Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 23, 2022

The First Hill Streetcar, officially the First Hill Line, is a streetcar route in Seattle, Washington, United States, forming part of the modern Seattle Streetcar system. It travels 2.5 mi between several neighborhoods in central Seattle, including the International District, First Hill, and Capitol Hill. The streetcar line was proposed in 2005 as an alternative to a cancelled Link light rail station on First Hill, with the goal of connecting the neighborhood to other light rail stations. The $135 million project, funded primarily by Sound Transit, was approved by voters and the city council in 2008. The city government selected the Broadway corridor and began construction on the line in April 2012, also working on a parallel protected bicycle lane. Construction was completed in late 2014, but delays in the delivery and testing of the streetcar vehicles pushed the opening of the line to January 23, 2016. A proposed connection to the South Lake Union Streetcar line was planned to be constructed in the late 2010s, but was suspended by the city government in 2018.