Tucson’s proposed four-mile-long, 19-stop streetcar system could spur significant development if results here are anything like what has happened in the nation’s first city to create a downtown streetcar system, Portland, Ore.

Since Portland’s downtown streetcar system was rolled out in 2001, there has been nearly $3.5 billion in development along the line, including over 10,000 residential units and more than 5 million square feet of non-commercial construction. Those figures come from an April 2008 development report by Shiels Obletz Johnsen of Seattle, which manages transportation projects for public and private clients, prepared for Portland Streetcar Inc., which runs that city’s system.

An Aug. 13 article in the New York Times reports that no fewer than 40 U.S. cities are looking into streetcar systems after seeing the results in Portland.

Print this story Email this story Post a Comment There are hopes that the new travel route of the trolly will help spur residential and commercial growth downtown.Joe Pangburn photo ADVERTISEMENT

An answer to why downtown streetcar systems may spur development lies in the fact that they enable developers to build maximum-density structures along the line because parking, which requires a lot of space and money, can be greatly reduced, says Gary Oaks of HDR Engineering Inc., project manager for the Tucson streetcar system.

For example, information prepared for Portland Streetcar Inc. by E. D. Hovee and Company of Vancouver, which helps coordinate public-private development projects, shows that construction within one block of the streetcar line has moved to 90 percent of maximum allowable density after the streetcar line was built from just 35 percent of maximum allowed density before the system.

By contrast, building density three blocks from the system’s line remained at about 42 percent, both before and after the streetcar was launched.

Tucson’s system will connect key points in and near downtown and the University of Arizona and presents a number of future development opportunities.

Its four-mile line will begin at the proposed museum district on the west side of downtown across the Santa Cruz River, travel through Congress Avenue and Broadway locations downtown, make stops at the warehouse arts district the Fourth Avenue business district, and the historic train depot before reaching a number of key university stops and then traveling on to University Medical Center.

Because historic neighborhoods around the university have been resistant to any changes that would bring high-density student housing there, the streetcar system may an answer. The university, now with about 38,000 students, is expected to eventually increase enrollment to 75,000.

“The university is land-locked and this is an escape valve to provide access for further development,” said Jim Glock, director of the City of Tucson’s Department of Transportation. He said the streetcar line could solve several challenges the university faces as its student population grows—especially parking and housing.

If the university and/or private builders construct student housing in areas between the university and downtown, it would no longer be critical for students to have a car or to live on campus. Furthermore, more students living closer to downtown could encourage development of more downtown restaurants, and entertainment there.

Funding of the $139 million streetcar system is only peripherally tied to the Rio Nuevo downtown redevelopment project—the streetcar will use the Cushing Street bridge to reach the area west of the Santa Cruz River and the system will benefit from some of the infrastructure work now being done.

In 2004, the Federal Surface Transportation Act of 2004 authorized up to $75 million in federal funds for the project. In order for the city to actually receive those funds, they need to be appropriated by the federal government after a number of planning steps are completed—a step the area’s congressional delegation has committed to getting done.

Then in 2006, voters approved an $86 million funding request from the Regional Transportation Authority for the project. The $139 million price tag includes installation of the rail, purchase of the streetcars, construction of a maintenance and storage facility and overhead conductor and creation of the 19 stations where streetcars will stop.

Glock said the city is currently in the procurement process to purchase the modern electric streetcars, which will be acquired through a qualification-based, negotiated selection process. There is a 24 to 28-month lead time required for streetcar orders, he said, while the maintenance and storage facility can be built quicker than that.

The streetcars, which have doors that open at ground level and are easily accessible to the disabled, will run 20 hours a day, from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., seven days a week, and will reach stops every 10 minutes between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. and every 20 minutes in early morning and evening hours. Seven streetcars will be purchased and each has a 130-passenger capacity—larger than a typical bus.

The streetcar system will become part of the SunTran system with the same fees and the ability to transfer to and from buses within the system. But the streetcar will use a ticket purchase honor system much like that used in other cities with light rail systems—patrons purchase the tickets via ticket machines and may be subject to periodic checks by security offers to make sure they have purchased a valid ticket.

Glock said the university has expressed an interest in contributing to SunTran the streetcar system and so that it can use a universal pass via university identification cards, but the university still needs to determine how to pay for this approach.

The system, expected to be completed by the end of 2011—about the same time as many Rio Nuevo projects including museums also are targeted for completion—is expected to carry 3,600 passengers daily when it first begins operation, but Oaks pointed out that ridership estimates for systems in other cities “tend to be low.”