NATIONAL HEADLINE:
St. Louis Streetcar Project Running Out of Juice
Loop Trolley in St. Louis is out of money, highlighting risks of reviving old-fashioned service
St. Louis Streetcar Project Running Out of Juice Loop Trolley in downtown St. Louis is out of money, highlighting risks of reviving old-fashioned service
The Loop Trolley, seen Jan. 3, 2019 in the University City section of St. Louis, is about to hit the end of the line unless it secures more funding.
By Joe Barrett Nov. 1, 2019 7:00 am ET
St. Louis business leaders looking to boost tourism and development spent years bringing the Loop Trolley to fruition, a $52 million streetcar project that runs for 2.2 miles between a historic park and an entertainment-and-business district on the edge of the city.
But it has been a bumpy ride, and now it may have reached a dead end.
The trolley, after just a year of offering limited service, is out of money. The nonprofit that operates the trolley is seeking $700,000 in local funds to continue, or else the service is set to close this month.
Backers say such a cash infusion could keep the system afloat until it receives a refurbished third trolley car early next year, enabling it to expand to full-time service by spring. They say the trolley has already spurred economic development along the route and could be the first step in a more extensive system.
“It would be a horrible shame for the trolley to shut down before the system would even have a chance to demonstrate its value,” said John Meyer, president of the all-volunteer board for Loop Trolley Co., the nonprofit that runs the service.
Not everyone has jumped on board. Some officials have tweeted under #boondoggle to mock the usefulness of the streetcar, which has attracted much lower ridership than envisioned.
“Realistically, it’s a tourist attraction and not that good of one at any rate,” said Tim Fitch, a St. Louis County commissioner, who opposes spending more than the $3 million the county has already kicked in for the project.
Streetcars have been making a comeback in cities across the U.S., as government and business leaders seek new ways to draw people to downtowns. Some, like the ones in St. Louis, resemble the fin-de-siècle versions from the streetcar’s heyday. Others are sleek and modern.
Restaurant diners watched the streetcar go by in November 2018; a 1% sales-tax on businesses along the route has generated close to $700,000 since last year’s opening.
The U.S. Transportation Department has awarded more than $1 billion to 18 streetcar projects across the country since 2009, a spokesman for the department said.
The St. Louis project received a $25 million federal grant in 2010, part of a first wave of federal grants awarded in the wake of the financial crisis.
“They were trying to push dollars out in the street to stimulate the economy,” said Jeffrey Boothe, executive director of the Community Streetcar Coalition, which advocates for streetcars. He said some of the projects approved at the time hadn’t done enough analysis or were being proposed by entities that had never operated a transit system before.
The federal government now requires more rigor in its grant applications, he said. “We can chalk it up to lessons learned,” Mr. Boothe said.
The most successful trolley projects, like those in Seattle and Portland, are fully integrated into the existing transportation infrastructure, generating traffic from more than just tourists, said Jeff Brown, chairman of the department of urban and regional planning at Florida State University.
At St. Louis streetcar around 1890; today, the imperiled Loop Trolley project highlights the risk in reviving historic features.
The Embark streetcar project in Oklahoma City, built entirely with local funds, has attracted local-business sponsorships totaling $500,000 and spurred development along its two routes, said Michael Scroggins, a spokesman for the project. Ridership has been around 37,000 a month since it launched in December, he said.
There was a certain appeal to bringing a trolley back to St. Louis, site of the movie “Meet Me in St. Louis,” featuring Judy Garland singing the famous “Trolley Song” (“Clang, clang, clang went the trolley….”).
But the St. Louis trolley has had a rough start.
The nonprofit began hiring staff in late 2016, expecting it would be operating by spring 2017. But testing on its refurbished streetcars was still under way in fall of 2017, and the group had burned through its cash. A local foundation came up with $500,000, but it was another year before the trolley finally began service in November 2018.
Only two cars were ready at the outset, so the system could operate only part-time. A third car was needed to be held in reserve for full-time service to assure reliability.
That has held back cumulative ridership to 15,766 since last November and fare income to $32,500 through September this year—much lower than what had been projected under a full-time schedule. The Loop Trolley has also brought in about $689,320 through a 1% sales-tax on businesses along the route, since it launched service last year.
When a third car finally arrived last January, the wheels weren’t compatible with the switches in the tracks, Loop Trolley Co.’s Mr. Meyer said. New wheels now are being forged and the refurbished third car is expected to arrive for testing in January, he said—but now the nonprofit doesn’t have the money to get there.
“The trolley can’t catch a break,” Mr. Meyer said.
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page says he wouldn’t support more funding unless other local entities also kick in.
St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson isn’t ruling it out.
“It’s always easiest to say no,” Mayor Krewson said in an interview, noting that backing away from the streetcar could imperil efforts to get other federal grants in the future. “We need to figure out how to make it work.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/st-louis-s ... listb_pos2
