By Joshua Bowling | Arizona Republic
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.