US streetcar boom takes off in 2014
Three other American cities in addition to DC will open new streetcar lines this year, and at least 12 more cities are expected to advance construction on lines that will open later.
Streetcar undergoing on-street testing in Tucson, Arizona. Photo from the City of Tucson.
The four lines expected to open in 2014 are in DC, Tucson, Seattle, and Atlanta. Tucson’s Sun Link streetcar will be the first modern rail transit to open in that city. Seattle’s First Hill streetcar will run next to a cycletrack for much of its length, in an impressive multimodal layout.
Atlanta’s downtown streetcar will be the first modern streetcar to open in the US that doesn’t use the ubiquitous 66’ long streetcar model first popularized in Portland. Instead, Atlanta will use a 79’ long tram similar to the light rail cars in Norfolk.
North of the border, Toronto will shortly begin to use new 99’ long trams on its expansive streetcar network, the largest in North America.
Even more cities will begin construction or continue construction on new lines that won’t open until 2015 or later. They include Charlotte, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Kansas City, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Tempe, San Antonio, and Saint Louis.
Many other cities, including Arlington, have streetcars that aren’t expected to begin construction yet, but aren’t far behind.
Cross-posted at BeyondDC.