Boise officials are considering ways to implement a downtown streetcar system.

Within the next four years, Mayor Dave Bieter and other Boise city leaders want trolley cars rolling downtown, almost eight decades since Boise’s streetcar era ended. In coming months, city officials will convene a streetcar task force to develop a plan where to put the streetcar and how to pay for it.

Officials want to embed steel rails in existing traffic lanes along an unidentified route from downtown stretching west to an area the city has targeted for a major revitalization project. But first, the city must get approval from Ada County Highway District, which owns and maintains all public roads in the county except for state highways and the interstate.

A long-range downtown mobility study, done in 2005 at a cost of $637,000, recommends a circular shuttle bus that can be replaced, if public demand warrants, with streetcars.

There are also questions about financing, as Idaho cities and counties have no way to pass local sales taxes for transportation projects. Earlier this year, the Legislature again shot down a plan to give counties and cities that authority. However, Bieter says as much as 50 percent of the estimated $40 million to $50 million price tag could come from a local improvement taxing district.

(AP)