Oakland — Trolley Proposal
Rail Transit Online, January 2005
A $300,000 study into a proposed circulator linking
downtown Oakland with the Jack London Square restaurant and entertainment
district has concluded that a streetcar loop was the best mode. The
state-funded analysis, conducted by BART beginning in 2001, was presented to
the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency on Dec. 7. Two other
alternatives were discarded as too expensive: a new subway station near
Fourth Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way and an underground rail shuttle
from the 12th Street BART station. Two potential streetcar routes were
found to be feasible, a 1.5-mi. (2.41 km), 12-station loop through
Chinatown, Old Oakland and Jack London Square and a six-station line along
Broadway from 20th Street. The former would cost around $61 million while
the latter would have a $38-million price tag. It’s now up to local
officials to decide if they want to proceed with the project and, if so, to
identify funding.
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