Tacoma — Tacoma Streetcars Enroute

Rail Transit Online, August 2002

The three Skoda Astra streetcars destined to operate the Tacoma Link downtown circulator are headed for the United States.  A ship carrying the vehicles, which cost $3 million each, was scheduled to depart the port of Antwerp, Belgium, on July 26, headed for the Panama Canal.  Depending on weather conditions, the Norwegian vessel should arrive at the port of Tacoma in early September.  The photo shows the cars, loaded on special flatbed trucks, being readied to leave the Skoda manufacturing facility in Plzen, Czech Republic, for Antwerp.  The 1.6-mi. (2.57 km) Tacoma Link is scheduled to open in September 2003, shuttling between the Tacoma Dome Intermodal Transportation Center and the Broadway Theater District.