Students in the south city region will have another option to driving to campus by the end of next school year.

Sacramento Regional Transit District crews have started constructing three new light rail stations as part of a project to link the city to the south county. Construction crews began demolishing buildings at the 47th Avenue, City College and Florin Road sites in March, marking the beginning of RT?s $222 million push south.

“This is an exciting time for RT and the Sacramento community. Seeing the start of light rail construction brings us one step closer to opening the South Line,” said Bonnie Pannell, RT chairwoman and Sacramento city councilwoman.

RT will build seven light rail stations, with completion scheduled for April 2003. Station sites include: Broadway, 4th Avenue/Hultgren, City College, Fruitridge, 47th Avenue, Florin and Meadowview. Park and ride lots will be located at the 47th Avenue, Florin and Meadowview stations.

The 4th Avenue/Hutgren station is named after Sacramento?s Modern Transit Society founder and “father of light rail,” the late Wayne Hutgren.

Unlike the majority of RT?s existing light rail stations, the seven South Line stations will each have different architectural designs. Each design was developed with input from the community served by each station, and each has an artist assigned to integrate artwork into the station.

Each of the stations will provide bus and light rail transfers.The South Line is a two-phased 11.2-mile extension of the light rail line south to Elk Grove. The first phase will extend the light rail from Downtown Sacramento 6.3 miles to Meadowview Road.

Upon completion, the first phase is projected to add more than 15,000 passengers to the light rail system by 2015. Service on the South Line is projected to begin by September 2003.

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