urbanSTL

Has everyone seen the window display of the proposed trolley line on the Loop? Pretty cool stuff.

^ The ridiculous thing is that there were basically 0 "shovel ready" projects because who in the H3LL would move a project all the way to "shovel ready" with ZERO prospects of getting it done. This has been mentioned in a number of articles and I believe the NOW PBS piece posted elsewhere. For more than a decade there has been little money and little hope of developing comprehensive mass transit for places like St. Louis. Now that there MAY be money for some projects many people seem to discount such opportunities because they're not ready to go - well what the H3LL did you expect!?!?!!?

Some nice pub for the Saint Louis Urban Workshop:



http://stlurbanworkshop.blogspot.com/20 ... louis.html

Your points against the streetcar are well taken. However, at this point, the Delmar streetcar is the only hope of reintroducing streetcar service to the city at this point. Because Joe Edwards is such a respected and proven urban pioneer, this line would likely serve as the prototype for other neighborhoods down the road. For this reason, I support the project.

zink wrote:Why cant we just use what Denver does for its 16th street downtown.

THey have a dedicate lane that is for a dedicated 16th bus which the sole purpose is to go up and down the street and pick up people.. (for free)



Cheaper, and gets the same thing done!

My girlfriend's dad, (a now retired urban planner who spent most of his professional career working for the city), proposed such a solution to Joe Edwards recently. He suggested that such a bus could go into effect immediately and bridge the gap until the trolley proper gets built; a sort of test run. Unfortunately, Edwards was not open to the idea...at all.

I don't blame him, but obviously the Loop Trolley is a business endeavor by Mr. Edwards and not a transportation solution. I think that he fails to see that a modern streetcar line (like all those pictured on the Loop Trolley website) connected to the CWE and hopefully downtonw would have an exponentially greater positive impact on the Loop (and the rest of the city of course!).



I'm glad that the city didn't back the new baseball stadium to the tune of $$$ millions, but a streetcar along these lines would seems worthy of such an outlay - why not?

Recognize that there are two advocates of these streetcars:

1. Transportation infrastructure & public transportation enthousiasts, and

2. Loop business interests utilizing a streetcar strictly as a marketing device.



Whether a streetcar/trolley goes along the Loop or not, it is extremely doubtful that the group would advocate for its advancement elsewhere. I can see that, should a Loop streetcar line be established, the business interests who advocated for the line's creation would campaign against a similar streetcar line being established for other competing districts. It could actually be detrimental to the brand valuation of a Loop streetcar line if another one was established for South Grand to Tower Grove Park, or along Manchester Road from Maplewood to FPSE.



The interests of transportation infrastructure & public transportation enthousiasts are not of prominence to a Loop streetcar. For all those who are of the former, recognize this perspective in how you advocate to your advantage, otherwise you may be shunned at the table.

^ Very well stated GC.