OPT's Future
On August 20, 2009, streetcars traveled from the north of the railroad tracks to downtown for the first time in over fifty years. Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup was at the controls, led by a band of bagpipers from Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street south through the new underpass, down Congress to Fifth, south to Broadway, and back to the underpass. A large crowd greeted this epic event, a preview of the planned Modern Streetcar now under construction. Here are some videos of the test runs and the official run.
Click photo for larger image.At the present time, the trolley rarely uses the downtown route, due to the construction and signal issues. Stay tuned.
This is an artist's rendition of how the trolley might look passing Downtown's Ronstadt Transit Center at Congress and 6th Avenue. At the present time, the tracks turn south east of this point, at 5th Avenue.
This is a particularly exciting time for OPT as we are on the verge of achieving a long-held dream to extend streetcar service all the way from the Arizona Health Sciences Center, through the University of Arizona along our current route to Fourth Avenue, then across Downtown and the Convention Center all the way to the Rio Nuevo area west of the Santa Cruz River. The Modern Streetcar will provide the bulk of the service, with the OPT cars continuing to run part of the line on weekends and for charters, interspersed with the modern cars.