Rock Hill, SC  — Streetcar Plans Dead?

April 2016

A proposal for a streetcar line at the planned Knowledge Park business plaza in Rock Hill, a South Carolina city of about 66,000 only 25 miles south of Charlotte, N.C., either in limbo or dead altogether, The Herald newspaper reports. It had been seen aa a connection to Winthrop University and an economic development driver with the Little Rock heritage streetcar system as a model.

The proposed streetcar is no longer seen as the economic driver to bring people to the Knowledge Park. Instead, a planned indoor sports complex will be the draw, regularly attracting people to the Knowledge Park, between the university and downtown.

“The streetcar is where it has always been, in its discovery phase,” City Manager David Vehaun is quoted as saying. Vehaun said there are no current plans – or timetable – to resume a study of the streetcar or other transportation alternatives.

An engineering firm studying transportation modes for the Winthrop-downtown link, was told to stop its work at the end of 2015 and issue a report of what it has found so far. The city is still waiting for the report from HDR Inc.