Portland got word yesterday that the Feds will provide $75 million for expansion of our central city streetcar line to the East Side. Doubly good news here because it will provide orders for the new United Streetcar company, a subsidiary of Oregon Iron Works in Portland’s suburbs. The only U.S. streetcar manufacturer, United, is hoping for orders from around the country.
I thought I’d see if I could find other new rail transit announcements in other cities and didn’t find much, just one announcement of funding for light rail in Phoenix. But I expect there will be others soon, between the Stimulus and the new budget. I did find this list of current projects.
The Portland Streetcar announcement didn’t show up in my Google search, nor in the current projects list, nor on the U.S. Department of Transportation. So there may have been other local announcements. Does anyone know of new projects in your town?