With light rail now on the back burner as
the result of lowered ridership projections, a group of downtown business owners
and city transportation officials are talking about streetcars, a mode of
transportation scrapped in Spokane 68 years ago. Research by the Downtown
Spokane Partnership and the Spokane Regional Transportation Council has begun
into a proposal that would restore tracks to Riverside Avenue, serving the
Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, Washington State University’s Riverpoint campus
and the Jefferson park-and-ride facility. The idea germinated after a visit to
Portland by some civic, business and transportation leaders last fall. After
inspecting the MAX light rail system and the downtown streetcar, they came away
impressed with the latter. “Communities are rediscovering some of the things
that worked in the past,” Mike Edwards of the Downtown Spokane Partnership told
the Spokesman Review. “There's certainly an energy in that area of Portland.”
The Spokane Regional Transportation Council plans to develop the concept
further, including how to finance it, but no time frame concerning actual
construction has been discussed.
