[PRCo]

[Fred Schneider]

One of you asked about the Lancaster trolley pipe dreams ... here is  
an add on to the craziness!   If one line is crazy, and too expensive  
to fund, then let's add something dumb too it.   Let's connect the  
ball stadium on Prince Street with Long's Park.   Well, what's  
significant about Long's Park?   It's right next to the most  
significant traffic draw in the county ... the Park City Mall ... the  
mall has five anchor stores and over 100 smaller stores.   That is  
where downtown went in the 1970s.

Why would I call this crazy?   Is Fred smoking something?   It's  
crazy ecause the trolley would end in a park and now at the shopping  
mall.   A six lane expressway separates the park from the mall  
parking lot!   Is it likely to believe anyone is going to use a  
trolley from downtown and then walk a half mile through a pedestrial  
tunnel (potentially filled with muggers) and across a circumferential  
road that people fly around at 50 mph and then across a parking lot  
to go shopping?   Hell no, they'll drive from town, or they'll take  
the bus that goes into the other side of the mall and pulls up right  
to the door of the shopping center.

It will be analogues  to serving South Hills Village Mall from the  
Drake car stop at the bottom of the hill, the way it was before the  
line was extended up the hill.

By the way, the loop past the Central Market (shown in the next  
copied from the newspaper) means the cars will have to go up a short  
grade on Vine Street of perhaps 4 to 5 percent for a half block, then  
make a left turn onto Queen Street and go up about a 6 percent grade  
to King Street for about a block, then circle around the Civil War  
Monument.   There are two traffic lanes around it now.   I can just  
see the confusion if we try to snake an articulated car around it in  
one of those lanes.

In my opinion, Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray and New Orleans Mayor Ray  
Nagin have a lot in common in the intelligence department.
City desires streetcar line to Long's Park
Tracks eyed downtown and beyond. Grants sought.

By BERNARD HARRIS
Lancaster New Era

Published: Jan 23, 2007 10:24 AM EST

LANCASTER - Call it back to Lancaster’s future.

Lancaster City officials are looking to their 19th century past to  
address transportation needs for the 21st century.

Within the next three to four months, the city will apply for federal  
and state funds to construct a seven-mile streetcar line that would  
include a downtown loop and a leg northwest to Long’s Park.

Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray believes the proposed $22.5 million  
streetcar line will help relieve downtown traffic congestion, fuel  
existing development in the city center and play an integral role in  
the redevelopment of the open industrial land vacated by Armstrong  
World Industries.

“It has definite advantages, if we can figure out the funding,” Gray  
said.

“It has the ability to shrink the city and make the city more  
walkable, so people won’t need a car to get around,” the mayor said.

Streetcar plans were recently put on the fast track. Planners learned  
last month that Lancaster has a good chance of receiving as much as  
80 percent of the funding from a Federal Transit Administration  
program, but the city must act fast.

Gary Landrio, vice president of rail operations of Warren, Pa.-based  
Stone Consulting, said Thursday the city will have its best chance of  
funding if it applies by March.

Under an $18,000 contract with the city, Landrio is preparing  
Lancaster’s application for the federal “Very Small Starts” program.  
The streamlined program is designed for small- to medium-sized cities  
to develop rail systems, he said.

Landrio is also developing program applications for Kenosha, Wis.,  
and Savannah, Ga.

Gray said the city is seeking the remaining funds for the system,  
about $5.6 million, from the state and local private sources.

Jack Howell, president of the city revitalization group The Lancaster  
Campaign, said a request for the streetcar funds has already been  
inserted in Gov. Ed Rendell’s capital budget.

A ridership survey by a steering committee of the Lancaster  
Alliance’s Economic Development Action Group will soon begin to  
determine if people would actually ride the streetcars. Data from the  
survey will be used for the grant application.

The proposal being submitted to the Federal Transit Administration is  
significantly larger than a downtown “circulator” route studied last  
year by the Red Rose Transit Authority.

That line — now with the spur to Long’s Park — would run north-south  
along Queen and Prince streets, from the city Amtrak station to  
Southern Market Center, at South Queen and Vine streets.

The Long’s Park leg of the line — originally conceived as a later  
phase — was added to qualify the project for the federal funding.

The federal transit program requires the per-track-mile cost to be  
less than $3 million, Landrio said.

The start-up cost of the downtown circulator streetcar line —  
projected at $14 million in the earlier study — would exceed the per- 
mile limit.

By enlarging the project and pushing the line to Long’s Park, the per- 
mile cost for the entire line drops significantly. That is because  
much of the land where the western leg of the line would be  
constructed is open.

Armstrong World Industries sold the 46 acres of land last year to the  
Economic Development Company of Lancaster County, which will  
redevelop it for Franklin & Marshall College and Lancaster General  
Hospital.

The proposed streetcar line would run from the north edge of Clipper  
Magazine Stadium, northwest along the existing railroad tracks, and  
curve to the southwest after passing behind the R.R. Donnelley  
facility. The terminus would be along Harrisburg Avenue at Long’s Park.

Gray said he would like to see the western line start downtown and  
travel the length of the city’s northwest linear park — a former  
railroad bed — before reaching the railroad tracks to the west of the  
stadium.

The exact route, along with other details, such as stops and the cost  
to ride the streetcars, will be determined as the plans are further  
developed, Landrio said.

The ridership survey will attempt to determine whether people would  
actually ride the streetcars.

Although streetcars may ultimately carry travelers between the  
downtown convention center that is now under construction and the  
train station, Howell is adamant that the streetcar line is not  
intended for them. It will be built for use by local residents, he said.

Most people surveyed will not be familiar with local streetcars. It  
has been more than a half-century since streetcars traveled through  
Lancaster.

The aged electric cars were replaced by buses, and the tracks were  
ripped up.

Reintroduced streetcars would be somewhat different, Howell said.  
Although the technology is basically the same, the modern versions  
are heated, air-conditioned, quieter and faster.

They would travel in the driving lanes but at nearly the posted 25  
mph speed limit of traffic.0

<p><LI> CONTACT US: bharris at LNPnews.com or 481-6022