TCRt

Twin City Rapid Transit Company, commonly abbreviated as TCRT, was a major electric streetcar and interurban railway operator in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area in Minnesota, United States. Formed in the early 20th century through the consolidation of several local street railway companies, TCRT built and ran an extensive network that connected downtown Minneapolis with surrounding neighborhoods and suburbs, and extended into Saint Paul. The company relied on overhead trolley wires supplying electric traction to a large fleet of streetcars, including heavy, double-ended cars and newer interurban-type vehicles on longer routes.

At its peak, TCRT functioned as the backbone of urban and suburban transit in the Twin Cities, with routes concentrated along major arterials and functioning as an integrated system for local travel and transfers. Following World War II, competition from private automobiles and diesel buses accelerated the decline of streetcar service. Beginning in the late 1940s and continuing into the early 1950s, most lines were replaced by bus routes, and TCRT ultimately discontinued streetcar operations. The company’s remaining assets and routes were transferred to regional public transit agencies, which would shape the development of transit in the area in the ensuing decades.

Today, TCRT is remembered as a significant historical force in North American urban transit. Surviving TCRT streetcars are preserved in museums, and the company’s history is frequently cited in studies of streetcar systems and transit modernization in the United States.