Light Rail Jacksonville

Memphis

Medical Center heritage trolley extension opens as planners eye modern LRT

Memphis's heritage electric streetcar system took a powerful leap forward on Monday, 15 March 2004, when the Madison Avenue extension – serving the city's Medical Center complex – opened with a grand fanfare. Several hundred people cheered and confetti flew as the first big yellow trolley burst through a banner and confetti at Cleveland Station and headed downtown (see photo, above).
[Memphis Commercial Appeal, 16 March 2004]

The Memphis trolley system is operated by the Memphis Area Transit Authority and, until the latest expansion, was transporting more than 800,000 passengers a year over two downtown circulator lines, providing service 7 days a week. A 2.5-mile Main St. line opened in 1993, traveling the length of Main St. This line connects the South Main and Pinch historic districts with numerous downtown attractions. A 2.0-mile Riverfront Trolley Loop, opened in 1997, connects together the two ends of the Main St. Line, primarily using a railroad right-of-way shared with Amtrak. (The map at above, right shows the base streetcar system in red, and the Madison/Medical Center extension in yellow-red; the Mississippi River is light blue.)
[Vintage Trolley website, 2004; map: MATA, FTA]

Service has been provided with 14 rehabilitated streetcars imported predominantly from Portugal and Australia, plus one replica car. According to MATA, ridership on the established system had reached 3,300 boardings per day.
[Vintage Trolley website, 2004; MATA website, May 2004]

The new Madison Avenue/Medical Center line operates five additional heritage trolleys refurbished by contractor Gomaco (a well-known supplier specializing in replica and refurbished heritage-style railcars). The 2.5-mile extension is expected to attract an additional 2,100 rider-trips a day.
[Vintage Trolley website, 2004; The Business Journals, Feb. 08, 2004]

The new line operates in mixed traffic along Madison Avenue, generally on tracks located in the inside travel lanes. Grade separations have been constructed at two locations: (1) two new rail-only bridges at Danny Thomas Blvd. (one on each side of an existing bridge), and (2) reconstruction of the existing bridge over the I-240 Interstate freeway (with tracks placed on the bridge). The project has added six new stations and a small park-and-ride facility at the eastern end of the line. Five of the six stations are located in the center of the street.
[Vintage Trolley website, 2004]

The Madison Avenue/Medical Center streetcar extension is intended to provide both a transportation and an economic development link between Memphis's Central Business District and Medical Center and will expand transit service options for employees, residents and visitors. This corridor has high-density development, plus significant concentrations of households without autos, many elderly people, and others who rely on transit for access to medical facilities for care and employment. It is hoped that the rail line will enhance development efforts that are already under way and provide a catalyst for redevelopment in other sections of the corridor.

While the original budget for construction and procurement of five heritage streetcars was $74.6, the actual cost of the project came in significantly under budget, at approximately $55 million. With this extension, Memphis's rail transit system has taken a qualitative leap, from being merely a nostalgic, tourist-oriented circulator and shuttle in the downtown, to serving as a major rail transit link for multiple destinations in central Memphis.

Memphis's historic streetcar system is envisioned as a precursor to a modern LRT system, in which trackage and power would be shared by both modern and historic vehicles. Thus, the Madison/Medical Center heritage streetcar project has been planned as the last segment of the downtown rail circulation system as well as the first segment of a modern regional LRT system, tentatively with at least three corridors (targeted for the year 2020).
[MATA website, 2004]