Minneapolis — Streetcar Planning Grant Sought

Rail Transit Online, July 2010

Minneapolis has filed a grant application with the FTA to fund an alternatives analysis that would include new streetcar lines along parts of Nicollet and Central avenues in the downtown area. The move follows an initial feasibility study commissioned by the city council in 2006, which demonstrated that many downtown avenues could accommodate streetcars.

A long-range transportation plan approved by the council last April called for the development of six streetcar lines along specific routes, five of which would replace existing bus services. "Minneapolis is a great city that grew up along streetcar lines, and we believe its future is there as well," Mayor R.T. Rybak, a streetcar booster, told the Star Tribune.

Nicollet and Central were selected for the latest study because they offer ridership and redevelopment potential. The city's once vast trolley system was scrapped in 1954.