RSS
Twitter
Facebook
YouTubefwbusinesspress.com wrote Fort Worth City Council approves streetcar committeeBY LESLIE WIMMER
June 17, 2008
At Tuesday’s pre-council meeting, Dana Burghdoff of the city’s Planning and Development Department proposed a 15-member committee to oversee studies, find funding resources and decide on a date to bring a modern streetcar system to Fort Worth.
The committee would be made up of seven appointments from Mayor Mike Moncrief and eight appointments from City Council members, who would appoint one person each to the committee.
The committee’s responsibilities would be to review Fort Worth’s previous light rail transit studies and to research cost and funding sources, Burghdoff said at the meeting.
Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion » Transit
Fort Worth Streetcar News
[11 posts] [5 contributors]
Topic Rating:
(Total Ratings: )
Rate this topic:
Rate this topic:
-
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
Login to Send PM
Posted 3 years ago # -
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
Login to Send PM
pegasusnews.com wrote
Streetcars could be part of Fort Worth’s futureThursday, June 19, 2008
BY KEVIN BUCHANAN OF WEST AND CLEAR
While Fort Worth has made great steps forward on heavier rail systems, first with the Trinity Railway Express and now with the upcoming Southwest-to-Northeast Line, those systems are primarily concerned with moving across longer city-to-city type distances. What’s been missing is a proposal to do something greater for central city urban mobility, something beyond The T’s little-used (and in some ways rather lackluster) bus system.
Until now.
For several months now, a proposal has been working its way through the city’s ether to bring back Fort Worth’s streetcar system, silenced long ago and replaced with the bus. Decades ago, Fort Worth had one of the finest streetcar systems in the entire country, with routes linking downtown to many dense, walkable “streetcar suburbs†like the Magnolia/Fairmount/Ryan Place area, the west side, and places like the Stockyards. Now, with Fort Worth witnessing the success that modern streetcar systems are having in places like Portland, work is underway on returning these central city circulator vehicles to the neighborhoods around downtown.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
Login to Send PM
pegasusnews.com wrote Fort Worth officials visit Dallas for rail inspiration
Friday, July 18, 2008
BY KEVIN BUCHANAN
So, by now you may have heard that a group of 50 Fort Worthians, including Mayor MC Moncrizzle and the Official Streetcar Study Group (I’d pay up to and including a dollar to see a band with that name), took a trip to (Unnamed City To The East) yesterday to take a look at Mockingbird Station, the first TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) ever built in Big (UCTTE), to get some inspiration for Fort Worth’s planned streetcar circulator system. Of course, Mockingbird Station is built on a DART light rail line, which is not really similar to our proposed streetcar circulator, but their heart’s in the right place. The study group plans to take a trip to visit Portland next and have a look at their streetcar system, which is directly what ours would be based on.
I have to say, it warms the cockles of this New Urbanist’s heart when I hear that the Mayor dropped some fresh beats that he’d never attempted before. I never thought I’d hear him say this sentence:
“The future people mover in this region is regional rail, commuter rail, light rail and streetcars,†Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief told the crowd after a 20-minute walking tour.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
Login to Send PM
fwbusinesspress.com wrote Streetcars open up opportunities for developments
BY LESLIE WIMMER
August 04, 2008
Adding streetcars along Fort Worth’s roads may not only increase mobility and help travelers avoid high gas prices, but also could open up opportunities for new mixed-use developments at streetcar stops.
The city’s Streetcar Study Committee was formed in July to research the practicality of bringing a new streetcar system to Fort Worth.
If streetcar lines are set up around town, the first locations to get service will be those with the most demand, said Study Committee member Phillip Poole. Poole is also the lead development executive at Townsite Co., the company in charge of the Museum Place development at the intersection of Camp Bowie Boulevard, West Seventh Street and University Drive, also known as the Six Points Intersection.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
Login to Send PM
dallasnews.com wrote Fort Worth considers streetcar system to connect downtown, urban villages
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
By JEFF MOSIER
Eight of the nine Fort Worth City Council members are among a delegation flying to the Pacific Northwest this week to tour several municipal streetcar systems.
The city is considering the creation of a streetcar system to connect downtown with nearby urban villages as well as a planned commuter rail line.
The 47-member delegation, which includes both city and business officials, will tour the streetcar systems in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., and Portland, Ore. The city is paying $25,000 of the costs for the trip. About $35,000 will come from private donations.
The research trip will last Thursday through Saturday. City officials said they hope to get some ideas about costs and benefits of such systems and what areas would be ideal for a starter line.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Cyclist
Peach District (State of Mind)
Login to Send PM
Walker wrote
dallasnews.com wrote Fort Worth considers streetcar system to connect downtown, urban villages
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
By JEFF MOSIER
Eight of the nine Fort Worth City Council members are among a delegation flying to the Pacific Northwest this week to tour several municipal streetcar systems.
The city is considering the creation of a streetcar system to connect downtown with nearby urban villages as well as a planned commuter rail line.
The 47-member delegation, which includes both city and business officials, will tour the streetcar systems in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., and Portland, Ore. The city is paying $25,000 of the costs for the trip. About $35,000 will come from private donations.
The research trip will last Thursday through Saturday. City officials said they hope to get some ideas about costs and benefits of such systems and what areas would be ideal for a starter line.
Didn't the Coleman administration also go up to Portland to inspect the system? Seattle and Tacoma have incredibly small systems, shorter than Cols. proposal. These places also have Amrack and commuter rail.
The cool thing about Potland's MAX is that the light rail lines actually enter and run on city streets in some places. So they occasionally act like streetcars even though they are light rail.
Posted 3 years ago # -
johnwirtz
Evanston, IL
Login to Send PM
WFAA wrote
Competition heats up over Fort Worth streetcar route
03:41 PM CST on Tuesday, November 18, 2008
By CHRIS HAWES / WFAA-TV
Streetcars may be back on Fort Worth streets soon.
Fort Worth isn't talking about any streetcar you've seen in this area.
It would actually look a bit like light rail.
But the advantage is, it doesn't need a separate lane with track built, which makes it cheaper.
Seattle-style street cars, sleek and modern, is what's being considered for Fort Worth.
Council's expected to vote on whether to move forward next month and that's when the debate should really begin.
At issue is which neighborhood gets the streetcar first.
"These opportunities only present themselves once in a lifetime, so if we do this now, in the near term future, we'll be way ahead of the curve," said South Fairmount homeowner, Fred Harper.
Harper wants to fight for his neighborhood and the southern option, which brings the line through the hospital district.
"It's a heck of an opportunity for us, we know that," he said.
Other corridor options include going west along Seventh Avenue through the cultural district, East on Rosedale and North Main Street, to the Stockyards.
The choice of where to start will make or break the streetcar's future.
The price is not cheap - up to about $100 million per corridor.
How is the city justifying the expense?
"One of the reasons that this is an important expenditure is that it allows us to create the development that will fund future development, other infrastructure needs that we have," said Joel Burns, Fort Worth city councilmember for District 9.
"How can we not afford to do it? We are very congested," said Sal Espino, Fort Worth city councilmember for District 2.
Both council members predict Fort Worth could have a streetcar in Fort Worth within five years.
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa081118_lj_hawes.1c5da443c.html
Posted 3 years ago # -
michaelcoyote
!seabus
Login to Send PM
Cyclist wrote
The cool thing about Potland's MAX is that the light rail lines actually enter and run on city streets in some places. So they occasionally act like streetcars even though they are light rail.
Yeah, I agree that this is cool, but the MAX only really runs a small part of it's network on the street, and most of that is downtown (i.e. Pioneer Sqr. or Lloyd Center). Most of the MAX network is on separate light rail tracks. There are long stretches that do parallel streets and highways in some areas but do not share.
To my mind this is the best setup we could ask for. I'd prefer a MAX type system to streetcar any day of the week.
(in b4 "but they defeated light rail 10 years ago when gas was $.89/gal, ecology was a fringe issue and the political climate was totally different so it would never work now!!!111eleven")
Posted 3 years ago # -
johnwirtz
Evanston, IL
Login to Send PM
Star-Telegram.com wrote Fort Worth unveils plan for limited streetcar system
By MIKE LEE
FORT WORTH — For the first time, Fort Worth officials unveiled a plan showing how a limited streetcar system could be built, including preliminary routes and a way to pay for it.
It would still take about five years and $250 million to build the 12-mile system, and there’s a significant funding gap, according to Andy Taft, chairman of an 18-member task force that studied the idea.
But the plan is significant because it shows that a streetcar system is possible, he said.
"The committee identified within a pretty tight margin how we could possibly do it," Taft said. "It’s where we take Fort Worth, Texas, to the next step."
The task force and city staff recommended hiring a consultant with transit experience to help with the project. The plan recommends starting with a limited system:
A loop in downtown Fort Worth
A route along West Seventh Street to the Will Rogers Center and the University of North Texas campus
A route down South Main Street with a spur to Evans Avenue and Rosedale Street, and a connection to the medical district along Magnolia and Eighth avenues.
The plan has broad support among the City Council — whose members inspected similar systems in Seattle; Tacoma, Wash.; and Portland, Ore., earlier this year.
Being left out
Council members Kathleen Hicks and Sal Espino, though, questioned why the original routes left out low-income neighborhoods on the north and southeast sides of town.
"That area of the city has the highest ridership of public transit," Hicks said.
Future routes would run further along East Rosedale to serve southeast Fort Worth and along North Main Street to the Stockyards on the north side.
The trains would run on existing streets and are designed to supplement buses and other forms of transit. It would be a separate system from commuter trains, such as the Trinity Railway Express, that run on existing railroad tracks and are intended to carry large numbers of people over long distances.
Working together
Councilman Joel Burns said it’s important that the different systems work together.
"It’s got to be right outside the door. That’s the way you get a nurse who lives in Bedford to ride the TRE, get the streetcar and take it to his or her job at the hospital," he said.
The biggest source of capital funding — $89 million — would come from the existing tax increment financing districts that already pay for extra amenities. The downtown improvement district also would kick in money.
About $97 million would come from the city, Tarrant County, gas well revenue and hotel taxes. But that level of funding would require expanding the tax districts and possibly changing state law to allow an increase in hotel taxes.
The funding gap — $64 million — is equivalent to the cost of three miles of track, Taft said.
Posted 3 years ago # -
somertimeoh
Harrison West
Login to Send PM
That's awesome! I take the DART (light rail) in to downtown Dallas to go see my friends. So with these new routes we could pick up the Trinity to FTW and then just ride the streetcar all around their downtown. Way better than paying the expensive cabs or having to figure out a DD! 5 years isn't all that far away. Good for them!
Posted 3 years ago # -
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
Login to Send PM
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Fort Worth City Council Smothers Streetcar in Its Crib
by Angie Schmitt on December 8, 2010Sound planning suffered a setback last night in Fort Worth, Texas, where the City Council abruptly pulled the plug on a streetcar proposal, iterations of which have been germinating in the community for decades.
In a split decision last night, council members moved to halt the streetcar study prior to its final phase, due to “concerns over funding.†The project was expected to cost $88 million in total, according to The Star-Telegram.
READ MORE: http://streetsblog.net/2010/12/08/fort-worth-city-council-smothers-streetcar-in-its-crib/
Posted 1 year ago #
You must log in to post.
Launched in August 2010, TheMetropreneur.com is a local online resource devoted to small business development and entrepreneurship. Its aim is to tell the stories of Central Ohio's business community, foster regional economic development and assist entrepreneurs with its resource-heavy focus.