Corpus Christi — Streetcar Support

Rail Transit Online, June 2004

The city council on May 11 passed a resolution in support of a proposed downtown streetcar line but with a proviso that that tracks not be placed along the downtown bay front.  The lawmakers’ support extends only to words and not to money.  The resolution makes it clear that the city would not provide any funding for the project.  That places the Regional Transportation Authority in a tough spot because at least 20 percent of the estimated $30-million capital cost would have to be generated by local sources.  The remainder is expected to come from Washington.  “We as a community need to make a decision about how it will be funded,” RTA General Manager Linda Watson told the Caller-Times.  “The RTA can't do it alone.”  The two-mile (3.2 km) line would start at a new baseball park, cut through downtown and end up at City Hall.  The proposal ran into its first serious political opposition at the council’s Apr. 27 meeting when PB Consult, hired by RTA to develop route alternatives, suggested using either the Shoreline Boulevard median or Water and Chaparral streets, where the trolleys would operate in mixed traffic (see RTOL, May 2004).  Several council members said they would not support the streetcar if it was decided to place it on Shoreline.