KJP

Oh well. I wasn't expecting this to happen quickly anyway. KJP

Actually, it's in RTA's hands (or the federal funds could be sought by NOACA -- after cold day in hell). As a nonprofit educational association, CVSR cannot be a project sponsor to get federal funding. They also don't run the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. That falls under the jurisdiction of the federal National Park Service. KJP

^That's funny! Like the oxymoron "Civil War"... KJP

I agree, and today I heard on CNN that some yahoos in Congress are looking to balance the federal budget on the backs of discretionary programs like Amtrak. Uh, OK.... > we're spending $270 billion in Iraq (at least in part because of our addiction to oil); > our airlines are bleeding money and had to be bailed out after Sept. 11 and may require their pension funds to be bailed out by the feds (at least in part because airlines depend on fuel-inefficient short-haul flights as sources of passenger traffic); > many died in New Orleans because they had no way to get out of town; > oh, and by the way, the only alternative for millions of motorists to avoid paying the rising costs of fuel is to not travel at all, thereby hurting the economy and reducing tax collections..... So here's a great idea: let's cut funding for a fuel-efficient, intercity mode of public transportation that has widespread public support and, if funding were INCREASED, can become part of the solution to the above problems that are causing the federal budget deficit to swell and the economy to begin sputtering. Some of these pig fuckers in Congress couldn't spell IQ if you spotted them the I and the Q! KJP

I had a detailed response to urbanlife but, when you bump two keys together on your keyboard, the whole message gets highlighted and if you hit the spacebar before you realize what's happened, the message is gone. I will not type the same long message twice. This has happened to me a number of times!!!! This forum desperately needs an "undo" feature for composing messages. KJP

First, to be eligible for federal funding, there almost always has to be a feasibility study (with alternatives reviewed) and an environment imact statement of some sort. Even if a waiver of a full-blown feasibility study (formally called a Major Investment Study) and of an EIS can be had, some analysis of the route will be required to please the federal purse string holders. Second, no private business will be spending tax dollars. RTA is a public entity and CVSR is a nonprofit association. CSX is a private, for-profit corporation, but will not be spending tax dollars. Instead, their right of way will be the recipient of tax dollars, just as any regional commuter rail or Amtrak intercity rail project often requires public investment in private rights of way. No precedent is being set here. RTA has lousy or nonexistent service to the Valley View area, to the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area and, even with some bus services rerouted, will have limited access to/from Steelyard Commons from downtown Cleveland and suburban areas farther south. If I was Valley View's mayor and I heard an RTA board member say a transit route (which is what this would really be) to their area was a diversion of RTA resources, I'd tell that RTA board member to shove it and even help him/her with the placement of said shoved item. KJP

I assume you've also seen Chevron's new website: http://www.willyoujoinus.com/ Glad to see the oil industry is finally starting to catch on (or at least admitting it publicly!). KJP

^Very much needed! But we can kill two birds with one stone. See my message earlier in this string at: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2783.msg48694#msg48694 KJP

"High speed" is often a relative term, but my experience is that high speed rail service is offered when train speeds reach or exceed 125 mph. But is a service really high speed if that 125 mph threshhold is achieved on, let's say 10 miles of a route, and the other 200 miles offers only 79 mph? My contention is that "high speed" should be judged on average speeds over an entire route, which is what really matters to the customer. Ironically, I've never seen a consensus in the rail community as to what average speeds should be considered "high speed." For the Ohio Hub, an average speed of 80 mph is the goal. The distance by rail to Cincinnati is 260 miles. An average speed of 80 mph gets you there in 3.25 hours. To answer your question, Matches, about what is keeping the speed down -- the answer is money and the lack of a public constituency for rail. To exceed 90 mph requires building passenger-only tracks, but can be built next to existing freight rail rights of way (as long as the center line of the passenger-only track is no closer than 25 feet of the center line of the nearest freight track). Full-closure crossing gates can be used where moderate to light vehicular traffic crosses the railroad. But, where vehicular traffic is heavier, or there are bad sight lines for motorists, then a grade-separated crossing is probably advisable. To exceed the 110 mph threshhold requires road crossings to be grade-separated or closed. There are more than 200 grade crossings between Cleveland and Cincinnati, more than 250 between Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh and 300+ between Cleveland and Chicago. To grade-separate a crossing typically costs $3 million for a rural crossing and $7 million or more for an urban crossing. In other words, the price tag jumps by an order of magnitude when the 110 mph threshhold is exceeded. If train speeds in excess of 125 mph are desired, now we're likely talking electrified trains on private right of way (ie: not adjacent to existing freight tracks). That's no so much because freight railways are curvacious, but because they typically slice right through the center of small towns and cities that will not be served by high-speed trains, so there's no reason to enter them. It will likely cost less to go around them. So now you've got costs that include intensive environment impact studies, wetland remediation, property acquisitions, earthmoving/grading/leveling, track construction, erecting overhead electric catenary wires, etc. Such costs could range from $25 million per mile in level, open country, to $85 million per mile in hilly or urban settings. If we ever get to that point, we might as well build for something between 150-200 mph. But, we've tried that before and failed. The countries that have succeeded in doing that evolved to that point. They had conventional-speed trains that offered 70-100 mph service, and upgraded their infrastructure from that starting point. Keep in mind that only one-third of France's TGV network uses the newly built, 170-mph+ rights of way. Those are trunk routes that spread outward from Paris. Farther out, TGV trains branch out onto old lines that already offered 100 mph+ services, while others were upgraded to enable 135-mph speeds. Start slow so we can build up the constituency and the market for more improvements, faster speeds and more trains. It's going to take decades for this nation to catch up to the rest of the modern world. If we throw a high-speed rail route (requiring 5-10 million riders per year to support it) into a auto-centric place like Ohio, I believe it will fail. Our cities lack the population densities and the ridership sources that high-quality urban transit systems feed to/from high-speed rail systems. But a lesser intensive rail service, starting with several 79 mph trains (ridership of 300,000 per year or so), and build it up to 110 mph (ridership of 1-2 million), then we'll be ready to join the rest of the world. KJP

Travel time to Cincinnati (downtown) from Cleveland (downtown) will be about 3.5 hours. Subtract about 15-20 minutes if you are boarding at a Cleveland southwest-suburban station at Brook Park/Hopkins Airport or at a Cincinnati north-suburban station at Sharonville/I-275. I agree the fares are too high. But it's also important to note these facts: > IRS just recalculated the cost of driving at 48.5 cents per mile (up from 40.5 cents) for business travel deductibility purposes; > Airlines charge $600 to $800 round trip, even for advanced bookings, for flights between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati; > Amtrak Acela Express' average fare is 50 cents per mile on the Northeast Corridor. That being said, the general public falsely believes the only cost of driving is the cost of gas. Business travelers who must deduct their driving expenses know better because they have to deal with the real costs of driving all the time. To me, the ORDC has two choices: expect to provide an operating subsidy to reduce train fares in recognition of imperfect information in the travel marketplace, or undertake a marketing campaign to get the general public to understand how much it really costs them to drive their cars. KJP

The entrance to Bohlken Park shown on the plan is an emergency entrance/exit for safety forces, as required under the city fire code (as it is with most cities). The public main entrance to Bohlken Park will remain off West 210th Street, just south of Westgate. But, you're correct that the Target and the two adjacent stores will be much closer to Bohlken compared to the way things were before. As I stated in my Sun article, a large parking lot separates Bohlken from the nearest structures at Westgate Mall. In the new plan, only a driveway will separate them. KJP

Great news. KJP

I'm continually amazed at what lenders will fund, when there's a glut of retail in most communities already. And since the metro area isn't growing in population, ANY new development is virtually guaranteed of creating a vacancy somewhere else. Oh well. Here's what the new Westgate will probably look like.... KJP

I'll help you! Problem is, if they tear it down, the new building probably won't be as tall. I'd hate to lose some downtown heighth. KJP

Anyone who supports upgrading and expanding our rail system in the U.S., let your congressperson know today! See the urgent message below.... KJP _______________ The full Senate may consider the Fiscal 2006 Transportation-Treasury-HUD appropriations bill, possibly as early as today or tomorrow. Please give the following message to your senators, substituting your own words wherever possible. Dear Senator X: Please support the $1.45 billion for Amtrak that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved. Please oppose any efforts to reduce this level. Equally important, please work to remove from the committee's bill its crippling, "micro-managing" language regarding sleeping and dining car services. If it is essential to "legislate on an appropriations bill" on this matter, please use the moderate language from S. 1516, the bipartisan authorization bill that the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved July 28. Go to http://www.senate.gov and select your state from the drop-down menu. Given the uncertain nature of floor action, contact should be by phone call, fax, or e-mail (U.S. mail is not fast enough in D.C., where all mail must be security-screened, causing delays of up to a month or more). Also, be patient when contacting your Senators. Many offices are now bombarded with communications about the Supreme Court nomination. If you have a hard time getting through to your Senators' Washington, D.C. offices, try their local offices. Contact information for those offices is available on Senators' websites. END

I think a separate thread on the walkways subject is a good idea. Besides, it will allow us to get back to the excellent subject of this thread -- The Avenue! KJP

Not much. Like I said in an earlier message, these guys sound like the railroads in the 1950s-60s. The difference is, when the railroads were shooting themselves in the foot, there were other modes coming up to supplant them (and to help aim the gun). Today, there's no alternatives to the airlines, and energy prices aren't going to let any of these flyboys off the hook again. KJP

Toronto's PATH is a 6-mile network of pedestrian routes, mostly underground and lined with shops, fountains and topped with skylights. They link numerous office buildings, shopping complexes, hotels, Union Station and a number of subway and streetcar lines. Here's a website that has pictures of PATH... http://www.xcp.bfn.org/bradbee.html The official PATH website is.... http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/path/ I think Cleveland's Convention Center can provide the basis for a similar network here, though I know some don't agree on its application in our downtown. But I think it would be a boon for downtown, which I've heard some climatologists say has consistently stronger winds than Chicago. I hate walking in downtown Cleveland from late October to early April. KJP

I stated the long term solutions, which would allow for less oil to be used. Part of that involves a Manhattan Project-scale research effort into making solar a more practical, efficient resource. Existing PV solar panels convert only 10-15 percent of visible light -- and that's for the most efficient panels on the market. That's not a very good ratio. If the efficiency ratio could be enhanced with some as-yet unknown breakthroughs to exceed 50 percent, or maybe 75, that would be a staggering development. KJP

Could you post the link on EcoCity's site where this appeared? I suspect it was a proposal I put forth a couple years ago. The reason why a station immediately opposite SR237 from Hopkins' long-term parking deck is the best location is because an enclosed walkway above the highway can offer a number of benefits. Not only does it avail a secure parking area for the station, it provides a relatively climate-protected pedestrian link to the airport terminal, via the moving walkways that link the long-term parking deck to Hopkins' terminals. While it may sound like a long distance, an intercity rail station at that location is actually closer to the main terminal than the gates in Concourse D. And, the train station has more of the distance covered by walkways than does Concourse D. An intercity rail station at the Brookpark Rapid station is complicated by the access tracks to/from Norfolk Southern's Rockport Yard, where there are numerous cross-over switches. While there is room on the east side of the mainline for putting a passenger train station platform, freight trains make back-and-forth switching moves on those tracks, blocking their use by passenger trains. Thus, the only place where a station could be put is between the RTA eastbound track and the westernmost NS mainline track. That is still a very heavily used freight track. NS officials have told the ORDC that they wouldn't permit a station between Rockport Yard and Berea unless a passenger-only track is built for trains stopping at the station. Fortunately, there is room across from Hopkins' long-term parking deck to build a passenger-only track and a platform that's wide enough to drop an elevator shaft and stairwell onto it. Even so, NS's preference is not to have a station within several route-miles of that area unless more tracks are built. That's a tough proposition, given the lack of lateral space to work with, but like I said, there is room for one additional track in that area. To add a second passenger-only track past Hopkins will require some significant capital dollars. But that would be a small part of the Ohio Hub's final price tag of about $3.2 billion. Below is an updated version of my proposal for a Hopkins Airport station.... That design was based on the high-speed rail station at Frankfurt Germany's international airport (seen across the main highway -- just like Hopkins' station would be in my proposal above).... The Frankfurt airport station allows for structures to be built on top of it, like hotels, offices and conference centers. I did the same thing for my design, posted above.... Here are alternate sites that could be built, with the one that's a little closer to Berea offering more room for a larger station, but loses the pedestrian access (the pedestrian link to Concourse D would no longer work in a post-9/11 world, since all security screening is preferred to be done at a centralized location).... But, of course the ultimate intercity rail station for Hopkins would be if the airport terminal is built where the IX Center now stands. Hopkins officials acknowledge this is decades into the future.... KJP

Tell Zaremba in their feedback section that you'd like to see Rapid transit access or maybe a streetcar! KJP

The special out-of-town visitor will be Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. And, yes, this will be about The Avenue project, as Nathan Zaremba is the major developer referred to in yesterday's press release. Also joining the show will be Ward 13 Councilman Joe Cimperman. Time and location are unchanged from yesterday's press release. I'll be interested to hear what comes out of all this. KJP

So if it averages a rider per bus and now it's carrying two, that's an astounding increase! :wink: KJP

My point is that I suspect nothing new will be announced. That's all the media cares about. If it's just going to be some palm-pressing and grinning for cameras to remind viewers and readers that this project began on Campbell's watch, then that's not worth news coverage. But if there's something of substance that's not been reported before, then it will be worth an article or a broadcasted segment. That's what I've been trained (brainwashed) to be wary of since I began working at the paragraph factory 11 years ago. KJP

Sorry to be a skeptic, but it sounds like mayoral re-election stuff. I hope I'm wrong. KJP