BOISE -- Mayor Dave Bieter makes no bones about it.

He says Boise, indeed, the Treasure Valley, needs better mass transportation and he's hoping to get the ball rolling with a new downtown trolley system.

Trolleys were common in Boise a century or so ago until cars drove them from the city streets.

Now City Hall is floating a $60 million plan to bring the streetcars back with the lion's share of funding from transportation stimulus dollars.

"We have applied for $40 million and we think we have a fighting chance at it," said Bieter. "We won't know until January or February."

The first phase would run on some 2.6 miles of fixed rails in a two-way loop east and west on Idaho and Main streets.

The electric-powered trolley would be in the traffic like any other vehicle. It would be in the lane and motorists would treat it like a bus or a car.

So we're talking $40 million in stimulus money and $15 million from the city's general fund, parking fund as well as a downtown local improvement district.
Then the Capital City Development Corporation would add another $5 million.

If the stimulus money falls through, Mayor Bieter says other federal transportation funds may be available.

"We have 2 good opportunities in the next 18 months or so," the mayor said. "We're hopeful one of them will come through."

Downtown business owners we talked to agree with the mayor that the trolley would boost business but paying into a local improvement district is another story.

"With the way the economy is, local business are getting pretty beat up," said Bob Dempsey, owners of Moon's Kitchen. "I don't know if we could collectively afford to do something like that."

The average Boisean seems intrigued, but has a lot of trolley questions.

"I don't know if it's a good idea or a bad idea. I need more information," said Justin Brune. "Is it actually going to service downtown businesses? Will it help with parking? Are there cheaper alternatives to get people downtown?"

And Mayor Bieter hopes to answer as many of these questions as he can through public awareness campaigns in the upcoming months.

When it comes to trolleys, he's convinced now is the best time for Boise to go back to the future.