Plans for a downtown heritage streetcar line
are in jeopardy now that Gov. Ruth Ann Minner is looking at the project with a
jaundiced eye. The proposed two-mile route would use replica cars and would
serve commercial, retail and tourist destinations along Market Street in the
northern part of the rundown central business district starting at Rodney
Square. The tracks would pass the Amtrak station and terminate at the
redeveloped Christina riverfront area. This summer, the Delaware Department of
Transportation withdrew $41.5 million of state and federal money for the project
from the department's six-year guideline for capital spending. Now, the
governor said she will meet with city officials and business leaders before
deciding whether to kill the trolley for good. “We will sit down and take a
look at it. Is it something critical? Is it affordable?,” Delaware
Transportation Secretary Nathan Hayward III told the Wilmington News Journal.
Early estimates found that the project would cost $37 million, carry a million
riders a year and help stimulate badly needed economic development. But
according to Hayward, the state has found that capital costs would probably be
higher and ridership lower. Also skeptical is the new mayor, James M. Baker,
but he is willing to let planning work continue while awaiting new cost and
patronage figures from Parsons Brinckerhoff, which is currently carrying out
preliminary engineering. Supporters are hoping to obtain 70 percent of the
financing from the federal government, and $6 million has already been
allocated. Another $4 million is included in the Senate version of the 2002
transportation spending bill.
