GRTC is negotiating with a consultant to study a light-rail trolley system that would connect some of downtown's attractions, including the expanded Greater Richmond Convention Center, the Shockoe Bottom and Shockoe Slip entertainment district and the Canal Walk.

Officials say the system could be operational within three to five years and could serve as the foundation for a larger light-rail service branching into the surrounding counties. The immediate focus, however, will be downtown, with smaller electric "heritage" trolleys.

"These can be very large projects," said Robert Hodder, director of planning for GRTC. "What we want is something that we can do and [that] will help."

The study, scheduled to be conducted from May and to September, will be the most extensive look at light rail in Richmond since at least the late 1980s, Hodder said.

The work is expected to cost $150,000 to $250,000 and be funded with city, state and federal grants.

GRTC invited consultants in January to submit proposals for the study. Four of them did. Project officials interviewed three companies and selected one for negotiations. Hodder declined to identify the firm.

The study will look into such details as potential costs and funding, as well as routes, number of expected riders and type of vehicle to be used. The rails would be installed on existing roads, so trolleys would have to share space with traffic, Hodder said.

"There are lots and lots of things to consider. You can't just plop these things down."

Jack Berry, president of the Richmond Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau, said a trolley system is needed to connect the convention center to restaurants, bars and other downtown attractions, including the soon-to-be renovated Main Street Station.

He said he and other officials got a taste of the potential impact recently when they visited Memphis, Tenn. That city's trolley system was started in 1993 and has grown to nearly 1 million riders per year, he said.

"It's been a revitalizing and economic development boom with everything adjacent to the trolley rail," he said. "It's a mix of uses, of retail, residential, attractions and hotels."

Richmond is credited as having had the nation's first commercially successful trolley system. The system started in 1888 and ran until the late 1940s, when the trolleys were replaced by buses. Rubber-wheeled trolleys ran downtown in the 1970s and again in the 1990s, but the service was dropped because of concerns about how it should be funded, said Viktoria Badger, a city transportation planner.

She said she has no doubt that trolleys on rails would work and become a tourist draw if the city gave them another shot. "It's a transportation mode, but it's also a historical experience that people will enjoy."

Berry agreed and said the system would give riders a sense of certainty and comfort that they couldn't get from a trolley on rubber wheels.

"The beauty is when you see a street rail, you know where the trolley is going to come and go. With a rubber wheel, you just don't know where it's going to go."