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2015 APTA-TRB LIGHT RAIL & STREETCAR CONFERENCE

A Streetcar Named Resurgence: Streetcars Are Reclaiming Their Public Transit Niche

Streetcars—often the purview of cities and private developers—are returning to their historic roles as efficient, environmentally friendly public transit modes. Passenger Transport asked industry leaders to explain how by responding to this question:

Public transportation leaders and urban planners say that streetcars are making a resurgence in the U.S. for a variety of reasons, including promoting tourism and economic development, and so often are run by city governments, not public transit agencies. Please share some practical strategies for better integrating streetcar development and operations with ­public transit systems.

Justin T. Augustine
Chief Executive Officer
New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA)

The Loyola Avenue Streetcar expansion that opened in January 2013 was a project funded by a TIGER grant at a total cost of $60 million. The impact of that line (built in a corridor that was showing signs of blight and was slow to recover post-Katrina), was unprecedented with a return on that federal investment of $2.7 billion of ­private investment in the neighborhoods surrounding the expansion. Working with the community, the RTA has been able to spur economic growth, revitalize historic neighborhoods and encourage future growth in the community. The streetcar network is the spine of the transit system. Rail expansions are environmentally friendly and provide access, equity and sustainability.

In New Orleans we are uniquely positioned not only to continue to expand rail across the region, but to be caretakers of a piece of American ­history still in transit service to the people of the community.

Paul P. Skoutelas
Senior Vice President, National Director Transit and Rail
WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff

Well-Defined Partnerships. Streetcars are enjoying a renaissance across the country as a means of public transport and, increasingly, as a key strategy to boost local economic development opportunities. Many of these new investments are initiated and planned outside the traditional public transit agency structure, often by cities or private development groups. This should be viewed as a positive and welcomed trend in that it brings other interests and potential new financial resources to the goal of expanding and improving transit.

However, when planning and implementation are developed outside the public transit organization, there needs to be a well-defined partnership between the project sponsor and the transit agency charged with the broader responsibilities operating the area-wide transit system.

Such effective partnerships will foster a closer working relationship between the sponsor and the agency, greatly increasing the likelihood of a successful investment. So how best do we work together to achieve a successful streetcar operation while benefiting the transit system?

A core strategy is to develop a formal working agreement between the streetcar sponsor and the agency to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each party. The agreement should provide for the early and active participation of the transit agency from planning, design and construction through to the ongoing operation and maintenance, irrespective of which party will operate the service.

The transit agency is more likely to possess the requisite professional expertise to support streetcar implementation: planning, marketing, testing, commissioning and operating and maintaining the new streetcar line. While the transit agency may not possess all the expertise in-house, it is most likely equipped with the management capabilities to oversee these essential professional services from third-party providers.

A well-planned, integrated approach will result in coordinated route planning, fare policy integration and marketing cohesion between the streetcar operation and the transit provider. Fully integrating the new streetcar services with the broader transit system will go a long way to building ridership, delivering a successful service and expanding travel choices for riders.

Another key requirement that needs to be addressed in the partnership is funding for the project’s initial capital costs and, critically, for ongoing operations and maintenance. Giving appropriate thought and provision for these financial requirements will ensure a sustainable plan going forward while adding an exciting new mode to the public transit network.

Katharine Eagan
Chief Executive Officer
Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART)
Tampa

Part of the Puzzle. Streetcars have returned to our streets, not as a novelty, but as a necessary piece of the greater transportation puzzle. We have realized that building more roads is not the only answer to address transportation needs. Streetcars, virtually eliminated by 1960 in this country, have returned.

Legacy systems (Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco) have reinvented themselves and new systems have sprung up to replace what disappeared 50 or more years ago (Dallas, Los Angeles, Tampa). Whether the new streetcars are refurbished originals, replica cars of times past or modern light rail vehicles with all of the bells and whistles, streetcars have returned to their niche—environmentally friendly people movers with significant capacity for now and beyond.

Streetcars, powered by electricity, either by overhead wire or battery, are non-polluting and as environmentally friendly as you can get. Each streetcar in service can eliminate one or more buses and 50 or more automobiles. As they are quiet and have no exhaust or other emissions, streetcars are ideal in the urban environment. They are also adaptable for different boarding and platform configurations.

Tampa has low level platforms with traditional boarding but accommodates wheelchair passengers with special “high block” boarding. Dallas has added a low floor section to its cars to add capacity as well as to make the cars more accessible. Los Angeles has a third variant—high-level boarding that’s easily accessible with high capacity.

Tampa’s streetcar, built as both an economic engine and a transportation project, has not only revitalized Ybor City, but has also spurred the construction of the Channelside District, generating many millions of dollars in capital investment for housing, commerce and tourism. Without the streetcar, this would not have happened.

And what is the road ahead? For Tampa, an extension to Tampa International Airport has been proposed, as well as an extension to our Marion Transit Center. Either would provide the connectivity that our streetcar currently lacks—the first with a national and international connection, the second across our entire region.

Tampa and other streetcar systems are looking to expand their services to new markets, bring clean, reliable, environmentally responsible transportation to new places, connect the dots and do what they do best—people moving people.

Dwight Ferrell
General Manager/CEO
Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA)/Metro
Cincinnati

Leverage Strengths. All transit is an economic development tool: Transit supports the movement of people, employment, shopping and other necessary resources that generate economic growth. Cities grew around transit lines, with the traditional hub-and-spoke model efficiently supplying workers and consumers to center city businesses.

Historically, rail transit—including streetcars—has attracted greater infrastructure investment along the alignment than bus routes. Permanent public investment catalyzes private investment.

A perfect example is the Over the Rhine (OTR) district just north of the city’s central business district. OTR had fallen into severe neglect. The city’s strategy was to reinvent OTR, and city leaders in the mid-2000s saw a modern streetcar as a critical component in the renaissance. Federal and local funding was secured, construction is now almost completed and the Cincinnati Streetcar is preparing for a grand opening in ­September 2016.

A boon in residential and small business growth has occurred in OTR in the past five years in anticipation of the streetcar. Millennials and empty-nesters are rehabbing historic houses; breweries, boutiques and restaurants are flourishing. People are willing to invest because of the tracks in the street, knowing that the streetcar connection is a permanent asset in their newly revitalized community.

The city and the SORTA have forged a true partnership on this project. The Cincinnati Streetcar is owned and funded by the city as an economic driver. Early in the process, SORTA executed an intergovernmental agreement with the city to serve as the administrator of the project’s federal funds, using our transit expertise to ensure that the project would meet all federal requirements.

A later agreement stipulates that SORTA will manage the streetcar’s operations on behalf of the city, which allows us to integrate more closely with current bus service to maximize shared assets like ticket vending machines and communications systems. SORTA, in turn, retained Transdev to handle the system’s daily operations and maintenance, since the agency does not currently operate rail transit.

It’s all about leveraging our strengths: the city as a developer, SORTA as a transit authority and Transdev as the operator to run the system safely and efficiently.

David Vozzolo
Streetcar Program Director
HDR

Mobility Benefits. It is frustrating that streetcar advocates and doubters often overlook the significant mobility benefits of U.S. modern streetcar systems and instead rely on economic development as the sole or primary justification for the investment.

The Community Streetcar ­Coalition recently released “The Mobility Benefits of the Streetcar” addressing this issue. Modern streetcars serve as urban circulators connecting downtown with surrounding neighborhoods and provide significant service integration with regional system bus and rail transit stations/stops. Streetcars can effectively serve the first/last mile connection with major rail and bus transit hubs.

Existing streetcar systems provide great examples. Portland Streetcar is operated by TriMet staff and coordinates with transit operations, including joint use of stops and transfers. Seattle Streetcar serves Link Light Rail and Metro at major intermodal hubs and is planned as a substitute for electric bus services through downtown. Salt Lake City Sugar House Streetcar, operated by UTA, is integrated with three light rail lines and a number of UTA bus routes. Tucson Sun Link is integrated with the bus system at the downtown hub and supports the University of Arizona. Charlotte Streetcar unifies two of the CATS highest-ridership bus routes, adding capacity for future ridership growth in the corridor.

Streetcar systems opening within the next couple of years will be increasingly integrated with existing transit system networks. Detroit M-1 Rail will serve more than 6,000 daily riders using a coordinated fare system with local and regional transit providers. Kansas City Streetcar is coordinated with regional bus and BRT routes and serves Union Station. Cincinnati Streetcar is in a close partnership with SORTA, the regional bus system operator. Fort Lauderdale Wave Streetcar will directly serve the major downtown bus transit hub and the All Aboard Florida intercity rail station, circulating transit riders throughout downtown.

Practical strategies to integrate streetcar development and operations with the rest of the transit system include early coordination of route and station planning, special focus on serving key local and regional transit hubs, partnership on fare structure and collection, integrated operations scheduling and supervision and joint safety and security training and incident management.

Paul D. Elman
Regional Transit Director
Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.

Governance Structure. With the desire to promote economic investment in urban, mixed-use developments and attract tourism and knowledge-class millennials, many communities have seen non-traditional entities such as city governments, private development/business groups and universities become the champions (and in some cases, sponsors and implementers) of modern streetcar systems in the U.S.

As these entities face significant challenges of planning, designing and constructing streetcar systems in urban environments, they often face even larger hurdles in governance, operations and maintenance. Many city government DOTs often have experience building, operating and maintaining roads, bridges, utilities and traffic signal systems (particularly relevant for streetcar) but often lack experience or technical capacity to construct transit facilities or run transit operations or maintenance.

One benefit of having city governments or private business entities (particularly if they are landowners/developers) implement these projects is that it allows streetcar alignments and stops to be integrated in local land-use planning, which may already be under their purview. Conversely, transit agencies do not directly control local land use but often have board representatives from the local jurisdictions that do.

The local or regional transit agency may be currently operating bus or heavy or light rail systems, focusing on mobility in transporting people quickly and efficiently while operating and maintaining the system cost-effectively. The transit agency interfaces with local jurisdictions that can plan transit-oriented land uses to reap the investment’s benefits. Conversely, the champions of streetcar systems often focus primarily on the economic development benefits, with operations, maintenance and travel time savings considerations sometimes being secondary, particularly in mixed-flow conditions where dedicated lanes are not feasible.

Regardless of the type of project sponsor, it is crucial during planning and prior to design and construction to have established a governance structure and ideally identify the streetcar operator early in the process. This will help define the transit provider’s operations and maintenance requirements into the system prior to implementation.

A critical best practice is to establish key parameters for vehicle characteristics, storage/maintenance requirements and provisions for safety and security certification for startup and testing, which can allow for conflicts and long-term operations and maintenance challenges to be minimized or avoided.

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