Modern Streetcar

BizTUCSONSeptember 30, 2026

3 minutes read

Major Catalyst for Construction/Transportation

By Steve Rivera

For Sandra Kunkel – and likely thousands of others – the Tucson streetcar is exactly what she needs.

“I love the slink (the sun link),” said Kunkel, a senior at the University of Arizona via Boston. “I’ve lived downtown going on two years now and I use it daily. I don’t have a car, so I take the slink everywhere I can. It’s my ride to class every day; my friends and I take it to football and basketball games, as well as to and from university to go to the bars.

“Seeing how it’s free, comes every 15 minutes for the most part and has an app to track it, it’s super convenient for UA students like me.”

Students. Tourists. Residents. The streetcar is ideal for those who want to travel in the downtown area – for free – on a route that covers 3.9 miles and features 23 stops. It connects the Mercado San Agustín district west of Interstate 10, Downtown Tucson, Fourth Avenue, Main Gate Square, and UA.

“The streetcar is the gem of Tucson,” said Mikel Oglesby, general manager of Sun Tran, Sun Van and Sun Link. “It connects everything downtown, including the college, the stores and storefronts. It’s the only way to see Tucson.

“It’s also the heart of Downtown Tucson where you get to see sites and businesses – the main vein of Tucson where we also have the buses where we can feed it to, helping people from all over and they, too, can enjoy the downtown.”

It recently celebrated its 12th anniversary, in which more than 10 million riders have been passengers on Tucson’s streetcars.

According to its most recent annual report, monthly ridership in 2025 included 222,968 riders in October and 117,793 in May, the highest monthly totals since launch.

For 2025, ridership was 1,693,871, which surpassed its goal of a 1% jump from the previous year of 1,688,089.

Overall, from 2025 ridership reflects “continued growth, reinforcing Sun Link as a vital mobility option for residents, students, and visitors and has helped revitalize the downtown and surrounding areas,” Oglesby said.

“The Sun Link Streetcar is more than transportation. It’s an economic connector,” said Crystal Moore, president and CEO of Downtown Tucson Partnership. “By linking downtown with Fourth Avenue, the University of Arizona and the Mercado District, it drives activity, supports our businesses and has helped spur investment and attract new development throughout the entire corridor.”

Restaurant mogul Ray Flores, who has five downtown businesses, including three on the railway system, is on board with its impact on downtown.

“While Downtown Tucson has improved significantly in the past decade,” he said, “the fact is that Tucson’s economy still blooms, and the streetcar is a catalyst to get more Wildcats downtown.”

Convenience is a big deal. There are cars, six of which run on a schedule that varies on weekdays and weekends. Recently, Ruben Montenegro, assistant general manager of Sun Link, said he had friends and family visit and one of the first things he did was take them to dinner near the Link station and then took them on a ride.

Why?

“Because it’s amazing,” he said. “When you have cities that have streetcars, they are flourishing and the businesses around them, too. It’s very convenient for people to come and see what Tucson is all about.”

Streetcars seat 29 and accommodate another 127 who can stand, and they’re all electric.

“Rail is the only way to go when you want convenience,” Oglesby said. “Since it’s on track, it’s on time and on schedule. It’s safe and it’s safe because we have an action plan that we place all around Tucson and that includes the streetcar.

“I’m proud of our entire system. I’m proud of our streetcar service and who we serve and what it’s about,” Oglesby said. “When people come in from out of town the first thing they want to do is go to the streetcar. We say jump on and they see the smooth ride and see a 10 (to 12-minute) headway (trip) that other states with streetcars have. Even when we went to 15-minute headways, it was still better than most locations.”