By Steve Harrison
sharrison@charlotteobserver.com

More than 70 years after streetcars last ran in Charlotte, the city learned Thursday it won a $25 million federal grant that will bring them back.

The Federal Transit Administration grant will help build the first leg of the city's streetcar line, which will connect Presbyterian Hospital with the main transit station near Time Warner Cable Arena. Ebullient city officials said the streetcar could be carrying passengers by 2014.

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, who pushed to build the streetcar during the mayoral campaign in 2009, said the project will be a "catalyst" for new infrastructure and will provide "sorely needed jobs for Charlotte."

The total cost of the 1.5-mile line will be $37 million. The city has set aside $12 million to build the starter line, but it hasn’t yet identified the roughly $1.5 million needed to operate it.

The city eventually wants to build a 10-mile streetcar line from Beatties Ford to the site of the closed Eastland Mall. The entire project could cost as much as $500 million and would likely take at least two decades to build, assuming the line is built in small phases.

Construction on the 1.5-mile project must begin within 18 months, according to the FTA, which awarded the grants. Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Dallas and Fort Worth also received money for streetcars. A total of 65 cities applied.

A consultant, URS Corp., is currently doing engineering work on how to build the line. The major question mark is what utilities are under the street and how many of them must be moved.

John Mrzygod, a streetcar project manager for the city, said he hopes the city can begin moving some utilities quickly.

He said the construction work will be relatively hassle-free for drivers and businesses.

"This will be more surgical than Elizabeth Avenue," Mrzygod said. He was referring to a massive rebuilding of Elizabeth Avenue through Central Piedmont Community College, which included building 1/2 mile of streetcar track into the road.

The city must build rail tracks that loop around the Time Warner Cable Arena, where they will connect with the Lynx Blue Line track. That will allow the streetcars to travel along the light-rail tracks to the Charlotte Area Transit System's maintenance and storage yard near the New Bern light-rail station.

From there, the city will likely install track on Trade Street, where it will link up with the existing track on Elizabeth Avenue.

To power the streetcar, the city will likely build a catenary, which are the overhead wires that will be a canopy over the street.

The city is planning to use three existing trolley cars that are used by Charlotte Trolley on its line from South End to uptown. That trolley line is being eliminated by CATS because of budget cuts.

The streetcar may at a later date use more futuristic cars. But using the replica trolleys saved the city $8 million, said Mrzygod.

The idea of building a streetcar in Charlotte has been controversial.

Unlike the Lynx Blue Line, which operates in its own tracks and is often faster than cars, the streetcar will operate in the street. It will stop at traffic lights and will be stopped in congestion, just like a bus.

Though the streetcar is not faster than a bus, streetcar boosters have said it will help redevelop areas nearby. Developers will want to build near streetcar stops, supporters say.

Republicans on the Charlotte City Council have been wary of spending money on the streetcar. But Foxx and his Democratic colleagues have pushed to spend money on it, even before the city was sure it could pay for it, or whether federal money would be available.

Under the Bush administration, streetcars weren't eligible for federal transit funding. But the Obama administration has changed those rules, and the FTA awarded $130 million in streetcar grants Thursday.

"The city was in a position and ready to go," Foxx said. "When the FTA looked…Charlotte had prepared itself."

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