Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

[KCK]

There is a thread on SSP with pictures of Denver's newly opened light rail expansion.

Denvers T-REX

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=120343

[warwickland]

^

I have a friend from st. louis who moved to denver via kansas city who is now enjoying these new lines. she never thought in terms of urbanity or mass transit until she started using these denver light rail lines, and i feel that a whole new generation of denverites (denverinians?) are going to become enchanted with the whole idea of urbanity/transit and lower impact living because of these new lines.

[kc-vino]

In any reference to San Diego's system you also have to acknowledge the coaster that runs in both North and South directions (along the coast) right into downtown.  This is not depicted nor mentioned earlier when talking of San Diego.  This is a wonderful system that runs directly parallel with Highway 101 which is always congested.

[DaveKCMO]

yeah, wouldn't it be great if we had commuter rail that ran the entire length of I-35 from gardner to liberty?

[DaveKCMO]

http://www.masstransitmag.com/article/a ... =3&id=2207

The real work on building a light-rail line connecting Minnesota's two biggest cities begins now.
Backers marked a milestone Thursday when the federal government gave the OK for local planners to begin detailed engineering work on an 11-mile rail line from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul along University Avenue.

"(Light rail) along the Central Corridor has the potential to be an even bigger success than our Hiawatha line," said Peter Bell, Metropolitan Council chairman.

Critical decisions about the light-rail line -- its path, station designs and locations, and whether the route goes underground near the University of Minnesota -- will be hashed out during the next two years.

Cost remains a big issue. The $930 million project probably wouldn't meet federal funding standards in its current form, meaning tough choices about an expensive University tunnel and a link to Union Depot in St. Paul lay ahead.

The next major decision, on whether the project enters the final design stage, is expected in late 2008.
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman hailed the announcement as a sign the project has moved from speculation to reality.

"The development of the Central Corridor will forever change the face of St. Paul," Coleman said.

The cost is being split 50-50 between the federal government and state and local entities. The Met Council has established a 13-member management committee to make major project recommendations, and is setting up community and business advisory committees as well.

Stops along University Avenue are currently planned for about a mile apart, with more frequent stops downtown. Trains would run every 7 1/2 minutes during rush hour. A trip from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul would take about 35 minutes.

The line is expected to serve an average daily ridership of 38,100 by 2020 and 43,300 by 2030. However, pre-construction ridership estimates along the Hiawatha line from Minneapolis to Bloomington were exceeded by 58 percent during the first year of operation.

The Hiawatha line also spurred new development along the route, and St. Paul is hoping to reap similar rewards.

Coleman wants transit-oriented development along the route, and the city has established two task forces -- one for downtown, one for University Avenue -- to come up with development guidelines. The committees are expected to release their findings by early March.

The guidelines would then be submitted for city approval, after which the committees may start work on neighborhood planning related to individual stations, said Nancy Homans, Coleman's policy director.
Thursday's announcement comes as the political stars line up for the project.

On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, a St. Paul DFLer, was handed an appointment to the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which oversees federal spending. And U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, another Minnesota DFLer, is in line to head the House Transportation Committee. And both of Minnesota's U.S. senators are from the Twin Cities.

But to get all possible federal dollars, costs probably will have to be trimmed. The $155 million University of Minnesota tunnel, the total reconstruction of University Avenue and whether to delay constructing a stretch of track from 4th and Cedar streets to the Union Depot building are all on the table, Met Council spokesman Steve Dornfeld said.

The latter two options are particularly sensitive to St. Paul officials. Union Depot is viewed as a future transportation hub, and a streetscape makeover for University Avenue, complete with a new roadway, sidewalks and trees, is seen as key to ongoing revitalization efforts.

"It's financing structure is not the most important thing, but that it gets done is very important," Homans said.

There are lingering concerns about the line, from neighbors along the route fearing commuters will overrun their neighborhoods to more deep-seeded suspicions within segments of the city's black community that the Central Corridor spells a repeat of the Interstate 94 project, which ripped apart the old Rondo neighborhood.
With the success of the Hiawatha line, business owners who once objected to mass transit have softened their position, said Lori Fritz, head of the Midway Chamber of Commerce. But a three-year construction schedule still worries them, she said.

[DaveKCMO]

http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-cell1 ... -headlines

Straphangers may soon be "phoning in" their subway fare.

A consortium of credit card and wireless providers will test "tap and go" technology in cell phones along the Lexington Line starting Jan. 10.

A select group of riders will be able to pay the fare by holding specially designed phones to PayPass sensors already installed along Nos. 4, 5, and 6 subway stations in Manhattan.

[DaveKCMO]

SLC has a metro pop of about 1.2 million.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1%2C1249 ... %2C00.html

Forget traffic: In 10 years, residents along the Wasatch Front will be able to hitch a ride on a commuter train, luggage in tow, all the way to the airport, without ever stepping into a car.

The Salt Lake County Council and county mayors on Tuesday laid the groundwork to build a network of rails over the next 10 years that will span the Salt Lake Valley, by endorsing a list of projects that will be funded through a quarter-cent sales-tax hike that voters approved in November.

The officials hanged priorities recommended in a list of 34 projects compiled by the Wasatch Front Regional Council and approved funding for four projects, three of which are mass transit.

In total, $2.5 billion will be spent on commuter rail, TRAX lines to West Valley and South Jordan, and on repairs to Interstate 80 from State Street to 1300 East. Officials with the Utah Transit Authority said Tuesday that funding those projects also will free other dollars to build TRAX lines to the Salt Lake City International Airport and to Draper.

The West Valley line will require $700 million to build, with the sales-tax money covering $450 million of that cost. The Mid-Jordan line will be about $750 million, which will all come from the sales-tax increase. Commuter rail will cost about $1.3 billion to build, with all of the cost covered by the sales tax. The improvements to I-80 will cost about $128 million, with $30 million coming from the sales-tax increase.

[DaveKCMO]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... t12m0.html

Sound Transit will ask voters this fall for a sales-tax increase of a half-cent per dollar, to extend light-rail east to Overlake, north to Lynnwood and south to the Port of Tacoma.

The transit package would be paired on the November ballot with a multibillion-dollar highway measure that comes with car-tab taxes and a small sales tax. Both must pass, or both fail.

The more than 40 miles of proposed new light-rail track — the main part of a $17 billion transit plan — would not be finished until 2027, though some segments would open earlier. A 16-mile line is now being built from Westlake Center to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, to open in 2009, followed by an extension north to Husky Stadium.

[bbqboy]

  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 007&sc=481

The new 3rd street line in SF opened yesterday. Think of of a Line down Independence Ave., not down Wornall.
SAN FRANCISCO
A light-rail ride that gives view of city in flux:
  Look north from the light-rail platform at Kirkland Avenue and Third Street in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood, and the view includes the Bay Bridge and Yerba Buena Island.

Closer at hand -- right across the street -- a mortuary stands next to a market that advertises check-cashing in English and Spanish, and a store named Da Corner has a T-shirt on display that cautions "Can't Sell Dope Forever."

Yesterday, the San Francisco of postcards and its gritty counterpart were linked by the opening of a 5-mile light-rail line running from King Street near AT&T Park south to the Brisbane border. Not only does the $667 million project connect downtown to the city's southeastern neighborhoods, it also reveals a San Francisco that many Bay Area residents won't recognize.

And for first-day riders, that was part of the appeal.

"I like neighborhoods. It's nice to see different ones," said Jim Ward of Walnut Creek, a software development manager and an electric rail buff. "It'll be interesting to come back in a couple of years and see how things go."

Service on the new T-Third line doesn't start on a daily basis until April 7. But on weekends until then, free rides are being offered between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. while Muni engineers and train operators work out the kinks of a line that crosses two drawbridges, climbs over a freeway and for eight blocks of Third Street shares a lane with automobiles.

Yesterday's opening also drew Muni officials and local politicians, who crowded into two light-rail cars at the Castro subway station at 8:30 a.m. and spilled out onto the Kirkland Avenue platform 40 minutes later. They were greeted by Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, whose district is home to nearly the entire extension.

"Being connected to the city is so very, very important," Maxwell told the crowd. "I can get on a streetcar and go to work for the first time. Not two or three buses, having to risk my life in some strange place to get home.''

The northern end of the new T-Third line is the Castro Station. From there, it slides east below the Financial District and emerges on the Embarcadero along a light-rail route that opened in 1998. It then swings onto Fourth Street, cuts over to Third Street south of Mission Creek, and follows that road for several miles down to Sunnydale Avenue in Brisbane, just across the border from the Visitacion Valley neighborhood.

Along the way is an up-close view of a city in flux.

The first stretch heading south goes through Mission Bay, a redevelopment district where cranes and construction sites frame Third Street. Then comes the so-called Central Waterfront, where businesses such as Grabber Drywall Supply and Rent-A-Wreck are being joined by loft condominiums, and the Dogpatch Saloon sits next to Yield Wine Bar.

In Bayview -- a neighborhood that has both called for better connections and worried about gentrification -- the Third Street commercial district clearly has seen better days.

There are storefront churches where stores used to be, and boarded-up windows, and signs that proclaim former tenants such as Art the Tailor with "Quality Clothing." At Newcomb Avenue, four stories of housing are on the rise -- and a posted public notice says the corner is being considered for a "community safety camera" to keep a 24-hour watch on the scene.

But the T-Third line itself is distinctive, with palm trees on the median and customized streetlamps along the way. There's public art unique to each stop, such as the mosaics of birds -- a starling, a lark and an egret, for example -- embedded in the platform at Shafter Avenue.

There also are retailers gambling that the new line will mean better days.

One is Yvonne Hines, who opened Pralines by Yvonne at 5128 Third St. in October -- using a home equity loan to expand her baking business from street fairs and festivals to a shop open four days a week.

"I decided to step out on faith," Hines said while her niece served a customer and her young daughter played nearby. "You can find shoes on Third Street, you can find clothing, you can find restaurants. What we need are more people."

By 1:30, Hines said, she'd had 10 customers come in whom she hadn't seen before. Like the T-Third line, it was a start.
  http://www.sfmuni.com/cms/mms/routes/tthirdsvc.htm


previous article:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... NI8PF1.DTL

[DaveKCMO]

houston kicks expansion into gear:

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/p ... p?id=10132

The project calls for building new light-rail lines in north and southeast Houston, Uptown and the city’s East End.

[ReutherMonkey]

i thought i'd post this to show the success of light rail, and what *could* be a possibility here:


I know that the DART Red Line is a pretty straight shot north of downtown. The proposed Orange Line however, will be going through some pretty densely developed land...

Of course, no other city I know of wants or has asked for any sort of novelties like a gondola. It's just a system which does it's job - moves people from the roadways onto the railways.

[DaveKCMO]

AZ Central: Assembly of Valley's light-rail cars under way

The doors to Metro's light-rail vehicles come from Maryland. The seats come from Wisconsin, the motors from Japan.

Final assembly of the first, built-from-scratch light-rail train cars has begun at Metro's operations and maintenance center in east Phoenix.

For the next two years, workers from Osaka, Japan-based manufacturer Kinkisharyo will assemble all 50 train cars at the center. They will be tested continuously until the system opens in December 2008.

Assembling a train car takes two to three weeks and involves bringing in hundreds of parts from around the world. They come from suppliers on the East Coast and in the Midwest, Japan, Canada and England.

[DaveKCMO]

maybe we can lay our collective heads on tampa's shoulder... they totally know what we're going through!

http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGB2E0GV3YE.html

There's plenty of enthusiasm for rail these days, but getting even the simplest system built in Tampa will take a monumental effort and be at least a decade in the making.

Federal money is limited, and dozens of cities are ahead of Tampa in the quest for rail money.

In addition, local governments that typically don't get along must unite behind a single plan that in all likelihood will hinge on a significant amount of local tax money to succeed.

Without each of those components, the region is doomed to repeat the failures of past years, when a fractious effort to land federal money went down in flames.

[DaveKCMO]

what if the tables were turned?

http://www.masstransitmag.com/article/a ... =3&id=2623

If New Yorkers don't pay a fee to use the police and fire departments, they should not have to pay to use the city's mass transit system.

That's part of the thinking of Theodore Kheel, who last Thursday donated $100,000 to the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility to study how a free mass transit system could save money for the city. Mr. Kheel, a 92-year-old philanthropist, environmentalist, and labor relations lawyer, says charging a fee to drive on the city's most crowded streets would create an incentive for drivers to switch to mass transit. The revenue earned on the streets could be used to subsidize free subways and buses.

[carfreekc]

I was just looking for something else on the Chamber's web site and noticed this in the Feb 9 City Haller:

MARK YOUR CALENDAR
The Chamber’s Kansas City Missouri Committee will next meet at noon, Tuesday, February 27, at The Chamber. The program will focus on the light rail initiative recently passed by voters. Mark Huffer of the Kansas City Area Transit Authority will speak about the specific light rail initiative passed by voters and the KCATA's role in implementing light rail. Joanie Roeseler of the Federal Transit Authority will give an overview of the New Starts funding process, and Bill Kalt of the FTA will share his experiences with the City of Phoenix and their current light rail construction process, including their business outreach program. The cost of this luncheon is $10, and reservations should be sent to Taylor Haynes. The Chamber validates parking for the 811 Main Garage, Commerce Garage located on 10th Street between Main and Walnut Streets, or the Tower Garage located between 9th and 10th on Walnut.

http://www.kcchamber.com/News/News.asp

Anyone want to go and report back? (Can the public go to their events? Not sure...Doesn't hurt to try.)

[DaveKCMO]

imagine this article with "minneapolis" being replaced by "KCMO" and "st. paul" being replaced by "KCK"...

St. Paul dreams big for light-rail

It's a seven-mile extreme makeover that many hope will spark a citywide renaissance.

After months of brainstorming, two task forces issued a block-by-block blueprint Thursday for development along a proposed $1 billion light-rail train line between St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The master plan envisions a downtown high-rise transit hub, a Capitol-area "urban village" and more stores in the Midway.

note: yes, i realize that KCK is not the capital of kansas. work with me here.

[mykem]

In any reference to San Diego's system you also have to acknowledge the coaster that runs in both North and South directions (along the coast) right into downtown.  This is not depicted nor mentioned earlier when talking of San Diego.  This is a wonderful system that runs directly parallel with Highway 101 which is always congested.

I have taken that system from san juan capistrano to dt san diego it was a nice ride.

[DaveKCMO]

ah, milwaukee...

Barrett unveils transit plan for Milwaukee

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett wants to use $91.5 million in federal transit funds to upgrade the Milwaukee County Transit System, add an intermodal transportation hub at the downtown Amtrak station and create a tram system that would link downtown attractions and employers.

Barrett on Friday afternoon released what he called his comprehensive transit strategy for Milwaukee, saying it would improve environmental conditions and transportation access across the city.

The downtown circulator would connect with an intermodal hub at the Amtrak station, where passengers could board the proposed Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line.

[ShowMeKC]

would it be possible to let the light rail go underground in the core, while it would be above ground when it gets farther from the core? This way we can avoid unneccesary demolition of buildings.

[aknowledgeableperson]

I don't know about the possiblity of going underground but I do know it would sure drive up the cost.  And you will probably add five more years before seeing light rail.