Transportation planners have started to study a light-rail spur in Tempe that might reach Chandler — and maybe even within a stone’s throw of Scottsdale.
Tempe also has taken at least a cursory look at a trolley system that would serve downtown and part of the central city.
Both transportation projects are in the beginning stages of planning, but the efforts show how regional planners and Tempe are hoping mass transit can provide some relief to the Valley’s increasingly congested roads and freeways.
Valley Metro rail will begin the first extension of a 2-mile light-rail spur on Rural Road.
Metro officials thought at first that the extension would turn from the original light-rail line — now under construction on Apache Boulevard — by going south on Rural to Southern Avenue.
But Metro wants to expand the study area from Chandler Boulevard in Chandler to north Tempe, and perhaps even south Scottsdale. The study doesn’t necessarily mean light rail will be built in the entire study area, said Wolf Grote, Valley Metro Rail’s director of project development.
Grote said the study will explore everything from light rail to streetcars to various levels of bus service.
“I’m telling you where our starting point is but I don’t know where we’re going to end up,” Grote said.
The study will also look at routes parallel to Rural Road.
The study will attempt to predict ridership for various transit system options and estimate how much each would cost. That could result in just two miles of rail with bus service feeding into it, ditching light rail in favor of bus service or a longer rail line than originally envisioned.
Rail officials have funding for just two new miles of rail in this area, which is supposed to be built by 2015, so an additional rail would require cities to pay for the rest.
Chandler is eager for the study to start so it can eventually have a Metro line within its boundaries, said Mike Normand, a Chandler transportation planner.
The Rural Road/Scottsdale Road corridor is one of the East Valley’s most popular bus lines, he said, which makes it a good place to consider light rail.
Normand hesitated to say light rail is inevitable in Chandler. But he noted Chandler became the fifth city to join Metro’s board of directors this month, a sign light rail is likely.
“It’s probably 15, 20 years out but we do anticipate that eventually it will be extended,” Normand said.
That Rural Road plan does contain a potentially fatal flaw. The light-rail line would need to cross a railroad line south of Apache Boulevard, which requires a lengthy bridge that could prove to be cost prohibitive.
Another potential problem is ridership, said Glenn Kephart, Tempe’s public works director. A 2-mile line would serve the city’s library but no other major destination.
“There’s some merit but we’re not sure that the demand for that short of a segment is going to have a good enough cost benefit ratio,” Kephart said.
Those problems have already triggered suggestions the Rural Road spur should instead head north. The two miles would fall just short of Scottsdale’s border but some business leaders there have advocated bringing light rail at least to Arizona State University’s SkySong.
Light rail has triggered heated debates in Scottsdale, which is already studying transit systems on Scottsdale Road that could include light rail, a streetcar system or buses. Scottsdale’s transportation officials had just learned about the Metro study when contacted last week and haven’t had time yet to see if the City Council wants Metro to include Scottsdale in its study.
“We’re still sort of trying to sort out what kind of role we could play,” said Mary O’Connor, the Scottsdale’s transportation director.
The Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce has urged the city to explore rail or a streetcar but the City Council is sharply divided. The council is waiting for the results of citywide transportation plan before taking a position on light rail.
The Metro study could take up to two years, officials said.
Meanwhile, a trolley proposal has emerged in Tempe that has triggered some enthusiasm in the business community.
Stan Nicpon, owner of Pizzera Uno, has spent the last several months pitching a trolley plan as a way to get more people downtown without building more parking lots and further clogging roads.
The trolley would run on Mill Avenue from the Phoenix Zoo to Kiwanis Park and on University Drive from the Price Freeway leg of Loop 101 to the Phoenix border.
Another trolley line could run on Rio Salado Parkway.
The trolley would let people park in distant lots and reach downtown quickly, Nicpon said.
The trolley system would cost one-third as much as light rail, which runs $60-$75 million a mile. And the construction would be far easier and faster than light rail, he said.
Nicpon said he got the idea by seeing how trolleys work in places like Portland, Ore.
“They are so slick, they are so sassy,” Nicpon said. “They’re just wonderful.”
The trolley plan received good reviews from the Downtown Tempe Community, which counts Nicpon as a member. Community group members haven’t taken a formal position but members thought it would help the area’s parking problems, said Kate Hastings, a community group spokeswoman.
“The linkages the trolley system would make are really phenomenal,” she said. “Generally speaking, I think everybody has a feeling that it’s a pretty good idea.”
Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman said an initial city review confirmed Nicpon’s view that trolleys are far cheaper, and the mayor said the idea should be researched further. But other issues have to come first before the trolley plan gets a full-blown study, he said.
Part of the downtown congestion is from drivers who don’t take U.S. 60 or Interstate 10 because of the bottleneck at the Broadway curve. The city needs to know what improvements are in the works there so it knows whether downtown will still have lots of drivers passing through on long trips, Hallman said.
Also, Hallman said the city needs information from the larger Metro study to see what kind of transportation system that will produce. Even proposals for a regional commuter rail system need to be considered as part of the downtown issues, he said.
“The smaller, spot solutions don’t work very well unless we address the bigger picture traffic problems throughout Tempe, and that means dealing with the bigger picture across the south East Valley,” Hallman said.
Garin Groff, Tribune
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