Tram No. 737 (ex-7037) in its native home of Brussels, Belgium.

After World War II, the PCC waned in America, as most transit systems converted to buses. The very last PCC ever built in North America, Muni No. 1040 (which awaits restoration—you can help), rolled off the St. Louis Car Co. assembly line in 1952. But in that same time period, the PCC was beginning a somewhat unlikely rennaissance in Europe.

The War devastated the tram (streetcar) systems of many European cities. Even those that survived unscathed found themselves with antiquated equipment, usually a tiny motor-and-trailer pair that were inefficient, drafty, and increasingly expensive to maintain. Brussels tackled this challenge in 1951 by licensing PCC technology from the US. La Brugeoise of Brugge, Belgium, used new Westinghouse PCC motors and controls to build the first fifty PCC trams for Brussels, including this one. The body style was an amalgam of the PCC design and emerging European tram design. The three sets of doors (instead of two on US PCCs) made loading and unloading faster. The very slender profile (only 7' 2" wide, almost two feet narrower than Muni's widest PCCs) allowed it to snake through the tight spaces of old European cities.

The car design proved popular. Brussels ordered hundreds more over the years, including some that incorporated used parts from ex-Kansas City and Johnstown, PA PCCs. This western European design, with some variations, also operated in such cities as Antwerp, Ghent, and Vicinal, Belgium; Marseilles, and St.-Etienne, France; and The Hague, Netherlands. On the other side of the Iron Curtain, the PCC design was adapted by Czechoslovakia's TATRA, which churned out thousands of trams based on this US technology for dozens of Soviet-bloc cities—invariably painted red.

In June, 2004, Market Street Railway facilitated the delivery of Brussels No. 7037 to the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) following its retirement in the Belgian (and now EU) capital. The car had been mechanically and electrically upgraded several times during its 50-plus-year Belgian career, but retains its original appearance. Muni modified the tram for service in San Francisco, and renumbered it to 737 to avoid a conflict with trolley coach numbering.

In June, 2005, the car made its first appearance on the street wearing the blue and white livery of Zürich, Switzerland, which operated similar looking cars (but narrow gauge and non-PCC). The car temporarily wears this livery in tribute to the sister city relationship between Zürich and San Francisco, and is used to promote Zürich. That Swiss city has expressed interest in giving San Francisco a true Zürich tram, if it can be successfully adapted to standard gauge and meet other Muni requirements. At that time, 737 is scheduled to be restored to its original 1952 creme Brussels livery.