Routes & Service Areas

System Configurations

Town of Truckee

The Town of Truckee is the 9th largest city in area in California – but in terms of populated areas it is really a widely dispersed set of neighborhoods. It is the peculiar nature of Truckee’s neighborhoods (which are widespread and relatively isolated from each other) and the lack of in-fill plans which lends itself more than many towns to a series of point-to-point tram lines. Even though the tram average speed will be significantly slower than auto travel, the lack of stop signs, the time spent looking for parking, and traffic delays will help push up the average capacity.

The proposed station scheme would make it so that locals and visitors were always within a short walk or shuttle ride of a station near a commercial or recreational area. There may in fact be several “main” stations in Truckee and at and nearby recreational sites. Also there would be special stops at the area’s schools. Access at these points would be limited so that only carded students, parents, teachers, and staff could embark or disembark at these campuses for reasons of student safety. At night, the gondolas would not even stop at the schools (unless the rider had a special event permit). The full system as shown would serve the entire Town of Truckee in Nevada County and would connect to the major ski areas on Highways 89 and 267 and the North West quadrant of Lake Tahoe.

The regional system would connect Truckee with the North Lake Tahoe area. There would be service to the Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows Ski Areas and Northstar (as well as the Tahoe Donner Ski Hill). Eventually this line would extend to Tahoe City. A possible line could connect Alpine Meadows and the Homewood Resorts - eliminating a considerable carbon footprint and pollution impacts of all that inter-resort car travel. A further enhancement would connect Truckee to Donner Summit.

The fully implemented Truckee System would serve the residential, business, and recreational areas of Truckee. A major trunk line would connect downtown Truckee to the Truckee River Regional Park, the Riverview Soccer Complex, the Truckee Airport, the Northstar Ski Resort, and (eventually over to North Tahoe). Another main line would terminate in the West near Donner Lake and at the Glenshire Elementary School in the East. A connector line would serve the Pioneer Commerce Center and the Alder Creek Middle School. Another connector line would extend from the main station up to the Tahoe Donner Subdivision.

Even though the top speed of the system would be about 20 MPH, the direct, point-to-point nature of the routes and the elimination of the need to park and the avoidance of the effects of peak season traffic, stop and go traffic, (or waiting to turn off of Glenshire Dr., for example) would make tramway travel times fast enough to get around the region.

Truckee / Tahoe City Routes

An important link in the system will be the route that connects Truckee with Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows.  A natural and much needed extension to this set of  connections would be to extend this service to Tahoe City, one of the key gateways to North Lake Tahoe. 

Placer County Only Route Variation

In case there are too many zoning, financial, and land use issues in developing the system within the Town of Truckee, a potentially acceptable solution would be to serve the South Truckee and Highway 89 corridor (including Tahoe City) using routes entirely within Placer County. This routing may serve a significant portion of the ridership needed to service the Highway 89 ski areas and even potentially the back side of Northstar.  

Full Intermodal Route Map

The map below represents the most ambitious set of deployments of aerial tramways, shuttle bus "feeder" routes, ferry routes, and even a stretch on the almost unpopulated East Shore of Lake Tahoe using higher speed elevated light rail.

Truckee to Northstar and Kings Beach

An important eventual build out depending upon funding and potential ridership would be to connect the Truckee Airport to Kings Beach with a spur line to service Northstar and the Ritz Carlton.  One possible funding source for this type of spur line would be a partnership arrangement between the Tramway's operating entity and the resort owners.

Timetables

These sample timetables show some station to station transit times.  

* The full distance into Squaw Valley is a little over 11 miles. This 9 mile figure is assuming the destination is the Squaw Valley/Hwy 89 interchange where there would be a transfer station to either go into Squaw, Alpine Meadows, or continue on to Tahoe City.  Ideally, the resort owner of the Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows complex would extend their own spur lines out to meet this transfer station.

I know we’re all in an awful hurry these days and at the extremes these times may seem slow. However, when you factor in bad traffic days, the hassles of parking, and the delays caused by traffic accidents or weather, these times are reasonable.  Also, your time on the tram could be relaxing compared to driving on icy roads or you could even be productive in that you could do homework or have business phone calls without being a “distracted driver” or spend time with your kids. 

All gondolas would have wi-fi and cell coverage and web cams (to help passengers with special needs communicate with tram staff and to document and help limit vandalism or bad behaviors on the part of some riders).