GETTING THERE: Some city authorities still desire streetcars

The last electric streetcar clacked and clanged its way down a Colorado Springs street in 1932. There are some folks who would like to hear that unique sound once again reverberate off downtown buildings - and they plan to do something about it.

A coalition that includes the Downtown Partnership, the Downtown Development Authority, the city's Mountain Metropolitan Transit and Colorado College plan to seek bids in the next few weeks for a study on the feasibility of constructing a streetcar line.

The study - to be funded by private donations and matching federal money - could be done as soon as next spring, said Rich Guy, a board member of the Downtown Development Authority and owner of Computer Resources Inc. and property on south Tejon Street.

Guy said the study will look at the cost, challenges, benefits and possible funding sources for an electric streetcar line running from the Park-n-Ride at South Tejon and Interstate 25 north to the campus of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, with the streetcars running through downtown.

Guy said people pursuing the idea of streetcar service have different motivations: Some like the idea of a "green" transit alternative. Others think it could buttress the tourism industry. Some are enamored with the romantic connotations of streetcars. And many, like Guy, think streetcars could be a vehicle to further economic redevelopment downtown.

There are lots of challenges - especially in the current economic climate - but there are examples where streetcars have done exactly that.

Consultants and others who have helped build streetcar systems came to Colorado College on Wednesday for a conference about applying early 20th century technology in the 21st.

San Francisco, of course, never killed off its streetcars, as many cities did in favor of the automobile. Today, those streetcars remain an indelible part of the city's mosaic.

Other cities have more recently constructed their own systems - including Portland, Little Rock, Ark., and even tiny Kenosha, Wis.
The consultants said Portland's system has been strikingly successful in spurring economic development in the blocks surrounding the tracks. The first phase of streetcar service, completed in 2001, helped spur $3.5 billion in new development, including 10,000 new housing units and 5.5 million square feet of retail and commercial development.

That northwest city has added lines since and has seen up to $8 billion in economic development in the areas served by streetcars, said Guy, who has visited the city and talked with its largest developers.

Kenosha, with a population of about 90,000 people, has seen 500 new housing units and $150 million in economic development since it built a 1.7 mile streetcar loop that connects regional passenger rail, the downtown and a local transit center.

Specific costs here aren't known yet, but the cost for a single track of rail over one mile has ranged from $8 million in Little Rock to $10 million in Portland.

Guy thinks the potential payoff - he estimates a minimum of $50 million to $150 million in economic development - is worth that kind of investment.

"This is not something that happens overnight," he said. "It starts as somebody's dream, but dreams to do turn into fruition. There's every reason to think it could change Colorado Springs in a big way."

Tell me your commuter tales. 636-0197 or bill.mckeown@gazette.com