Light Rail Boom

[electricron]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Bombardier is the de facto 'domestic' manufacturer. The parent firm is headquartered in Montreal, and they have plants in both Canada and the United States.

Alsthom Transport? They don't need a US location to access that market. Why not set up in an industrial province like Quebec or Ontario where there is already a light rail industry? Canada, Mexico, and the United States represent one trading zone.

Please don't confuse NAFTA with Buy America legislation.
If the transit agency is getting Federal funds to buy any vehicles, final assembly must be in the USA.
Canada and Mexico don't count.

NAFTA is about reducing tariffs. It's called the Buy America Act, not the Buy NAFTA Act.

[M II A II R II K]

State pushes ahead to draft blueprints for $2.2 billion Red Line project

Read More: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bre...,1907511.story

Even though there's no promise of construction money, the state is pushing ahead to draft blueprints for Baltimore's $2.2 billion Red Line light rail project.

- The Maryland Transit Authority has asked a regional transportation panel to approve $55.6 million in federal funds for preliminary engineering — a request that was put on hold last year until congressional passage of a two-year, $105 billion transportation package. The Baltimore Regional Transportation Board is scheduled to vote on the request Nov. 27 and will accept public comments at a meeting Thursday afternoon at Baltimore Metropolitan Council headquarters.

- "This year and next is all about design," said Henry Kay, the MTA's executive director of transit development. "Preliminary engineering includes setting the route and station locations — which involves our stakeholders and community outreach — and refining cost estimates." The business community is eager to see the rail line project keep its momentum.

- "We believe the Red Line — and we believe the state sees the Red Line — as a top priority," said Donald C. Fry, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee. "We have not had a substantial investment in transit in the Baltimore region in decades. Currently, we have no transit system. We have a couple of lines that don't connect. We think that's a compelling argument." Fry called the Red Line "truly a jobs line, with a couple hundred thousands jobs along the corridor. Right now, it's difficult to move from one area of the region to the other. It touches a large portion of the region."

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[M II A II R II K]

A stirring persuasion for deciding to vote for transit: seeing it built next door

Read More: http://t4america.org/blog/2012/11/09...a+%28All%29%29

One of the most powerful avenues for persuading a skeptical community to invest in transit is to see it successfully implemented nearby — whether in the community or neighborhood right next door, or a city and region a few hours away. This trend is illustrated in two of this year’s Transportation Vote 2012 ballot measures through two very different stories in Virginia and North Carolina.

- Down the road in nearby Virginia Beach, citizens there finally got to move beyond renderings and promises and meetings and see a brand new working light rail system through the center of their neighboring city just a few miles away. Perhaps they bemoaned the perpetual traffic congestion on I-264 between the two cities and wistfully thought about how nice it would be to hop on a train at the beach and get to the downtown mall or the Tides baseball park right on the river in Norfolk.

- But most powerfully, the idea of rail transit in their community was no longer an abstraction; a figment of some planner’s or city councilperson’s imagination. There it was, dropping off students by the thousands at Norfolk State and winding right through a newly rebuilt MacArthur Square and park by the mall every day with shiny new passenger vehicles on the way to the burgeoning hospital complex on the west side of town. A year and a half later, it’s easy to understand how Virginia Beach voters went to the polls Tuesday and gave a hearty “me too!” to the Tide system. Though it was a nonbinding resolution directing the city council that still has the final say on moving forward, 62 percent of voters supported the measure. And in no small part because of the case study of success just a few miles west.

- Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte are just a few hours apart on Interstates 85 and 40 and about the same size in population (1.7 million) yet Charlotte has done far more to invest in rail transit in the last decade, with more to come. After the better part of two decades of discussion and study, Charlotte’s new Lynx Blue Line opened in 2007 and is a popular line running south from downtown to “uptown” Charlotte that has stimulated a wealth of new development along the way. According to our friends over the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, the Blue Line has catalyzed more than 10 million square feet of new housing, retail and office development along the corridor.

- Simliar plans have been discussed in the Raleigh-Durham metro area for almost as long, but with four cities in three different counties trying to agree on a single region-wide plan, they’ve certainly had a harder time making it happen. Perhaps prodded along by the success of the Blue Line down the road in rival Charlotte, Durham approved a half-cent sales tax last year to fund transit operations and a regional light rail line toward Chapel Hill, and Orange County (Chapel Hill) approved their half-cent tax to do the same just this week on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the third partner in the region, Wake County (Raleigh), decided not to put a sales tax on the ballot this fall, so as of yet, there’s no truly regional commitment to building rail transit.

- Leaders of similar sized cities and regions know that investing in transit, the signals it sends to employers, and the kind of growth that it can stimulate are key to continuing to attract a smart workforce. In a similar story about Nashville, Ralph Schulz, president of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, told the Nashville Ledger that “the lack of a mass transit system costs the area about one in five businesses considering relocating here.” With Charlotte signing on the dotted line with the Federal Transit Administration just a few weeks ago to move ahead on a 9-mile expansion to the Blue Line that will reach northward to UNC-Charlotte, the bar has been raised in the region which the Triangle most closely identifies as their competition for jobs and workers.

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[Busy Bee]

Yep, seeing is believing. This is also why the success of California HSR is so important.

[You Need A Thneed]

The City of Calgary's preview video of the West LRT Project, opening in less than 2 weeks:

• Video Link

(It's sped up)

[IMBY]

Originally Posted by Ayreonaut

Buffalo's system seems very bizarre. That said, I'm jealous because, for the time being, Calgary has no underground stations (our first, Westbrook, will open in 2012 as part of the WLRT).

Las Vegas has no underground stations, no aboveground stations, nothing, period!!! That kiddie monorail they built from the MGM to the Sahara, stupidly running to the east of the Strip, not on the Strip where it belonged, just emerged from bankruptcy!

There's reasons that Las Vegas, in an Int'l city like this, doesn't have a much required light rail system on their famous Las Vegas Strip, connecting with the downtown Fremont Strip, let alone the nearby Airport.

The taxi drivers for one, noted for their long hauls, and taking drunken tourists to the Strip Clubs, with big kickbacks from the club owners. It was rumored, when the monorail got built here, when there were wheels falling off, that the taxi drivers were trying to sabotage the system. Imagine what they'd do with a subway system down the Strip!!!

Secondly, the casino moguls want their guests to stay put in their mega resorts, and why make it easier for them to visit their competitors?

I see little hope of any light rail, or even streetcar system, coming to this city any time soon. Only touristic pressure is going to do it! You'll have all these tourists so accustomed to traveling somewhere, having a train waiting for them at the Airport, and the day will come, they'll arrive at this "primitive" city and ask: The train? Where art thou?

[M II A II R II K]

USA TOD-ay

Read More: http://www.intransitionmag.org/fall_...velopment.aspx

.....

Foreclosure-racked suburbs like Riverside, Calif., Henderson, Nev., Gilbert, Ariz., and countless other outer suburbs that so recently promised affordable homeownership for striving families are now be-ing called the “slums of tomorrow.” They are the western response to the Rust Belt: cities rotting on the outside, due not to the gradual decline of heavy industry but rather to the self-destruction of the financial sector. For all the suffering that has come with it, this chaos has helped spur the development of more urban sites, particularly near mass transit stations.

- But while tract-home magnates may be looking for other work, developers in center cities now have more reasons than ever to focus on urban cores and their immediate surroundings. It is here where the next real estate boom may be—and there’s going to be one. Demographers predict that the U.S. population is going to reach 450 million, up 150 million, by 2050.

- A surge has taken place since 2003, as brand-new systems have opened in Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis, and Denver. In New Jersey, in addition to upgrades to “heavy” passenger rail, light rail lines were expanded in Hudson County and Newark and a new light rail line opened in southern New Jersey. Los Angeles’ Expo Line opened just this year, with an expansion of Salt Lake’s Blue Line set to open by the end of 2012. That trend is not abating. Nearly every other major Western and Midwestern city in the country is planning or expanding similar systems.

- In total, the National TOD Database (toddata.cnt.org) estimates that over 1,500 stations are in the development pipeline in 54 cities. And while these projects have served to shuttle commuters, they also can instigate profound changes in cities’ urban fabrics. If designed and developed well, many of them could become new, distinct communities: microcosms of what some planners say a city should be. “We’re seeing a heightened desirability after the real estate crash,” said Geoff Anderson, president of Reconnecting America. “The markets are really reflecting the demand that’s out there where the places around transit are walkable and closer to centers.”

- America’s older cities with so-called “legacy” transit systems, such as New York, Boston and Philadelphia, make little distinction between transit-oriented development and mere development. For newer, mostly Western cities, however, transit-oriented development has been the typology of the future roughly since urban planner Peter Calthorpe popularized the notion in the 1980s and it was enshrined in the 1991 Congress for New Urbanism Charter. Many “inner ring” suburban towns have been prompted to explore development around long neglected train stations and transit routes.

- Proponents of TOD are hoping that, before long, it becomes so commonplace that it is no longer seen as a typology apart and instead becomes the norm anywhere public transit can support higher residential densities and supporting commercial uses. (Studies have suggested that, for the purpose of decreasing auto travel, TODs should focus more on office space; thus far the trends have leaned towards residential development.) David Frank, who was named the City of Minneapolis’ first transit- oriented development manager in 2011, said that the culture of the upper Midwest is as unfamiliar with dense development and walkable streetscapes as it is with palm trees. But, he said, success breeds success. “Living in big buildings is not what people who live here know,” Frank said. “Having examples in baby steps at first…has been what’s helped.”

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[easy as pie]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

The City of Calgary's preview video of the West LRT Project, opening in less than 2 weeks:

• Video Link

(It's sped up)

no offense, but calgary looks almost uninhabited.

[Jonboy1983]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

USA TOD-ay

Read More: http://www.intransitionmag.org/fall_...velopment.aspx

Nice read, and nice play on words.

Interesting read on how the collapse of the financial sector is leading to the redevelopment of urban sites and a turn away from sprawl-type development.

It does bring into question what will happen to those communities that will be suffering 20 or so years from now; the suburbia that is today...

That's my take on it anyway...

[ssiguy]

Calgary is quite a busy city but the area that this part of the line goes thru is right upo against a main roadway. When you get 2 blocks from Sunula station the population density is VERY high. Alsoi the areas that are most populated and densified along the route are near the underground stations and below grade corridor.

Calgary has a stellar record of building effective LRT and it's ridership numbers are extremely high. Calgary only has 1.1 million but it's LRT carries 270,000 passengers per day and the transit system as a whole carries 520,000. This despite the fact that Calgarians are rich. It is a VERY wealthy city and a very highly educated one. Calgary is proof that even in newer cities with high incomes and levels of car ownership, people will tack transit if it is fast, reliable, comfortable, safe, and convient.

Calgary is a roll model city when it comes to transit.

[You Need A Thneed]

The opening of this new line should bring Calgary's LRT ridership over 300,000 trips per day. The introduction of 4 car trains in 2 years or so should give ridership another similar boost, as the south line is bursting at the seams right now.

[M II A II R II K]

VTA light-rail extension to Los Gatos: $175 million for 200 new riders

Read More: http://www.mercurynews.com/traffic/c...os-175-million

Just how many new riders would jump on a train to one of Silicon Valley's most desired destinations? About 200, it turns out -- and it would cost taxpayers up to $175 million to build the rail line to Los Gatos.

The new projections come from the Valley Transportation Authority's updated forecast for a long-envisioned light-rail extension. Still years from reality, the Los Gatos line would be one of the least-used light-rail extensions planned in the nation -- and would reduce South Bay vehicle traffic by a mere 0.01 percent. "You could buy every one of (the riders) a Bentley and a driver," said Dave Fadness, a longtime Santa Clara County transportation commissioner. "It's crazy."

So why is Silicon Valley's transportation agency planning it? With a new bill of fiscal health, the VTA wants to connect a West Valley community that historically has been underserved by public transit to the rest of the county, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions and generating economic activity. That explanation was part of a fresh environmental assessment released last week by the VTA for its 1.6-mile light-rail extension of the Mountain View-Winchester line, which currently ends in Campbell.

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[Swede]

Remember that number: 200. Let's see how long it takes for that number to be exceeded for the first time, and how long til it is exceeded most weekdays.

[llamaorama]

200 brand new riders maybe, but I imagine there are a lot more former bus riders who will see an improvement with the rail extension.

VTA is kind of notorious for not providing a lot of bang for the buck with its transit investments though. The system actually has decent ridership, however the lines are fairly long so it would be expected to do better than it does.

[Cirrus]

I have never been to San Jose so take my opinion of it with a grain of salt, but I think it's an example of a place that should probably be looking more at BRT and less at light rail. It's too suburban.

For its size and coverage, it seems to be probably the worst-performing light rail system in the country.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

That's a great looking livery. I hope they actually use it.

[fflint]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

I have never been to San Jose so take my opinion of it with a grain of salt, but I think it's an example of a place that should probably be looking more at BRT and less at light rail. It's too suburban.

For its size and coverage, it seems to be probably the worst-performing light rail system in the country.

If VTA isn't the worst, it's very close to being the worst. It's not so much about malfeasance as it is about the difficulties inherent in running public transit in suburbia. Trains (and buses) adequately serve dense employment centers, but with the exception of downtown, residential areas along the routes are simply not dense enough to support high ridership--while simultaneously being too dense to build big park-and-ride lots.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by fflint

If VTA isn't the worst, it's very close to being the worst. It's not so much about malfeasance as it is about the difficulties inherent in running public transit in suburbia. Trains (and buses) adequately serve dense employment centers, but with the exception of downtown, residential areas along the routes are simply not dense enough to support high ridership--while simultaneously being too dense to build big park-and-ride lots.

Buffalo is bad as well but thats due to a lack of investment and extensions same with Cleveland both systems would do well if they were expanded.

[Justin10000]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

Buffalo is bad as well but thats due to a lack of investment and extensions same with Cleveland both systems would do well if they were expanded.

Buffalo's short line has an average ridership of 25,000. Not shabby for a short line.

[easy as pie]

well, the vta plan would work out beautifully if the length of the route was upzoned in a transit-oriented way... win for transit and its users, win for the city and county coffers, win for builders and workers, win for the community and small business, win for housing prices in the county and beyond.