Little Rock — Streetcar Grant OK

Rail Transit Online, October, 2005

The Federal Transit Administration on Sept. 9 released a long-awaited $5.9-million grant to extend the River Rail streetcar to the Clinton Presidential Center and the headquarters of Heifer International, a hunger relief agency.  The $9.2-million project includes approximately a half-mile (0.8 km) of double track along Commerce and Third streets and two new replica Birney streetcars, which are already on order from Gomaco Trolley Co. and scheduled to arrive by next March.  The total federal share of Phase 2 is $7.1 million, with the remainder being contributed by the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock and Pulaski County.  Central Arkansas Transit Authority Executive Director Keith Jones said he was ready to immediately begin seeking bids for track and overhead power line construction, adding that the extension could be open in about a year.  “If they can get the special track work and switches sooner, it might be faster,” Jones told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.  “We won’t know that until we have a contractor on board.”  Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey praised the project and said he wants “…to take this on out to the airport.”
 

Little Rock — Streetcar Extension OKd

Rail Transit Online, November, 2005

The Central Arkansas Transit Authority Board of Directors on Oct. 18 voted to authorize a $5.78-million pact with Mobley Contractors Inc. for trackwork and the traction power system of the approximately half-mile (0.8 km) double-track River Rail streetcar extension along Commerce and Third streets to the Bill Clinton Presidential Center and the headquarters of Heifer International, a hunger relief agency.  Revenue service is scheduled for November 2006.  CATA still needs Federal Transit Administration approval because Mobley, which built the initial 2.5-mi. (4 km) line, was the lone bidder.  Meanwhile, a trolley replica bus began covering the route in early October and has been carrying higher-than-expected passenger loads.