In addition to Atlanta, today Salt Lake City's Sugar House Streetcar project was awarded a $26 million TIGER II Grant by the Federal Department of Transportation.  The $45 million project will act as development-oriented transit by linking the region's light rail system to major redevelopment areas.  This grant is yet another example of the Obama Administration's growing commitment to funding streetcars: nearly $400 million has now been awarded to streetcar projects in the past year to cities including Atlanta, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Dallas, Fort Worth, New Orleans, Portland, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, and Tuscon. 

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.