Streetcar Design Specs

Tucson officials working on the modern streetcar project have been travelling to Portland, Ore., every six weeks to finalize design plans, review materials changes and — perhaps most importantly — ride the City of Roses’ much-lauded transit system.

“We’ve gotten a lot of ideas from that, from observing,” said Shellie Ginn, the transportation project manager overseeing the streetcar.
Based on those observations, officials decided to minimize seating because of the expected frequent wheelchair use of the service, and they decided to put the fare boxes at the stops rather than on the cars themselves.

The official purpose of the visits is to get a progress report from United Streetcar, a subsidiary of Oregon Iron Works and the company that won the contract to build Tucson’s seven modern streetcars. It’s a time when city officials discuss technicalities with the builders and federal government overseers involved in all similar projects using federal transportation funds.

“They’ve been so helpful,” Ginn said of the federal consultants. “They’re really experts in the field; they know where the problems are,” having borne witness to innumerable technical decisions in many of the county’s other light rail and streetcar construction processes.

Tucson employees, by contrast, are new to the game, but they are taking every opportunity they can to scrutinize systems already in place and to learn from them.

Portland, by virtue of its status as home of a major contractor, is Exhibit No. 1.

The vehicles that will eventually share traffic with downtown’s cars and trucks, pedestrians and bicycles are at the most fundamental level the same streetcars sliding through Portland’s streets.

They will be 65 feet long and double ended, meaning that either end of the car can serve as the “front,” from which the driver operates the vehicle.

There will be doors on both sides of the car for boarding and exiting and a low floor with a plate that will slide out to cover the two-inch gap between the streetcar and the curb, making access easier for people in wheelchairs and those bringing along bicycles.

Tucson’s streetcars will likely have little seating to make room for all those wheels and ease on and off traffic. Seating will be clustered at the car’s two ends, Ginn said, though the details are not yet set.
Oregon Iron Works estimates the cars’ capacity at 135 people, but Ginn said observation has shown some 160 people packed into vehicles during periods of heavy traffic.

Perhaps the most significant difference between the streetcars that will ultimately run in the two cities is in their heating and cooling capacities. Tucson’s streetcars will feature tinted windows and much stronger air conditioning, an extra unit hoisted onto the car’s roof.

From the outside, the vehicles will look a lot like Sun Tran buses, swathed in silver and blue.
United Streetcar still has about five more vehicles to build for Portland’s system before it gets to constructing Tucson’s, another blessing in Ginn’s eyes. “We really want to learn from experience,” she said.

The vehicle design process should wrap in about two months, and officials will turn more of their attention to the operations plan. They will outline requirements for streetcar operators (who will not likely double as bus drivers), solidify hours of service, determine safety and security procedures and lay out the operational budget.

Another operational question still unanswered is whether Old Pueblo Trolley will be permitted to run their historic streetcars on the new rail lines. “We’d love to see them operate, but they may not be able to” because of federal and state safety regulations, Ginn said.

Dick Guthrie, a past president of Old Pueblo Trolley, an all-volunteer group, characterized the question differently. He said the group had already spoken to consultants about the changes necessary to get its vintage vehicles running — for its most-used car, a parking brake and low air alarm — and that the fixes would be completed within two years. He said his group was not in regular consultation with city officials about the planning process.

In related news:
• Work on the 8th Street Drainage Project will continue through late February. Intersections between 6th and 3rd Avenues and 6th Street to Stevens Avenue will be closed part or all of that time, and parking on 4th Avenue between 6th and 8th Streets will be restricted.
• Councilman Steve Kozachik is warning business owners along the streetcar route that they could face problems upgrading utilities or infrastructure in the future because of federal obligations to keep the streetcar running. He suggests business owners near the route call Max Torres in the Transportation Department for details at 791-4371.
• To stay on top of news about Tucson’s modern streetcar, visit TucsonStreetcar.com. You can subscribe to the city’s email newsletter, become a fan of the streetcar Facebook page and get updates via Twitter.