Des Moines, IA — Downtown Streetcar Proposal Expanded 

Rail Transit Online, June 2009

City political and business leaders will be holding meetings to decide if a $100-million downtown streetcar is feasible, after the consultant hired to develop the scheme suggested expanding the original proposal from approximately two or three miles (3.2 km-4.8 km) to about four miles (6.4.km). Charlie Hales of HDR Engineering said the plan should be broadened to take advantage of the next six-year transportation funding bill that will probably include more money for streetcar projects.

"We'll have a meeting now where we finalize all the information we received from HDR, and then we will start looking at the financial options," Mary Lawyer, president of the Downtown Community Alliance, told The Des Moines Register. "We will then decide if we are in a position to go after those new federal dollars."

The alliance helped fund the HDR study, which recommended using modern cars instead of heritage replicas.

The proposed route would head east on Walnut Street from 15th Street to Fifth Avenue, then turn onto Court Avenue and cross the Des Moines River to East Sixth Street. It would continue north for three blocks before turning west on Grand Avenue and back to 15th Street. Spurs could also be built to serve areas south of downtown.