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http://dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/02/25/20060225-C1-04.html
didnt columbus used to have trolleys on high street?
Other cities have found streetcars to be a popular option while boosting growth
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Jodi Andesand Tim Doulin
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
<!--PHOTOS--> <table class="phototableright" align="right" border="0"><!-- begin large ad code --> <tbody><tr><td> <table align="center"> <tbody><tr><td align="center"></td></tr> <tr><td class="credit" width="200"> GARY RINGS | TAMPA TRIBUNE </td></tr> <tr><td class="cutline" width="200">A trolley rolls through the Channelside District by a cruise-ship terminal in Tampa, Fla. The city built 2.3 miles of streetcar track for $63 million, $50 million of which was paid for by the federal government. The system opened in 2002, but taxpayers won’t be asked to chip in for years, officials said. </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td></tr> </tbody></table>
For years, Columbus has debated adding a light-rail system.
Now, attention is shifting to streetcars or trolleys after Mayor Michael B. Coleman announced in his State of the City speech this week that the transit option would be studied.
Although streetcars might be less expensive than light rail, they are not cheap.
Tampa, Fla., built 2.3 miles of streetcar track for $63 million — $27.4 million per mile.
A 2-mile track in Charlotte, N.C., which began operation in 2004, cost $40 million.
Both cities paid for their trolleys without raising taxes, transit officials said. They said trolley use has exceeded expectations and didn’t decrease the number of bus riders.
"Ridership blew us away," said Jean Leier, spokeswoman for Charlotte Area Transit Systems. "We expected 100,000 (rides) in the first year because it’s just a 2-mile line. We actually ended the year with 263,967."
The track was built over an old railway line and will be supplemented next year by a light-rail system.
Light rail, which generally is faster and has fewer stops, will cost an additional $427 million, with the city paying about one-fourth, Leier said.
Like Charlotte, Tampa has found that ridership on both trolleys and buses has gone up.
"There’s no relation between the two," said Ed Crawford, the government-affairs officer for Tampa’s transit authority.
"There is a stigma about buses: ‘I’ll never be caught dead on the bus.’ "
The streetcar line was intended for tourists and has largely stayed that way, he said. It takes about 22 minutes to get from the city’s convention center to a shopping area.
And it has helped spur development. Since it went into operation in October 2002, 6,000 new apartments have been added along the track.
The federal government paid nearly $50 million of the $63 million cost, with local money and an endowment picking up the rest. Daily $4 rider passes are helping with operating costs, but someday taxpayers might have to chip in.
"The mayor pledged that they wouldn’t get into the taxpayer pocket for 10 years," Crawford said. "We’re on track to do that. I don’t know if we’ll do it beyond that."
Funding is one of the questions raised about a streetcar system in Columbus.
Coleman is forming a group of business and government officials that is expected to be announced in the next two weeks, said Mike Brown, Coleman’s spokesman.
The group will study three main questions: Is a streetcar system a good idea? Is it affordable? And will it fuel economic development? The group is expected to report by the end of the year, Brown said.
On Thursday, Coleman said a streetcar system must be affordable to build and operate without a citywide tax increase.
"Anytime we have pursued transit initiatives in Columbus, that always ends up being the biggest question," said Bob Lawler, director of transportation for the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. "How do we finance it?"
The Central Ohio Transit Authority says it favors the mayor’s plan to study a rail streetcar system for Downtown. But William Lhota, COTA’s president and chief executive officer, stressed that the city’s initiative has nothing to do with COTA’s plans to seek a sales-tax levy in November.
COTA will be part of the group studying the feasibility of the streetcar concept, but it is unclear what the transit authority’s role will be.
COTA already is studying whether to add streetcars, rapid transit or light rail to its bus service. Any of those systems could be used on a route that stretches north about 13 miles from Downtown.
Some of the routes COTA is studying would travel N. High Street between the Ohio State University campus and Downtown, part of the alignment that is talked about in the city’s streetcar proposal.
"I don’t see it as a problem," Lhota said. "They have a Downtown circulator concept. We are developing a comprehensive plan for all of central Ohio."
Lhota said it would be important to determine how the two systems would interact.
COTA ran a Downtown shuttle service from 1995 to 2004. Known as the Downtown Link, the shuttle service operated from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays and ferried passengers between the Brewery District and the Short North for 25 cents per ride.
The service provided about 108,000 rides in 2003. Because of budget constraints, the service was cut because it duplicated some of the service COTA already provided on the High Street corridor, Lhota said.
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didnt columbus used to have trolleys on high street?
