The always insightful Transport Politic has an excellent article on the current state and future outlook of streetcars in America.  This article further demonstrates the ever-increasing interest in streetcars as a means of economic development by cities across the nation, suggesting the 2010s could be the decade of streetcars in America.  Read more here.

Big news out of Atlanta today: the city has apparently received a $47 Million TIGER II Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for a $70 million streetcar line, the initial piece of what could grow to be a larger streetcar network.  This is not the first time that streetcars have performed very well in the highly-competitive TIGER Grant program due to their focus on economic development: Tuscon, Dallas, and New Orleans received a combined $131 million earlier this year.  While the official awards are due to be released soon (and will probably include more streetcar projects), Altanta's early success further illustrates the growing interest by the federal government to fund streetcar projects.