Streetcars in St. Louis

Streetcars in St. Louis, Missouri, operated as part of the transportation network of St. Louis from the middle of the 19th century through the early 1960s.

During the first forty years of the streetcar in the city, a variety of private companies operated several dozen lines. In 1898, the City of St. Louis passed a Central Traction Bill that required franchises for streetcar companies. United Railways quickly consolidated most St. Louis streetcar companies, then St. Louis Suburban in 1906. United Railways sank into receivership which was resolved only in 1924. It was reorganized as St. Louis Public Service Company in 1927, serving the city of St. Louis and neighboring St. Louis County, Missouri. It became Bi-State in 1963.^[1] Other private companies, such as those serving the Metro East region or St. Charles, Missouri, continued separate operations.

Streetcars began to be replaced by buses in St. Louis in the 1920s; the last one ran in 1966. Many of today's MetroBus and Madison County Transit bus routes follow the routes and names of streetcar lines.

In 2018, a 2.2-mile (3.5 km), 10-station heritage streetcar line was completed in and near the Delmar Loop area. Since 2022, the Loop Trolley has been operated in summer and fall by the Metro Transit division of the Bi-State Development Agency.