LifeLongClevelander

Bibb has been airing ads as well. Have heard "Don't vote for Kucinich" spots on the radio.

This is better, but there shouldn't be any reverse direction operation on the Red Line. Have a switch and crossing to the connector. I am curious if government regulators might have an issue with normal reverse direction as a part of standard operations, especially if there is no overwhelming reason why it should occur. If a connector is built, even for one track, it should be graded for double track for future possibilities. The overhead structure can be set up with one wire, but with the provision for two tracks. A center pole holding the wire can be engineered to have one on the other side or if the line poles are outside the track, just have space to span a potential second track/wire underneath.

Dayton had the advantage as they started running its trolley bus system when they started to discontinue its streetcar operation. Cleveland did the same thing. They were able to use the existing infrastructure (overhead wires and substations) from the streetcar system. In the case of Cleveland and many other systems, the trolley bus operations were merely temporary, basically to get the most out of the distribution and supporting equipment. Cleveland's trolleybus operation ran from 1936 to 1963. Dayton had the foresight to not dismantle and scrap its system. Most of the other systems did the same thing that Cleveland did--tear down the wires and get rid of the substations. With Dayton, when their trolley buses that replaced the streetcars wore out, they ordered new ones. They have operated multiple generations of trolley buses. One thing about most, if not all current trolley buses--they have "off wire" capabilities. This enables them to continue operations should there be detours or downed wires. They could have batteries or small diesel generators to power the trolley buses when the wires aren't available. Philadelphia's SEPTA operation actually "abuses" this feature. The off-wire capabilities are intended to be used short distances and not regularly. They do this all too often and it wears out the off-wire equipment.

Laketran is well on its way to achieving this. They just retired 12 transit coaches dating from 2009. They replaced those 12 with 17 new buses this summer. 10 of them are electric buses and 7 are diesels. Two of the battery charging stations are at the park-n-ride lots on Lakeland Blvd (across from Lubrizol) and at Lakeland Community College. Other charging stations are in the works. They have another 4 that should be up for retirement around next year. Don't know how those will be powered.

Just looking at some of the infrastructure changes and operational concerns. In your original proposal, in the P.M rush hour, a trip from UC to Van Aken would need to cross from the westbound Red Line westbound track to the eastbound Red Line track to enter a single-track connector. Upon exiting the connector, the Van Aken bound trip would be on the westbound Blue/Green line track before switching to the eastbound track. It would involve running in the opposite direction of normal train service twice. For normal, daily service in peak periods, that is not the best operating scenario. To eliminate that sort of operation, the switch from the westbound Red Line would involve a single crossing of the eastbound Red line to get on the connector. Then, another crossing would be needed to cross the westbound Blue/Green track to directly switch to the eastbound track. Both of these options require switches to be engaged four times (by automated control to control the route taken or spring-switches when joining the other route). In my proposal, it would reduce the number of times switches would be engaged with the overall number of switches (and the associated maintenance) reduced. Grading for a double-track connector isn't much more than for a single track section. The savings from eliminating some of the special work would go a long way in paying for a full double-track section. Plus, if the service ends up being more popular than anticipated, it would be in place to handle it as compared with trying to change it later.

No, I am thinking that the connector tracks would form junctions with the Red Line and joint Blue/Green Line tracks in the same manner as where the Blue and Green lines separate at Shaker Boulevard and Van Aken Boulevard. There wouldn't be enough traffic to warrant the cost of grade-separated flyovers. Those would greatly increase the cost of the connector. Simple signal protection would be enough for each end of the connector tracks at the junctions. A theoretical maximum of a 4-car LRV train (roughly 300-320 feet in length) would not interfere with regular trains on either line. The bridge on the Waterfront line was designed to hold 2 fully loaded 3-car trains of LRV's, so I gather that is the longest consist that would see in normal service. The only time that I know of a 4-car LRV train operating was due to one 2-car train breaking down and it needed to be towed by another 2-car train. The normal maximum on the current heavy rail fleet is 3 cars as well. It is also worth noting that in the late 1940's and then again in 1978-1979, the Shaker Rapid and RTA operated as many rapid transit cars just on the light rail lines as RTA currently operates on their entire system today. The at-grade junction at Shaker and Van Aken wasn't an issue back then and the service on the proposed connector would not compare to they frequencies operated on the Shaker and Van Aken lines in the past.

Thinking over your proposal a bit more. To "effectively" handle westbound Red line service via the connecting track to the joint Blue/Green line eastbound would involve adding switches and perhaps crossings to handle the west to east directional change. The westbound Red Line would have to switch to the eastbound track to enter the connecting track and then once on the joint Blue/Green track, the eastbound train would end up on the westbound track, needing to switch to the eastbound track. An alternative would be to have the westbound Red Line cross the eastbound track and then cross over the westbound Blue/Green track. In that case, "wrong direction" travel, even though it is for short distances, can be avoided. It may be more desirable at that point to just make it a double track connector and be done with it (would save two switches on the connector as well). To sum up: 1. Single connector track with "wrong direction" travel on Red and Blue/Green lines would require 6 switches. 2. Single connector track with crossings but no "wrong direction" travel would require 6 switches and 2 crossings. 3. Two track connector would require 4 switches and 2 crossings. All the more reason to have one systemwide light-rail fleet. Makes these types of system enhancements far more feasible.

This has been my point regarding the cuts instituted under NextGen. It has been stated that park-n-ride highway routes, due to their mostly freeway runs and limited stops are "money losers" by having less opportunities to exchange passengers in the same manner as local routes. If they don't bring in that much revenue, then the impact on the bottom line in the bigger picture shouldn't be as big of a consideration as it is. The loss of riders from the park-n-ride services ends up being a complete loss of those riders. Of course, many riders start/end their commute at the parking lot and their work destination is near to where the highway coach drops them off/picks them up. That isn't the case with all riders. Some will transfer to another bus to finish their commute. Drive those passengers away and they won't bother using any other transit services either as they will drive to their ultimate destination and be done with it. On the bigger picture, overall ridership suffers. A few hundred daily riders here, several hundred or a thousand daily riders there adds up. Each commuter amounts to 2 rides a day. Multiply those numbers by about 250 days. Not much of a stretch to see losses amounting to hundreds of thousands a year, if not much more. Repeat these service cuts and route eliminations multiple times. Money invested in improvements and new equipment ends up being wasted or vastly under utilized. A system with free-falling ridership will be perceived negatively by politicians. It will make getting that support on any level all the harder.

Since the opening of the Red Line to Windermere in 1955, there has been a turn-back center track just east of the Cedar-University Circle station. Another possibility is to add a turn-back track just beyond the Mayfield Road station. The space is wide enough to accommodate a center track at that location without relocating either main line track. The University Circle passengers could have access to either one of those stations and the ability to short-turn Blue or Green Line trains without going all the way to Windermere, saving a considerable amount of what would amount to non-revenue mileage. That connection to allow the Blue/Green Line to head east on the Red Line would be considerably bigger radius than the "universal" turning loop that was at the former Kingsbury Rail Shop site. That turning loop was designed for rail cars from either current fleet to use it.

More than 15 years ago, there was information supplied on freeway reconstruction projects. At that time, I believe it was that for all major highway or bridge reconstruction projects (crossing over freeways), the minimum clearance for all bridges was set at 16 feet. Having 25 feet is more than ample space for clearance.

I made the comment about a prepared statement. If all that a candidate does is to address an audience with a statement, either printed or memorized, it doesn't show much. The statement can come from the candidate, press secretary or some other writer. As stated, it can come after many "drafts" to "sound right" to a target audience. All it shows the ability to deliver it. If a candidate willingly does not engage in a question-and-answer session or discussion, could it be that the individual is ill-prepared to deal with questions that might display a greater lack of knowledge about the subject. Even fools, if they can read, can sound good, but get them "off script" and they get exposed for what they are.

The mayor of Cleveland has a significant impact on the region. Criminals committing acts in the suburbs within the county or in neighbor know very well that if they can cross over into the Cleveland city limits, they have basically made a safe getaway. Mismanage the city and turning off businesses will result in those businesses relocating outside the city or not even bothering to have the city as a possible destination. How much has been already lost by Cleveland considering it was once #3 on the list of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the city. Now it has TWO companies on that list. That's the same as Akron and the total for Mayfield Heights-Mayfield Village. The departure of those headquarters was in large part due to the perception of the city. What happens to the region if jobs leave the area and new ones don't get created? What does it do to the tax base? The cost of the city's services won't go down, especially with the planned increase of the minimum wage of city workers to $15/hour. The city cannot even replace vital equipment in a timely manner. It will only be a matter of time before the city is forced to increase taxes. The city has big issues now and more in the future. A candidate for mayor needs to be concerned about what those issues will do to the residents, businesses and those coming to the city.

My mistake, but the answering of questions should have occurred. Anybody can read a prepared statement.

Per the newscast on the night of the 26th, Bibb didn't say anything. Maybe he doesn't know what to say. Looks like a lost opportunity on his part, even though he did show up.

Looks like a typical way to secure and screen off the work going on in the space behind the wall. Definitely temporary.

Cleveland's EMS Headquarters is located on Lakeside Avenue between East 16th and East 18th streets. The parking area behind the building is used to hold extra EMS backup units. It is a regular occurrence for all of the extra units to be placed into service, replacing the ones that have broken down.

Frank Jackson appointed several board members for Cleveland to serve as RTA's trustees to represent the city. One appointee, as she was already being paid for her regular job for the city, should not have been paid for serving on RTA's board of trustees at the same time. Double-dipping and illegal. So much for one word from that title: TRUST. Bibb is concerned about the cost "savings" obtained by certain bus routings, yet overlooks the tremendous waste incurred by the system in many other aspects of its operation. George Dixon III was the president of RTA's Board of Trustees for 24 years and served for 26 years total as a trustee. For over 20 years, he received the benefits of health care coverage without paying for his share of health care coverage cost. He massively abused the cell phone that was provided by RTA through the agency's cell phone plan. His usage was so much so that RTA had to shell out more money to cover excessive use. The legal settlement reached called for Dixon to repay RTA for these costs. His personal finances were a mess. He has since passed away and RTA will probably never see restitution for what amounts to his theft and abuse. Why was this allowed to go on unchecked for so long? No worry, running buses through Public Square will fix everything.

Running buses via the south roadway on eastbound trips or north roadway on westbound trips adds an insignificant amount of run time to a trip. Routing buses to use Prospect would greatly facilitate transfers to the rail system. RTA has GONE OUT OF THEIR WAY to lengthen operating times by making virtually all bus trips LOCAL runs with MORE STOPS (increasing the costs to operate), falling back on "running buses around the square would add time and significant costs" is making excuses. They don't have problems adding time and significant costs for other trips, let alone inconveniencing the riders who use those buses. Decisions like that have plunged the system to its lowest ridership counts in the agency's history even before the pandemic hit. They also don't have a problem running 60-foot articulated buses with the increased costs of maintaining far more complicated coaches and fuel used to operate them when standard 40-foot buses are more than sufficient to provide service. RTA has also repeatedly shown they have no problem wasting money in other ways. The Stephan Tubbs-Jones Transit Center cost $9.3 million and it is barely used. Prior to NextGen being implemented in June, one of its "best uses" was to hold park-and-ride highway coaches between the morning and evening rush hours. Now, even that role has been reduced as RTA has eliminated 2 of the 3 routes that used those coaches. One other route was eliminated in 2016. In 2020 they purchased 12 brand new 45-foot highway coaches to operate with 12 other 45 foot highway coaches. Those buses cost about $650k apiece or about $8 million total. The one remaining park-and-ride route doesn't need 12 buses for that service and the other 12 are now stored. Improvements at the park-and-ride lots (major expansions) will no longer be used, so the money spent on those improvements ends up being wasted as well. If RTA was so concerned about increased costs and waste, their former chairman of the board of trustees wouldn't have been able to get away with not paying his share of insurance costs for over two decades. They would have gotten a handle on the prescription abuse that has also been documented by being committed by their employees as well. If Mr. Bibb was really concerned about having Cleveland's transit agency operate efficiently, he should be calling for investigations about the abuse, waste and mismanagement of that system that has been going on for decades. Obviously the "investigation" by former general manager Calabrese has quietly faded away yielding no results. Bibb shouldn't "cherry pick" one fairly minor thing and ignore everything else. Running buses around the edge or bypassing Public Square won't kill RTA. The well-documented problems that have plagued the system long before Public Square was redesigned have been killing it for a very long time. He needs to look into those issues as if the system does collapse due its historically bad management, it will deprive the citizens of the city he wants to lead with no other transportation options. If they cannot use RTA, many will not have a way to get to jobs or medical appointments. Bibb should be very concerned about what harm that would do to Cleveland and its residents, not about minor bus routings. The mayor of Cleveland is responsible for naming 4 trustees on the 10-member board. Mayor Jackson has done nothing on calling out the massive failures of RTA, Bibb is showing no indication of doing anything different.

The whole idea of Public Square being a "transportation hub" is terribly outdated. It just happened to be a convenient place for the substantial number of small, independent horse car, cable car (yes, Cleveland had them) and streetcar companies to come together with the four quadrants in the 1880's and 1890's. By 1903, mergers brought the number of operations down to 2 companies and those 2 companies became unified as Cleveland Railway in 1910. In 1920, the Cleveland Railway carried nearly 450 MILLION passengers. In 2019, before the pandemic, RTA (covering a much larger service area) carried slightly more than 32 million passengers. In the 1920's, the Cleveland Railway streetcar fleet was approximately 5 times the size of RTA's current bus fleet. This doesn't even include the equipment from the five interurban companies that also shared those tracks. Carrying that many passengers and the fixed nature of streetcar routes necessitated the ability to transfer between the various routes. A big problem with Cleveland's current bus system is that it is merely no more than the streetcar network of over a century ago only with the routes extended. One of the big issues with the system is that there is little in the way of extension of service. In many cases, if one wants to go beyond Public Square, one must transfer. There is little beyond downtown or near west side distribution. This was something that existed over a century ago, yet has lingered into today. I find the statement "Making buses run fast is critical to their utility" is laughable concerning RTA. They have shown no interest in making their buses "run fast". Many of the express and flyer routes with limited stops that sped up service have been eliminated. In quite a few cases, the system operates glorified shuttle buses with transfers that make trips take even longer. These are decisions that show they don't care about making trips as fast as possible and has badly hurt the ridership of the system. With the greatly diminished need to run through the middle of Public Square due to an operation that is minuscule compared to the past, there is nothing that says that the greatly reduced service cannot use the outer roadway to get through the square. They can also use other streets such as St. Clair to the north or Prospect to the south. In fact, the ability to transfer to the rail lines is far better on Prospect as compared to using the Public Square entrance of Tower City. The Stephanie Tubbs-Jones Transit Center near CSU is vastly under-utilized facility that cost $9.3 million. Per RTA's website: "This transit center provides a safe and clean "airport-like" environment for RTA customers while they wait to transfer between bus services. A 2,000 square foot indoor waiting area offers a customer service area, restrooms, and a food vending area. There are state-of-the-art electronic customer information signs, both inside the waiting area and at the each of the 12 bus bays." Sounds like RTA has a nearly perfect facility that it could use, but doesn't take advantage of its capacity. Honestly, the Federal Government shouldn't have to have a say on the use of Public Square for buses. Yes, they awarded money, but they should keep out of what should be local governing. The perimeter or nearby routes are more than adequate for the bus traffic that does use it it. That prime spot should be unified for public green space and recreational purposes.

Not too outlandish of the idea of serving morning coffee and pastries or snack and beverage in the evening. Between 1941 and 1963, the North Shore interurban (operated between Chicago and Milwaukee) operated two 4-car sets known as "Electroliners". There was a tavern-lounge section as one of the sections. After the North Shore quit, both sets were sold to Philadelphia's Red Arrow Norristown high-speed line. This line starts in Upper Darby, a suburb on the border of Philadelphia at the end of the Market-Frankfort subway-elevated line and runs to Norristown. The line was later taken over by SEPTA and the car sets known as "Electroliners" ran until 1978. They offered the morning coffee and pastries or snack and beverage in the evening on the Norristown line. This was also the line that operated the "Bullet" high speed cars until around 1990.

Don't know what the ridership looks like for the current Red Line, but a number of years ago, the west side used to have more service than the east side. There were specific trains that would arrive from the west side and turn back at Tower City. It would be interesting to know what passengers got on either the Green or Blue Line and transfer to the Red Line to go to the west side. A potential ride generator could be W. 150th. The line contributed the most transfers to continue to the west side would be through-routed. Through-routing either the Green or Blue Line would replace the Red Line turn back. Agree that any of the other stations, aside of the Airport or West 25th, would not have enough patronage to warrant having through service. A West 25th turn back would not add a tremendous amount of extra mileage as compared to the turn back on the viaduct.

Maybe he needs to be the center of attention again. No news station gigs (local or national). Too far removed from Congress to provide any meaningful insight (not that he had any). Boredom. Re-invent his legacy.

Keep in mind that during the Kucinich years, city services were on a fast decline. We had some severe winters in the late 1970's and the city could not keep the streets clean. If the city's police car fleet now was as bad as it was back then, there would be no problems with police chases. So many of them were worn out, they could not even consider starting a chase because they would be left behind even at moderate speeds. Unfortunately, there is a parallel that is building up for Cleveland now. It has been reported for several years that the majority of the EMS rescue squad fleet is beyond even serving in backup capacities, even though they are in front-line service here. The average unit mileage is more than double that of other cities and Cleveland has not accelerated their replacements. Cleveland's police department still has quite a few Ford Crown Victoria police interceptors in service and that model was last produced in 2011. Last year, it was reported that the city had quite a few plow trucks out of service. We have had mild winters with below average snowfalls. Probably sooner than later, the trend will swing back to colder and snowier winters. Will the city be able to keep up with major snowstorms, especially if they happen in quick succession? It has been stated that Kucinich's plan to build up the staffing levels of the police department will drain the city's financial reserves. How will they be able to patrol if the city cannot keep enough cruisers operational? How will the city be able to purchase equipment to replace worn out police cars, EMS squads, fire engines and service trucks? Where will the money come from to keep the additional police officers employed? Will the city be able to pay its obligations or will it default once again? This time, it won't be due to backroom dealings; this time it would be due to fiscal mismanagement. At this time, I probably favor Kelley. Too many questions, bad past history or unknowns about the others.

Yes, the city has lots of police cars. That's what happens when attrition exceeds hiring. It also gives them space to park the ones they don't have the time or resources to repair.

Saving Muny Light was the only thing of substance that he has done in all the years that he has been in government and that happened over 40 years ago. Standing against the Patriot Act and Iraq invasion was just him jumping on the bandwagon. Same thing goes with his votes in Congress--jumping on the bandwagon. One would think that being in Congress for 16 years, especially when he was part of the overwhelming majority party, one would expect something of substance to come from him. True major players in their party are able to bring back something, sometimes a lot, to help his constituency while in Congress. With him, there was absolutely nothing he did. Kucinich was just one of the flock of sheep in his party and his record proves he is incapable of being a real leader. Aside from the Muny Light issue, he was the mayor leading chaos in the city. Being incapable of leadership is mitigated when a member of city council, state house or Congress. It is just one voice and hopefully incompetency is out-voted by more sound thinking. It is much different when the incompetency occupies the top executive level. A lot of good things have happened in recent years. One bad term can bring all the progress to a halt and start unraveling things fast.