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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Sacramento gets on track for streetcars
by Melissa Corker, published on February 29, 2012 at 8:14 PM
Storyline: Politics
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City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward with a plan to bring a modern, electric version of the single car “trolleys” to connect neighborhoods in the central city and make getting around town easier for residents, workers and visitors.
Streetcars were a large part of the Sacramento cityscape between 1870 and 1947.
“This plan is not only a transportation enhancement, it is a vital economic development tool that we want to introduce into the city of Sacramento,” Fedolia "Sparky" Harris, senior planner with the Department of Transportation, said Tuesday.
Harris said that the purpose of the streetcar plan is to increase travel choices and mobility for short-range trips, and to provide connections between major transit stations, employment centers, commercial corridors and tourist destinations.
In 2006, the cities of Sacramento and West Sacramento, Sacramento Regional Transit and Yolo County Transportation District began working on a plan to create a streetcar line for the area and conducted a feasibility study.
Concerns from that study about route connections and alignment between the two cities stalled that streetcar plan, however.
The study presented on Tuesday was the result of a year of work by those four entities and months of community and business group input.
“The team did a great job of listening to everyone through the process,” said Patty Kleinknecht, executive director for The River District, a development area adjacent to downtown Sacramento.
“This project will help connect our neighborhoods and create a real economic benefit,” she said.
The study suggested four route plans for the central city and three more to allow connection to eastern Midtown, Sacramento State, Oak Park and the UC Davis Medical Center.
Routes are also suggested for major development areas, including the railyards, The River District and the Arden Fair Mall/Cal Expo areas, according to the study summary.
According to a feasibility study completed in January, the streetcars would complement the current light rail system.
Light rail trains are multiple cars connected together on a track network reaching into neighboring cities and suburbs that surround Sacramento. The primary focus of light rail is commute trips.
Streetcars are single cars that provide transit on short distances – longer than a comfortable walk, but within a short ride. They are meant to help get people around town without relying on automobiles.
Light rail stops are generally spaced every mile, while streetcar stops are every few blocks, according to the staff report.
Harris said the study indicates a large economic benefit to the area, including a potential $1.6 billion increase in property values and more than $3.5 million in increased local sales tax revenue annually for properties within three blocks of the starter line.
The starter line would be the first streetcar route completed, beginning in West Sacramento at the Civic Center complex, crossing Tower Bridge and ending near 19th and K streets in Sacramento.
The estimated cost to build the starter line is $125 million to $135 million, according to the report. Funding would come from a combination of sources, including federal and state transportation grants, local streetcar assessment districts and – potentially – transportation sales taxes.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Sacramento City Councilman Rob Fong said Tuesday.
“It seems daunting when you look at how much it costs per track mile, but if we don’t get started, we won’t get it done,” Fong said.
The next step in developing the plan is securing funding and completing environmental reviews.
With its vote of approval, the City Council recommended city staff work in partnership with the city of West Sacramento, Regional Transit and the Yolo County Transportation District to pursue a federal grant for the starter line.
Once the funding is in place and environmental studies and design plans are completed, construction of the starter line is anticipated to take 18 months.
“(The streetcar project) will make a tremendous difference as an urban circulator here in Sacramento, especially with all the things we are trying to do downtown,” City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby said.
Read the full streetcar study here.
Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.
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BTW there is nothing 'charming' about 3rd Street downtown- which is where they propose to run part of the streetcar.
And a "Keep Midtown Janky" sticker on the back of a streetcar would be awesome.
Yolobus #42, which already connects Yolo county, downtown Sac and the Sac Airport, could acheive the same purpose by simply add stops between West Sac and Downtown. It could be up and running tommorow and we would still have $125M in our pocket.
I get it that people like trams better than buses. But this is a huge price tag to replace rubber wheels with steel ones.
Also, I would be interested to hear what the price tag would be if city council disobeyed their union minders and pursued open market bids for the construction work.
Buses are for "those" people, and are simply not fit for Apple toting Euro style social democrats.
Other than tourists in Old Sac who might like to ride historic interurbans, this is a flop. And heck, why not import historic double decker buses for touristy thrills?
This illustrates streetcar fetishism at its worst.
But hey, if we want historic electric streetcars and "interurban" trolleys, how about doing it in conjunction with the State Railway Museum? They could improve the tracks of the old Sacramento Southern tourist railway and run these old streetcars as a tourist electric railway down to the Land Park Zoo area, or even down to Hood as has been proposed for excursion trains. Perhaps the trolley fetish could be put into the service of tourism.
And since buses have, you know, wheels and steering wheel, they can go anywhere there is a road.
But, then we must realize that California's uniquely bizarre interpretation of federal ADA statutes would prevent any kind of double decker bus that didn't provide upstairs wheelchair access. .... nevermind.
Definable route? You might try inflexible route. Which is just dandy when some downtown protest creeps block off the trolley tracks, like they did the other day. Maybe that was you blocking my way back home. Or should I say, my way back to the park and ride lot, since bus routes within walking distance to my home were cancelled while another one of your pointless "light rail" extensions was built.
But hey, you think my home is "sprawl", and you want to put me into one of your 21st century version of "the projects".
But overpriced light rail light (aka streetcars) to West Sac at $125M makes zero sense.
Selfish me for wanting to spend that extra 2 hours and 30 minutes per day with family.
So yeah it is a bit difficult to keep a straight face when big spending charlatans promote the numerous benefits of another mass transit boondoggle.
And yes, transitopians, the advantages of private vehicle traffic are obvious: high-speed, doorstep-to-doorstep, 24-hour a day on call service in safety, convenience and comfort, offering infinite flexibility in travel schedules and routes. None of which a streetcar has. The way to make mass transit workable, and truly rapid, is to give it a dedicated, grade separated right of way.
But our politians are completely insane. They're going to model Sac after other cities because they feel Sac has an identity crisis.
I'm sure that the majority of people would rather see more buses than street cars out on the streets. You can't take the street car on a detour if there's an accident blocking your path. Plus it costs millions in start-up costs to build a street car line, and for it to end in Midtown? Come on!! What about expanding transit options in working class neighborhoods like North Sacramento, Arden-Arcade, North Highlands, Rancho Cordova, and Meadowview? It's time to think outside of Midtown for a change and focus on other areas of town that need attention too, or have the voters decide on this whole waste-of-money streetcar issue.
The majority of residents would agree that the street car plan sucks because their neighborhoods will see little or no benefit from it, as opposed to an improved bus system that one can utilize. I mean, how can you explain to a resident of Del Paso Heights, College Greens, or Meadowview how a street car system would benefit them? Well you can't because it won't benefit them.
Imagine all of Sac metro - including West Sac, Roseville, Rocklin, Elk Grove, Folsom - having one bus system. RT had bus service to these areas at one time, then RT began to neglect these areas in favor of - you guessed it - downtown/midtown Sacramento. It's now time for us to use that $125 million and return our bus service to its former glory!! And forget Midtown, the home of yuppy posers who sit around and prance while drnking their lattes. There are other areas of Sacramento that need attention as well.
There are other advantages too: low-floor designs means not just wheelchairs are easier to roll on, but also bikes. And then there's air conditioning. Riding in an open "California car" has a certain charm, but most folks like real A/C in our summers.
San Francisco's legacy fleet, with a few exceptions, is based on a small number of standardized designs: the PCC cars and the Milan trams (actually built in Ohio) make up the bulk of the fleet, with a few special cars like the English "boat car" and the original MUNI vintage cars. But finding a large supply of somewhat standard legacy cars is very rare (they're all antiques, after all.)
That being said, Sacramento could very easily have a "legacy fleet" by using several cars currently in storage--I wrote about this in a blog post a couple of years ago (even if I have since abandoned that blog in favor of Sacramento Press and other online fora):
http://sacramentohistory.blogspot.com/2009/11/sacramentos-historic-streetcars-moved.html
By restoring these Sacramento cars, and using a limited number of historic cars for special occasions and weekends, we could have the technical advantages of modern cars but still have the character of historic cars available on demand. I'm sure they would go over well with tourists, too--and maybe encourage those tourists to explore Sacramento farther than just Old Sac!
Hanging off of old Rice a Roni streetcars in SF is fun, but if we just want give out straphanger joyrides then the Train Museum can refurbish a streetcar and run it down their railroad line as another tourist ride option. Or think out of the box and expand that line into a transport link between the Tower Bridge, a future Sutterville bridge, etc).
But the city center line should be transportation first, a tourist ride second.
There actually are plans for multiple further expansions, one of which is along 3rd Street and east onto Broadway, and if there was a Broadway bridge, it could carry streetcars over the river into Southport and link back into the West Sac side. The full staff report actually includes multiple expansion ideas--this starter line is supposed to be just that, a starter for future expansion. Part of the reason for the initial expense is because i includes things like a car maintenance facility, the initial fleet of cars, centralized control--basic investments that later expansions don't need, which makes expansion cheaper. The starter line was selected because it is a practical starting length from which to expand.
I say spend that $125 million and improve our bus system region-wide, not just in Midtown. And why always focus these projects on Midtown? Why not focus such projects on Del Paso Heights, Orangevale, Elk Grove, Meadowview, College Greens, and so on? Midtown is full of fake losers anyways who sit around at coffee shops pretending to be cool, but they're not. Forget the streetcars, and use that money to expand and add more buses and bus routes to working class neighborhoods like Arden-Arcade, Carmichael, South Natomas, Coloniel Village, and elsewhere throughout the region.
Almost.