On January 1, Portland Streetcar will roll out a new fare policy: Streetcar tickets will be good all day. We’ve discussed the perception that a 1-2 zone fare for a few stops on the Streetcar outside fareless square is a tough value proposition. This move is intended to help that issue. At a minimum you’ll…

There’s been a sea change at the Federal Transit Administration. After the FTA created a preliminary set of rules for the Small Starts program (the program that Earl Blumenaur and other congressional leaders designed for Streetcars) that strongly favor bus projects, the new FTA Administrator, James Simpson, was just shocked to learn that no Streetcar…

The cover article in today’s Trib (“Streetcar planning calls for patience”) seems to suggest that Streetcar is going too fast! For the record, I don’t think we need to slow down, all I’m concerned about is that our Streetcar lines are well-planned and that every potential community has the opportunity to make their case for…

In a number of recent discussions, the idea of a Hawthorne Streetcar has come up. This was especially the case in Tuesday’s “Burnside-Couch Couplet” thread. I think there is sufficient interest to get local interested parties together (transportation advocates, Hawthorne-area businesses, residents, taxpayers, bicycle and pedestrian activists, and even pure motorists (Hi, Terry)) to try…

Apparently there are rail buffs in the Czech Republic as well as in Portland. Some of them are snapping pictures of our next three Streetcars as they travel around the streets of Ostrava during their burn-in. (More photos here.) They’ve come a long way since I first saw them, but the cars are badly overdue.…