Atlanta, LA and Salt Lake City get Streetcar funding from Feds

[vicupstate]

The news emerged last week, and official word came today. Atlanta won a $47 million U.S. DOT grant to help it build a proposed $72 million streetcar line. Here's a link to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article with details. Salt Lake City also won a streetcar grant, for $26 million, and Los Angeles won $20 million for its Crenshaw/LAX light rail line. Yonah Freemark of The Transport Politic offers an analysis here. He notes that of the $600 million total in these so-called TIGER II grants most went to small-scale projects in small and mid-size cities for street improvements, building transit centers, and rehabilitating freight lines. Here's a link to the USDOT site where you can find the list of capital project grants and the list of planning grants.



Read more: http://marynewsom.blogspot.com/2010/10/this-time-atlanta-gets-streetcar-bucks.html#ixzz12zCwqLCo

[thelakelander]

Wow are the cost estimates on the TIGER II capital projects right?  Orlando is getting $10 million to do a 1.9 mile BRT connection between Parramore and LYNX Central Station.  The total project cost is $106 million.  I wonder if this is wrong or what's going in it to make is so expensive. $56 million/mile for BRT.......wow.

[thelakelander]

Btw, it appears that Jax did not make the cut for any TIGER II capital or planning grants.

[CS Foltz]

lake...........you can't make the cut if you don't apply! JTA is too busy sucking up Fed money for BRT.....you know that thing that is just as good as rail, but its cheaper!

[billy]

Atlanta money may have been better spent on the Beltline.

[thelakelander]

Florida winners:

Orlando - Parramore BRT ($10 million)

- A 1.9 mile BRT connection from Parramore to Sunrail station

Miami - Port of Miami Rail Access ($22 million)

- A new rail intermodal yard at port to remove trucks on roads between port and railyards west of Miami.

Bradenton - Port Manatee Marine Highway ($9 million)

- A 32-acre container terminal

[CS Foltz]

Don't forget .....our new Port Facility has nothing at all rail wise.......trucks are cheaper ya know! snicker..snicker!

[tufsu1]

lake...........you can't make the cut if you don't apply! JTA is too busy sucking up Fed money for BRT.....you know that thing that is just as good as rail, but its cheaper!

CS...JTA applied for grants, as did the City, FDOT, and JaxPort.

TIGER II was much smaller than TIGER I....and Flroida didnt' receive any money is the first round!

[tufsu1]

TIGER II Planning Grants are listed here...nothing in FL was funded

http://www.dot.gov/docs/tiger2planninggrantinfo.pdf

[Captain Zissou]

Wow.  Maybe we should do a "Learning from Crenshaw" article soon.

[simms3]

Atlanta money may have been better spent on the Beltline.

Beltline is too conceptual so far.  That streetcar line has been planned to the last t for a while.  It was easy for them to receive the funding.  This is why for transportation expensive studies are actually necessary.  The feds like to see hundreds of pages of detailed reports and cost projections.  There is still a void of $12 million for that streetcar line, though.

So far the beltline is a highly planned string of parks/trails with ROW for future light rail.  The actual plans aren't ready to submit yet.  Funding is also much more of an issue for the beltline because it is such a large undertaking.  And BTW Atlanta did not receive funding for the second streetcar line up Peachtree and now they are reworking the route.