Providence, RI — Streetcars Plan

Rail Transit Online, April 2007

The city’s 27-member Transit 2020 Working Group issued a report on Mar. 12 calling for a downtown streetcar system, among other transportation improvements, aimed at improving mobility and reducing traffic congestion and air pollution.  The document foresees several streetcar corridors, perhaps along Valley Street and on Allens Avenue, and new transit hubs including one at the Amtrak station.  “We have great momentum in the city with unprecedented economic development, but there’s no question, if we are to continue to prosper as a metropolitan area, we must build a stronger transit system that eases congestion, reduces harmful greenhouse gas emission and encourages people to leave their cars at home,” said Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline.  The working group suggested streetcars over light rail because the former would achieve the same goals at much lower cost.  “Developers will invest along a streetcar line in much greater amounts than they would along a bus route,” Garry Bliss, Cicilline’s policy director, told The Providence Journal.  “They’re clean, they’re quiet, and there’s something very reassuring about seeing that rail in the ground.  You know something’s coming; you know you’re in the right place.”  The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority is planning to use $400,000 in grant money to hire a consultant who would determine how many of the working group’s proposed projects are feasible.