Charlotte opens its first streetcar service in 77 years
By Greg Lacour
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) - Charlotte, one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. South, launched its first streetcar service in 77 years on Tuesday, joining a host of American cities that hope to boost economic growth with new versions of an old mode of public transit.
Riders began using Charlotte’s CityLYNX Gold Line at 1 p.m., a few hours after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the North Carolina city’s downtown transit center.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, a former Charlotte mayor, said he expects business owners and developers to invest along the route.
“This is not a streetcar to nowhere,” Foxx said. “It is the beginning of a resurgence.”
Charlotte had an electric streetcar system from 1891 to 1938, and many other American cities stopped service in the automobile-dominated post-World War Two era.
Over the last 15 years, fixed-rail urban streetcars have made a comeback in cities like Portland, Oregon, which began a streetcar service in 2001; Seattle, in 2007; Atlanta, in 2014; and Dallas, which opened a line in April.
Transit planners say streetcars not only spur business growth but help reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.
The Gold Line runs for 1-1/2 miles through downtown Charlotte, from the transit center to Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center, one of the city’s two major hospitals. Rides are free. The project cost $37 million, $25 million of it from a federal transit grant.
City leaders and residents have clashed over the streetcar project since it was first proposed in 2002. Some City Council members have voted against funding the project over the years because they doubted economic growth projections and feared it would necessitate an increase in the property tax rate.
Its supporters, including Mayor Dan Clodfelter and City Manager Ron Carlee, argue that the Gold Line is a critical economic development tool that can revitalize long-impoverished areas.
Charlotte’s LYNX Blue Line, a 10-mile light rail line that began service in 2007, has touched off a building boom along a former industrial corridor south of downtown.
The city plans next to extend the streetcar line an additional 2-1/2 miles to the east and west. Construction is expected to begin next year and the extension to open in 2019.
City officials want to eventually expand the Gold Line to 10 miles at an estimated cost of at least $500 million. It would link the city center to poor and largely minority neighborhoods in east and west Charlotte.
(Editing by Frank McGurty and Eric Beech)
