Problems
The tram's fleet is outdated, with only five regular cars, which are almost a century old, still running. The cars are open-sided with wooden cross-benches, leading to street children often hopping on and off for free rides. Electricity to the cars is still provided from overhead trolley poles, and all cars are bi-directional. The cars were built locally by the tramway companies, but several key components were supplied by foreign manufacturers: traction motors from English Electric, controllers from General Electric and trucks by the Peckham Manufacturing Company (Kingston, New York).
The cars and tracks are not in good repair, so the ride is slow and bumpy, though the carriages are regularly repainted in keeping with the tram's heritage image. The ride is good for sightseeing, but besides tourists, there are few regular paying passengers, and so the tramway is increasingly running at a loss and there are doubts regarding its long term future.
Read more about this topic: Santa Teresa Tram
Famous quotes containing the word problems:
“I believe that if we are to survive as a planet, we must teach this next generation to handle their own conflicts assertively and nonviolently. If in their early years our children learn to listen to all sides of the story, use their heads and then their mouths, and come up with a plan and share, then, when they become our leaders, and some of them will, they will have the tools to handle global problems and conflict.”
—Barbara Coloroso (20th century)
“The proper method of philosophy consists in clearly conceiving the insoluble problems in all their insolubility and then in simply contemplating them, fixedly and tirelessly, year after year, without any hope, patiently waiting.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)