Fort Smith — Extension Recommended

February 2017

A planning consultant is suggesting improvements for downtown Fort Smith and one of the ideas for the Arkansas city is expanding the half-mile Fort Smith Trolley Museum car line which is operated by restored four-wheel Birney car Number 224. It is a restored original Fort Smith streetcar from the first generation line abandoned in November 1933. The planning proposal was posted by the suntimes.com site.

Wikipedia has an article about the trolley museum. Here is an excerpt:

Streetcar operation at the museum was inaugurated on May 19, 1991, using ex-Fort Smith Light and Traction Company car 224, a Birney-type streetcar built in 1926 by the American Car Company. In the first seven months of operation, though the end of 1991 (in which five months had daily operation), more than 10,000 rides were given. The initial line was about one-quarter mile long, using ex-Frisco freight tracks, along which FSSRA volunteers had installed trolley wire and support poles. It connected the carbarn, at 100 S. 4th Street, with
the Fort Smith National Historic Site.

Downtown should have more of a regional emphasis to support
businesses and entrepreneurs," Kelsey Berry of Gateway Planning said. She recommended expanding the trolley into the Belle Grove area.

"The trolley would come down Second Street and here you have H Street going toward Riverfront Drive," Berry said.

People could get off there and easily be able to go to the Marshals
Museum, shops and restaurants, she said.