Following a Sun Link news conference today hosted by Mayor Johnathan Rothschild and a plaque dedication honoring Rep Raúl Grijalva, a group of local dignitaries and the media were led aboard Tucson’s Modern Streetcar on its route up to Mercado San Augustin and back down 4th Avenue to the University of Arizona. This is part 3 of 5 videos taken on the trip, in which it proceeds up through the Broadway/Toole intersection, crosses Congress St. and continues north down the 4th Avenue Underpass. The video also features a quick view of the streetcar’s interior.
More video, photos, and interviews from the news conference, which also featured Rep. Ron Barber, to follow.
Following five district ribbon cuttings along the Sun Link Modern Streetcar route, the Grand Opening launch 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 slated to attend include 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.
Check back on The Range later for a full recap.
This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2014.
Cool! It’s just like a bus, except it can’t change lanes!
How long until some dumb kid scratches his name onto the windows?
I love streetcars (I live in Portland) but that’s funny Carlos! 🙂
Looks like it ran a 4-way stop sign at 53 seconds into the video.
And I bet the TV talking heads will e breathless about their virgin rides today.
and the city invested how much money in this? Are Tucsonans seriously that lazy to walk that little stretch? lame
What I want to know is?…….who gets to hose down the vomit from the drunk U of A students at the end of the night?
So who is this Gene Caywood guy who loves playing with toy trains that we have to pay $197,000,000 worth of my money? He is listed in the Star as the “Visionary” who dreamed up this mess. And we need fewer “visionary” people in this city and more accountants.
I can’t wait to try it out! Thanks for the video.
I cant wait to throw up in it.
And why is it so DARK in the tunnel? Because the city of Tucson has shown itself as unable to maintain the broken light fixtures since the tunnel opened 4 years ago. Sorry to be critical but maintenance on the tunnel and its surroundings has been very spotty and poorly managed. The fact that the lights need attention has been known to the city since the beginning of the year. Looking forward to riding the streetcar as often as possible but also hoping for better maintenance of the infrastructure.
I walk down that underpass nearly every day and evening and it is lit, no problem. As far as the video goes, it has more to do with the sensors in the cell phone (low tech) trying to adjust to the change in lighting.
keep tucson shitty
I know it is “lit”, the problem is that is is not “lit” like it was designed to “be” and that the city has no program of any kind in place for upkeep of the tunnel. I dig the streetcar and the new tunnel is terrific and I hope that when we get a new professional city manager he will have a good house cleaning and maybe move some desk jockeys back to street maintenance. Get ready for Friday and free rides!