A negative editorial in Los Angeles, CA Times, 8/18/18:
A downtown streetcar is not desired
Last week the Los Angeles City Council approved a nearly $600-million financial plan to build and operate a streetcar on a nearly four-mile loop in downtown. Yet despite the cascade of public dollars being pledged to the project, there’s still considerable skepticism over whether the streetcar will — or even should — be built.
Entire editorial
It's negative, definitely against a streetcar line built primarily to provide a circulator around downtown. They do have some valid points. Are they building it as a form of transit (streetcars are not rapid transit), or just a means to attract tourists?
Witness New Orleans, whose streetcars are iconic and by far part of the fabric of that city. Having ridden the entire system recently on LTRF last month, riding it is downright unpleasant because one feels that they are not getting anywhere. There is no attempt to keep to a schedule, or to get the streetcar moving from stop to stop. Operators seem happy to linger at a stop while customers who seem to care only about themselves take forever to board and alight. Some ride the streetcar for one block, a block they could have walked easily, necessitating two consecutive stops of the streetcar.
In Los Angeles, the blocks are larger. The distance from one block (and presumably one streetcar stop) to the next is longer. The ride might not be as monotonous as the vehicle might be able to pick up a little speed between stops. But... does L.A. need another tourist lure? I can see perhaps that the proposed streetcar might serve as a circulator, taking passengers from Metro light rail or heavy rail stops to points not served by rail. But I think it will only be termed a success if it can do so quickly. While it may stimulate some transit oriented development not possible by the existing shuttle buses, the streetcar cost has to be weighed vs keeping the existing DASH shuttles.