The following is the opinion and analysis of the writers:
A small group of committed people can indeed create change. It may take decades, but it can happen and did happen here in the case of our streetcar. It happened because that small group grew to a large and diverse group throughout the region. Ultimately, it takes all of us. Here is our story.
In 1983, Gene Caywood and Dick Guthrie, along with a dozen others, founded Old Pueblo Trolley, an all-volunteer heritage streetcar line which began operation on Fourth Avenue and Main Gate in 1993, becoming a precursor to a wider rail system.
In 2001, public artist Steve Farley, attorneys Clague Van Slyke III and Joy Herr-Cardillo, Caywood, “father” of Amtrak Tony Haswell, physician Ron Spark, and strategic planner Bob Cook founded Tucsonans for Sensible Transportation (TST) to advocate for better transit, alternative modes and light rail. After a year of community presentations TST membership grew to more than 1,600 Tucsonans.
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With the tireless work of volunteers like Nikki Pistacchio and Camille Kershner and a Bombardier light rail vehicle demonstration in downtown Tucson, TST gathered more than 18,000 Tucson voter signatures for a multimodal transportation ballot initiative in 2003.
Despite an energizing campaign, TST’s lack of political experience and opposition money raised by car dealers and homebuilders spelled a hard election defeat in November 2003. This was not a group easily discouraged. A week after the defeat Farley met TST’s recent opponent, the Southern Arizona Homebuilders, and started a dialogue about how to work together. This helped lead to the eventual Regional Transportation Authority (RTA.)
Farley also noticed that there had been strong voter support for the TST plan in the central city. This led the group in early 2004 to advocate a modern streetcar route in that area and gain support from former opponents.
A 35-member region-wide citizen committee for the newly proposed RTA worked for ten months to develop a consensus plan and adopted the motion of Steve Christy — one of the car dealers who had worked to defeat the TST plan in 2003 — to include the local funding for the Modern Streetcar. In May 2006, a unifying community-wide campaign for the RTA led to Tucson’s first transportation plan victory in four decades.
With help from the RTA, the City of Tucson launched a citizen-driven community liaison group to develop the details of the streetcar route, urban planning, and equipment. Meanwhile Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup, a streetcar champion, worked hard with City and RTA staff and our congressional delegation to obtain the federal funds necessary to complete the financing. Congress members Raul Grijalva, Gabby Giffords, and Ed Pastor delivered and US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood presented Tucson a $63 million matching TIGER grant — largest in the country. The streetcar was a done deal at last.
Since the streetcar opened for service ten years ago, ridership has increased dramatically, and today the streetcar is the busiest transit route carrying 1.67 million passengers annually. This service has greatly benefited both users and businesses along the route. Students and visitors to Tucson, now more than ever, enjoy the convenience of public transit. And the Streetcar has attracted a lively Mercado District, Downtown, and Main Gate scene and spurred new housing construction throughout Tucson’s Center.
As you ride Tucson’s Modern Streetcar and consider the unprecedented investment and thousands of newly created jobs near the four-mile route, imagine where we can go next if we do it together.
We, as core members of the original Tucsonans for Sensible Transportation, applaud the efforts of the many more people in the past decade who have joined this vision and continue to build our region-wide multimodal system of mobility and access. Our greatly expanded electric powered system will take us all where we want to go — and be an economic engine to support Tucson through this challenging 21st Century.
Come celebrate the 10-year anniversary on July 20th!
Locals who contributed to make the Streetcar a reality.
