Tacoma: Ditch 19th for a 6th Avenue Streetcar to TCC

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February 28, 2023 by seradt

1. INTRODUCTION
2. BENEFITS
3. FEASIBILITY (LEGAL & TECHNICAL)
4. PROMISES TO THE PUBLIC
5. COST
6. EQUITY
7. CONSTRUCTION IMPACTS
8. CONCLUSION

Introduction

The transit system of the Tacoma area is at a critical juncture. As has been extensively documented, should long-range plans advance unmodified, ours will become a degraded transit network at a cost rising into the billions. Major transportation investments will either miss our key centers and corridors, which is a profoundly strange local phenomenon, or create services that are worse than those offered today. The failure to deliver Link light rail to the Tacoma city center—the promised end of a light rail spine for nearly 30 years—and the loss of a joint Pacific and 6th Avenue transit service, are the most shocking examples. For a city with a proud transit history and an established urban center, these developments are appalling.

There could be relief within our grasp. In a remarkable stroke of luck, a 6th Avenue streetcar extension to Tacoma Community College (TCC) remains legally viable. It requires the rejection of a 19th Street alignment, but the result is a rail transit spine along the city’s premier streets. Should the citizens, relevant commissions, staff, and leadership of the City of Tacoma seek it, the benefits would extend well beyond Tacoma and ensure better transit services for University Place, Fircrest, and the entire RTA regional subarea. While a single transportation project cannot fix all of our recent planning missteps, a 6th Avenue streetcar would significantly mitigate their damage.

A map of a representative streetcar extension along 6th Avenue, in dark orange. 19th Street is shown in dashed green.

As the update of the One Tacoma Comprehensive Plan is underway before a December 2024 deadline, now is the time to declare a preference for a streetcar extension to TCC utilizing the rights-of-way of 6th Avenue and Mildred Streets. Conveniently, the 6th Avenue streetcar is already a feature of the Transportation Master Plan, albeit without priority or a mandate. To properly sponsor it, the update should see the removal of 19th Street and all other corridors as superfluous, with the full weight of the plan coalescing behind a street railway on Pacific, 6th, and MLK. There is no transit project in the city with as much potential to swing the commute modal split decisively away from cars. Along with BRT, these high-performance transit lines would anchor the core of our densifying city.

Since the publishing of Transit Trouble in November 2022, the 6th Avenue proposal has garnered near universal support. The option was presented to Tacoma’s West End Neighborhood Council, home to TCC, to more positive reviews. Additional presentations are to come. While the dismissal of 19th Street for 6th Avenue is a novel idea, the concept of a modern streetcar on 6th Avenue is unquestionably not. Countless citizens have advocated for just such a proposal. In 2013, then-Tacoma council member Ryan Mello forcefully articulated the value of a 6th Avenue streetcar as a major upgrade of the local transit network (listen at 1:02:50). The sound guidance of Mr. Mello and others was ultimately dismissed for reasons less rooted in the development of a successful transit system. Fortunately, the opportunity to construct a street railway along 6th Avenue persists.

Benefits

For the college extension, swapping the presumed 19th Street alignment for 6th Avenue would resolve multiple deficiencies in our long-range plans. 

It would directly serve the urbanized portions of the city of Tacoma and center a major rail investment in the place where it is most viable. It would deliver high-performance transit to 6th Avenue, a pedestrian-friendly corridor where, incredibly, no substantial transit improvements are identified or slated for funding. The construction of the rail line would be accompanied by a streetscape transformation that would help regulate car traffic and, by law, improve pedestrian access at every intersection, neatly dovetailing with Tacoma’s Vision Zero initiatives. The streetcar line’s associated improvements could be designed in collaboration with the City’s 6th Avenue Pedestrian Crossing Safety Improvement project, an unfunded $5.2-million effort. Along with a revamping of the utility systems underneath, the 6th Avenue streetcar would allow a dense area of Tacoma to prepare for another century of growth. 

It would minimize the planning failures of Stream 1 BRT by reconnecting 6th Avenue to all of the downtown core and the regional transit hub at Tacoma Dome. In the process, Pacific Avenue service to a vast swath of the city is restored. In fact, a 6th Avenue streetcar is the natural complement to Stream 1 BRT, fully converting the Route 1 busline into high-performance transit. It also renders the Market Street deviation more acceptable as a non-rail transit spine through Downtown Tacoma, as more riders would have access to Pacific Avenue without a transfer. It would enhance the existing bus network through service synergy, the byproduct of well-designed systems.

Stream 1 BRT will not serve 6th or Pacific Avenues, in dashed red, forcing transfers to access both major thoroughfares. Link regional light rail shown in purple.

As it already hosts the busiest busline of Pierce Transit, the Route 1, a 6th Avenue streetcar would be a rail line of regional importance, a better use of Sound Transit funds that are often siphoned from beyond city limits. With regional connections at Tacoma Dome and TCC, Tacoma and neighboring cities would benefit from a street railway system linking the most densely populated, jobs-rich areas of the South Sound, as well as its prominent institutions. 

It would allow Pierce Transit to continue to operate the full Route 2, which provides direct service between Downtown Tacoma, TCC, University Place and Lakewood. This is the second busiest route in the Pierce Transit system and it is ripe for upgrades, particularly as the line traverses hills too dangerous for rail service. Should an extension along 19th Street proceed, current planning suggests the Route 2 will be truncated at TCC. This would impose a transfer penalty on all riders to-and-from Lakewood and University Place, and also grossly extend their commute. A once-direct transit service to Hilltop and downtown would be eliminated, first by a transfer, then by a streetcar line that twists through Hilltop before circling Wright Park (presuming that local bus service on 19th Street is ended, as with Pacific Avenue when BRT opens). While Fircrest would lose one streetcar stop, on Pearl Street, it is not a particularly good one. It certainly is not worth the degradation of the area bus service that would result from a streetcar line on 19th. Fircrest also retains access to the streetcar via TCC, a transfer point made more desirable with 6th Avenue rail service.

A streetcar along 19th street, in dark orange, would likely truncate the Route 2 busline at TCC, forcing transfers.

It allows the Stream System Expansion Committee to evaluate Route 2 as a legitimate contender to become the second BRT line, Stream 2. Currently, BRT is noted as being incompatible with long-range streetcar plans along 19th Street, likely resulting in its dismissal as a candidate. Our municipal neighbors should take note.

While it would not bring Link light rail to Downtown Tacoma, it reduces the penalty of the Tacoma Dome transfer by eliminating an outrageous second transfer at Commerce Street. The second transfer is to be imposed upon all 6th Avenue ridership. Transfers at the Dome could be even easier if the Tacoma Dome Link Extension uses Puyallup Avenue (TD1) for its terminal approach—which it should.

Most crucially, it would leverage the Hilltop Link Extension (HTLE) investment that is to be opened this year. The HTLE is a peculiar asset. Walking or cycling across its narrow, U-shaped alignment is probably quicker than riding the train. It is a $300-million rail line without a rail precedent. The original rail link to Hilltop was the cable loop that transited residents directly into Downtown Tacoma, a service that buses have retained and improved.

A map of the Hilltop Link Extension, in dark orange, with the old Cable Line loop shown in blue.

Although an objective of the T Line is to extend to TCC, the HTLE replaces none of the buslines that today connect Downtown with TCC. The one busline that does partially overlap with the HTLE in Hilltop, Route 57, only moves 150 people a day along MLK Jr. Way and parallel streets. Such a low number does not typically warrant a massive rail investment. By itself, HTLE does not appear to do anything that an upgraded busline could not do, and this comes at a high cost. The cost must be evaluated against a Pierce Transit bus network that is generally starved of resources despite moving the vast majority of transit riders in our area.

The extended T Line, in orange, does not replace a busline and provides a service equal to an upgraded busline at a far higher cost.

The 6th Avenue streetcar incorporates the HTLE and transforms it into a key segment of a mobility network that effectively serves the people. It serves the Downtown to Hilltop corridor of the HTLE, the foundation of the T Line system (in orange). It retains the Hilltop to TCC service promised to regional voters by ST3, but would do so along the best corridor in this part of the city, 6th Avenue (in blue). The towering benefit is a new and direct Downtown to TCC rail service through the urban heart of the city, linking the college to the regional transit system at the Tacoma Dome via Pacific Avenue (in green). It would be a well-used system with a variety of streetcar services that can be independently adjusted to meet peak demand.

The 6th Avenue streetcar would allow for at least three independent and adjustable service options.

Best of all, the streetcar would fully replace the remaining Route 1 busline left over from the BRT project. That would allow Pierce Transit to redeploy the bus vehicles and service hours to other deserving corridors in the city. 

A map of the complete streetcar network of Tacoma with 6th Avenue service, in orange. BRT is shown in green, Link in purple.

The 6th Avenue streetcar would have a transformational regional impact.

Feasibility (Legal & Technical)

A 6th Avenue streetcar is both legally and technically feasible.

The legal feasibility of the proposal is the pressing concern. The working assumption is that 19th Street is the required corridor for the T Line extension to TCC, with the thinking that ST3’s passage by the voters compels it (worthy of note: ST3 was defeated in our subarea). Indeed, certain long-range plans are being developed now with this understanding. However, per Sound Transit itself, 19th Street is not prescribed for the extension, stating:

“South 19th is a representative alignment. It would not require board action for ST staff to study alternative alignments.”

That is, the agency is not legally bound to construct a line using 19th Street and other options are on the table. For a project that will be 40-years in the making and cost a half-billion dollars, the opportunity to serve 6th Avenue by streetcar is tantalizing. With Sound Transit not a barrier to construction, it is the public’s awareness of a 6th Avenue option, or lack thereof, that raises legal concern. The option is not well articulated within any binding plans. Its explicit inclusion into the comprehensive plan update as the exclusive alignment thus warrants deliberation.

The technical feasibility of the proposal is another concern, and whether BRT is more appropriate for serving the corridor. 

Being 66-feet at its narrowest and 100-feet at its widest, the right-of-way of 6th Avenue is sufficient to host robust transit infrastructure. These are standard urban widths, if not generous. An inability to utilize them for transit is more a reflection of our unwillingness to confront car dominance than it is any physical limitation of 6th Avenue. Tramways are the ideal mode of cities that transport masses of people through genuinely constrained corridors, as can be seen in Amsterdam, Toronto, Istanbul and elsewhere. Regardless, the technical feasibility has already been proven. There still exists a generation of people whose lifespans overlap with an operational street railway over 6th Avenue. Any comment of technical infeasibility can be dismissed out-of-hand. They are the opinions of people who do not know how transit systems are designed, nor how they work to serve the commerce and people of a city.

6th Avenue’s double-track street railway before its 1938 dismantling. Photo via the Northwest Room, Tacoma Public Library.

The second concern, of whether BRT is better suited to the task, is more complicated. Buses are the appropriate technology for serving Tacoma. This has been the case since the streetcars were dismantled for them in 1938 to fanfare. The great Tacoma transit mistake was not necessarily the conversion of its street railways to buses, but that it did not retain the trolleywire system above, as Seattle would do a few years later. It is regrettable that buses in Tacoma are not under electric power and quietly serving our city with zero local emissions.

While buslines are practical and more affordable, the manager of the bus system, Pierce Transit, has no intention of providing BRT to 6th Avenue and claims there is little merit to it. They assert right-of-way constraints do not allow for meaningful speed reductions and prevent the use of articulated buses, both of which are disputable. Instead, the agency has proposed upgrades that should already be standard in its system, like transit signal priority on trunk routes. The Route 1 is currently operating with inadequate 30-minute headways. A 6th Avenue BRT line cannot be found within the Pierce Transit 2040 long-range plan, despite the fact that a busline on 6th Avenue and Mildred Streets, alone, would be the third busiest in the system. It is for these reasons it is presumed that a major busline upgrade is improbable.

Sound Transit’s extension to TCC provides a realistic alternative to Pierce Transit to serve and develop the 6th Avenue corridor. This would presumably require a rail line as that has been the mode identified within every long-range plan and ballot package put before the people. Sound Transit has not yet responded to a question about whether a bus substitution would be legally permissible. If Sound Transit was capable of funding BRT here, it should be seriously considered. Until then, it is presumed that a railway is mandatory, and that the provision of high-performance transit along 6th Avenue will be in the form of a streetcar—if anything at all.

Promises to the Public

Sound Transit’s confirmation that 19th Street was only representative will be a surprise to many. It is understandable to think the passage of ST3 mandates it. However, a review of the historical record tells a different story. It tells us that these representations have not been, nor are they now, promised to the public.

In the years leading to the ST2 transit package vote of 2008, the representative Tacoma streetcar alignment was 6th Avenue, as shown by the 2005 Long-Range Plan. Various maps and two conceptual scopes-of-work helped visualize the possibility, and resultant ST2 graphics show a direct westward extension that strongly infers a 6th Avenue route. The transit package was roundly approved by the voters.

If supporters of a 6th Avenue street railway thought it was now assured, they were mistaken. The City would instead send the railway toward the Hilltop neighborhood five years later, representations be damned. 

ST2-era graphic showing a representative 6th Avenue streetcar extension toward TCC. Hilltop Link would be built instead.

Claims that a transit package approval compels the building of their representative alignments is not accurate. If that were the case, there would be no reason for alternative alignment analysis, a mandate of the environmental review process for many projects (Note: the streetcar extension to TCC could be exempt from a full EIS review via a Categorical Exclusion).

In terms voter approval over the decades, the results suggest wider public support for 6th Avenue. Not only did an apparent 6th Avenue representative alignment get approved by regional Sound Transit voters under ST2, it also passed in the local Pierce County subarea. ST3 and its 19th Street alignment was defeated in the subarea.

The original intent of the City of Tacoma is enlightening here, too. 15 months after the City Council’s April 2013 vote to endorse a Hilltop extension, that same body published a letter accepting either a 6th Avenue or 19th Street extension to TCC. The Council even listed 6th Avenue first out of the two options, with 19th Street loosely noted as being “also” a possibility. The very council that selected the HTLE, which now has tracks approaching 19th Street, did not believe that 19th Street was a preordained extension of their own railway.

Cost

Some skeptics of the 6th Avenue streetcar proposal will raise concerns about cost. They could rightly point out that, with HTLE already serving MLK to 19th Street, any extension over 6th Avenue would be a longer project with a higher cost. While a legitimate concern, the implication is unverified and perhaps untrue. There is work to do here to properly estimate costs, which is why a 6th Avenue streetcar should be on the table and studied. 

The 6th Avenue extension is a lengthier project, but the difference is not substantial. A consequence of the HTLE is that, by choosing MLK for the first extension, the Tacoma City Council sent the railway in a south easterly direction away from TCC (in green), adding overall mileage to any extension to the college using 19th Street. The original Sound Transit proposal used Sprague, which, while terrible for urban service, is more direct (in purple). The result is two extensions whose lengths differ by little more than a half-mile.

The MLK alignment of the HTLE, in green, adds extra mileage to any rail line to TCC that uses 19th Street. Original alternative routes are shown in gray.

Furthermore, Sound Transit states the 19th Street alignment will require a new viaduct over State Route 16, a complex civil structure that, by itself, will add dozens of millions to its cost. Through value engineering and cost control, the difference in price to switch to 6th Avenue could be a wash.

The difference in length between 6th and 19th is modest, and 19th also requires a bridge. Construction costs may be a wash.

A 19th Street alignment requires a new bridge over SR16, which could be 1,000-ft long and require ramp modifications.

Once complete, a streetcar system that includes 6th Avenue would cost more annually to operate, a consequence of a system with three end-points, as opposed to only two under a 19th Street alignment. A few extra trams would likely need to be purchased. That is a worthwhile price to pay for a rail network that actively respond to the needs of the city and region. Any potential higher cost would be a fraction of those being freely debated and accepted in Seattle.

Tacomans can, and must, demand more from Sound Transit for their money and their patience. The impressive advocacy work of our Seattle neighbors in the Chinatown-International District, First Hill, and Ballard set the example. 

Equity

Some reviewers may raise concerns about equity: is the switch from 19th Street to 6th Avenue an equitable transit decision.

Equity is a fundamental consideration of modern transit planning, working to ensure access for all members of a community. It could even work to redress discriminatory practices that stole resources and opportunity from large segments of the public. As equity is being added to decision-making processes in more places, it is also being defined differently by each body making the decision. That means there are multiple equity lenses through which to evaluate any transportation investment. This matters, because the perception of what is equitable can be subjective depending on the perspective.

Pierce Transit, for example, identifies virtually all of the city of Tacoma as a disadvantaged community, shown below in orange. This includes both the 6th Avenue and 19th Street corridors, although north of 6th Avenue we see that Pierce Transit finds the population to be not disadvantaged. Relative to much of the County, and certainly relative to places like Seattle, much of the city might be understood to be disadvantaged and without sufficient resources.

Pierce Transit map with disadvantaged communities represented in orange.

The City of Tacoma Equity Index, however, which was recently updated, is far more nuanced. Pierce Transit data is not wrong or manipulative, but is instead reflected through a lens unique to that agency.

For Tacoma’s map, the darker the color, the greater the opportunity that can be found there by residents. In this map, 6th Avenue looks better resourced than 19th Street, though the avenue also incorporates pockets of moderate and lower equity areas.

Tacoma Equity Index map, with the existing T Line in green, 6th Avenue in red, and 19th Street in blue.

A review of the equity index is not the end of an equity analysis, however, but only the beginning.

It must be stated that any transit line along 6th Avenue and Mildred Street would serve diverse populations that deserve quality transit, including people of color, the disabled, the elderly, and others. There are a great number of academic institutions and students in the area who would also benefit from convenient transit.

If an equitable transit line serves people where they are and brings them to where they want to go, then a 19th Street alignment does not produce a transit service that maximizes opportunity. As it is a stroad surrounded by single-family homes, large parks, non-developable tracts of land, vast parking lots, big box stores and highways, 19th Street is a poor corridor for a type of transit generally only seen in very urban places. The street is even listed within the Transportation Master Plan as being an “Auto Priority” corridor, a disturbing classification given the city’s long-range goals. Clearly, there is work to do on 19th Street before a rail line is laid there.

Surrounded by non-urban land uses, 19th Street, in dark blue, is a poor corridor for a streetcar operation.

Nor does a railway along 19th Street sensibly respond to pressing mobility concerns, delivering service that would begin roughly 20 years from today. Merely the prospect of a railway on 19th Street is working to deprive the Route 2 busline of upgrades, which would be completed in a quicker timeframe. This is a transit inequity.

Furthermore, a 6th Avenue Streetcar would expand excellent transit options to Hilltop, a low-equity index area, by folding the HTLE into a competent transit infrastructure. The equity impact of the rail line must be understood in the context of how well it serves its communities. The HTLE was built partially to address concerns of equity and economic regeneration in Hilltop. 6th Avenue is a relatively richer zone with a vital street scene and large institutions. By tying the HTLE with TCC over 6th Avenue, the Hilltop neighborhood is linked with some of the most productive areas of Tacoma. Those areas are rewarded with a direct rail connection to the center of Hilltop, a diverse and entrepreneurial neighborhood. 

The 6th Avenue streetcar would also serve a Tacoma Housing Authority project on Mildred Street, James Center North. The infill development will be host to 600 residential units and 30,000 square feet of commercial space. Alongside it, Mildred Street’s intersections would be improved and made safer for crossing, and the streetcar line would help to lessen traffic speeds. This is another byproduct of the streetcar line that advances Vision Zero goals.

The equity lens in transit planning helps tend to the needs of the people, particularly our vulnerable. This understanding is instructive as, compared to 6th Avenue, 19th Street serves far fewer people all the time.

The population density of 19th Street, in dark blue, is paltry compared to 6th Avenue and Mildred Street, in orange.

Due to the non-urban land uses that surround it, the population density of 19th Street collapses. Population distribution maps plainly show that 6th Avenue anchors much of urban Tacoma. This truth is why 6th Avenue gets high daily transit ridership.

Ridership is a key consideration. We cannot evaluate the equity impact of transit line only by the people living around it. We must also consider the people who will ride it. The majority of Pierce Transit riders are dependent on their services and typically have a lower income. One survey showed that as many as 3 out of 5 riders lack a driver’s license. Critically, the transit service itself is a means by which equity is advanced.

That means social justice communities are voting with their feet and their ORCA cards when they ride transit, and the greatest ridership is found on 6th and Pacific Avenues in Tacoma. Additionally, the streetcar conversion of this segment of Route 1 would allow Pierce Transit to redeploy buses and service hours to other corridors, benefitting more riders and communities. A compelling argument can be made that the equitable decision is to build a streetcar line along 6th Avenue. 

It would undoubtedly serve more riders. Daily ridership numbers speak for themselves, and they remain our best indicator for the success of a transit line. Using pre-pandemic figures, by a 3-to-1 margin, far more riders are traveling along 6th Avenue than on 19th Street.

In a comparison of the highlighted segments, 6th Avenue daily transit ridership bests 19th Street by nearly 3 to 1.

A closing thought: there are few other investments as equitable as taking space within the right-of-way of wealthier streets for the provision of public mass transportation.

Construction Impacts

Regarding streetcar construction, there would be impacts on either 19th Street or 6th Avenue. Pick your poison.

A photo showing Hilltop Link Extension construction impacts in the Stadium neighborhood. Photo by Sound Transit.

For those skeptical of a 6th Avenue line because of impacts, that impact must be evaluated relative to the benefit. Eventually construction will end, concluding a 40-year wait for a streetcar line from Downtown Tacoma to TCC. 

Does a rail line over the 19th Street auto priority corridor fulfill the purpose envisioned by past advocates? Or is a rail spine through our principal thoroughfares a more suitable match with that vision, one that provides effective transit to our densest communities? Consider the attendant streetscape transformation along 6th Avenue, which today is underdeveloped, often dangerous, and too permissive of speedy traffic. The answer is obvious.

The application of transit design features will dictate how disruptive the impacts will be to the community. Those features are presently unknown. However, one option would be for the tracks to run down the center of the street, occasionally greeted by narrow platforms at the center or sides. While this is a standard design the world over, even this arrangement is fluid.

It is possible that one lane of parking could be preserved along 6th Ave with a double-track railway, but this should not be a design requirement. 6th Avenue is an epicenter of Tacoma growth, and parking will become more contested with or without a streetcar. Mass transit is the solution to that problem, not the problem itself. In fact, the addition of streetcar service along the avenue is a worthwhile trade-off for the loss of select parking spaces. Tacoma, as a city, needs to come to terms with this, especially in areas where transit service is most viable.

Hilltop Link line showing preserved parking. Quality service, not parking preservation, should guide design. Photo by King5.

Whatever the design, the focus should be on building a streetcar system that effectively serves the communities through which it runs, efficiently ties together the city, and which obtains ridership that makes the railway essential to our transit network.

Conclusion

There remains time to prepare for a 6th Avenue streetcar, but its codification through formal plans and studies must begin now. With the update to the One Tacoma Comprehensive Plan underway, the City of Tacoma has an opportunity to do precisely that. The city should take advantage of it, delivering to the public a robust, multi-generational infrastructure. 

In Tacoma, there is no other credible transit project that could deliver the mobility transformation promised by a 6th Avenue streetcar. Should the city be truly guided by the six principles of its Transportation Master Plan—being a partner, protecting community, providing mobility for all, striving for sustainability, leveraging programs and strategies, and linking plans to land use—it would move on this proposal.

Tacoma, ditch 19th Street and develop a strong rail network by sending trains over 6th Avenue. 

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