Seattle Streetcar

The South Lake Union Streetcar is a 1.3-mile-long (2.1 km), seven-stop line[4] serving the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle. Its route goes from the Westlake transit hub to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in South Lake Union. The South Lake Union Streetcar connects with Link light rail (at the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel Westlake Station), the Seattle Center Monorail (at the 3rd floor of Westlake Center) and the RapidRide C Line (at several stops). The line opened to the public in 2007.

The First Hill Streetcar is a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km), 10-stop line[5] that connects Pioneer Square and Capitol Hill via Chinatown, Little Saigon, Yesler Terrace, and First Hill. The First Hill Streetcar connects with Amtrak and Sounder Trains (at King Street Station) and Link Light Rail (at both the International District/Chinatown and Capitol Hill stations). The line opened to the public in January 2016.[6]

The Culture Connector project, formerly known as the Center City Connector, would connect the existing South Lake Union Streetcar at Westlake to the First Hill Streetcar with new tracks along 1st Avenue and Stewart Street in Downtown Seattle.[7][8] It is planned to serve popular downtown destinations like Pike Place Market, the Seattle Art Museum, Colman Dock and Pioneer Square. The two existing lines would overlap within downtown, increasing frequencies, and the streetcars would operate in an exclusive transit lane. The project is expected to greatly increase ridership on the Seattle Streetcar Network to 20,000–24,000 riders per day (compared to about 5,000 today).[9]

The project was scheduled to begin construction at the beginning 2018 (with utility relocation work starting in mid-2017) and be completed in 2020.[10] In June 2017, the city accepted a $50 million federal grant for the project.[11] In October 2017, members of the Seattle City Council debated cancelling the project and re-appropriating the funds for bus service,[12][13] but no budget amendments were made.[14]

In March 2018, Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered an investigation of the project and a construction halt for the duration of the review—estimated to take up to three months—in the wake of rising capital costs that were estimated to leave a $23 million shortfall in an overall $200 million budget for building the line.[15] Mayor Durkan announced in January 2019 that the project would be revived if funding is found to cover the entire $286 million cost; due to new engineering and design work that would be required, its opening was pushed back to 2026 at the earliest.[16] As of 2023, the project remains on hold and unfunded.[17]

The currently halted Broadway Streetcar project would have extended the First Hill Streetcar a half-mile farther north on Capitol Hill into the commercial core of Broadway with two stops near Harrison Street and Roy Street at a cost of $28 million. The project would have also included an extension of the protected bike lanes to Roy Street and improvements to the surrounding streetscape.[18] In December 2016, the project was placed on an indefinite hold after the city had completed design work to the 90% stage at a cost of $3 million. The planned extension was halted due to a lack of support from businesses for the design (particularly a shortage of loading zones for delivery trucks) and the financial plan, which would involve taxing properties located along the alignment.[19][20]

The city government approved the study of a larger, citywide streetcar network in December 2008, estimated to cost up to $600 million.[21] Among the lines studied were a central connector between Seattle Center and the Central District; an extension of the South Lake Union line to the University District; a line traveling to Fremont and Ballard; and an extension of the First Hill line via Rainier Avenue.[22]