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- Oct 14, 2008
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The city of Fort Worth, Texas is looking to become the next American city to bring back streetcar service to its urban core. A city that tossed aside its original streetcar system decades ago, Fort Worth in the last several years has been undergoing a renaissance of its urban neighborhoods and Downtown. The success of revitalization that started with the Sundance Square district downtown has started spreading to the rest of downtown and spilling out into the surrounding districts thanks to a new planning department that has fully embraced urban reinvestment and new residents who have been desiring a choice apart from the usual suburban sprawl.
Now, the city is planning a modern streetcar system in the vein of Portland, Seattle, Tacoma, etc. Using modern European rolling stock, the streetcar system is planned to link Downtown and its surrounding districts. The new network builds on the routes of the old pre-war network to bring new life and activity to central city districts.
After extensive work by a city-appointed committee and various independent development organizations, the city has put together a starter system plan. It goes before the City Council tomorrow (Dec. 16) for approval to move forward with engineering and funding.
Here is a rough map (subject to final engineering in places especially in Downtown) of the starter system, the first phase:
(The exact route in Downtown is still being decided based on engineering reports but this is roughly how it will look. The routes extending out will be as shown.)
The plan creates a modern streetcar loop in Downtown Fort Worth. This loop links the Sundance Square district, the county government district, the city government district, and the South Downtown/Convention Center district. It also allows for an easy transfer from either the Texas & Pacific station (home to Trinity Railway Express commuter rail and later the new Southwest-to-Northeast commuter rail) or the Intermodal Transportation Center (home to Trinity Railway Express rail, Southwest-to-Northeast rail, Amtrak, and city bus service).
Branching out of the Downtown loop, one short extension runs north through into the Uptown/Trinity Bluff district down Samuels Avenue where extensive infill development is underway.
Heading west out of the Downtown loop down will be a line down West 7th Street to the Cultural District. This ties into the famed museums like the Kimbell, Carter, and Modern, as well as the Will Rogers Memorial Center and the extensive new infill happening on the 7th Street corridor. The line will run 7th Street to Montgomery to Lancaster to Currie and back to 7th into Downtown.
Finally, as part of the starter system there will be a line linking Downtown with the Near Southside. The Near Southside is the second largest employment center in the city behind Downtown, with over 30,000 employees thanks to the five large hospitals located in this district. It is now also the scene of new infill development thanks to the guiding hand of Fort Worth South, Inc., an organization encouraging new walkable and transit-oriented infill development in the district. This line will run out of Downtown down South Main, then down Magnolia Avenue (the bustling indie offbeat heart of the district), then up 7th Avenue and Terrell before going back (this may be changed to go up 7th Avenue to Cooper and over to the planned Southwest-to-Northeast commuter rail station in this district). This line will hit all five of the major hospitals (John Peter Smith, Baylor All-Saints, Harris Methodist, Cook Childrens, and Plaza) as well as popular destinations on Magnolia and existing historic neighborhoods and new infill.
An extension off the Near Southside route would run the system east to Evans & Rosedale as preparation for future expansion.
Future expansions would see lines running east down East Rosedale to Texas Wesleyan University, south from Magnolia down to Texas Christian University, north up North Main to the Stockyards, and perhaps west from the Cultural District down Camp Bowie and out northeast of Downtown to Race Street.
With a price tag of around $250 million the system is not exactly cheap, but the city is confident that funding can be had - and the intent is to avoid federal dollars. Part of the price is because the city wants to kick off with a fairly extensive system, hitting several major points to guarantee a strong start. Part of it is also an assumption of full double tracking for cost estimation purposes - several places could be effectively done with single track at first to reduce cost, but the desire was to estimate with the upper range of price. Estimations of time vary, but are generally from 2 years to launch on the near side to 5 years to launch on the long side with desires running strong to shorten the time as much as possible.
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