Atlanta's first streetcar arrives

[spuwho]

Per Trains NewsWire:

First car arrives for Atlanta streetcar project



ATLANTA – The first streetcar has arrived in Atlanta this week for its new downtown line currently under construction. The 2.7-mile line will stretch from Centennial Olympic Park to the Martin Luther King Jr. Historical Site with 12 stops. The east-west route represents Phase 1 for the Atlanta Streetcar project, with additional routes and phases still in design and planning stages. Construction on the project began last year. Service is scheduled to begin in the 2nd Quarter of 2014.

Siemens is building four cars for the line under a $17.2 million contract based on the company's S70 low-platform vehicle. Two cars are scheduled to arrive this month, with the other pair coming in March.

The project cost is estimated at $92 million, with $47.6 million in Federal Transit Administration grant funds, $32.6 million from the city of Atlanta Recovery Zone Bond funds and Department of Watershed Management Clean Water program, $6 million from the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, and $6.45 million from the Atlanta Regional Commission Livable Centers Initiative Program.

Operations are estimated to cost $1.7 million annually. Operating funds are committed for 20 years and will be covered by fare box revenue, advertising, federal grant funds, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District contributions, and city of Atlanta car rental and hotel motel tax proceeds.

The cost will be $1 for a single trip and $3 for a day pass. During the first three months of operation all rides will be free. City leaders say they are offering the free rides as a way of saying thank you to citizens putting up with construction and traffic delays in the area while the line was built.

[thelakelander]

Nice color scheme!

[JayBird]

Operations are estimated to cost $1.7 million annually. Operating funds are committed for 20 years and will be covered by fare box revenue, advertising, federal grant funds, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District contributions, and city of Atlanta car rental and hotel motel tax proceeds.

Suddenly paying for billboards with this money in Jax just seems ... Stupid (for lack of a better word)

[thelakelander]

^Yeah, you don't have to resort to begging the public to tax themselves more before first investing in transit. There's a ton of different funding opportunities out there. They tend to come to light when a place makes the commitment to make it happen as opposed to searching for excuses of why they can't.

[SightseerLounge]

^Yeah, you don't have to resort to begging the public to tax themselves more before first investing in transit. There's a ton of different funding opportunities out there. They tend to come to light when a place makes the commitment to make it happen as opposed to searching for excuses of why they can't.

I'm thinking that they were just making sure that this thing was going to be funded enough to get it to completion! Even though ATL has some transit already, its not like roads where everyone just accepts their existence! If the people wanted this, then ATL was going to shove it down people's throat!

[IrvAdams]

Atlanta is a business city that got a big boost from the Olympics in '96. They have leveraged that and built on corporate relocations, expansions, etc. over the years.

I see Jacksonville as a potential for much of the same, just a few years behind them, as we are basically a business city (as opposed to tourist, or entertainment, agricultural, etc.). They are a good role model.

[mtraininjax]

You can add whatever color scheme you want, people in Atlanta will still see it as a Marta bus on rails.

[tufsu1]

You can add whatever color scheme you want, people in Atlanta will still see it as a Marta bus on rails.

huh?