Phoenix city leaders have decided to build an initial three miles, not the full 4.6 miles, of the first light-rail extension… Two years ago, the Phoenix City Council opted against sending tracks across Interstate 17 into Metrocenter Mall. Instead, the line was to end at a business park on the east side of the freeway.
The latest plan… would build the northwest extension in two phases. The first phase, a 3.2-mile line, would open on time in 2012 using $273 million in local funds… The new plan stops tracks at 19th and Dunlap avenues, rather than 25th Avenue and Mountain View Road… officials said they faced the choice of building all of the line late or using money exclusively from a 2000 local sales tax to finish as much of it on schedule as possible… federal requirements had grown too onerous and time-consuming…
At Glendale’s insistence, Metro is studying three ways to bring rail into the city: along Interstate 10 and north to University of Phoenix Stadium; west into downtown as planned, or along a new unknown route to Arizona State University West. For the first time, Metro planning maps show a dotted line to ASU West…
Read the rest of the story in the Arizona Republic (15 March 2007)
