Add Lancaster, Pa., in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, to the list of smaller U.S. cities actively pursuing the reintroduction of streetcars within municipal borders.
The city of roughly 57,000 is pursuing a plan for a two-mile starter streetcar line. The effort is spearheaded by the non-profit Lancaster Alliance, which includes 15 of the city's largest businesses, and bolstered by various community groups.
Mayor Richard Gray is an unabashed supporter of the project, and of rail transit in general. Lancaster's smaller size notwithstanding, he's convinced that the current zoning and density of his city--row houses are a common sight in Lancaster--lend itself to successful streetcar opportunities.
Jack Howell, chairman of the Lancaster Alliance, concurs. "I don't look at population; I look at density," he says. "I would estimate that 50,000 live in a two-mile by two-mile box." Add to such density numerous destinations, including but not limited to Amtrak's Lancaster station on the Philadelphia-Harrisburg Keystone Corridor, a hospital, and a minor league baseball stadium.
Howell and Gray are keenly aware of Lancaster's fiscal limitations compared with the big cities on the Northeast Corridor. "It's difficult to address the issue of operating expenses without high [fares] to passengers or major government investment," Gray acknowledges. Though Lancaster will seek federal capital funds, the city hopes to rely strongly on its business community for ongoing operations management and entrepreneurial cross-marketing efforts generating revenue, ridership, and civic pride.
By pursuing a streetcar proposal, Lancaster is bucking a general apathy toward rail transit that's far more prevalent in Pennsylvania than commonly acknowledged. Rural openly disparage the need for state support of public transit systems in Philadelphia and (to a lesser degree) Pittsburgh.
Lancaster at best can boast a metropolitan area of about 250,000, far smaller than Philadelphia's 1.3 million residents. But Gray says the Alliance has done its homework by examining nascent streetcar operations in cities similar in size to Lancaster.
The proposed line runs on a north-south loop along Queen and Prince streets, linking the Amtrak station to Southern Market Center. A new garage at the train station would afford parking for visitors and local residents.
The streetcar's potential role as business catalyst is foremost on the Lancaster Alliance agenda. Having tracks as a permanent transit commitment is an honest assessment, Gray says. "You know your business is served by the streetcar," he asserts. "Buses can't offer that."
As with seemingly all passenger rail projects, the Lancaster streetcar proposal has encountered some resistance, something Gray describes as an "opposition of the misinformed." Asked if Lancaster was braced for battle with anti-rail partisans from elsewhere in the U.S.--a nearly routine development--both he and Howell express some surprise that Lancaster would draw such attention. "But we've done our homework," he says. "If someone from somewhere else wants to tell us how we should choose to live, well, they're free to try," he says. "We'll be ready."