Boise Hopes to Bring Back Trolley

"Within the next four years, Mayor Dave Bieter and other Boise city leaders want streetcars rolling Downtown - almost eight decades since Boise's streetcar era ended."

"'Boise needs exactly what it had for almost 40 years, from 1891 to 1928,' Bieter said at his State of the City address last week. 'And that's a streetcar.'"

"Within the next few months the city will convene a streetcar task force to come up with a plan on where to put the streetcar and how to pay for it, said city spokesman Adam Park."

"The city wants to embed steel rails in existing traffic lanes along a yet-to-be identified route from Downtown to the 30th Street area."

"Bieter said the advantage of fixing the track - instead of, say, using a rubber-wheeled bus built to look like an old trolley - is that the fixed route will attract businesses and developers. The city can use the route to direct Downtown development."