Following five district ribbon-cuttings along the Sun Link Modern Streetcar route, the Grand Opening celebration ended this morning at 10:00 a.m. on Congress Street and Fifth Avenue as a streetcar full of dignitaries was escorted by the Pride of Arizona Pep Band, Tucson Fire Department and the Tucson Police Department.
The event was emceed by Brent Davis, former City Council Member. Speakers included Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, acting Federal Transit Administration Deputy Administrator Dorval Carter, City Manager Richard Miranda, University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hart, Arizona State Transportation Board Chair Steve Christy, Arizona Senator Steve Farley, and Former City of Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup.
The events proceed the beginning of a three-day, five-district celebration of the streetcar launch. The Downtown Tucson district’s “Summer in the City” party will center around the 5th Ave and Congress St. intersection and begin around 5:00 p.m. at a pop-up beach in the empty MLK lot across from Hotel Congress.
Check back later today and through Sunday for more info on the streetcar celebrations this weekend on The Range.
This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2014.
I do not get all of the hate. We have light rail here in Phoenix and it is doing very well.
It would only figure I am running late. The irony is that I am on the suntran bus and the before, came and went early!!! Wth?
Did they finally unveil the CLITT??
Someone from Phoenix asked what all the hate is about? lol Perhaps because Phoenix is a thriving community that could afford a 3 mile light rail system at the expense of less public safety workers and millions upon millions of dollars. Priorities my Phoenix friend, priorities. Your is a thriving community, ours is a dying and decaying one.
yes the CLITT is opened for business 🙂
While us working-class folks are hard at work on the job, earning a few bucks and having taxes taken out to pay for this. Not criticizing the project, just stating a fact.
wah wah wah. Go cry somewhere else. Any help Tucson can get is welcomed. I rather see money being spent on something useful than all these millions they waste on other stupid stuff like ugly art. Go Tucson. All the angry old people can suck it.
Where do I find the CLITT? I want to get up on it.
To AK Benjamin:
You do have light rail in Phoenix. But it actually goes somewhere. Ours goes a short distance.
It will serve the “Creative Class” and the drunk U of A students. And it cost $197,000,000 and thats on top of the wasted $230,000,000 which we got nothing.
My major complaint about the streetcar is that it is too limited. People who will ride it will be, for the most part, people who want to get back and forth between downtown and the U of A. That may not be enough people to support it. If we had light rail that ran from, say, Park Place and Tucson Mall (or, better yet, Foothills Mall) to downtown, as well as the U of A to downtown spur, it would have probably generated a lot more ridership. I hope I’m wrong; I’d like to see it succeed.
You can’t compare the Phoenix and Tucson lines. We live in Tucson but often use the Phoenix light rail when we go to a downtown Phx venue. If you drive up there the back way through Apache Junction there are many places to park your car within a block or so of the line where it enters Mesa and then west all along the line. Or if you drive up I-10 you can park to the north very easily and ride to game or concert- also lots of hotels very close to line on the north side. But in Tucson you wouldn’t ride it going west into downtown unless you were already at the U of A – parking is difficult for public at the U and all along the route west into downtown. I could see people from the west side parking by west terminus to ride to U of A and hospital. But for everyone else you might as well drive and park downtown or take the bus. To summarize, if you can’t park free close to line you won’t use it
When Arizona has high-speed rail from Tucson to Phoenix, connecting to all major cities, then I will celebrate.
The good news? We haven’t totally sucked the Ol’ Pebble dry – yet! Can’t wait to ride the Trolley over to the Jolly Tamale for a cuppa joe and a green corn tamale! Yummo!