FTA Funds Tacoma Streetcar

Sound Transit, which has tens of billions of dollars to build light rail in the Seattle area, announced this week that the Federal Transit Administration granted $75 million to an extension of the Tacoma streetcar line. This was a surprise since the administration’s policy has been not to fund any projects that don’t have signed grant agreements, and by that criteria the Tacoma streetcar doesn’t qualify.

The existing 1.6-mile Tacoma streetcar opened in 2003. Projected to cost $50 million, it ended up costing more than $80 million, or about $50 million per mile (about $66 million a mile in today’s dollars). The project is political pork: built to make Tacoma taxpayers feel like they are getting their fair share of the billions going to build light rail. This is why Sound Transit never calls it a streetcar, instead calling it “Link,” the same name it applies to light rail in Seattle. But the Tacoma line uses the same equipment and trundles along at the same slow speeds as the Portland streetcar.

The Tacoma streetcar has never collected a fare, yet in 2016 it carried fewer than 3,200 riders a day. That’s more than streetcars in Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, and the District of Columbia, but fewer than Seattle or Portland (which admittedly are longer lines). The new project will extend the existing line by 2.4 miles at a cost of $215 million or about $90 million a mile.

As far as I can determine, no one has ever claimed that the existing Tacoma line has done anything to stimulate economic development. Nor is anyone claiming the extension will do so. The latest research suggests that ride hailing has reduced the economic benefits of locating near transit lines, and those benefits were trivial for 7-mph streetcars in any case.
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Tacoma’s mayor instead argues, “The expanded Tacoma Link system will improve transportation around the city and connect riders with regional light rail, Sounder trains and bus service at the Tacoma Dome.” These benefits are highly questionable. According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, out of 97,000 Tacoma commuters, only 4.6 percent take bus transit to work and just 1.9 percent take rail transit. The improved transportation cited by the mayor could have been provided by buses at a far lower cost.

The last time the administration gave out a capital grant to a transit project that didn’t have a signed grant agreement was for the Fort Lauderdale streetcar. That project was cancelled anyway, and Broward County presumably will return the federal dollars to the FTA. When I asked an administration official why they funded the Fort Lauderdale line, he just said “we were forced to do it,” possibly to get some Democratic members of Congress to agree to confirm an administration nominee.

The Tacoma streetcar grant may be the result of similar horse trading. But there is also the Rogoff factor to consider: Peter Rogoff was the former administrator of the Federal Transit Administration who was hired as the CEO of Sound Transit (at a substantial pay increase) based mainly on the hope that he would have the inside track to get federal grants. Perhaps the Tacoma streetcar is the first evidence of his influence. Regardless, it is a complete waste of money.