Light Rail Systems And Routes In Other Cities

[construction guy]

For $12/day roundtrip, I may consider taking applications to haul suckers to work in my comfortable 8 passenger Toyo Sequoia.  They save the "strain and embarassment" of driving and I'll pocket roughly $21k a year for beer money.  If anyone's interested please shoot me a PM.  It'll cost an additional $2/person if you're either a member of the UAW or shameful of being driven to work in a gas operated vehicle.  Is there such a thing as a "Green poser?"

[Tosspot]

For $12/day roundtrip, I may consider taking applications to haul suckers to work in my comfortable 8 passenger Toyo Sequoia.  They save the "strain and embarassment" of driving and I'll pocket roughly $21k a year for beer money.  If anyone's interested please shoot me a PM.  It'll cost an additional $2/person if you're either a member of the UAW or shameful of being driven to work in a gas operated vehicle.  Is there such a thing as a "Green poser?"

If you were a real red-blooded American male you would have bought domestic.

[construction guy]

If you were a real red-blooded American male you would have bought domestic.

I've had several brand new GM/Ford products...the combined repair costs of all within their first three years of operations would have bought a brand new BMW 5-series.  American's should stick to what they build best...decks and welfare programs.  The rest of the world has passed us by. 

On a different note, Hispanic labor used to be the butt of jokes (siestas and all); today, the Hispanic population works harder and smarter than anyone else in this country.  For the past ten years they've worked their tails off doing the jobs the spoiled wouldn't do; today the spoiled are fighting for jobs and are suddenly upset that Jose has a job and they don't.  Guess what...Jose has seniority now and knows how to work.  GO JOSE GO!!!!!!

[Tosspot]

I've had several brand new GM/Ford products...the combined repair costs of all within their first three years of operations would have bought a brand new BMW 5-series. 

Just curious on this one. Isn't the typical domestic bumper to bumper warranty 3yrs/36,000 miles? It's just that claim seems suspicious.

[construction guy]

Just curious on this one. Isn't the typical domestic bumper to bumper warranty 3yrs/36,000 miles? It's just that claim seems suspicious.

I drive a lot...30-40k/yr.

[DaveKCMO]

the sequoia is built in indiana. if you want to offer rides in your glamorous SUV, try MARC's RideShare program.

ok, back to light rail...

[rxlexi]

still waiting for any rail-2-trail route in this country to revert back to mass transit use...

  not gonna happen...nimby's would **** all over any such proposal.  Can you imagine trying to reclaim Brookside's beloved Trolley Track Trail for transit use (as should happen as soon a workable LRT plan is laid out)?  Yes the ATA still owns the ROW but I highly doubt it will ever again be used for mass transit (or any other rails 2 trails alignment in the country).  Highly unfortunate, but we've become a numbingly suburbanized country.

[bbqboy]

Metro light rail plans weekend grand opening events, free rides through Dec. 31

Grand Funk Railroad in Mesa. Perfect 

[mean]

For $12/day roundtrip, I may consider taking applications to haul suckers to work in my comfortable 8 passenger Toyo Sequoia.  They save the "strain and embarassment" of driving and I'll pocket roughly $21k a year for beer money.  If anyone's interested please shoot me a PM.  It'll cost an additional $2/person if you're either a member of the UAW or shameful of being driven to work in a gas operated vehicle.  Is there such a thing as a "Green poser?"

Is there such a thing as anyone being ashamed of driving to work in a gas operated vehicle?

[bbqboy]

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ss ... _rail.html
Colorado Railcar Manufacturing, the company TriMet kept alive the past year with more than $5 million in public money, went out of business last week, unable to attract new financing.

TriMet wouldn't comment on the impact of the closure except to confirm it still plans a February launch of the Westside Express Service. The commuter rail line between Beaverton and Wilsonville will use self-propelled passenger railcars built by the Colorado company.

"They've got everything they need to operate," said Larry Salci, until recently president of Colorado Railcar.

Salci said TriMet might need help from engineers who once worked for Colorado Railcar, but they've gone to work for a public agency.

Meantime, TriMet continues its legal battle to recover $3 million paid to fund Colorado Railcar's operations. The agency in October tried to cash in a letter of credit put up by investors to guarantee delivery of the railcars. The investors obtained a federal court injunction blocking the payoff, contending that the cars had been delivered and that TriMet had defrauded them.

TriMet denies the claims and Tuesday pressed again to have the investors' case dismissed.

The commuter railcars were finished only after TriMet seized control of the private company earlier this year. Agency officials said they took the unprecedented action after discovering that contract payments meant for TriMet's cars had been diverted. Suppliers had stopped delivering parts, and the company had run out of cash.
cont.....

[construction guy]

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ss ... _rail.html
Colorado Railcar Manufacturing, the company TriMet kept alive the past year with more than $5 million in public money, went out of business last week, unable to attract new financing.

I wonder if American Automakers know what's coming...

[bbqboy]

http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/20 ... rives.html

[DaveKCMO]

http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/20 ... rives.html

this new service is considered heavy commuter rail, but the enthusiasm is appreciated.

[bbqboy]

this new service is considered heavy commuter rail, but the enthusiasm is appreciated.

Well, there isn't really a heavy rail in other cites thread, so I stuck it here.....

[DaveKCMO]

Well, there isn't really a heavy rail in other cites thread, so I stuck it here.....

i've been meaning to create a commuter rail in other cities thead for some time, so expect that soon.

[trailerkid]

a good history of phoenix's travails as they came to a consensus on routing. a lot of this sounds very familiar already:

Route choice aims to draw passengers

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)

 

[DaveKCMO]

what's this? surface rail returning to manhattan?

42nd Street as a Car-Free Light Rail Corridor

The report notes that until 1946, streetcars and trolleys ran in New York City over underground utility lines. The new light rail cars could draw power from fuel cells or other advanced technologies. The trip from river to river would take only 21 minutes, even with speeds limited to 15 m.p.h. to keep pedestrians safe.

The study tried to anticipate and address the many skeptical objections — leaving aside cost — that have been raised about the project. For instance, the study found that most large office buildings along 42nd Street have their freight-delivery entrances on 41st or 43rd Streets. It also argued that taxis could continue to go up and down the avenues, dropping pedestrians seeking to enter buildings on 42nd Street at rear or side entrances. Finally, the study argued that closing off 42nd Street to traffic would not mean worse congestion in other parts of Midtown.

[DaveKCMO]

phoenix: Light rail ridership exceeds expectation

Metro carried an average 30,600 passengers on weekdays in January, the first full month of service. That's good news for light rail boosters, because the region promised 26,000 average weekday riders after a full year of service to justify getting hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants.

Surprisingly, Metro carried more people on Saturdays,an average of 31,300. That's more than 10,000 over year-end projections.

[DaveKCMO]

Portland: New MAX train greeted like rock star on Portland Mall

Even a couple surprised motorists and bicyclists braked to snap phone-cam photos of the train, which features a aerodynamic snub-nosed design that cuts a more 21st-century shape than the boxier old-school MAX trains. People walking out of storefronts and high rises stopped in their tracks to watch the future of light rail approaching with a white-hot headlight.

the new green line opens in september.

[warwickland]

I took a video of a white-trash lady on the yellow line I think drunk talking to her baby on the phone in Portland. I love Portland. When I go west again this summer I'll probably make parallel reservations in Portland at McMenamins joynts even though i'm supposed to go down to LA.