Charlotte wins $25 million to build streetcar line (Charlotte Observer)
Federal grant will help complete planned system’s first leg, from transit center uptown to Presbyterian Hospital
More than 70 years after streetcars last ran in Charlotte, the city learned Thursday it won a $25 million federal grant that will bring them back by 2014.
The Federal Transit Administration grant will help build the planned streetcar line’s first leg, which will connect Presbyterian Hospital with the main transit station near Time Warner Cable Arena.
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, who pushed to build the streetcar during the mayoral campaign in 2009, said the project will be a “catalyst” for new development and will provide “sorely needed jobs for Charlotte.”
The total cost of the 1.5-mile line will be $37 million. The city has set aside $12 million to build the first leg, but it hasn’t yet identified a source for the roughly $1.5 million needed to operate it each year.
The city eventually wants to build a 10-mile streetcar line from Beatties Ford Road to the site of the closed Eastland Mall. The entire project could cost $500million and would probably take at least two decades to build, assuming the line is built in small phases.
Construction on the 1.5-mile first leg must begin within 18 months, according to the FTA, or the city will lose the money. Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Dallas and Fort Worth also received money for streetcars. A total of 65 cities applied.
A consultant, URS Corp., is doing engineering work on how to build the line. The major question mark is what utilities are under the street and how many of them must be moved.
John Mrzygod, a streetcar project manager for the city, said he hopes the city can begin moving some utilities soon.
He said the construction work will be relatively hassle-free for drivers and businesses.
“This will be more surgical than Elizabeth Avenue,” Mrzygod said.
He was referring to a massive rebuilding of Elizabeth Avenue through Central Piedmont Community College, which included laying a half-mile of streetcar track into the road. Store owners along Elizabeth Avenue say the project crippled business.
The city must build rail tracks that loop around the Time Warner Cable Arena, where they will connect with the Lynx light-rail track. That will allow the streetcars to travel along the light-rail tracks to the Charlotte Area Transit System’s maintenance and storage yard, near the New Bern light-rail station.
From there, the city will probably install track on Trade Street to link with the existing track on Elizabeth Avenue.
To power the streetcar, the city will probably build a catenary – overhead wires that will be a canopy over the street.
The city is planning to use three existing trolley cars now used by Charlotte Trolley on its line from South End to uptown. CATS is eliminating that trolley line because of budget cuts.
The streetcar may eventually use more futuristic cars. But using the replica trolleys saved the city $8 million, said Mrzygod.
Idea still controversial
The idea of building a streetcar in Charlotte has been controversial.
Unlike the Lynx light-rail line, which operates in its own tracks and is often faster than cars, the streetcar will operate in the street. It will stop at traffic lights and will be stopped in congestion, just like a bus.
Though the streetcar is not faster than a bus, streetcar boosters have said it will help areas nearby. Developers will want to build near streetcar stops, supporters say.
Micah Javier, the general manager of the Nothing But Noodles restaurant on Elizabeth Avenue, said the streetcar would help business.
“It would bring good traffic between here and (downtown), which we’ve always looked forward to since we’ve opened,” he said. “Obviously, we’re going to be cautiously optimistic as to when it would finish.”
Myers Park resident Jenny Martella said she always looks for opportunities to walk, bike or take public transportation instead of driving, and would visit businesses along Elizabeth Avenue with a streetcar.
“You bet I’ll be using those cars,” she said. “It’ll be so much fun.”
Republicans on the Charlotte City Council have been wary of spending money on the streetcar. But Foxx and his Democratic colleagues have pushed to spend money on it, even before federal money became available.
Under the Bush administration, streetcars weren’t eligible for federal transit funding. But the Obama administration has changed those rules, and the FTA awarded $130 million in streetcar grants Thursday.
“The city was in a position and ready to go,” Foxx said. “When the FTA looked … Charlotte had prepared itself.”
The City Council must vote to accept the grant in July, but that’s considered a formality.
Operating costs a question
When the streetcar is built, it’s unclear who will pay the estimated $1.5 million in annual operating costs.
CATS chief executive Carolyn Flowers has said the transit system can’t afford it. CATS has had to raise fares three times since 2007 and has had to cut some bus routes and eliminate jobs to balance its budget.
The streetcar line will be so short that it won’t replace any existing bus system. CATS will probably still operate the Gold Rush line along Trade Street, which runs inside Interstate 277.
If the streetcar is built and then extended to Gateway Village on West Trade Street, CATS could in theory stop operating the Gold Rush Red Line.
Republican council member Andy Dulin said he will vote against accepting the grant, in part because of the recurring operating costs.
“That’s $1.5 million we don’t have,” Dulin said. “CATS has said many, many times they don’t have the money to help with design, building it or running it. We could spend that money fixing potholes throughout the city.”
Dulin said he’s also concerned that the city’s marquee intersection – Trade Street and Tryon Street – could become cluttered with overhead wires if the streetcar is extended to the north.
City officials have said it’s possible the streetcar could eventually use overhead wires for part of its journey, then use batteries for other stretches of the line. If that happens, the city wouldn’t need to stretch overhead wires over the entire line.
Charlotte’s streetcar system started in the late 1880s with a horse-drawn system, and the last electric streetcar ran in 1938.
The starter line for the modern streetcar will run on familiar terrain. Around the turn of the century, a streetcar line was extended on Trade Street to Elizabeth College, which became the site of Presbyterian Hospital, said Charlotte historian Dan Morrill.
“That’s repeating history,” Morrill said. Staff writer Lisa Du contributed.
By Steve Harrison
[email protected]
Posted: Friday, Jul. 09, 2010
