Winston-Salem Streetcar Update

[Matthew]

First Line Total Cost: $52 million
Cost to City Residents: $16 million (Possible Bond in November 2012)
Federal, State and Other Money: $36 million
Next "Open House" Meeting: November 2012
Current Study Completion Expected: December 2012
Councilman Daniel Besse said the streetcar could be operational in three years?

First Line: Winston-Salem State University though downtown and the downtown research park to West End, Ardmore and Baptist Medical Center. The Wake Forest University School of Medicine will relocate all first and possibly second year students to the downtown research park on the streetcar line around the time the streetcar system is operational. The streetcar will connect their (Wake Forest University) medical related campuses and the main university medical center. It appears as if everyone who attended the open house supported the streetcar system.

News articles:

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2012...sy-ar-2100265/

http://images.news14.com:80/media/20...R_PROPOSAL.mp4

[Matthew]

The bond was delayed until the next election.

It appears as if they may go with "emerging off-wire technology," due to clearance issues for trucks and removing ugly wires. There is also talk of a streetcar-only lane.

Spaghetti maps of routes were made and the routes were walked. Good news: BB&T Ballpark is now appearing on proposed routes (3 of the 4). After plan consolidation, It could use 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th streets. I really like the idea to circle around Bailey Green Park, but also want the streetcar to use Research Blvd., as well, to access Winston-Salem State University and Salem College. I think I like Plan 3 for downtown and Plan 4 for PTRP, but they will be consolidated into one route, so the best route ideas from all four will be used.

The streetcar will have a business day route and a party train route, for college students, visitors, and area residents using it to go from restaurants to bars and music venues.

According to the transportation authority, the team will review the route designs and will accomplish the following in the coming months:
Conduct transit survey / ridership analysis
Initiate funding strategy discussion
Refine route alignment
Develop transit operations plan
Conduct additional traffic analysis
Develop detail comparison of technologies and gather additional public input.

An update post on this thread wouldn't be complete without poor quality images. The yellow line is the first phase of the streetcar, suggested by city leaders and citizens. The red line is a second phase. The lines are measured to determine the length of the route and cost, which is marked on the map. I see $78-100 million. I'm guessing $100 million, since the all of route maps will be consolidated into one.

All images from WSTA:








There is a thread in "My City Photos N-Z" on the long pink area to the right with the research labs and tech companies.

[Matthew]

An information workshop is scheduled for the streetcar. It's open to the public and scheduled for next Thursday (Jan. 31st) at 5 p.m., in the Rhodes Center for the Arts. We should know more about vehicles, routes, and the next steps in the process from this meeting. I obviously can't attend (I'm in another state). If you go, please share what you learn from attending. I'll try to post anything I learn from the reports I read on the workshop.

[Matthew]

I thought I would share an update from the streetcar meeting. They should finish construction on the streetcar in 2017 (Only four years away!). The 3.3 mile line will cost $113 million to build and cost $3.4 million a year to operate. Current plans include 6 streetcar vehicles. As for frequency, they should operate every 10 minutes during busy times and every 15 minutes after hours. Some graphics from the meetings below:

All images are from City of Winston-Salem and Planning Director Paul Norby.

Streetcar Information:


The goal is to increase investment along the corridor and to also increase connectivity between attractive historic neighborhoods, the university medical center, downtown attractions, and colleges with downtown Winston-Salem's IQ neighborhood, as the locals are calling it, which is shown prominently on the graphics below as a downtown research park. It is planned as the main beneficiary of the streetcar system. The IQ (Innovation Quarter Neighborhood) is a massive mixed-use development, by multiple developers. With the group behind the IQ's development proposing it and the team of well-known local businesses working on it, it's a rubber-stamped type project that will happen. The current construction in the IQ is valued in the billions and includes everything from a planned hotel to apartments to offices to research centers to classrooms to arts venues to entertainment venues to parks to a bike commuter superhighway. This group wants the streetcar to gain the most from every piece of land inside the IQ.

First Route:


Planned Streetcar System:


Potential Sources of Construction Money:


Population/Enrollment/Employment/Hotel Rooms Inside Streetcar Corridor:

[Cirrus]

^
Uh, Winston-Salem more population and almost as many workers as Seattle? Bigger than Tampa in every category? I don't think so.

[Matthew]

From what I read, it appears to be the buildings on the first streetcar line in each city and not the entire downtown. I labeled it as "inside streetcar corridor" hoping to avoid this confusion. If you add up the jobs, one college, and the hotels only on those Winston-Salem streets marked in blue (on the Selected Route), the numbers match up perfectly. The company (HDR) that made that graphic for the city also worked on the streetcars in those other cities, so they would know.

[TarHeelJ]

This looks great...thanks for the updates. When is construction scheduled to begin?

[Matthew]

It (construction) depends on who you ask.

Daniel Besse (City Council): 1-2 years (Maybe as early as 2014?)
Brett Wallace (HDR): 2-3 years (I think he is projecting construction in 2016?)

It seems the city is rushing this through as fast as possible. The AA (Alternatives Analysis) is complete. A modern streetcar on the route pictured above was selected. The next step is likely a council approval of the plans. This is followed by an Environmental Assessment (EA). Then we move on to Engineering and finally Design.

An interesting article from six months ago on the person working on Winston-Salem's streetcar:

Originally Posted by Mass Transit Magazine - September 18, 2012

Wallace is leading another important project for Winston-Salem, N.C., which has a vision of a strong city center, balanced transportation system and focused and sustainable development patterns. With Wallace as project manager, the city selected HDR to conduct an AA to define an urban circulator for approval by the FTA and move the vision into the project development phase for Small Starts projects.

source: Mass Transit Magazine

[Matthew]

According to the City Director of Transportation, you can ride this streetcar line in 2017.
This is from a presentation given about two or three weeks ago. I love the map showing
why they selected the streets used, identifying the problems they faced. I'm not surprised
the city's steep grades in some parts of downtown impacted the streets selected. Also,
looking at the map, I guess low clearance is a reason they are considering 'wire-free'
streetcar systems. How much clearance is required?









I thought you may like to see what other streetcar systems cost:





Source: City Transportation Department & HDR

[initiald]

This would be awesome if it can open by 2017. In comparison, Charlotte's streetcar line won't open before 2019, and they already have 1/5 of the rails in place.

[Matthew]

Winston-Salem is trying to build it as fast as possible, to help move people when the East-West Expressway is closed and rebuilt. It's also part of a massive multi-developer, multi-billion-dollar, construction project on the eastern end of downtown. Companies, like BioMed Realty, are building research & technology space at a fast pace and want a streetcar, along with cycling and pedestrian projects, to further accelerate their proposed developments in downtown Winston-Salem.

It's also worth noting they know what is under most of the streets along the route in Winston-Salem. There is very little guesswork involved. They've already replaced entire streets through a good part of the route and they had the streetcar in mind when doing the work.

Locally here in Atlanta, our streetcar began construction in 2012 and is expected to open on April 30, 2014. Creating a guess from these numbers, construction on Winston-Salem's system is likely to begin in 2015. This seems to match-up with other estimated start times I've seen. The city is also preparing for a major bond in 2014, which will help pay for the streetcar.

If you like Winston-Salem, watch NBC Sports this weekend. USA Cycling's Winston-Salem Classic is this weekend. A good chance to see the best bicycle racers in the nation and see downtown Winston-Salem too.

[Matthew]

If you have questions, ask the experts working on the streetcar at the last public meeting. It's scheduled for next week - June 27. This is your last opportunity to meet with the people working on the project, which leads me to believe everything will be finalized this summer and they will likely move toward funding and construction shortly after this presentation? If anyone attends, ask for a timeline, including an estimated construction start. Please share anything you learn on this thread. I will say I'm very excited, knowing construction is so close. I wish I could attend.

PUBLIC MEETING: 6-27-2013 @ 5 p.m.
Winston-Salem State University Anderson Center

http://www.cityofws.org/Assets/CityO...houseflyer.pdf

Wake Forest University is moving their medical school downtown (both classrooms and dorms) and I hear they want the opening of the new medical school buildings and the streetcar to match as close as possible, since it's the link between the proposed downtown campus and the university medical center.

[Swede]

Originally Posted by Matthew

Winston-Salem is trying to build it as fast as possible, to help move people when the East-West Expressway is closed and rebuilt.

That would a great thing to do, yeah. Even when the expressway opens there'll be people who keep riding the rails who wouldn't have tried it if it hadn't been there during the roadworks.

[TwinCity]

So did they decide to extend the first phase from Union Station to 5th Street and add 2 more cars? This is great news for revitalizing the MLK corridor and the Cleveland Ave neighborhood.

[Matthew]

I apologize for not posting an update in a long time. The 4 mile route will cost $179 million and will be operational in 2017. You're likely asking why it is so expensive? It will have 8 miles of track and use 8 vehicles. They will "double track" the entire route. They can't make a loop, due to the 5th Street Bridge being too low. I think this is the reason they double tracked the route? Where are they now: HDR is completing the study. City Council will make a decision (ask your councilperson to approve it!) and the project will be presented to the Federal Transit Administration to seek funding. This is expected to happen this fall, so look for another update soon. It seems the maintenance facility has moved to historic Union Station (seen in an August update). The mayor talks as if the city will try to avoid asking taxpayers to pay for much of anything connected to this project? They are seeking the maximum amount from all sources available. Whatever funding proposals they are working on and how much the city has to pay should be interesting to see. The planning director talks as if the city council vote this fall is the final vote before construction? If I read and heard everything correctly, we can maybe look for federal approval and city council approval, then construction as the remaining steps.

Details: (All Final)
$179 Million Construction Cost
$4.3 Million Yearly Operating Cost
8 Streetcar Vehicles
8 Miles (13 Kilometers) of track
4 Mile (6.5 Kilometers) Route
Construction Finished in 2017

Also worth noting, the studies are not including job growth and new buildings in the IQ District, though the streetcar travels through the middle of it. The numbers you see in this thread would increase dramatically with the IQ District, but it is believed that IQ District growth would happen with or without the streetcar, so it's not included in anything related to the streetcar. The IQ District is currently constructing three office buildings, four residential buildings, a retail structure, and an educational research building on properties along this streetcar route. A parking deck has its funding and approvals and will soon begin construction too. How do they not include the thousands of high paying tech jobs and massive investment happening in that area? The people working on those projects are the same people asking for this streetcar. With the streetcar, development there could become significantly more dense and maybe the area could see more residences and retail spaces? I think they should've included it in their numbers.

All of the work is complete and a locally preferred alternative was selected:


Now we wait until the final study is completed by HDR this fall and see if funding is approved... and if city council approves construction.



Construction is really close.

All images are from Planning Director Norby and HDR.

[Swede]

Nice update As for it being double tracks all the way... sounds great to me.

[orulz]

Construction can only be so close if they plan on applying for New Starts or Small Starts - that takes a while... if they hope to open by 2017 then construction would probably start around 2015.

I'm also not the biggest fan of the eastern part of the route. It seems like it might even faster to walk from, say, 5th & Patterson to 5th & MLK than it would be to ride the long "U" route down to Rams Drive and back up. It's OK to deviate from a straight line to a certain extent, but having the eastern part travel seemingly over three times the straight line distance is going a bit too far.

I understand each area being served is there for a reason, BUT, as Jarrett Walker (and my own personal experience) indicates, the most effective transit is that which travels in as straight of a line as possible.

IMO, They should pick one area to cover - PRTP or MLK. Either go through PRTP and then over on Rams, or over on 5th and then down MLK, ending at WSSU/ future Union Station in either case.

[Matthew]

I've seen 2015 as the start date for construction. So it does appear as if it will take a year to seek the federal and state funding?

They should've found a way to use Fifth Street, instead of double tracking the east side. Maybe remove the skywalk between the two tech company buildings or when they replace the street for their $2 million streetscape project (already funded), they could've tried lowering the street? The route is heavily influenced by developers and universities, so decision makers wanted it to stop at their proposed projects and campuses instead of traveling in a straight line. I noticed the maintenance facility has moved to Union Station and what was a suggested future route is now included in the first line as the far eastern side. Union Station is expected to become the city's second transit hub and replace downtown's Campbell Transit Center as the major transit hub in the city. I guess this is a way to bring streetcar money into the Union Station project to move it forward? I agree with HDR and think the line should've ended at WSSU for now, with the maintenance facility at Hawthrone Hill and they could've expanded northward along MLK in the future. Of course a light rail route to Wake Forest University's main campus and the sports complexes or streetcars to UNCSA and Old Salem are likely the next routes.

[Matthew]

I read in the new plan for downtown about Winston-Salem's plans to create park-and-ride at the end of each streetcar route, to keep as many cars as possible out of downtown Winston-Salem.

Some people may want to know why most of the route is double tracked and this should answer that: http://www.humantransit.org/2012/02/...c-transit.html

The only part of the route that isn't double tracked is designed to give a stop to the ballpark and a mixed-use development proposed beside the ballpark. This was added after the developers became involved. The ballpark stop isn't in front of the ballpark. It's in front of the proposed hotel behind the outfield wall and a proposed Whole Foods Market. That part of the route also passes-through another developer's property, where they are designing an 11-storey mixed-use project and currently constructing a new office building.

[Swede]

Originally Posted by Matthew

The only part of the route that isn't double tracked is designed to give a stop to the ballpark and a mixed-use development proposed beside the ballpark. This was added after the developers became involved. The ballpark stop isn't in front of the ballpark. It's in front of the proposed hotel behind the outfield wall and a proposed Whole Foods Market. That part of the route also passes-through another developer's property, where they are designing an 11-storey mixed-use project and currently constructing a new office building.

Why wouldn't that part be double tracked? It makes no sense to me. Having trams running in both directions at the ballpark would be the reasonable thing to do. I dont' get having single-track sections at all unless the street is physically too narrow for two trams to fit next to eachother - and even then this is possible:
Look closely at the tracks and how they diverge in the background.