Opening of Tucson SunLink in Arizona USA

SunLink Streetcar Website - Tucson, Arizona

SunLink is a fairly modest new streetcar system in the US Arizona city of Tucson, with a total project value of US$196 million.  It is a new streetcar project for the city.  It began operations in July 2014 and by September, had a daily ridership of over 5,000 people, which is well above the expectations of 3,700 people per day.  The 7 kilometre line provides a new public transport link between Downtown, a major railway station and the University of Arizona in Tucson.

It will be interesting to see whether the system has any impact on the culture of this city, which is very car dominated - and whether it will bring more people into the Downtown and university areas. The fares are very reasonable, as they start at $1.50 or $4 for the day.

The streetcars were manufactured in the US by United Streetcar in Portland, Oregon under a design that is very similar to the streetcars that are used in Portland.  The Tucson design has enhanced air conditioning capability to cater for the extremes in temperature in Arizona.

Newspaper Article - 24 Sep 2014: 

24 Sept 2014 AZPM: Update on SunLink Ridership

Links to Flickr photos: