Fresno, CA — Streetcar Re-Start

Rail Transit Online, December 2007

Planning for a two-mile (3.2 km) downtown circulator streetcar will apparently continue after the Fresno city council failed to sustain an earlier vote stopping the project.  The streetcar is part of Mayor Alan Autry's master plan for the central city area.  Autry negotiated a deal with the regional Council of Fresno County Governments to spend $60,000 in sales tax revenue on a streetcar study.  But when he presented the scheme to the council on Oct. 23, lawmakers voted 4-3 to drop the project.  Those in the majority claimed a streetcar would be too expensive and that improved bus service is all that’s needed.  The mayor subsequently vetoed the council’s action, in effect allowing the study to continue.  The measure was brought back before the council on Nov. 27 in an effort to override the veto and finally kill the study.  Streetcar opponents needed five votes but could only muster four; the veto was sustained and the study will proceed barring last-minute political interference.