The first American-made production model streetcars in nearly 60 years are officially rolling off the assembly line, one-by-one. United Streetcar company’s first non-prototype vehicle was delivered to Portland in January, and began service earlier this month. Now, their first tram for Tucson is out of the factory and in testing.

Tucson’s streetcar. Image from the Tucson streetcar project facebook page.

United Streetcar is also producing trams for DC as part of the same production run, to be used on H Street. DC is 3rd in line behind Portland and Tucson.

United’s prototype streetcar has been running in Portland since 2012, but it’s had problems with smoothness of ride that aren’t typical for other streetcar models. The production models have a different propulsion system, so hopefully they’re better.