MEXICO: A Streetcar Named Tortoise

Mexico City's 600,000 straphangers were elated last week when 41 new streamlined U.S. streetcars appeared on the trolley lines. With their usual facility for nicknames, they labeled the new cars clorofilos, for their light green color, and crowded aboard for test runs. The clorofilos were the first new cars placed in operation in more than a generation. Most of the city's 403 remaining streetcars are almost 50 years old. Many adult passengers have been riding the same cars all their lives, just as their fathers had before them. The ancient cars,...