TPH2

I think "horrible" is a bit dramatic. What were you expecting?

So... this never really went anywhere. Seems it's been a while since the last CLE meetup (so long in fact that there hasn't been one since I moved back in Cleveland). How about we set something up for an evening during an upcoming week? I personally would prefer a happy hour or evening meet up as opposed to a lunch time one. I can set up a Doodle to gauge availability if there's interest.

^ Well, technically the Pepe's is in Fairfield, not Bridgeport...continuing that theme of contrasts

Nice set. I appreciate the picture of the Subway in Subway's home town. I must admit though, Bridgeport is one of the most depressing cities I've been to.

Being that it was a gorgeous day here on the North Coast, I decided to take the day in at the Metroparks. I covered about half of the Emerald Necklace from the north end of Rocky River all the way down to Bedford via the CVNP. Here are a few pictures from today: View looking north from the Groth Memorial & Scenic Overlook The CVSR at Brecksville Station I have long been wanting to go to the old Tinkers Creek (aka Terra Vista) Cemetery. It is the burial ground of the earliest settlers of the Tinkers Creek area. I believe the oldest burial is from 1807. It's also supposed to be very haunted. It was kind of creepy being there as it is at the top of a hill and I was the only one up there. I can only imagine how creepy it'd be to be up there at night. View from the Tinkers Creek Gorge overlook at Bedford Reservation I had never been to Viaduct Park in Bedford until last year, but it's a really cool place And finally made my way back to the city

@Veronimac: 15-year-old boy dies after being shot on Wade Park on Cleveland's east side https://t.co/QET8lVdTAb http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/10/boy_15_shot_and_killed_in_driv.html

And beer and wine

^ Looks great. Now let's paint the bridges crossing over the Innerbelt. Nothing like solidifying a 'Rust Belt' image when all of your bridges crossing the main downtown freeway are rusting

I've been looking through the old Plain Dealer archives about the Dual Hub saga, and the more I read, the more disappointed I am that the HealthLine was the end result of all that. One thing that I really don't like about the HealthLine is the difficulty of connecting to it from the other rail lines. The walk from the rail concourse in TC up to Public Square is a bit of a barrier. Once BRT was decided as the preferred alternative, was there ever discussion of bringing the bus line down into Tower City so that it could better connect with the rail lines? Obviously that would have involved more significant capital costs, but I was just curious if that had been studied. I wasn't able to find anything on that online.

Yeah, I've had that issue before. I've submitted feedback on that form multiple time, but despite them saying you'll get a response back, I never have

Steve Litt mentioned in an article back in June that the original design of the cafe was altered based upon feedback from the potential operator. The name of the operator wasn't released because contract negotiations were still ongoing. Haven't seen any more news on that since then

Hogan only doing this as a defense posture following wide Baltimore-area condemnation after scuttling 10 years, and $200M+ in planning and spending for the Red Line LRT subway/surface plan that had won federal approval. Trust me, if John Kasich was Maryland guv, he'd have done the same thing. Like most Republican govs these days, Big John has a major transit kill on his mantlepiece: the 3-C's Amtrak rail plan that had won federal approval (money which is now funding Cali's very-worthy HSR development. These Republicans are absolutely horrible on urban and transit initiatives... I'll give Hogan this much: it took some serious gonads to punk a major transit initiative like the Red Line in Baltimore which is THE metropolitan city in a considerably state smaller-than-Ohio ... unlike in Ohio where Cleveland is only one of 3 major state metro areas and is in the far northern corner and generally irrelevant to downstaters like Kasich. I know, I know. Was more a tongue in cheek comment.

^ At least their Republican governor is actually talking about public transit

^ A proof-of-payment system doesn't solve that last problem though

"The Group Plan is about $5 million below that goal in fundraising and they've made a request to the state for $3.5 million to help them." It doesn't explicitly say it in this story, but the $5 million shortfall is because the project cost was higher than originally anticipated

^ Yeah, the fare machines are the worst I've ever seen on a transit system. Not to mention as a 6' man, I have to crouch on my knees to use them. But I'll give them credit for actually having machines. I rode the SEPTA subway in Philly a couple years ago and I had to buy a token to ride that was cash only and exact change required.

^ Exactly

^ When it comes to transit in the city, I see zero leadership coming from city hall. I never hear the mayor even mention anything about it.

^ Good question. And I live downtown, but I am neither homeless, nor even close to being rich.

Here's a picture of a map I saw tonight of one of the two proposed open refreshment areas for Toledo. The other one will be along Adams Street in Uptown. The downtown district is set to go before city council for approval in February with the Uptown one going in November.

A comment from the Reddit thread on this topic by /u/dcd00d: "I used to work for RTA. This analysis is bullshit. The problem is Joe Calabrese. He has been a disaster for this agency, yet because Greater Clevelanders refuse to engage their civic leaders, he has been allowed to become the longest serving GM in RTA history. His tenure has seen the closure of of several bus garages along with the gross mismanagement of the rail division. Internally and privately he has stated repeatedly that he has no interest in bringing the rail system in to a state of good repair. His crown jewel is the Euclid Corridor. He believes the future of transit in Cleveland rests solely on BRT (Bus Rapid Transit). He has even floated the idea of converting the Red Line in to a protected busway. The fact that he has allowed the rail fleet to age this long without even considering replacements is not just irresponsible but constitutes borderline dereliction of duty. Even if RTA began planning for replacement railcars right this moment, it would be, at minimum, a decade before new cars hit the property. The existing cars are just not going to make it - that's where this article is factually correct. The midlife overhauls that RTA performed on the cars amounts to not much more than lipstick on a pig. When a railcar reaches midlife, it's supposed to receive not just the cosmetic upgrades, but more importantly, functional upgrades. The propulsion and friction braking systems absolutely must be retrofit with the latest technology. The ATP and door systems must be evaluated for continued parts availability and upgraded as necessary. RTA did none of this. They took the cars apart, repainted everything, and put it back together. That is not what the industry classifies as a mid-life overhaul. Had they done this the correct way, the cars would have been prepared for another 25-30 years of service life. Now we're left with a parts problem. It's not that the manufacturers won't make the parts. They will, just at a massive premium. RTA doesn't have the fleet size to justify the expense of one-off runs of these needed parts. So they're stuck cannibalizing things. But that only goes so far. I again must reiterate that under Calabrese's leadership, the RTA failed to consider this when letting the contract for the midlife overhauls. Being the GM of a transit authority doesn't mean just overseeing the day-to-day operations. It also means being a political leader. Calabrese should have spent the last 10 years lobbying local leaders to put together the needed matching funds for a railcar replacement program. Instead he chose to sit on his hands and apparently hope that someone would just throw millions of dollars at him for new cars. That's not how politics works."

If nothing changes, yes. But they will have to do more than just deal with the use of Freon. No one makes parts for the old air conditioners that are on GCRTA's trains. And then there's that pesky tiny drain on the AC units. There's a drain pan above the doors so if you're sitting next to the doors or standing below the doors and the train moves abruptly (almost a guarantee that it will), then at best you will get dripped on. At least it's only water. Is there a cost estimate as to how much it would be to fix the AC units? Seems like a futile endeavor to put capital into the cars at this point. Too bad the windows don't open...

Those projects all had significant federal stimulus funding that made them possible. It's not like we could have just taken that money and put it into new rail cars

RTA should be doing what it can to upgrade the system. They have sounded the alarm, and now it's up to us as a community to help do something about. They shouldn't be planning their capital projects based on a worst case scenario. Plus, from all I've heard, the heavy rail cars have a longer life left in them than the LRT cars

^ It's a usage that's seen in the Bible as well as the English hymn/poem "Jerusalem," that I know off the top of my head