![]() ![]() MesaĬonstruction has been underway on a 1.9-mile rail extension on Main Street from Mesa Drive to Gilbert Road since fall 2016. The agency has already spent $2.9 million studying the line. The $72.6 million that Valley Metro had set aside for the line will now go to fund other light rail projects. The city estimates its savings at about $165 million. Glendale plans to spend the money that was planned for light rail on road repairs and safety projects. “I remember those days way clearer than I want to,” Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers said before his vote to reject light rail. This is a large commitment for any city the size of Glendale, but a particular ask for a council that had adopted a financial mess and had spent their first years in office attempting to put the city back on solid ground. Glendale would also pay about $10 million in net costs annually on operations, maintenance and debt, according to a city estimate from last year. Going over Grand Avenue would make it a billion-dollar project, and push up the city’s costs by $42.2 million. If the line ended at 58th Avenue, it would have cost $890 million total to build, with Glendale paying about $114.4 million and the rest coming from federal funds, Valley Metro and Phoenix, according to Valley Metro figures from last year. When they got their answers about a year later, they weren’t sold. ![]() ![]() They wanted to know how much it would cost to cross Grand Avenue, so they could eventually stretch the line farther west to the city’s Sports and Entertainment District. But it was clear they were split on whether light rail was a good idea.Ĭouncil members asked staff and Valley Metro a lot of questions about costs and whether there were other alternatives. The proposed 7-mile route went west on Camelback Road to 19th Avenue, north on 51st Avenue, west on Glendale Avenue, north on 51st Avenue, and west on Glenn Drive.īut the council voted 5-2 to nix Glendale’s light rail plans in 2017.Ī year earlier, the Glendale City Council gave Valley Metro the go-ahead to study some proposed endings for the line. Glendale voters approved a half-cent sales tax in 2001 for transportation projects, including a light-rail extension that would pick up in west Phoenix and run to downtown Glendale. "The impacts of alternative fuel vehicles, autonomous vehicles and connected vehicles are not completely understood, nor are the impacts of first-mile/last-mile solutions like ride-sharing and bike-sharing and what that means for transit in the future," she said. Town spokeswoman Jennifer Alvarez Harrison said in a statement that the town has adopted a fluid approach to transportation technology planning because of the unknowns of the future. Gilbert does not plan to bring light rail into the town and doesn't have any solidified plans for other high-capacity transit options. That wording alone was enough to draw the ire of a prominent commercial property owner and at least one state legislator, who warned that light rail along Arizona Avenue could hurt businesses and would be underutilized. In 2015, a draft of a general plan update designated Arizona Avenue - roughly from the Mesa boundary on the north south to Chandler Boulevard - as a "high growth'' area and a future corridor for "high-capacity'' transit, which could mean light rail or increased bus service. ChandlerĬhandler has studied the possibility of light rail or streetcar in the past, but there are no plans to bring rail to the East Valley suburb. Is light rail coming to your neighborhood? Check you city's transit plans here. Two of those cities hope to expand the system even farther into their cities, and some other Valley suburbs have explored the idea as well. Light rail currently cuts through Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa. 27, but proponents hope the transit system's ride through the Valley is only getting started. Light rail will turn 10 years old on Dec. Watch Video: Phoenix light-rail facts you (probably) don't know ![]()
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