Moving Forward with Streetcars

Moving Forward

by John Ross

January 18, 2007

Since April 2006, the idea of streetcars remained in the pleasant but distant vacuum of the Downtown Streetcar Project Working Group, transportation experts trying to decide whether the city and its residents were ready for a new form of mass transit.

This dream, pushed hard during the past year by Mayor Michael Coleman, took one step closer to cracking asphalt last week with the selection of a steering committee to determine whether financial backing for the proposal is possible.

“Columbus is the kind of city that has to see it, touch it, feel it before they understand exactly what it is,” he said. “So my proposal is to build a streetcar system beginning with High Street, which is the spine of the city.”

After giving a speech at the Columbus Convention Center Monday morning, the mayor sat down with Alive to describe his vision.

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