Vincent_G

I think it looks great. Northern blandness?

That is the Lake Link Trail, which connects to the Towpath Trail at Scranton Road. It extends off the Towpath and will eventually connect to Whiskey Island and the lakefront.

I have always been amazed by how intact downtown Scranton seems to be. I think it is partly because all of northeastern Pennsylvania was in a long-term economic nosedive during the urban renewal era when the downtowns of more prosperous cities all across America were being ripped apart. Binghamton is nice too. It seems like a cross between a Pennsylvania city and an Upstate NY city. It is one of the few upstate population centers to be located outside the Empire Corridor.

They couldn't. Regular service to the station began with the start of Red Line service this morning. Trains were stopping at both stations last night.

I think the new station looks great. All I will really miss about 120th is the view from the platform. I was glad to see that Mayfield Road is emphasized on the platform signage and think that that is what the station will generally be known as.

Well there is much more to life than catching the rapid, lol. Stopping the 9 at the LI station would make connections to the Health Line with all its access to Midtown and CSU related destinations much harder, not to mention Cleveland Clinic. From the Heights/Hillcrest area, the rapid is relatively useless, unless your destination is downtown relatively near the Square or further west like OC/WSM or the airport. It's bad enough that RTA decimated through bus services to/from Heights/Hillcrest to downtown (even as westsiders have access to such services). Don't snip my bus line any further! Don't sacrifice rider convenience to prop up underutilized rail services. I agree that ending the 9 at Mayfield station would be ridiculous, partly because a new turnaround facility of some kind would be needed to make that even possible, but mostly because the 9's connection to the Health Line is essential, especially since RTA has eliminated all direct service from Cleveland Heights to downtown Cleveland.

Has it been decided whether Bettendorf or East Moline is the fourth Quad City?

I think people will refer to the new station as Mayfield, despite its official name.

Here is the answer: http://www.cleveland.com/strongsville/index.ssf/2015/07/southpark_mall_to_open_new_sho.html

I think it would be a bigger deal if the B and E lines were involved.

I don't know about the streets in the adjoining townhouse neighborhood, but the streets in the center of Crocker Park are not public.

Yes, I know that's the point. There are other lifestyle centers that are more interesting than Crocker Park, because they are integrated into neighborhoods that are more interesting mixes of public and private domain. Examples are South Side Works in Pittsburgh, First and Main in Hudson, and the now-struggling Gateway in Salt Lake City.

I think a downtown should have public streets and publicly owned spaces. No doubt that Crocker Park has been a commercial success, but it is more of a downtown simulation than a true downtown.

I think Carmel is interesting, but I don't really like the look of it. It's an interesting counterpoint to Indianapolis, though, which is a city I have always liked. I think there has been a lot of thought put into bike access in Carmel, but it has virtually no public transportation, despite being right on the border of Indianapolis.

They certainly have put a lot of thought into what they are doing in Carmel.

I think that, if the rail system is to be extended, there are a nearly infinite number of places it should be extended to before Legacy Village.

JeTDoG, thanks for sending the Tower City information. It was interesting to see the before and after pics of the airport tunnel.

I don't think RTA is continuously upgrading--not only upgrading, but rebuilding--stations along all of its rail lines so that the trains can be replaced with buses. Also, it is illogical to think that RTA is scheming to lure people onto buses by making their rail commutes difficult, and, even though this past week has strained the patience of many a non-transit-dependent rider, the system is not a soup kitchen on wheels. This discussion has become absurd.

It was not a good morning, RTA-wise.

In fairness to RTA, Cleveland has had more snow this year--more than twice as much as the Twin Cities, for example--than any of the other Midwestern cities with rail, which, of course, are not very numerous. I haven't lived there in years, but I remember during my decade of life in Chicago that its rail system--the L, anyway--was sometimes nearly disabled by the wintertime weather. I have experienced some delays in RTA's rail service this winter but none have been extraordinary. On the other hand, there was a day a month or so ago when I drove to work and spent a good two hours in east-side gridlock on the way home; it was a day when it was snowing during the evening rush hour.

Well, not only seniors would use the crosswalk to St. Luke's, and mid-block crosswalks are beginning to take hold in Cleveland. The kinds of crosswalks I am referring to do not require traffic lights. When I moved here 18 years ago, the Coventry crosswalks were anomalous in the region, but now crosswalks are in place elsewhere, such as in front of the market on W. 25th St., and drivers are beginning to get used to them.

I think the design as proposed is pretty good. I would like to see the station have more of a presence on East 116th Street, but I think the access arrangements are reasonable. The other track-level crossings I am personally familiar with work pretty well, and I think the St. Luke's connection adds great utility. I hope that St. Luke's path will remain open during winters like the one we are now experiencing, which may require some help outside of RTA. Elevators are better than ramps, of course, but they are so prone to breakdowns that they make the stations completely unusable to some passengers on certain days. Work to repair the elevator at West 25th on the Red Line, for example, has been going on for weeks.

I think the one staircase will be sufficient with the ramp and crossover, and I like that there will be a second entrance across from St. Luke's.

The Red Line train I took out of Windermere this morning left about 10 minutes later than usual, but it was otherwise a typical trip. The operator apologized for the delay and said trains were "barely moving" this morning, but we were flying through the snow as she spoke.

Here's something you may find interesting: http://buffalorising.com/2015/01/cars-finally-return-to-600-block-of-main/. For the first time since its opening 30 years ago, Buffalo's Metro Rail is now sharing a traffic lane--one in each direction--with cars in the 600 block of Main Street. The 500 block will soon follow, and plans call for the entirety of Main Street in downtown to eventually be returned to mixed traffic. As part of the project, the NFTA is rebuilding the trackbed in each of the blocks being converted and replacing the festival marketplace-style stations with structures more appropriate to the setting. It will be interesting to see how this project works out.