U.S. Cities Spend $1.2 Billion on Streetcars to Nowhere
- A 6-year infusion of federal dollars helped lay the rails
- Atlanta's $98 million system is a rolling homeless shelter
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The down-and-out men wait for the streetcars on Atlanta’s Edgewood Avenue, especially when the weather turns bad. The blue, blocky, two-car trains, installed at a cost of $98 million to revive downtown, have become a de facto rolling homeless shelter.
The 2.7 mile (4 kilometer) Atlanta loop, which turns one this month, is among more than a dozen streetcar projects rolled out in American cities since 2009 and four in the past year. They are the product of cities’ desire for hipper downtowns and a resurgent U.S. streetcar industry, and are paid for with $1.2 billion from President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus program, other federal sources and matching state and local dollars.