DRPA Debates Riverfront Trolley Line

The DRPA hopes to announce soon its selection from among several possible routes to connect a waterfront trolley line to Center City. The likely choice would be to install trolleys on Market Street to run from City Hall to Columbus Boulevard.

The waterfront line would operate on tracks in the middle of Columbus Boulevard from Pier 70 at the south end to Girard Avenue at the north. The route would provide service between the two casinos planned for the waterfront, Foxwoods in the south and SugarHouse in the north.

If the DRPA can find the estimated $500 million for the project, trolleys could be operating by 2015.

Several members of the DRPA's technical-advisory committee yesterday questioned the project's fit with overall waterfront development.

The new Delaware River Waterfront Corp., which replaced Penn's Landing Corp. this year as overseer of the riverfront, will begin work on a master plan next month for the seven miles between Allegheny and Oregon Avenues.

"With the waterfront corporation about to embark on a master plan, are we at a place where we can align that" with the trolley plan? asked Harris Steinberg, director of Penn Praxis at the University of Pennsylvania.

Tom Corcoran, new president of the waterfront corporation, said that if the trolley route selection came in a month, it was likely "the master plan would deal with that reality."

Corcoran said the waterfront master plan would be ready in a year to 15 months.

John Matheussen, chief executive of the DRPA, argued against delaying the trolley decision.

"I don't think a new master plan for the waterfront is going to change things," Matheussen said. "We're very willing to work with everyone. . . . There's an opportunity for us to all work together, but I don't think it needs to delay us."

Other questions centered on what Steinberg called the project's "Gordian knot," the connection between the Market Street and Columbus Boulevard trolley lines.

As envisioned by the DRPA, trolleys would run on the curb sides of Market Street and use the existing street ramp over I-95 to reach Columbus Boulevard.

Others, including local architect Alan Johnson, have suggested using SEPTA's Market-Frankford subway - instead of trolleys - as the link to Center City. Johnson has urged extending the existing Second Street subway platform east to join the proposed rail line on Columbus Boulevard.

Anthony Santaniello, a Philadelphia city planner, said the proposed Market Street trolley did nothing to improve access west of City Hall and duplicated service provided by the Market-Frankford line east of City Hall.

Christopher Jandoli, of Parsons Brinckerhoff, the planning consultant for the DRPA, said the agency anticipated that the trolleys and the Market-Frankford subway would have "a different potential user group." He cited conventioneers and tourists, as well as commuters.

That prompted Steinberg to refer to "the class issue as to who uses it. . . . You put the out-of-town people above ground."

Several committee members asked about the frequency and length of trolley trips.

Jandoli said the Market Street trolleys probably would run at 10- to 15-minute intervals during peak times and at 30-minute intervals during off-peak times.

A one-seat trolley ride from City Hall to either Girard Avenue or Pier 70 would take about 19 minutes, according to preliminary estimates.

The estimated cost of the waterfront project, with the Market Street trolley line, is $364 million to $514 million. Daily ridership is projected to be 12,000 to 14,600 passengers by 2030.

DRPA officials said federal guidelines for "New Start" transit projects make the waterfront project unlikely to get federal funding because of its cost and relatively low ridership. They hope the Obama administration and congressional leaders will rewrite transit-funding rules to make it easier to get federal support.