Seattle has hired a consultant to study the feasibility of bringing back the antique waterfront trolley streetcar line. The trolley could be part of the billion dollar development of the waterfront when a tunnel replaces the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

The trolley wasn't supposed to be killed. It was only supposed to be suspended when SAM demolished the old trolley barn in 2005 to build the Olympic Sculpture Park, and officials expected the trolley to come back on line in 2007. That never happened, of course, and now we're here.

Honesty, I don't really care either way about a novelty antique car that does nothing more than jaunt up and down the waterfront. But I think extending the First Hill streetcar line could be awesome. I think it's worth studying a transit connection—one that uses rail and overrides traffic lights—that begins on Capitol Hill, over First Hill, through Little Saigon, down into the International District, and then takes a right hook up the the waterfront. That sort of gigantic U could connect lots of the city's densest neighborhoods while making the waterfront car more than a cutesy showpiece for tourists.