Tacoma Streetcar

Tacoma Streetcar is a growing popular movement in Tacoma to bring back electric trolley service which helped grow the historic core of the City of Tacoma and nearby neighborhoods. The move was by local booster, Morgan Alexander.

Vision

Tacoma is undergoing a long-overdue revitalization. The next two decades will add thousands of new jobs, households, and retail establishments to the city, making good transportation essential. Streetcars are a proven catalyst noted for rejuvenating urban neighborhoods, and providing quick, accessible transport to the resources and amenities that attract people to those districts.

Proposal

Tacoma Streetcar proposes to create or rehabilitate a fleet of vintage or replica streetcars running throughout the city. The proposed routes would connect with regional light rail, downtown Link light rail, and would connect neighborhoods together in a way that currently does not exist today.

Current Efforts

Tacoma Streetcar is exploring possibilities of partnering with community organizations such as the Tacoma Historical Society to produce a book with stories and pictures of streetcars from Tacoma's past. The organization is also interested in restoring an old streetcar from the original system that was recently discovered in Arlington, Washington. Restoration cost of the streetcar is in the range of $300,000 - $800,000.

Developments

City of Tacoma Streetcar Feasibility Committee

In early 2007, at the request of the Tacoma City Council's subcommittee on the Environment and Public Works, and as a direct result of Morgan Alexander's advocacy, a citizen and city staff committee began meeting to discuss streetcar feasibility. Issues included in the discussion were numerous, including: vehicle technology, fuel types, the historic streetcar system, geographic barriers, routing, and financing. A final report was presented to the Environment and Public Works committee six months later concluding that streetcars were indeed feasible. City staff recommended at that meeting that next steps be taken to acquire preliminary cost estimates and financing options. The Committee accepted the findings, directed City staff to continue their investigations, while retaining the existing feasibility committee members.

Tacoma City Manager's Parking and Transit Plan

The City Manager of the City of Tacoma, Eric Anderson, in early 2007 started holding meetings with neighborhood groups in Downtown Tacoma and in the surrounding neighborhoods concerning the issue of parking. Since then, the City Manager has recognized that the issue of parking is related to transportation in general, and that streetcars could potentially be an integral component in the future of Tacoma's development. The City Manager's office has published a short paper outlining potential cost estimates and route alignments for a two-phase streetcar system which would serve most of Tacoma. Phase one of the system would initially serve Downtown Tacoma, Portland Avenue, 6th Avenue, North Downtown, and the Stadium District.

Emerging Support from Tacoma's Neighborhoods

As the streetcar plan proceeds, support for it has been growing. In 2007, the North End Neighborhood Council passed a resolution in support of a Tacoma Streetcar feasibility study.

Mayor Baarsma's Green Ribbon Task Force

In April 2006, Tacoma City Council Members approved a resolution that affirmed the City's efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and curb global warming in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol. A 26 member task force has been formed from environmental specialists and other leaders from throughout the City to tackle the issue of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the City of Tacoma. In a preliminary report from the committee, 76% of accountable CO2-equivalent emissions were found to be from personal automotive transportation. As a result, the concept of establishing a network of electric streetcars, is taking a prominent role in future plans to reduce the City's overall contribution to Global Warming.

Washington State Legislature Support

House Bill Bill 3068 was introduced in the 2008 Legislature which would make significant strides toward implementing a street car system.

History

A century ago Tacoma, like many American cities, had an extensive rail transit system. The first two streetcar lines in Tacoma were constructed in 1888 along the lengths of Pacific Avenue and Tacoma Avenue. A pair of horses pulled each of the yellow streetcars. The lines were a success from the start, carrying many passengers, and were very soon thereafter extended. From these few lines others sprang up, each emanating from Downtown Tacoma into the surrounding areas, allowing for houses and business areas to develop.

By around 1912 the city boasted 125 miles of streetcar trackage (much of it electrified) and almost 30 streetcar lines as well as an electric interurban rail connection to Seattle. Tacoma also had a simple cable car loop running from South 11th and 'A' St. to what is known now as Martin Luther King Jr. Way, down South 13th St. back to 11th and 'A'. This simple and frequent line helped to integrate trolley lines that served each street elevation. It also helped to ferry passengers up Tacoma’s steep hills which assisted in integrating the eastern and western sections of Downtown Tacoma.

The streetcar lines individually had experienced many troubles over their 50-year lifetime, including many buyouts, defaults, takeovers, worker strikes and one notable tragedy. On a rainy July 4, 1900, a trolley jumped the tracks, plunging into a ravine and killing 43 passengers.

However, the system was still very successful at efficiently transporting people. At its peak the Tacoma Railway and Power Company was transporting in the range of 30,000,000 passengers a year, a number still not reached by the modern Pierce Transit. However, because of increasing government subsidies for road construction (some of which were paid for by transit riders) the trolleys were finding it more difficult to operate in an environment increasingly dominated by personal automobiles and taxis. The year that US 99 was completed commuter traffic between Tacoma and Seattle via the electric Interurban fell off nearly 40%, signaling the end of the trolley era. The last streetcars in Tacoma ran on April 8th, 1938. The system was replaced with brand new rubber tired buses that could more easily move in and out of the growing amounts of traffic in downtown. However, the system failed again and was eventually acquired by the City of Tacoma – becoming the precursor of Pierce Transit.

In the mid-1990s the Puget Sound region was dealing with increasing traffic, driven mainly by the dot-com boom and Microsoft. Voters approved Sound Move, a tri-county transportation package that formed Sound Transit. One of the major projects for the Pierce County/Tacoma area was Tacoma Link. This reintroduction of electric streetcars has helped to reinvigorate local interest in reintroducing streetcars en masse to the City of Tacoma.