According to Pat Brogan, Mayor Rick Gray’s Chief of Staff, the City plans to first engage an engineering study regarding the feasibility of a streetcar system in Downtown Lancaster before investing additional funds in studying the economic feasibility of such a system. Brogan said that the City is taking this route in case the engineering study shows the proposed system to be technically unfeasible.

Funding for this initial study will be provided by a $20,000 County Urban Enhancement Grant as well as a required $20,000 match from the City.

Last week the Commissioners passed the $20,000 grant for the City of Lancaster to engage what was described as a $150,000 engineering and economic feasibility study regarding the possible introduction of a streetcar loop in Downtown Lancaster City. With $40,000 lined up in City and County funds, a source for the remaining $110,000 was not clearly identified—although one County planning official indicated the possibility of contributions from the Red Rose Transit Authority.

Yesterday, NewsLanc asked Brogan to clarify the source of remaining funds. In the course of her response, Brogan reiterated the three driving questions behind City’s consideration of streetcar feasibility: One is the economic benefit (“if any,” Brogan asserted) of such a system; another is whether such a system could operate without taxpayer subsidy; and, finally, is the question of whether such a system could reasonably work within the City’s existing infrastructure.

Brogan concluded that the Mayor wants to determine the answer to that last question before spending any additional money on the others. For this reason, the City will not yet be in need of funding beyond the $40,000 that has already been allocated.

Brogan plans to meet with Public Works Director Charlotte Katzenmoyer today to begin developing a Request for Proposals for the initial engineering study.