The Times of San Diego has posted in an article here that the city's first light rail car, U2 1001, has been put into regular historic service on the "Silver Line" downtown route. There it will join a pair of heavily rebuilt PCC cars, currently numbered 529 and 530, in heritage service. It seems to me that anyone showing up to ride on a PCC would be a bit disappointed to have a light rail set pull up, but I suppose that it's all relative and even the seemingly modern U2 cars are already historic. They're no more rare than PCC cars though: besides a number of U2 cars from San Diego that were resold for continued service in South America, a total of seven have been preserved in this country - just as many as there are Boeing-Vertol LRV's still extant.
Speaking of the San Diego heritage operation, I'm looking for updated information on the San Diego fleet. Besides the U2 and the two PCC cars in service, last I knew a third PCC - ex-Philadelphia car 531 - was undergoing rebuild to join them. However I don't know whether that is still an active project or whether the car has been mothballed. There's also ex-Philadelphia 533, apparently in storage, and Muni 1123, last seen being cannibalized for parts. Finally there's Newark 16, which is still stored in western New York; I believe this car was intended for San Diego at one point but I don't know who owns it currently. Clarification would be appreciated.
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