Clean Fuel News

Possible Federal Request Delay for Streetcar Funds

via businessreport.com 
Posted by Stephanie Riegel on December 5, 2016

The city-parish is considering deferring for a year its request for $67.5 million in federal funds for the TramLink BR streetcar line that is proposed for a 3.4-mile stretch along Nicholson Drive.

Securing the federal money is key for the future of the project, and will cover about 50% of the estimated $170 million total price tag.

The city-parish originally planned to seek funding for the streetcar in the federal 2018 fiscal year budget, which goes into effect Oct. 1, 2017. However, Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel says the city may not seek inclusion until the 2019 budget, which doesn’t go into effect until Oct. 1, 2018.

“We’re evaluating the pros and cons of each one,” Daniel says. “There were pros for this budget, but there were also some cons in doing that. We got behind on getting everything done and, really, the Federal Transit Authority would prefer you have your engineering started and making progress along there so they can properly evaluate your application.”