OGDEN — Once a fan of urban gondolas, Mayor Matthew Godfrey is pushing streetcars instead.
Godfrey, who plans to explain his proposal Thursday, wants to promote a streetcar system despite the cost, which he believes he can reduce.
The mayor appeared to be distancing himself from a system of gondolas he's pushed for years. Godfrey told the Standard-Examiner that a streetcar system and corridor rights would cost about $200 million.
"We want to get streetcars more affordable. We think we can make it happen," he said.
A 2005 study commissioned by Ogden, the Wasatch Front Regional Council, Utah Transit Authority and Weber State University found streetcars to be the most desirable mode of mass transit along the corridor in question.
Godfrey predicts the City Council "will be thrilled and we will be singing 'Kumbaya'" when he discusses the issue Thursday. But Councilwoman Dorrene Jeske is skeptical.
She believes the plan is intended to prevent a more extensive analysis of the corridor between the intermodal hub at 23rd Street and Wall Avenue and Weber State and McKay-Dee Hospital.
"It's a way to waste time," Jeske said.