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First Tucson Modern Streetcar Arrives Friday

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AZPM
Jesse Gutierrez of the Tucson Department of Transportation updates us on the construction dates and expectations of the Modern Streetcar project.

The first of Tucson's new streetcars arrived Friday in the Southern Arizona city after a 1,600-mile truck ride from a Clackamas, Ore., manufacturing plant.

A flatbed trailer transported the 70- foot streetcar over five days. It was unloaded onto rail tracks and then pulled by a tow truck into a Sun Link storage facility.

Tucson is acquiring eight of the streetcars from United Streetcar to ride 3.9 miles of track between downtown and the University of Arizona.

Company technicians will spend the next month or so testing the streetcar. That starts after the Labor Day weekend once parts removed for shipping are reassembled.

Additional cars are to be delivered at the rate of about one every month or so.

The goal is to have the system operational by next summer.