Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

Transportation topics in KC
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Pendergast
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

Post by Pendergast »

trailerkid wrote: PHX's starter line should be KC's model for light rail-- 20 mile regional, urban/suburban line. IMO the perception there about mass transit is probably quite similar as KC and we have a similarly sprawl-dependent metro. Build the rail line as a true regional way of connecting people instead of a strict urbanist exercise. The scale needs to match the scale used in the region--huge. The city-only line(s) can come later.

Potential line:

Indy Center
70/Noland
Stadiums
31st Street/Prospect
31st Street/Main
Union Station
12th/Grand
NKC
MCI (New south terminal)

 
I would presume that the population densities for these areas aren't strong enough for federal funding, though the geography makes since.
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

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Pendergast wrote: I would presume that the population densities for these areas aren't strong enough for federal funding, though the geography makes sense.
phoenix's starter line did not receive a strong FTA rating, yet they still built it.
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

Post by GRID »

Interesting read in this issue of masstransit.

http://masstransitmag.com/print/Mass-Tr ... ier/1$8130
“At least nothing you can see on the ground like a fixed guideway system like you might see in these other cities,” Wilson says.

“Yeah, there’s buses running all over the place, but they don’t count. Because they’re an illusion. They’re there and then they’re not there. Well where did they go? Who knows. Well, I’m not getting on it because I don’t know where it’s going.

“You can run all the buses you want, there’s no sense of structure, there’s no sense of organization to a city unless you can find where the tracks or the wires go, or where the subway stations are. So those people come here and they expect to see all this stuff and they’re a world apart from those who have been here their entire lives.”
Houston Metro
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

Post by DaveKCMO »

good use for abandoned big boxes? from virginia beach/norfolk...

VB eyes former Circuit
City site

Warner would not confirm that the plan is to use the location for a light rail station. He said, "they want that location because it is a strategic location and is very versatile."

The site is assessed at nearly $6 million dollars. It backs the Norfolk Southern Line, which is a probable path for a light rail line that would run from Newtown Road to Birdneck Road.
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

Post by beautyfromashes »

Again, those streetcars were ours!!! Worst thing KC ever did was to ship them off to SF.
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

Post by DaveKCMO »

the new green line in dallas opens sept. 14.
It's all part of the changes ahead for DART, and for Dallas, as the city's 26-year-old transit agency prepares to add its first major new line in more than a decade. The Green Line, which will debut four stations later this month and 16 more by 2010, adds 28 miles of rail to DART and has cost about $1.8 billion.
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

Post by DaveKCMO »

phoenix: Light rail celebrates 1 million riders, sets new record

the line opened in december 2008.
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

Post by KCKev »

Just heard here on Tucson Radio a proposal for a bullet train in Phoenix. 2 hr ride from Phoenix to La.
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

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DaveKCMO wrote: phoenix: Light rail celebrates 1 million riders, sets new record

the line opened in december 2008.
another take on phoenix:
And now comes Valley Metro in Phoenix, one of the most apparently unpromising locations for transit of all, and it?s working, though not quite the way transit does in, say, New York, Boston, or Washington. Every day, Valley Metro attracts some 33,000 riders?way above the 26,000 that were originally projected. But what?s especially interesting is the clientele. Unlike systems elsewhere, which are used principally by commuters, the 20 miles of rail in Phoenix running along the central spines of Phoenix and then through Tempe to Mesa are used largely by students shuttling between Arizona State University?s downtown and Tempe campuses, and people going to restaurants, bars, ball games, and cultural events downtown. Only 27 percent of the system?s riders use it for getting to work (compared to 60 percent elsewhere), which suggests that, for now at least, the Phoenix light rail will flourish as a sort of jitney service supporting a post-industrial metropolis?s ongoing cultivation of a classic entertainment district downtown, higher education there and in Tempe, and associated nodes of new and intensified development along Central Avenue.

The system is also creating a deeper transformation. Since 2001, when the tax for the new $1 billion transit system was approved, there has been about $5 billion in public and private investment?$3.5 billion of it private?along the light-rail corridor and its cool stops, according to a recent story in The New York Times. The system seems to be delivering day-to-day economic benefits, too.  According to the Times, downtown Phoenix saw its revenues increase 13 percent in the first quarter of 2009, while the rest of the city saw a revenue decline of 16 percent.
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

Post by KCMax »

KC Prime Buzz: Denver light rail losing favor

The first commenter, a smart fellow, takes the Star to task for their misleading headline. Denver's light rail recently had overwhelming support in a poll. But its losing support among the Denver editorial staff, and that's all that matters!
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

Post by DaveKCMO »

KCMax wrote: KC Prime Buzz: Denver light rail losing favor

The first commenter, a smart fellow, takes the Star to task for their misleading headline. Denver's light rail recently had overwhelming support in a poll. But its losing support among the Denver editorial staff, and that's all that matters!
that's me. thanks!

so yeah, prime buzz has really enabled the Star to lower their journalistic bar. who on earth would write a headline like that when there's (A) no real news and (B) it's just the opinion of two guys?

fastracks was a voter-approved initiative. yes, it's over-budget and the schedule has slipped, but even if the margin of error is way off on that poll there is plenty of support left with voters.

another item i read today showed that denver DOUBLED transits trip share BEFORE any of the fastracks lines are even close to coming online. how?
Strategic transit plans laid out in the 2002 Blueprint Denver document are explicit about not adding extra freeway lanes or widening city streets; these acts often occur as a panacea for traffic congestion. Most studies show such isolated approaches only eventually create more congestion.
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

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Once a gamble, TRAX ingrained in Wasatch Front's future
In the decade since, that single north-south line has expanded to include lines to the University of Utah and a downtown inter-modal hub, which links TRAX to the commuter rail, FrontRunner.

Also, more Utahns have hopped aboard the trains: About 500,000 people rode TRAX each month when it first started; monthly ridership now exceeds a million.

Construction is under way to expand the network to 10 times its original reach.

That boom in construction and support for TRAX makes Inglish and Allegra chuckle when they stand at the 1300 South station and remember the day they broke ground at the stop and protesters shouted at them and held signs claiming that "Light rail kills children."
wow... monthly ridership of a million in a city smaller (and less dense) than KC.
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

Post by mgsports »

Don't forget Johnson County in KS and other parts of KS.
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

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mgsports wrote: Don't forget Johnson County in KS and other parts of KS.
as far as failure?
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Re: Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

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http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascoun ... iment.html
    Camellia Dalai can see the future as she boards a Portland State University-bound MAX train at the foot of her Mount Scott neighborhood in unincorporated Clackamas County. "This whole area is really going to increase in population," said Dalai, an 18-year-old PSU biology major, standing at TriMet's newly opened Fuller Road Station between Interstate 205 and Southeast 82nd Avenue.

  "Before light rail, not having a car made living out here very difficult," she added. "But considering how much less it costs to live here and how fast light rail is, there's no way this won't be a small city of its own pretty soon."

Clackamas County planners, coincidentally, think Dalai's predictions are spot on. And they think they have the ideal tool to make the most of the potential that light rail brings to the area. It's called form-based code, and the area around Fuller Road Station is on the verge of becoming the county's first test of the concept
cont..
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