 | This article has no lead section .(July 2024) |
| | This article has no lead section .(July 2024) |
In 2000, the boards of Spokane Transit Authority and Spokane Regional Transportation Council established a steering committee, formally known as the Light Rail Steering Committee, to evaluate a high-capacity transit route between Downtown Spokane and Liberty Lake [1] to serve the growing I-90 corridor through the Spokane metropolitan area.
The vision for a regional light rail system consisted of a line that would serve urban development along the east-west I-90 corridor, connecting Spokane to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and a second line serving North Spokane. [2]
Early efforts focused on developing an initial line from Downtown Spokane to Liberty Lake. Future extensions would length the line west to Spokane International Airport and east to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. A future line serving North Spokane would largely run along the North Spokane Corridor, which was originally designed to accommodate a high-capacity transit line (such as light rail) in its median. [3]
Culminating six years of study, the Light Rail Steering Committee made a final recommendation to the STA and SRTC of vehicle type and alignment. The final recommendation called for the light rail to run along a 15.5-mile alignment from Downtown Spokane to Liberty Lake, with 14 stations. As part of an effort to contain costs, the system would utilize diesel multiple unit light rail train sets (eliminating the need for overhead electric infrastructure), and its alignment would largely consist of a single, bi-directional shared track, with areas of a second passing track. [4] [5]
The proposed light rail line would have consisted of 14 stations, [6] 7 of which would have included park and rides:
| Station | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| STA Plaza | Riverside Avenue, between Post Street and Wall Street | Western Terminus |
| Convention Center | Riverside Avenue, between Bernard Street and Browne Street | Stretch of roadway now hosts the westbound Riverside & Bernard City Line station |
| Riverpoint (Trent) | On undeveloped land north of BNSF railway tracks on WSU Spokane campus | Serving the Riverpoint Higher Education Park and University District |
| Napa | Riverside Avenue, just east of Napa Street | |
| East Central | On undeveloped land in the Union Pacific Railroad right of way, just east of Freya Street | |
| Fairgrounds | South side of Spokane County Fair and Expo Center site | Proposed Park and Ride |
| Park | On undeveloped land in Union Pacific | Option to construct as a future infill station |
| Argonne | Intersection of Argonne Road and Appleway Boulevard | Proposed Park and Ride |
| University City | Adjacent to Pence-Cole Valley Transit Center | Shared park and ride facility with existing transit center |
| Pines | On undeveloped land in abandoned railroad right of way at intersection east of Pines Road | Proposed Park and Ride |
| Evergreen | On undeveloped land in abandoned railroad right of way at intersection east of Evergreen Road | |
| Sullivan | On undeveloped land in abandoned railroad right of way at intersection with Sullivan Road | Proposed Park and Ride |
| Appleway | On undeveloped land near I-90/Appleway interchange | Proposed Park and Ride |
| Liberty Lake | Adjacent to existing STA Liberty Lake Park and Ride | Eastern Terminus, shared park and ride facility, with option to redevelop existing park and ride |
In August 2006, following the final project recommendations of the Light Rail Steering Committee, the Spokane Transit Authority Board approved two advisory questions to appear in November 2006 general election ballots. The first question would inquire voters about tasking STA to develop a funding plan for the project. The second question would ask voters if STA should use an existing $5 million worth of funds to start preliminary engineering work. The advisory questions would be used by STA to gauge the community's desire to continue to develop the project. [7]
Both advisory measures were defeated by voters. The first question regarding development of a funding plan failed 54% to 46%, and the vote using existing funds to continue with preliminary engineering, design and environmental analysis lost, albeit by a narrow margin, 52% to 48%. [8]
Going into the election, it was felt that the defeat of both advisory questions would put a pause to the project. [7]
The Light Rail Steering Committee was officially disbanded in December 2016, just one month after Spokane County voters turned down two advisory votes to advance the proposed light rail project. [9]
In an effort to leave open the possibility of revisiting the light rail proposal in the future, the STA Board voted to approve $5 million to help support right of way acquisition along the route's proposed alignment. [9]
Rail-based urban transportation had historically been a part of Spokane's development in the early 20th century, with numerous streetcars and trolleys running through the city's core. However, as the automobile gained in popularity throughout the century, the streetcars and their tracks were eventually phased out in favor of buses. [10]
In 1999, a revival of rail transit in Spokane was discussed, with vision documents in Spokane's Downtown Plan [11] calling for the development of a modern streetcar line in Downtown Spokane. By the early 2000s, Local leaders in Spokane, representing three the Downtown Spokane Partnership, Spokane Regional Transportation Council, and Spokane Transit Authority partnered to study the feasibility of implementing a fixed-rail streetcar system in Downtown Spokane. Citing benefits from the Portland Streetcar, which opened in 2001, leaders were drawn the potential for the project to spur investment and development in Downtown Spokane. [12]
In 2005, the vision to develop a streetcar line was officially adopted as a project by Spokane Transit Authority [11] and the agency commissioned a streetcar feasibility study in partnership with other local transportation and planning agencies. The report, titled Spokane Streetcar Feasibility Study, was released in March 2006 and studied a number of topics related to installing a streetcar line in Spokane, including potential routes, alignments, vehicles, costs, and urban development potential. [13]
Alignments would have run primarily within the right of way on existing streets through Spokane, providing easy customer access and having little impact on curbside downtown parking. [12]
The geography of Downtown Spokane and its surrounding areas is bisected by the Spokane River, with major destinations and points of interest on either side of it. With limited opportunities for a streetcar to cross the river and connect these destinations, the feasibility study proposed a strategy that utilized multiple streetcar lines to move people between these destinations. Separate lines would serve key areas north of the river, such as the Spokane County Government Center and the Spokane Arena, and areas south of the river such as the Browne's Addition neighborhood, Downtown Core, and University District. [12] To facilitate transfers, the two lines would intersect and cross over one another in Downtown Spokane. [13]
Visualizations of the streetcar's alignment were included in the feasibility study, several of which highlighted the never-built northern line and its transformative presence through Riverfront Park and along Mallon Avenue in front of the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. [13]
A total of five alignment alternatives were developed as part of the study and focused on serving neighborhoods and areas within the immediate vicinity of the Downtown Spokane core, including Browne's Addition to the west; North Bank, Spokane County government campus, and Kendall Yards to the north; University District to the east, and Medical District to the south:
Spokane's streetcar feasibility study evolved into Spokane's first bus rapid transit line, City Line.
Outcomes of the Spokane Streetcar Feasibility Study were adopted into a project in 2011, with a working title of the Central City Line. A preliminary alignment would run from Browne's Addition, through the Downtown Core, to the University District, with a proposed extension continuing further east to Spokane Community College. [11]
The mode of transportation for the Central City Line evolved from the feasibility study's fixed-rail streetcar into a lower-cost trolleybus. However, despite the change in vehicle type, local business community maintained that the vehicles needed to electric and appear streetcar and train-like. Inspired by aesthetic appeal of trolley buses in Europe, early visions for the project called for utilizing a modern trolley bus in order to differentiate the project from traditional-looking North American trolleybuses. [11]
Further evolutions to the project resulted in the Central City Line ultimately becoming a bus rapid transit line utilizing battery-electric buses.
City Line opened on July 15, 2023, as the region's first bus rapid transit line.
Spokane Transit Authority has begun work on the region's second bus rapid transit line, to be operated on Division Street from Downtown Spokane to the northern areas of Spokane.
Spokane Transit Authority, more commonly Spokane Transit or STA, is the public transport authority of central Spokane County, Washington, United States, serving Spokane, Washington, and its surrounding urban areas. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 9,215,700, or about 34,400 per weekday as of the first quarter of 2024.
The North–South Rail Link (NSRL) was a proposed rail tunnel, or pair of tunnels, that would connect North Station and South Station in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, linking rail networks that serve the city's northern suburbs, New Hampshire, and Maine with the rest of the country. The project would build new underground stations near the existing stations, connect them with about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of tunnels, and add other tunnels to link up with existing surface tracks.
The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. The Trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc., is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS). The trolley operates as a critical component of the MTS, with connections to and integrated travel tickets with the local bus systems.
The Urban Ring was a proposed project of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, to develop new public transportation routes that would provide improved circumferential connections among many existing transit lines that project radially from downtown Boston. The Urban Ring Corridor is located roughly one to two miles from downtown Boston, passing through the Massachusetts cities of Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Medford, Somerville, Cambridge, and Brookline. The project was expected to convert 41,500 car trips to transit trips daily.
The MAX Green Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It is 15 miles (24.1 km) long and serves 30 stations from the PSU South stations to Clackamas Town Center Transit Center; it connects Portland State University (PSU), Portland City Center, Northeast Portland, Southeast Portland, and Clackamas. The Green Line is the only service that shares parts of its route with the four other MAX services, sharing the Portland Transit Mall with the Orange and Yellow lines and the Banfield segment of the Eastside MAX with the Blue and Red lines. Southbound from Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center, it operates the Interstate 205 (I-205) segment through to Clackamas Town Center. Service runs for approximately 211⁄2 hours daily with a headway of 15 minutes during most of the day. It is the third-busiest line in the system, carrying an average of 19,160 riders per day on weekdays in September 2019.
The Red Line is a proposed light rail line for Baltimore, Maryland. The original project was granted federal approval to enter the preliminary engineering phase and the Maryland Transit Administration had spent roughly $300 million in planning, design and land acquisition, until Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared his intent to not provide state funds for the project and shift state funding to roads in suburban areas. The original Red Line had been projected to cost roughly $1.6 billion, $900 million of which would have been guaranteed federal funding. Its construction had been estimated to begin in late 2015–early 2016, subject to funding, with a completion date set for late 2021–early 2022.
The Chicago Central Area Transit Plan, generally referred to as the Chicago Central Area Transit Project (CCATP) in the 1970s, was an extensive study of the rapid transit system in downtown Chicago; the study had begun in 1965.
The Relief Line was a proposed rapid transit line for the Toronto subway system, intended to provide capacity relief to the Yonge segment of Line 1 and Bloor–Yonge station and extend subway service coverage in the city's east end. Several plans for an east–west downtown subway line date back to the early 20th century, most of which ran along Queen Street.
The Bottineau LRT is a proposed light rail line extension in the Minneapolis – Saint Paul Metro area, projected to run northwest from Target Field station in downtown Minneapolis along County Road 81 to Brooklyn Park.
The Riverview Corridor is a transit corridor connecting Downtown Saint Paul and the Mall of America in Bloomington via the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. The corridor serves an area from the Saint Paul Union Depot to the Mall via a route along West 7th Street, which runs southwest from Downtown Saint Paul. The corridor creates a triangle connecting opposite ends of the Blue Line and Green Line.
Streetcars originally operated in Atlanta downtown and into the surrounding areas from 1871 until the final line's closure in 1949.
The Silver Line is a 2.7-mile (4.3 km) heritage streetcar line operated by the San Diego Trolley, an operating division of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System. It currently operates the "downtown loop"; a circle of tracks around Downtown San Diego, and is operated using renovated historic vehicles. The line is one of four lines in the Trolley system, sharing tracks of the other lines; the other three lines are the Blue, Orange, and Green lines.
Streetcars were the primary mode of public transport in Tacoma, Washington, United States from the late 1800s until their discontinuance in 1938. Operated together with a network of interurbans, streetcars provided transport within Tacoma and throughout the Puget Sound region. Buses replaced the last streetcars in 1938. Streetcar-type transportation returned to Tacoma in 2003 with the opening of the Tacoma Link, a 4-mile (6.4 km) light rail line in Downtown Tacoma. There are proposals both to expand this system and to construct a new heritage streetcar system.
The GRTC Pulse is a bus rapid transit line in Richmond, Virginia, United States, operated by the Greater Richmond Transit Company. The line runs along Broad Street and Main Street in central Richmond, between The Shops at Willow Lawn and Rockett's Landing. It opened on June 24, 2018, and is the third bus rapid transit service to be constructed in Virginia. The Pulse is the first regional rapid transit system to serve Richmond since 1949. The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), under its BRT Standard, has given the Pulse corridor a Bronze ranking.
The O-Train is a light rail rapid transit system in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, operated by OC Transpo. The O-Train system has two lines, the electrically-operated Confederation Line and the diesel-operated Trillium Line. Since May 2020, Stage 2 construction has temporarily shut down Line 2, with replacement bus service being offered at all stations. When Line 2 reopens in 2024, it will extend southward to Limebank station and incorporate five newly constructed stations, as well as an additional line linking Line 2 to Ottawa International Airport which will replace the current bus service from route 97. By 2026, expansions along Line 1 and the construction of Line 3 stations in the west end are expected to be complete, bringing the system's length to 64.5 km (40.1 mi), four lines and 41 stations. The O-Train network is fully grade separated and does not have any level crossings with roads.
The OC Streetcar is a modern streetcar line currently under construction in Orange County, California, running through the cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove. The electric-powered streetcar will be operated by the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), and will serve ten stops in each direction along its 4.15-mile (6.68 km) route.
The City Line is a bus rapid transit (BRT) line in Spokane, Washington, United States, that opened on July 15, 2023. The 6-mile-long (9.7 km) route, which is operated by the Spokane Transit Authority, runs from Spokane's Browne's Addition neighborhood, through Downtown Spokane and the University District, including the WSU Health Sciences campus and Gonzaga University, before ending at the Spokane Community College campus in the Chief Garry Park neighborhood. The project budget as of 2023 was $92.2 million.
Pence-Cole Valley Transit Center is a transit center and former proposed site of a light rail station in the Spokane Transit Authority route system. It is one of Spokane Transit's three primary transit centers, along with the Spokane Community College and STA Plaza, and is the main transit hub for Spokane Valley.
The Southeast Gateway Line, formerly the West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor, is a planned light rail line, mostly following the Pacific Electric's historic West Santa Ana Branch, connecting Downtown Los Angeles to the city of Artesia, along with other cities in southeastern Los Angeles County.
Division Bus Rapid Transit, also known as Division BRT, is the working name for a planned bus rapid transit line in Spokane, Washington that will extend 9 miles from Downtown Spokane to the Mead, Washington area, north of Spokane. The line will be operated by Spokane Transit Authority, with a planned launch in 2027, and will be the region's second bus rapid transit line, after the City Line.