The Interurban Transit Partnership, which provides local bus transit
service in the Grand Rapids area, has issued a Request for Proposals seeking
a consultant to conduct a feasibility study on a downtown streetcar
circulator system. The streetcar idea came out of the GT2 (Great Transit,
Grand Tomorrows) Study, begun in 2002, which evaluated future transit needs
for the metro area using the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts
program criteria. The primary line-haul transit mode will be a bus rapid
transit project on the Division Avenue corridor. The core of the streetcar
network would be approximately 2.4 mi. (3.9 km) in length connecting the
Central Station and Arena area with Monroe North. However, the exact route
has not been selected. Five possible extensions have also been identified,
three of which would total about 3.6 mi. (5.8 km); the distances of the
other two segments are undetermined.
