John Schneider

I've heard that old Cincinnati PCC's are still running today in Alexandria, Egypt and Tampico, Mexico.

I'm a subscriber, and the article supports the city's position with several quotes from experts in other cities.

Less than an hour.

Best post of the year, so far.

^ There are multiples elevators. Just remember: whatever the plan is, rail opponents will always want another plan. Portune has been an opponent of electric light rail and streetcars for as long as I can remember.

The Cincinnati Streetcar gets to within twenty vertical feet of the Transit Center.

I'm sure the City of Cincinnati will now be even more willing to help with Todd's Eastern Corridor boondoggle.

I wish it were that benign.

Some context. It's not like this issue has just come up. I've know about it for at least a year. There is no misunderstanding or mis-communication or anything like that. Measured from the edge of the operating envelope of the vehicle, Duke wants eight feet clear, the City is willing to pay for three feet of move. The difference in that cost has been known for a long time. I think it's interesting that all of the other utilities have agreed that three feet is OK, and Duke wants over twice the separation. Who is the outlier here? Someone wrote something about stray currents. The City has its stray current expert and Duke has theirs. I heard that the two experts pretty much agreed there was no problem, and the Duke expert has never been heard from again. The only place where I've heard stray currents to be a problem in modern systems that have the rubber boot around the rail is in Houston, where the light rail runs through a low-lying area near the M. D. Anderson Cancer Research Center. The soil stays moist and is highly conductive, but I think they have solved that problem now.

^ The slab bed is the strip of reinforced concrete that shows up in all of these photos. Duke is headquartered in Charlotte. You'd think if the three-foot standard is good enough for Charlotte's new streetcar -- especially since Charlotte has had light rail for serveral years and so has some safety experience -- then three feet would be good enough for Cincinnati too.

He is so far out on a limb here, just let him keep sawing.

I don't know of any American city that's starting a new trolleybus system -- for exactly the reasons that Jake outlines above.

Jake, thanks a bunch. I don't think it makes any difference whatsoever what's in the manhole. These are all new builds, and so they're all probably live manholes. Is there some standard by which electrical workers ought to greater safety than sewer or telephone workers. Casey, will post the paragraph from your friend's email that details what Duke is requiring with respect to the new Charlotte Streetcar?

Mark, is it possible to get clear jpg's out of these? Quick Google Maps search over coffee this morning. Of course, no way telling what utility these manholes cover... Little Rock Memphis Portland Seattle (features a SDOT work crew) Read more: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,18957.16260.html#ixzz1m6RJVjYg

Please email pics to me at [email protected] along with city and location. I'll need your name. Media will probably need to credit.

It's been a while ago since I heard this, and I may have heard it incorectly, but my understanding is that the City of Cincinnati's proposed the three-foot separation because that's what Duke agreed to with respect to the new light rail line in Charlotte, where Duke is headquartered. It's a nice sunny day in Cincinnnat, but if someone has too much time on his or her hands and wants to scour Google Earth for proof or dis-proof of this, I'd be interested.

The first page of Google results has three since 1998. I didn't look any further than the first page. San Francisco, 11-16-1998 New Orleans, 1-19-2011 Toronto, 1-11-2011 Also, lots of links to scanned newspaper articles from around 1910. I didn't know Google would find words in scanned newspapers. Google is amazing. I've followed the news on the Portland Streetcar for over a decade, and I'm unaware that there has ever been a fatality or a serious injury to anyone, either a construction worker, a utility worker, passenger or pedestrian. There are about twenty fatalities a year on American light rail systems, half of them suicides. Most of the rest are car/train accidents late at night, often with alcohol involved, and many of those on one line in Los Angeles. This is approximately the number of fatalities sustained each year in America due to bee stings and snow-skiing accidents. Higher-speed commuter rail systems seem to have a lot of suicides these days, especially on the line running south from San Francisco.

I've received photos taken today in Portland of manholes immediately adjacent to the trackway, even between the rails. Anyone know someone in Tacoma, Seattle or Washington D.C. who can take similar pics?

Here's an idea. When daytime maintenance is underway, the streetcar must come to a complete stop and sound its horn. And only begin to move when it gets the OK from the construction crew. Seeing how this would happen only every 10-20 minutes, I think it can be managed. Did anyone see cars, buses and trucks stopping, sounding their horns and then continuing only when the Duke crew working at Fifth and Vine today gave them the OK? Which crew, by the way, was nowhere near eight feet from traffic.

^ Duke is insisting on eight feet from the operating envelope of the streetcar. That's probably twelve feet from centerline.

Who took the picture above? Ive sent it to a couple of reporters. They may need to credit it to someone.

How many hundred million dollars do you suppose this will cost Duke?

Speaking of the Brent Spence Bridge, who do you suppose is paying to move Duke's transformer farm that's in the way of the new bridge?

In Milton we Trust Streetcar Update: City Manager News Conference 2/8/12

Does anyone believe it is a mere coincidence that Duke has announced it is quitting negotiations on utility relocations at the precise moment the City of Cincinnati is moving full speed ahead with utility aggregation? Do you suppose Governor Kasich, working through PUCO, had anything to do with this? Just asking.