Interest in streetcars survives economic downtown

“The explosion of interest in streetcars stalled only slightly in 2008,” according to Gloria Ohland of Reconnecting America. Interest in streetcars moderated because of the national economic contraction and because it became evident that streetcars would not obtain funding from the US Department of Transportation’s Small Starts program, says Ohland, vice president of communications for the transit-oriented development advocacy group based in Oakland, California.
In a report at the website www.reconnectingamerica.org, Ohland noted that new streetcar lines continue to be established. The latest is a one-mile “hybrid” streetcar line that began operating in December in Savannah, Georgia.
The Savannah streetcar — an old-fashioned-looking 1936 vehicle from Melbourne, Australia, that has been mechanically updated and made wheelchair-accessible — runs on track through the city’s historic River Street area. It is called a hybrid because it’s powered by biodiesel, some of it from recycled restaurant oil. Its consumption: 1.5 gallons of biodiesel per hour.
To make streetcar service a reality, Savannah paid $600,000 for a little-used 2.3-mile railroad branch line, $300,000 for concept development and engineering, and $397,000 to build the propulsion system, restore the car, and make it accessible to the disabled. To keep costs down, an existing firehouse was converted into a car barn, for $200,000. Thus the total cost was about $1.5 million. The city’s goal was to give tourists better access to downtown and the entertainment district without widening streets or adding parking. Because of the choice of fuel, no overhead power lines needed to be installed.
Another recently established service is the Seattle Streetcar, which began running in December 2007 and has outperformed ridership projections by attracting 1,000 passengers a day, according to Reconnecting America. Property owners paid half the $52 million cost of establishing the line, which follows a 1.5-mile route from the downtown retail core to a waterfront park on Lake Union. A chief beneficiary is the South Lake Union district, which has attracted the corporate headquarters of Amazon.com and other notable developments.
South Lake Union is projected eventually to get 25,000 jobs and 11,000 housing units. Ohland says Seattle could see “even more streetcar-oriented development than Portland’s Pearl District.” The Oregon city has experienced $3.5 billion of development along its streetcar line, which has been an economic generator, connecting the redeveloping Pearl District to other parts of the city.
Seattle’s City Council voted to build a streetcar network with four more lines through downtown neighborhoods, just three months after the streetcar line to South Lake Union began operating.
Reports on streetcar lines in Savannah, Seattle, Portland, and other cities are in the second edition of Street Smart, a guide to planning, financing, and building streetcar systems, recently published by Reconnecting America. The book sells for $35.