page_title: Streetcars in North America
section_title: Strikes
hierarchical_section_title: Streetcars in North America / History / Strikes
caption_attribution_description: English: San Francisco police escort a scab streetcar to protect it from the violence that erupted repeatedly during the 1907 streetcar strike. Photo is original from the San Francisco History Room, San Francisco Public Library.
context_page_description: Streetcars or trolleys were once the chief mode of public transit in hundreds of North American cities and towns. Most of the original urban streetcar systems were either dismantled in the mid-20th century or converted to other modes of operation, such as light rail. Today, only Toronto still operates a streetcar network essentially unchanged in layout and mode of operation.
  Older surviving lines and systems in Boston, Cleveland, Mexico City, Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco were often infrastructure-heavy systems with tunnels, dedicated right-of-way, and long travel distances, or have largely rebuilt their streetcar systems as light rail systems. About 22 North American cities, starting with Edmonton, Calgary and San Diego, have installed new light rail systems, some of which run along historic streetcar corridors. A few recent cases feature mixed-traffic street-running operation like a streetcar. Portland, Oregon, Seattle, and Salt Lake City have built both modern light rail and modern streetcar systems, while Tucson and Atlanta have built new modern streetcar lines.
context_section_description: Between 1895 and 1929, almost every major city in the United States suffered at least one streetcar strike.  Sometimes lasting only a few days, more often these strikes were "marked by almost continuous and often spectacular violent conflict," at times amounting to prolonged riots and civil insurrection.
  Streetcar strikes rank among the deadliest armed conflicts in American labor union history.  Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor called the St. Louis Streetcar Strike of 1900 "the fiercest struggle ever waged by the organized toilers" up to that point, with a total casualty count of 14 dead and about 200 wounded.  The San Francisco Streetcar Strike of 1907 saw 30 killed and about 1000 injured.  Many of the casualties were passengers and innocent bystanders.
  The 1929 New Orleans streetcar strike was one of the last of its kind.  The rise of private automobile ownership took the edge off its impact, as an article in the Chicago Tribune observed as early as 1915.
caption: Police escorting a "scab-driven streetcar during the San Francisco Streetcar Strike of 1907. A number of streetcar strikes broke out in the United States during the early 20th century.
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