Mid summer is prime time for big transit openings, and this weekend is a doozy. Three big projects around the US are opening today or tomorrow.
Left: Denver Union Station photo by Ryan Dravitz. Center: DC Silver Line photo by Fairfax County. Right: Tucson streetcar photo by Bill Morrow.
By now, probably everyone who reads DenverUrbanism knows the interior of Denver Union Station officially opens tomorrow.
Out east, that same day, Washington, DC’s new Metrorail Silver Line opens. The Silver Line expands America’s second busiest subway network by about 10%, although the new portions are above ground.
But Tucson beats both Denver and DC by one day. Their Sun Link streetcar opens today, at 9:00 am Mountain Time. It’s the first modern rail line in Tucson.
All these projects have been a long, difficult road. It’s great to see them starting to pay off.
Today it’s a balmy 100 degrees in Tucson. This line cuts right through the University on its way to downtown. Another thanks to “Fast Starts” projects. Tempe is jealous and is working on their own streetcar line. They do have light rail already though.
The Union Station project is totally awesome, naturally. Welcome aboard.
The fact that Tuscon has implemented a streetcar line before Denver is, frankly, embarrassing — we need it so badly. Tax the living crap out of gasoline, parking, and anything else that enables the inane practice of driving downtown by one’s self.
Downtown >> Speer Blvd >> Cherry Creek Mall >> Colorado Blvd >> Colfax >> Park Ave >> Downtown
Let’s get this done.
Tucson never tore out it’s one streetcar line like Denver and so many other cities did. Is this one an entirely new line or an extension of the old one? I would love to hear our mayor push the streetcar alot more agressively so we can get it built within a few years.
Extension of the old one, though they also rebuilt the old tracks and bought new streetcars.