September, 1999
The cities of Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa, and the Regional Public Transportation Authority, are working together to study a light rail transit project for the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. The study area consists of a 25-mile corridor from the Chris-Town Mall area (19th Avenue and Bethany Home Road) in Phoenix, through downtown Tempe, and into downtown Mesa to Mesa Drive. An approximately 17-mile mainline initial operating segment has been identified within this corridor, along with a 1.5 mile Rio Salado spur line. The study currently underway, referred to as Preliminary Engineering and Environmental Impact Statement (PE/EIS), will provide detailed analysis of alignments, environmental issues, station locations, cost and ridership estimates, financial plan, construction program and schedule, and bus and operating plans.
The current federal New Starts funds are already committed to the 25-mile light rail project. The local share is provided by the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa and the Maricopa Association of Governments.
The 17-mile initial segment could be constructed by the beginning of 2005. This assumes that there will be no delays in the community process and that all local and federal funding become available when needed to advance the project.
The second phase of planning for the Central Phoenix/East Valley Light Rail Transit (LRT) Project, consisting of environmental and preliminary engineering analysis, is currently underway. This planning phase will provide a detailed analysis of the following:
The study area is a corridor from the Chris-Town Mall area (19th Avenue and Bethany Home Road) in Phoenix, through downtown Tempe, and into downtown Mesa to Mesa Drive. Based upon the technical information completed to date, the map on the following page illustrates alignment recommendations. As illustrated, within three areas of the corridor, more than one alignment option will be carried forward for further analysis.
For the full LRT project, a total of 25 mainline and 3 Rio Salado branch stations are planned and are also illustrated on the map on the following page. The location of the stations are based on the following criteria:
In October and November [1999], the first of a series of station area/community planning workshops will be held. These workshops involve working with the communities and neighborhoods in specific geographic sections of the project to identify the residents' goals for their communities on such issues as, economic development, maintaining existing character, etc. The process will create station designs that help communities meet their goals. An objective is to integrate stations into the adjacent residential neighborhoods by applying architectural design features that represent the character of the area.
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