Streetcar

First installed over fifty years ago in the burgeoning mountain city of Quacheo, streetcars now run throughout the cities of Veshiri. They've contributed tremendously to the growth of cities, allowing streetcar suburbs to sprawl out around a city, and allowing residents to get around the growing metropolises with unprecedented ease. The fare for a streetcar to wherever you want to go is just five coppers in Sistu, and most other cities don't charge much more - a few have the streetcars free to the public, compensating for the cost with taxes.
The basic technology behind the streetcars are thick cables running beneath the surface of the streets, powered by enormous stationary motors in a central cable house. Streetcars grip onto the cables, which move at a steady pace, and are pulled along. The gripman releases the grip and applies the brakes when the streetcar needs to slow down or stop. Streetcars are more popular in mountainous cities, being much more reliable and safer on steep streets than omnibuses, automobiles, and horse-drawn carriages.
The gripman is a profession that requires both skill and upper-body strength, as the grip must be released and applied gradually enough to avoid jarring the passengers. An improperly applied grip can result in a damaged cable or, in the worst case scenario, the gripper becoming entangled, leading to a runaway cable car until the central cable house is contacted and stops the cable entirely.

Power Generation

A central stationary motor located in a cable house powers each cable

Propulsion

The cars are propelled by gripping a moving cable, releasing it when they need to stop

Nickname

Trolleys, Cable Cars

Price

Around 5 cents per ride

Rarity

Increasingly common, though only in the largest cities so far

Width

The track gauge is 3 feet and 6 inches wide

Speed

9.5 mph

Complement / Crew

Two - a gripman and a conductor

Cargo & Passenger Capacity

They can hold 68 passengers with personal handheld luggage, 34 of them seated