Providence wins $13 million federal grant to build streetcar system between East Side and Upper South Providence

STREETCARS EMERGE from the East Side bus tunnel at the intersection of Fones Alley and Thayer Street on College Hill in this conception of what the potential streetcar project would mean in Providence. / COURTESY KLOPPER MARTIN DESIGN GROUP AND PROVIDENCE PLANNING DEPARTMENT
STREETCARS EMERGE from the East Side bus tunnel at the intersection of Fones Alley and Thayer Street on College Hill in this conception of what the potential streetcar project would mean in Providence. / COURTESY KLOPPER MARTIN DESIGN GROUP AND PROVIDENCE PLANNING DEPARTMENT

PROVIDENCE – The city has won a $13 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant to build a streetcar system between the East Side and Upper South Providence, officials announced Thursday.

The grant, through the federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, would pay for 11 percent of the estimated $117.8 million cost of the streetcar line and is less than half of the $29 million in federal funds the city had applied for, according to a news release from U.S. Rep. David N. Cicilline’s office.

The city had intended to pay for 34 percent of the project, then estimated at $114.7 million, with federal funds; 47 percent through tax increment financing; 13 percent with state R.I. Capital Plan funds; 5 percent with R.I. Public Transit Agency funds and 1 percent with a state land transfer.

Ongoing operating expenses were estimated at $3.13 million.

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City officials could not be immediately reached for comment on how that plan will change with the smaller federal award or what the next steps of planning will be.

The $13 million TIGER award for the streetcar came on the city’s second try.

Last year the city’s $39 million bid was turned down when the state won a $10 million TIGER grant for the Apponaug Circulator project now underway in Warwick. At the time Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee had said the streetcar plan was not “shovel ready.”

This year the state also put in a competing TIGER application – to add a two-lane ramp on Interstate 95 between Exit 22 and Charles Street in Providence – but did not actively lobby against the city’s bid.

The current streetcar plan calls for a 2.5-mile trolley line starting next to Rhode Island Hospital and crossing the Jewelry District, through downtown and Kennedy Plaza, and then ascending College Hill through the RIPTA tunnel to Thayer Street. City planners hope to expand the network in the future.

Aside from the stretch in the tunnel, the streetcar would mix with traffic.

With the help of federal dollars, mixed-traffic streetcar lines have sprung up in several cities in recent years, but faced criticism over their cost and relatively slow speeds.

Candidates for governor this year have largely ignored the Providence streetcar plan.

TIGER grants began as part of the federal stimulus program during the recession. Rhode Island previously received grants of $22.3 million for port infrastructure at Quonset Business Park, $10.5 million for the Port of Providence and $10 million for the Providence Viaduct, in addition to the Apponaug Circulator.

“This TIGER grant is a first step forward toward making Providence’s streetcar proposal a reality,” Providence Mayor Angel Taveras said in the news release. “The initial investment is recognition of the streetcar’s potential to boost economic development in Providence.”

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  1. Streetcars will be too expensive and make Providence’s crowded streets more dangerous. A better way to go would be to look into Raytheon’s PRT-2000 monorail, personal rapid transit system. Raytheon gave up on this system because of the cost to make it handicapped accessible. Maybe this problem could be solved today. This small size of this system and low cost would work in thie downtown area and on existing rights of way. Ken Berwick