crowding on what is about a four-foot strip of pavement next to the center-running streetcar rails. I believe…
-
First Full Day in the Czech Republic
www.flickr.com portlandtransport’s First Full Day in Czech Republic photoset Today was our first full day in the Czech Republic and perhaps this is a good time to review the purpose of our trip. We (a delegation from Portland Streetcar, Inc – of which I am a board member) are here to inspect three new cars…