Portland directly links over $2.28 billion in new investment within two blocks of the streetcar alignment for a capital investment of only $88.7 million
By Nicholas Kevlahan
Portland's Office of Transportation and Portland Streetcar Inc. prepared a report in January 2006, titled Portland Streetcar: Development Oriented Transit (available on the Portland Streetcar website).
This document provides a detailed accounting of the new development the streetcar line has attracted since 1997 when the original streetcar alignment was identified.
As you will see on page 1, Portland directly links over $2.28 billion in new investment within two blocks of the streetcar alignment. This includes 7,248 new housing units and 4.6 million square feet of institutional, retail and hotel construction.
Over 55 percent of all CBD development since 1997 has occurred within one block of the streetcar. Pp. 9-14 of the report provide a complete development project list. The total construction cost of the streetcar system was only $88.7 million, and per mile costs were between $13 million to $25 million per mile (including vehicle purchase).
It is important to note that Portland's system, which began operation in 2001, is the first modern streetcar system in North America, and the city decided on a fairly modest set of specifications for vehicle size, 'low floor' and so on.
The streetcar manufacturers - e.g. Inekon (the Czech company that manufactured Portland's streetcars in a now-defunct joint venture with Skoda) and Bombardier/Alstom - offer wide variety in their available vehicle specifications, including low floors, integrated traffic control systems (i.e. signal priority at intersections), very high capacity (up to 300 per car), and so on.
In addition, the Alstom Citadis streetcars in use in Bordeaux, France use a ground-level power supply (a third rail that is only electrified where the vehicle is directly over it) rather than overhead wires.