New York, NY —

Mayor Bloomberg is making light rail part of his campaign platform for re-election, saying streetcars can plug transportation holes along the city's waterfront. WNYC's Matthew Schuerman has more.

REPORTER: Until now, the Bloomberg administration has acted indifferently towards trolleys. Six years ago, city workers pulled up one stretch of tracks in Red Hook, Brooklyn, after a partnership with a private operator went sour. More recently, they removed another line in the same neighborhood so a street could be resurfaced.

Nearly five years ago, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez secured $300,000 for the city to study using trolleys to make places like Red Hook and Brooklyn Bridge Park more accessible. The department of transportation says it'll finally begin that study this fall.

One civic organization, the Regional Plan Association, questions whether the investment required to build light rail is really worth the amount of traffic the system would handle. Bloomberg says if it works out, it will help meet the needs of growing waterfront neighborhoods. For WNYC, I'm Matthew Schuerman.