Posted on 08/04/2010 10:29:07 AM PDT by Willie Green
The Loop Trolley project is moving forward again, thanks to a nearly $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The $24.99 million grant, which was announced in July, is funded by the Urban Circulator Program, which provides federal funding to projects intended to increase public transportation in cities.
“This is just a huge thing for all of St. Louis, to get that kind of support from the federal government,” said Joe Edwards, president of the Loop Trolley Company, which is planning and raising money for the project. “It’s a real testament to how far along this project has come and how much the city supports it.”
The grant makes a sizeable dent in the money needed to bring the project to fruition. Edwards said that the project is estimated to cost around $44 million, and that after factoring in the grant and tax money from various local districts, the Loop Trolley Company would likely have between $6 million and $8 million to raise through local philanthropists and corporate donations.
“We still have a lot of work to do to raise money,” Edwards said. “But this grant is a wonderful signal to the community” that this project will happen. Edwards has long argued that the project would increase neighborhood stability along Delmar, and would help create an urban corridor between the Loop and the Central West End.
Construction of the trolley line ultimately depends on how the fundraising project goes, but Edwards said that tentative plans call for a groundbreaking in late 2011 and for the trolley to be open to the public in 2012.
“My hope is that two years from now it will be up and running in mid-summer 2012,” he said, adding that his personal goal is a bit loftier than that of the Loop Trolley Company and its planning partners, Citizens for Modern Transit and the East-West Gateway Council of Governments.
Plans for the trolley call for nine stops along the 2.2-mile track, which would run from the lion gates at the west end of the Delmar Loop, east along Delmar to DeBaliviere, where it would head south to the Missouri History Museum.
Along the way, the trolley would connect with both the Forest Park and Delmar MetroLink stations; other stops would include the History Museum, Crossroads College Preparatory School, The Pageant, the Tivoli Theater, Market in the Loop and Trinity Avenue.
The trolley would run on two sets of parallel tracks in the driving lanes along Delmar between the lion gates and the Delmar MetroLink station, where it would switch to a single track for much of the remainder of the route. Double tracks would return at Pershing on DeBaliviere and one track would run around the History Museum.
For the most part, overhead wires would power the trolleys, although hybrid engines would power the vintage-looking vehicles around corners. Edwards said that while the initial cost for the hybrid vehicles is higher than simply renovating older trolley cars, the project would save money on installing the poles and wires required to go around corners. Additionally, it would remove the need for overhead wires around the History Museum.
Edwards said that only five cities were chosen to receive the urban circulator funds and that this was the only St. Louis project competing for the grant. While some argue that the money would better be spent on Metro or even non-transit-related efforts, Edwards stressed that the Urban Circulator grants were earmarked for local transit projects, and that Metro wasn’t seeking that source of funding.
He added that he felt the collaboration between the cities of St. Louis and University City, St. Louis County, U.S. Congressmen Russ Carnahan and Lacy Clay and city aldermen Lyda Krewson and Frank Williamson was key in securing the funding.
“It’s amazing that everyone came together on this,” he said.
Now it makes sense. I have never understood the whole fascination with trains... It's a fetish kind of thing...
Such a terrific attraction, and yet it can’t or won’t pay its own way.
Instead Obama has spent 25 million dollars of taxpayer money on some stupid-ass trams.
How long will it take them to make this unsafe??
Buying votes the CHICAGO way!
So about $25 mil / mile (before overruns)?
What a steal. Pun intended.
What a joke. First, the Federal Government should not be funding these types of loacl projects. Second, most healthy people ought to be able to walk the 2.2 miles, and those that can't should take a taxi-cab cab or pedi-cab. Think of it this way: $44.4 million is approximately 4.4 million taxi rides in the 2.2 mile track. Better yet $44 million should buy approximately 22 million bicycles that could be rented out at a nominal fee for use along the track.
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