[PRCo] Re: Bob O'Connor's Streetcar

[James B. Holland]

Hi Matt!


Don't remember seeing it here but saw the article  (New__Colonist??)  
which elaborated on the proposal and this one suggested a line into the 
North side.       Naysayers quip that buses are cheaper to operate so 
there will be hurdles to jump!




I am somewhat ambivalent to negative on this business.       Pgh.  
*had*  a trolleycar system in the areas being proposed below.       
Politics hated the trolleycars then, now politics loves the trolleycar, 
and some time in the future politics will hate the trolleycar again.

All this building, then ripping out, then building, then ripping out 
again  --  where does it end??       *If*  it was viable in the past to 
have trolleycars, then why not improve on what was there, streamline, 
and continue on rather than this on and off approach.       Please note 
that I am Not At All Suggesting that the whole of PRCo should have been 
kept, although I would like that as a railfan.       But certainly if 
the congested corridors of Fifth and Forbes are now being considered, 
then this should have been a consideration when PRCo was still operating.

The article also smacks of  *Me-Too-Ism*  and keeping up with the 
Jones'.       People who talk about great cities having great transit 
systems usually don't ride the same  --  it's all talk for politcal gain!

There Needs to be a Very Large Master Plan where The Future Builds on 
the Present, not destroys the present.       Toronto might be an 
excellent example along these lines  --  certainly Far More Cosmopolitan 
than Pgh. and yet they have retained not a few trolleycar lines and Made 
Them Work and Nicely So  --  they have kept a large part of their 
trolleycar system and maintained it and brought it into the present.


Jim



Matt Barry wrote:

> Did the group already discuss this? Was I asleep on the car stop bench 
> at the time?
> From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
>
>
> O'Connor gets behind streetcar idea
>
> Tuesday, March 01, 2005
>
> By Timothy McNulty, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
>
> Mayoral hopeful Bob O'Connor is unveiling his first major economic 
> development proposal of the young political season, saying he favors 
> building a new streetcar line connecting Downtown and Oakland.
>
> O'Connor said the streetcars would promote development, especially in 
> the Hill District and other neighborhoods along the transit line, spur 
> housing Downtown and make the city more attractive to college students 
> and other young people.
>
> The plans are preliminary, but O'Connor said he has met with officials 
> from HDR Inc., a nationwide engineering firm with offices Downtown, to 
> go over general proposals. Neither O'Connor nor an HDR official would 
> put a firm price tag on the plans, but O'Connor estimated the cost at 
> $70 million, which he said could come largely from private investors 
> and federal transportation funds.
>
> "Quality of life is the most powerful economic strategy," the 
> Democratic candidate said yesterday, after a briefing on the streetcar 
> plans. "This adds to quality of life and that's why it really caught 
> my eye, especially as we're trying to retain young people and all 
> these people going to our universities."
>
> O'Connor -- who is facing county Prothonotary Michael Lamb and city 
> Councilman William Peduto in the May 17 Democratic primary -- has been 
> talking about the streetcar proposal lately in meetings with 
> neighborhood groups and party officials.
>
> Until now, promoting public transit has been a major part of only 
> Peduto's campaign: Peduto has long opposed construction of the 
> Mon-Fayette Expressway extension through the city and Allegheny 
> County, saying the money should be spent on other transit needs instead.
>
> O'Connor favors the $2 billion expansion of the toll road while Lamb 
> has said he supports the project generally, but not links into city 
> neighborhoods.
>
> Peduto said there is not enough federal transportation funding 
> available to Western Pennsylvania to support the Mon-Fayette project 
> and a city streetcar line simultaneously.
>
> "This and other transit ideas will never happen as long as we have 
> elected officials who support big-ticket items like the Mon-Fayette 
> Expressway," he said. "To make streetcars or light rail a reality, it 
> must be the next mayor's first priority."
>
> Lamb said a Downtown-Oakland link should be a priority for the next 
> mayor, as long as the city worked with affected neighborhoods on the plan.
>
> "Great cities have great transit. Pittsburgh is a great city and our 
> goal should be to have a world-class transit system," he said in a 
> statement.
>
> The streetcars O'Connor is studying are different from the Light Rail 
> Transit cars already connecting Downtown with the city's southern 
> neighborhoods. They are smaller and their tracks are built into 
> existing streets, sharing the roads with regular auto traffic.
>
> The electric-powered trolleys are typically 8 feet wide -- a couple of 
> feet narrower than street lanes -- with tracks dug 12 inches into the 
> street surface, which does not disturb sewer lines or other utilities 
> during construction. Construction can be completed in three to four 
> weeks per city block.
>
> The streetcars are meant to supplement the LRT and bus routes that 
> bring visitors to the city from outlying suburbs, acting as people 
> "circulators" among city neighborhoods, said Edward E. Reese, a senior 
> vice president at HDR.
>
> They have been most successful in Portland, Ore., where a 
> city-affiliated nonprofit group opened a streetcar line in 2001 after 
> two years of construction.
>
> O'Connor was aware that past plans to build a "spine line" between 
> Oakland and Downtown, most recently in the early 1990s, had failed, 
> and said he plans to meet with the Port Authority and with Allegheny 
> County Chief Executive Dan Onorato to discuss the idea.
>
> O'Connor said he envisioned one end of the streetcar line at the 
> Carnegie Mellon University campus, with links to and from Downtown via 
> Fifth and Forbes avenues. Links could also be built through the Strip 
> District, he said.
>
> It is roughly 3.75 miles from Carnegie Mellon to Downtown and O'Connor 
> and Reed said the lines could be built at $11 million per mile. A 
> study HDR performed last year on a 14-mile streetcar system proposed 
> for Atlanta estimated construction costs of up to $335 million, with 
> $23 million in annual operating costs.
>
> There is no way the cash-strapped city could pay for the project, in 
> the short term at least: It has no money to pay for regular capital 
> improvements this year and its poor credit rating is barring it from 
> borrowing money until next year at the earliest.
>
> Funding could be provided by developers owning land along the new 
> transit line, perhaps through a self-imposed "improvement district" tax.
>
> "You'd have to talk to the community. If this is the thing we want -- 
> between the hospitals, the universities and Downtown businesses -- at 
> $11 million a mile you could do the whole thing for $60 or $70 
> million," O'Connor said.