re: Route unveiled for Baton Rouge streetcar connecting LSU and downtown

quote:

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The proposed route is one of several steps city officials and their planning team have to complete as they rush to secure funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the project. The city-parish has already received federal planning funds to design the project, but it now has to complete a detailed and lengthy process in order to qualify at the federal level for some of the $100 million in funds it will take to actually build the line, now officially called TramLink BR.

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It wasn't too long ago people were saying the Feds would pay for all of the project, and it wouldn't cost tax payers anything.

Now the price tag is in question ( a similar project in Tuscon, Ariz. cost 197 million and it was shorter at 3 miles). Funding sources are in question.

The route begins at Skip Bertman and Nicholson and heads north through downtown to North St.

What a mess that will be at the corner of Skip Bertman and Nicholson. There is hardly any parking left at that corner M-F. Shouldn't the project terminate where there is a lot of open parking not normally used? Shouldn't the idea be to get less cars headed to LSU in the mornings not to LSU so they can ride the Tram? And conversely people shouldn't have to go downtown to catch the Tram to ride to LSU. Downtown adjacent to the river is tight for parking anyway.

I can't see it being that big of a benefit for anyone other downtown dwellers and LSU dwellers and those in between. In time it might help the corridor grow, but that's a lot of money to spend for three miles of public transportation when it seems busses could be just as good.