First Hill and International District. Preliminary plans for a network of five-line streetcar network were approved for further development by the city council in December 2008 without allocated funding to cover the $600 million cost. The network plan included branches of the South Lake Union line that traveled northwest to Ballard via Fremont, and northeast to the University District via Eastlake. The lines would feed into a trunk along the South Lake Union Streetcar that would connect to a line serving Downtown Seattle and the Seattle Center on either 1st Avenue or 4th and 5th avenues. The Eastlake project, including a compatible replacement for the Fairview Avenue North Bridge, was prioritized for the next streetcar study, but it was delayed by the city council in favor of using its funds for bus service. The only addition to the network so far, the First Hill Line, began construction in 2012 and opened in January 2016 with funding from Sound Transit, as part of mitigation for the loss of a planned light rail station serving First Hill. The First Hill line generally runs south from Capitol Hill station to Yesler Terrace on Broadway and west on South Jackson Street to the International District and Pioneer Square. The two streetcar lines do not intersect and leave a gap across downtown Seattle that was planned to be filled by a later extension. Planning of a third streetcar project to connect the South Lake Union and First Hill lines began in 2012 as part of a revival in streetcar studies under Mayor Mike McGinn. The project, named the Center City Connector, was approved in July 2014 by the city council and was planned to begin service on 1st Avenue by 2020; its $110 million cost would be primarily covered by a grant from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Under the approved plan, the streetcar route would use a set of transit-only lanes in the center of 1st Avenue, stopping at Pike Place Market, the Seattle Art Museum, and near Colman Dock; it would carry both the South Lake Union and First Hill lines, which would overlap for a frequency of five minutes and would have an estimated daily ridership of 20,000. The older fleet of Inekon streetcars would be incompatible with the First Hill line, requiring a replacement; the Seattle Department of Transportation planned to sell the retired cars to Portland for use on its