Improving the C Street trolley route is sparking differing opinions among Downtown and transit officals.

The Downtown Partnership has asked the Metropolitan Transit System to study a new loop trolley service to provide exclusive service to C Street Downtown. While MTS is willing to cooperate on the study, it believes the idea has many fatal flaws.

Before looking at those flaws, we need to step back and understand the genesis of this idea. At issue is the revitalization of the C Street corridor, an effort being planned by the Center City Development Corp. (CCDC). Since the beginning of this effort almost three years ago, MTS has been cooperating fully with CCDC and the C Street Advisory Committee to achieve the revitalization goal.

CCDC is looking into the future and identifying the best course of action to encourage new business, accommodate traffic, handle a projected 183 percent increase in trolley ridership and beautify the corridor. MTS fully supports the effort. We share the vision. We are working together with CCDC to realize the dream.

Consensus on several important issues have already been reached, the most important of which is the creation of a continuous eastbound automobile traffic lane on C Street, which has been identified as an essential tactic to revitalize the corridor.

To achieve the new travel lane, trolley tracks must be realigned to the north side of C Street and necessitate “island” stations between the traffic lane and trolley tracks.

Several months ago, when the advisory committee asked MTS for input on this realignment, MTS responded by noting several safety concerns for passengers and pedestrians that would require design solutions. Despite these constraints, MTS agreed to the northern realignment.

And now, very late in the process when we are close to an agreement, the Downtown Partnership has chosen to bring forth a new proposal. In addition to the travel lane, it wants MTS to run shorter trains at greater frequency. This concept will reduce passenger capacity despite growing demand for more trolley service in the corridor and a regional strategy to encourage development along transit corridors.

Today, 32 percent of ALL trolley riders get on or off at C Street. That’s about 43,000 riders every day. And that number, according to the Downtown Master Environmental Impact Report, is expected to almost triple by 2030.

In looking ahead to the year 2030, demand for trolley services will require MTS to operate three- and four-car trains throughout its system. The lengths of these trains exceeds the block lengths along C Street. This issue affects only one station, which is currently located at Fifth Avenue.

As part of the master planning process, CCDC is exploring alternatives for a trolley station between Sixth and Seventh avenues to accommodate longer trains. None of these solutions propose closing a street and, contrary to allegations by the Downtown Partnership, MTS is not advocating the closure of any Downtown streets.

A workable solution is in sight. But now, at the 11th hour, Barbara Warden and the Downtown Partnership suggest that MTS change its entire operating system and spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to create a new trolley loop Downtown. This concept would greatly inconvenience thousands of riders who travel in and out of Downtown.

This loop would require a new separate trolley line around Downtown and limit trains to only two cars through the C Street corridor. Blue Line trolleys would be redirected around Downtown via the bayside line and Orange Line trolleys would terminate at 12th and Imperial. This would require all in-bound and outbound passengers to Downtown stations to transfer at either 12th and Imperial or American Plaza. This would be a costly and inefficient change affecting tens of thousands of trolley riders attempting to get in and out of Downtown.

• It would force 43,000 riders today to make an unnecessary transfer within a minute of their final destination. This number could climb to more than 80,000 per day by 2030.
  
  
• It would force people off three- and four-car trains and onto two-car trains. Imagine the more than 1,200 people arriving almost simultaneously at 12th and Imperial on the Orange and Blue lines, deboarding and trying to get into a train that accommodates a maximum of only 400 at crush load.
  
  
• To minimize the impact, MTS would have to DOUBLE the number of trolleys on C Street, which would increase traffic delays and force MTS to incur greater operational costs. This would have a negative impact on C Street vehicular flow.
  
  
• It would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars to modify track and overhead wires and to reconfigure stations.
  
  
• MTS would lose riders and lose revenue, thereby increasing the taxpayer burden to operate the system.
  
  
• C Street would lose customers that support the businesses there. The top priorities of MTS are to make its system safe and more efficient and attract new riders. The loop concept will discourage ridership and be far more costly to operate.

MTS believes strongly that it plays a vital role in the economic prosperity of the Downtown area by bringing tens of thousands of people into Downtown every day.

MTS strongly supports the C Street revitalization goals, but it will be hard pressed to support any aspect of the revitalization plan that discourages the use of public transportation and that makes the system less viable for the tens of thousands of people who depend on it.

Harry Mathis is chairman of the Metropolitan Transit System.