Exit133.com: Tacoma Streetcar Meetings Continue...

Tacoma Streetcar Meetings Continue... (28. February 2007, 10:43 by Derek Young) ~ Some Day

Unfortunately we missed the monthly Streetcar meeting on Monday. Apparently as a result of that meeting, this Sound Transit report from last year came across our desk. The report seems to detail a feasibility study of extending Link west to TCC. Interesting enough… But, as far as we can tell, this is just one of several options out there. If somebody could provide us with a context of how this report has become relevant again, chime on in!

Link to Sound Transit: Tacoma Link Extension – West (pdf)

Link to the Report Summary (pdf)

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I have been attending the streetcar meetings (except this month). The goal of the streetcar committee is to provide a feasibility study to the city council on a system of streetcars. This report is simply a guide of how a study might look, not a suggestion of routes, although some of these routes are being looked at by the committee.

As a side note, I would like to see the prioritized routes outside of the city(The Lincoln District/McKinley etc..)connecting to downtown.

Continuing to connect downtown to itself would not benefit most of Tacoma.

1 | Posted by Pat | Feb 28, 11:35 AM

I agree, although there is just as pressing a need to link close-in neighbors uphill in the West End, Old Town/Ruston and Proctor to downtown business. A review of the old Tacoma streetcar routes is startlingly the same as current needs.

2 | Posted by Les | Feb 28, 12:30 PM

Some of the work being considered by the City was considered by Sound Transit during it’s feasibility/cost analysis period. Rather than reinvent portions, a suggestion was to incorporate whatever was appropriate. It should be noted that the details of what the City’s proposal looks like could be a bit different than what ST was considering.

Monday’s meeting included map handouts of potential routes throughout the City. (Is a PDF document collection up yet on 133?) Since there was some confusion as to where the routes would go, I expect the City will clarify this prior to evaluating costs.

3 | Posted by DavidS | Feb 28, 01:29 PM

Run those lines where we need the mose econimic improvment in the city. Sprague and so 19th gets my vote. Poor folk use the transit infrastructure in the city now. Lets give them some shiny new trains to ride and some train stations to bring retail hubs to the hood.

4 | Posted by Hill Top Guy | Feb 28, 03:56 PM

I’d disagree on where the lines should go.

I say cannibalize the highest ridership portions of Pierce Transit. Pierce Transit says it gets its highest ridership on the Route 1 (Division/6th) between downtown and Union. This section apparently has a substantially higher ridership than other lines serving similar areas – like the MLK route. (This is probably due in part to the higher residential density and commercial opportunities along most of the route.)

I think this is exactly why ST was evaluating this section – it has the greatest chance of succeeding.

5 | Posted by DavidS | Feb 28, 05:13 PM

Ideally, I would like to see a system that strikes a balance between building where there is strong current demand and also building in neighborhoods that could use the streetcar to catalyze new investment. And it needs to be built incrementally. Maybe the first line goes from downtown to the Stadium District and the next one up 11th to MLK. Each of these lines would only be about a mile long, but could provide the foundations for getting to 6th Ave, Sprague, Proctor, Pt. Defiance, TCC, etc. But we also need to get out to the south and east sides too.

If you haven’t been down to see the “Building Tacoma” exhibit down at the Tacoma Historical Society on Broadway, I urge you to do so if only to check out an original streetcar map. There are a lot of answers to our current dilemmas: routes? single track? double track? spurs? loops? The map contains some very useful information that we can use today.

Mark your calendars!
The next streetcar meeting is March 26th, 4-6pm in the Muni North building main conference room.

6 | Posted by morgan | Feb 28, 11:00 PM

“The next streetcar meeting is March 26th, 4-6pm in the Muni North building main conference room.”

I think they’ve officially extended the meeting time until 7PM, due to regular overruns. I’m not sure if they are still overrunning the 7PM end time though.

7 | Posted by DavidS | Mar 1, 09:38 AM

I haven’t been able to attend any of these meetings and won’t likely be able to go in the future as this is a very busy season at my office. I hope that this doesn’t sound too silly, but I’m not really clear on whether or not the “streetcar” system is intended to be compatible with (i.e., a differently-funded extension of) the Link rail system. I’m not sure what technical problems that might pose but I have to say it would be a shame to have 2 or 3 lines of rail-based transit that don’t play well together. Transfers hurt ridership.

8 | Posted by Erik S | Mar 1, 10:25 AM

I should probably clarify my question a bit. I can see that one proposal is a pure extension of the ST system. What I am uncertain about is whether or not the “streetcar” term is generally being used to refer to a separate system.

9 | Posted by Erik S | Mar 1, 10:27 AM

The “streetcar” term as defined by the City so far does not preclude any specific type of system. So those that would be similar & compatible to the LINK are being evaluated along with systems that would require transfers.