Richmond — Streetcars May Return

Rail Transit Online, May 2003

The city where the first successful electric streetcars ran in the U.S. is looking seriously at a downtown light rail system connecting the city’s primary traffic generators.  A preliminary study for the GRTC Transit System by consultants Burgess & Niple Inc. shows two potential lines looping through downtown, the Red Route and the Blue Route.  They are basically similar, following Cary, 18th, Main, Ninth and Broad streets.  However the Red would run on Second and the Blue on Third.  City transportation planner Viktoria Badger says the use of historic trolleys is envisioned, either new replicas or originals, and that the initial segment could be open in five or six years.  "These are not the final routes.” Badger told the Richmond Times Dispatch.  “These are just concepts (but) it satisfies the need of getting people from one part of downtown to another.”  The capital cost has been estimated at around $40 million, with half coming from the federal government.  Other possible funding sources include the city, state, an assessment district and the private sector.  “We all recognize the success of our downtown is going to depend on some additional modes of transportation," Mayor Rudolph C. McCollum Jr. told the Times Dispatch.  “This could be more affordable, more fun than a typical cab ride.”  Streetcars first ran in Richmond in 1888 when inventor Frank Julian Sprague, who also developed multiple unit operation, electrified a horse-car line.