GRAND RAPIDS | Development Thread

[JonathanGRR]

$80 million streetcar plan for Grand Rapids back in play
Matt Vande Bunte | February 4, 2013

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Proponents of a downtown streetcar line are resurrecting a 6-year-old study and, by this summer, plan to revise the vision and pursue funding.

The Rapid public-transit system is paying HDR Inc. $293,895 to refine the 2008 study, updating what an electric streetcar line would cost and how the money could come together. An advisory committee started meeting last month.

“We’re going to build on that (2008 study),” said John Logie, a former Grand Rapids mayor who is chairman of the committee. “We think the timing is right. The economy is coming back.

“What happens when a local government invests in putting rails in the street is entrepreneurs who are watching this know that the government is making a long-term commitment (and it leverages private investment).”

The original streetcar study envisioned a $79 million, 3-mile route mostly along Monroe Avenue between Rapid Central Station and the Sixth Street Bridge. Logie said “we will look at that (route) again with fresh eyes to see if that still makes sense.”
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Grand Rapids in the early 1900s had as many as 70 miles of streetcar lines, and Logie is more optimistic than ever that now is the time to bring streetcars back to Grand Rapids. The prime marketing demographic: "young people, some of whom don't own cars and don't want to," Logie said.

“I don’t have any experience with it directly, but in other cities it seems to work," said Sam Cummings, a real estate developer who's part of the advisory committee. "There’s no question that we have to try to skate to where the puck is going. By the same token, we should also make sure that we don’t throw away the automobile because that’s not going anywhere either.”

Streetcar lines are identified along with the coming bus-rapid transit route as key tenets of The Rapid’s long-range plan.

“People our age are moving back into the city and living an urban lifestyle,” Rapid CEO Peter Varga said in the WGVU interview. “Young people want all these mobility options, want to live downtown and they are actually not getting driver’s licenses. They're using public transit. they're walking and bicycling. A street car fits this new demographic change and that’s why this is the right time to start talking about these things.
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http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi...and_rapid.html