Lancaster — Streetcar Company

Rail Transit Online, October 2007

A group of local transportation activists has formed the nonprofit Lancaster Streetcar Co. to determine how to fund, build and operate a 2.6-mi. (4.2 km) downtown trolley loop.  The company was formed after the Federal Transit Administration last May rejected the city’s application for 80-percent federal funding from the Small Starts program.  The project would cost an estimated $14.1 million and would have to be self-sustaining.  “We are not going to be subsidized by Red Rose Transit Authority (RRTA),” streetcar company board member Jack Howell told the Sunday News.  However, RRTA would be the grantee for any federal and state capital funding, said Howell, who added that private-sector money would also be sought.  “It's past the theoretical stage, it's conceptual, based on what's happening in other cities,” Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray told the Sunday News.  Preliminary plans call for streetcars to operate every 10-min. on a north-south loop along Queen and Prince streets from the Amtrak station to South Queen and Vine streets.