09/06/2026
Long before the QLINE, Detroit had another downtown rail revival: the Detroit Downtown Trolley, also known as the Washington Boulevard Trolley and originally the Detroit Citizens’ Railway.
Detroit’s original streetcar era ended in 1956, when the last Woodward Avenue streetcars were replaced by buses. Twenty years later, streetcars returned, not as a revival of the old citywide system, but as a heritage trolley designed to bring activity and visitors back to downtown.
The Downtown Trolley made its debut on September 20, 1976, as part of Detroit’s Bicentennial-era redevelopment of Washington Boulevard. Its original ¾-mile route traveled between Grand Circus Park and Cobo Hall, running through a redesigned Washington Boulevard pedestrian mall.
And these weren’t replicas. Detroit searched for and restored actual historic streetcars from overseas. Most of the cars that eventually operated here came from Lisbon, Portugal, giving downtown Detroit one of the most distinctive little transit systems in the country.
The trolley proved popular enough that in 1980 the route was extended along Jefferson Avenue, past Hart Plaza and toward the newly built Renaissance Center. The complete system was roughly one mile long and was operated by the Detroit Department of Transportation.
But times changed. Ridership declined substantially over the years, particularly after the Detroit People Mover opened in 1987. By the early 2000s, the trolley infrastructure also needed significant work. Detroit ultimately chose to reconstruct Washington Boulevard for automobile traffic, and trolley service made its final runs in 2003.
For nearly 27 years, though, those colorful vintage cars were part of the downtown landscape and for Detroiters who remember them, seeing one rolling down Washington Boulevard was unmistakably Detroit.
