Streetcar Update

What's New In SLU

Excitement is building for the modern streetcar Seattle is building to connect South Lake Union, the Cascade neighborhood, Denny Triangle, and the Downtown Retail Core.

The streetcar will serve eleven stops located along the route, one about every two to three blocks. With trains scheduled to arrive every 15 minutes between 6:00 AM and 9:00 PM, the streetcar will provide an important local connection to regional transit.

In 2005, the South Lake Union Streetcar reached several important milestones, bringing the city closer to its goals of building the system under budget and opening on-time in the fall of 2007.  Highlights of recent developments include:

• A Local Improvement District was formed to pay for $25 million of the project's $47.5 million construction costs.  Only about one and a half percent of the affected property owners protested the district's creation.
• Stacy & Witbeck was selected as the South Lake Union Streetcar General Contractor/Construction Manager.
• The project design process has reached sixty percent completion.
• The city has contracted with inekon Group of the Czech Republic for three streetcar vehicles.

2006 promises to be a busy year as the city completes design and begins construction.  To learn more about the South Lake Union Streetcar project visit http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/slustreetcar.htm.  Or you may contact Josh Stepherson, the Seattle Department of Transportations Streetcar Community Liaison, at (206) 684-3136.