The proposed modern streetcar circulator for central city Fort Worth has been slowly weaving its way through city corridors, quietly but steadily picking up steam as enthusiasm for the proposal grows. Yesterday morning, Dana Burghdoff of the city’s Planning and Development Department gave a presentation to the city council on the proposal, and Fort Worthology friend Andy Nold was there. Here are his impressions of the presentation:
She presented some of the discussion outlined in the Streetcar White Paper and recommended that a committee be formed comprised of 15 members with 1 each appointed by city council members and 7 appointed by the mayor. The committee would be tasked with determining whether the city should pursue design and construction of a modern streetcar circulator system, how to fund it, and what should be the initial route. Burghdoff suggested that appointees should be in place by the end of the month and the committee should deliver its final report in 6 months.
The council members’ comments were generally positive, although there were several misconceptions about the proposed system:
-The mayor suggested that the Phoenix Light Rail was supposed to be running by their Superbowl game but was still unfinished. It seems like comparing apples to oranges when comparing light rail construction to streetcar construction.
-A comment was also made about the number of businesses shutting down because of light rail construction in other cities. Once again, probably not a valid comparison.
-One of the council members complained that the streetcar would take a lane of traffic and therefore the study would need to find additional right-of-way to regain a lane for automobile traffic. Fortunately, upon completion of construction, the streetcar can share the lane with automobile traffic, so the lane is not lost.
-Some of the council members suggested that the study needed to look closely at connecting with other cities and being a regional effort. I think this idea is losing sight of the purpose of the streetcar circulator, which is to complement the Commuter Rail which is the regional rail transit mode selected by Tarrant County, the T and Fort Worth. The streetcar paid for and developed by the City of Fort Worth is for circulation in Fort Worth only and while it will interchange with the regional system, it should not bear the burden of being regional or connecting to other cities. Can you imagine sitting on a streetcar going 35-40 mph from Downtown Fort Worth to the east side of Arlington?
It is heartening to see the City Council addressing the issue. It was also almost flabbergasting to hear fiscal conservative Chuck Silcox say that we needed to “start planning where to put these rails”. Joel Burns was solidly behind the effort and emphasized that the Tacoma route that served 200,000 riders when it was served by a bus saw ridership jump to 900,000 riders annually after the line was converted to streetcar. Nobody wanted to go crazy shouting “If you build it they will come”, but the phrase was mentioned and Silcox suggested that with the price of gas it wouldn’t be too hard to draw riders to it.
My comments on the things Andy heard from various city officials:
- Mayor, the Phoenix Light Rail line is nothing like what Fort Worth would be doing. Fort Worth is proposing a streetcar circulator, not a dedicated right-of-way heavier light rail line. The streetcar is much faster (and less expensive) to construct and really doesn’t have a lot of similarities in design or functionality to a light rail line.
- Again, businesses shutting down due to construction should not be an issue. Light rail construction is much more disruptive than streetcar construction - a modern streetcar line can take as little as a block a week.
- One of the council members is wrong, of course. The streetcar would *not* take a lane away from automobile traffic. It would share the lane with it. No additional right-of-way is needed at all. (Let’s stop thinking only about the well-being of cars, by the way.)
- The council members suggesting connecting the streetcar with other cities into a regional effort are very misguided about what this system is and what it is for. This is not a regional light rail system like DART’s - this is a streetcar circulator for central, urban Fort Worth. It will absolutely work with regional systems in terms of transferring from one to the other, but this is designed to move people around and between urban Fort Worth neighborhoods, not move them from city to city.
- I too am very surprised to hear Silcox being so bullish on the system. I knew Joel supported it, and I know he’ll do what he can to promote it. Very encouraging to hear support from the notorious Silcox, though.
Thanks for conveying your thoughts on the event, Andy. Look for more Fort Worth streetcar proposal coverage to come!