I don't know about the actual rail used but will look around and see.
Valley Metro which runs both the light rail and the street car systems use the same tracks and the same repair yard, so the street cars are capable and actually have been during the "burning in period" for the cars have been running on the light rail tracks.
“They are going be doing some tests of the vehicle in our maintenance facility, then each vehicle has to do what’s called burn in and travel several-hundred miles to make sure it’s basically able to withstand travel on the track,” said Valley Metro’s Madeline Phipps. “We’re going to use the light-rail track for that because with only a three-mile loop on the Tempe Streetcar line, that would take a really long time.
“Then we’ll do testing on the actual Tempe Streetcar system, probably starting in late May. Streetcar vehicles can travel on the light-rail track. In fact, every night, the streetcars will switch over onto the light-rail track and travel to our maintenance center at 30th Street and Washington to be serviced.”
https://www.wranglernews.com/2021/04/02/run-into-town-on-a-rail-tempe-streetcar-ready-to-ease-congestion/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThen%20we'll%20do%20testing,and%20Washington%20to%20be%20serviced.%E2%80%9DOn the expansion into Mesa, I may have been somewhat wrong on the routes. They are studying the expansion now and awaiting results from Tempe's first year or two, as well as a 0.5% transportation tax that was passed in 2004 is set to expire in 2025 unless it is renewed by a public vote, and any infrastructure money from the Fed.
Tempe's $200 million streetcar won't be up and running until early next year, but some leaders already are eyeing expansion.
Valley Metro officials in 2020 began evaluating five possible expansion routes. One expansion — which would take it to Mesa near the Chicago Cubs spring training park and the busy Mesa Community College campus — ranked in third place.
That's the only explored route that would take streetcar deep into west Mesa. The others are almost entirely in Tempe, although the No. 1 option would just cross the Mesa border and go up to Dobson Road in Mesa. The five potential expansion routes are:
First place: A line running east on Rio Salado Parkway, roughly from Rural to Dobson roads. This would run along the Tempe Novus Innovation Corridor, which is partially being built on the old Karsten Golf Course.
Second place: A line running south on Rural Road from Rio Salado Parkway to Southern Avenue. At Southern Avenue, it would run west to Mill Avenue.
Third place: A line entirely in Mesa, running along Dobson Road from Rio Salado Parkway to Southern Avenue, then cutting east along Southern Avenue to Country Club Drive and running north along Country Club Drive to Main Street.
Fourth place: A line extending further south on Mill Avenue, to Southern Avenue.
Fifth place: A line going further west on Rio Salado Parkway.
Valley Metro CEO Scott Smith, who oversaw much of light rail's Mesa expansion as mayor, isn't ruling it out. But, he said it'll take years for an expansion like that to take shape.
If it does happen, he said, it'll be thanks to two things: the recently approved $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure package and a potential renewal of Maricopa County's transportation tax, which is set to expire in 2025.
Francisco Heredia, a Mesa City Councilmember who leads two Valley Metro boards of directors, hopes it extends into Mesa.
He sees the potential Mesa route as a boon to spring-training baseball, shopping centers and the massive community college campus. It also could spur more redevelopment in the nearby Fiesta District.
"It's going to be important access for the future," he said.
Smith and Heredia spoke with The Arizona Republic at Valley Metro's expanded, solar-powered Operations and Maintenance Center in Phoenix. The center, where workers repair and maintain light rail vehicles and streetcar, recently underwent a $92 million expansion.
Extension could be 5-10 years out, but one leader wants to know next year
Leaders acknowledge an expansion could be years out, and likely hinges on whether voters renew the 0.5% county transportation sales tax. But Heredia hopes to have a timeline in the next year.
"We're going to see how Tempe's system operates and learn from that," the Mesa council member said.
Potentially expanding into Mesa comes with some hurdles. The streetcar would have to intersect with light rail at Dobson Road and Main Street, as well as a Union-Pacific train line on Dobson.
At least one of those issues may have a solution already.
Streetcar intersects with light rail lines twice in Tempe. At those points, the streetcar disconnects from the overhead line, which powers it and charges its battery, and runs solely on battery power. Smith calls it a "hybrid" model of rail.
Smith said the streetcar needs two things to expand: more grant funding and an extension on the county transportation sales tax.
The massive bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would go a long way for the former. The deal promised some $8 billion in grants for rail projects across the U.S. The biggest hurdle is getting some of that competitive grant money, Smith said.
"If streetcar happens (in Mesa), the infrastructure package is the reason it happens," he said.
But there's still the elephant in the room for rail projects: Prop. 400.
The tax, which voters approved in 2004, paved the way for light rail by increasing sales tax 0.5%. But it's set to expire in 2025. Smith said he hopes an extension will head to the ballot in 2022 or 2024.
"Come back in 2025 or 2026 and we'll see if the streetcar expansion can happen," he said. "If voters approve that extension, Mesa can immediately begin planning."
Here's the link to the article, you can get to it by using an incognito window since it's behind a paywall.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2021/12/13/tempe-streetcar-mesa-leaders-eye-expansion-routes/6408367001/
