KJP

I'm promised info for an article later this week.

The TIF will also be supported by all of the admissions taxes and income taxes paid by stadium employees. That would also include taxes on players, entertainers and anyone else earning money in that venue. This is a common practice.... https://awmcap.com/blog/jock-tax-2020

No, a TIF in Brook Park.

A TIF is going to be a big part of the public piece. City income taxes of people working there are going to help pay for the stadium. So might the city and county property taxes above the land.

Browns want 50/50 public/private cost-sharing for either stadium site By Ken Prendergast / April 29, 2024 When Cleveland Browns representatives last week showed state lawmakers designs for optional stadiums in Downtown Cleveland or in suburban Brook Park, they also shared something else — a proposed public-private cost sharing arrangement. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2024/04/29/browns-want-50-50-public-private-cost-sharing-for-either-stadium-site/

GCRTA is back to using track 7 at Tower City again after some track adjustments were needed in the main station. https://www.riderta.com/riders-alerts/tower-city-service-track-adjustments

Because historically passenger trains had priority over freight traffic because passengers needs are more time-sensitive. And whatever the speed limit is for a freight train on a given line, the speed limit for a passenger trains is always 10-30 mph faster because they can speed up/stop more quickly. By the 1960s, railroads were doing everything possible to sabotage passenger use -- run trains with only 1-3 cars and pack everyone into them or leave behind people who couldn't fit, mis-schedule connecting trains, remove beverage/food services from the trains, leave some trains off the public timetables so people would think those trains were gone, assign costs to passenger trains that were primarily freight oriented like a switching crew that spent all day switching freight cars at local yard but for 20 minutes it pulled a passenger train back from the station to the yard for servicing between runs but guess where 100 percent of the cost was assigned, maintenance on trains and tracks and stations were deferred, and of course passenger trains were put in sidings to wait for freight trains or slow freight trains were run ahead of them. By the time Amtrak came around, not only were most private railroads so eager to get rid of them, they were willing to pay tens of millions in start-up fees to the federal government, they gave Amtrak eminent domain-like powers to use any railroad they wanted as long as the railroads were compensated for them, they agreed to let Amtrak trains run on their tracks at what's called "incremental cost" rather than a negotiated market rate, and they agreed to let Amtrak trains have operational priority over freight trains.

The electrification was removed in 1953 because railroads had "dieselized" their passenger trains by then. After that until the last train departed in 1977, all trains that served CUT did so under diesel power.

Oldie but a goodie.... https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rpa-org/pdfs/2050-High-Speed-Rail-in-America.pdf Criteria Used to Develop Corridor Score Primary Factors: Weighted 3X Regional Population (25 Mile) (RP) Employment CBD (2 Mile) (ECBD) Secondary Factors: Weighted 2X Transit Connectivity Employment (TCE) Transit Connectivity Population (TCP) City Population (10 Mile) (CP) City Employment (10 Mile) (CE) Regional Population Growth Factor (RPGF) Regional Air Market (RAM) Tertiary Factors: Weighted 1X Commuter Rail Connectivity Population (CRP) Corridor Traffic Congestion (CTC) Share of Financial Workers (SF) Share of Workers in Tourism Industry (ST)

I'm guessing that Hollywood has jaded us. If we find a fossilized mollusk inside a meteorite that hit Earth, most of us are going to react with "So what?" Another factor is the time it would take to get there. Perhaps life in space is too far away for any of us to care enough to do anything about it? At present, we have the technology to travel as fast as about 87 percent of light speed, but with the acceleration and deceleration, it averages out to 57 percent of light speed. K2-18b is 124 light years from Earth, or a 217-year trip (although when approaching the speed light, time will compress for them so the trip will be "only" about 200 years). Either way, we need to send some baby-making astronauts if human beings are ever going to set foot there. And those who land there and ask to be taken to K2-18b's overweight leaders will never know what living on Earth is like. When they land, no one here on Earth will know the outcome of the mission until their signal reaches us in 341 years. Or is it 324 years? Either way, I hope someone will still be assigned to preserve and staff that 300-year-old antique radio console over three centuries....

And how is the garage ventilated?

Forget Mars, are there aliens on K2-18b? Planet twice as big as Earth emitting gas 'only produced by life' sparks huge excitement among astronomers https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13353023/aliens-K2-18b-distant-planet-emitting-gas.html

No, you're not making it up https://neo-trans.blog/2022/10/04/city-reveals-metrohealths-west-25th-plans/

Correct

And the Greenway is far from the biggest challenge for either station site/routing option. It not a fatal flaw. Of course, that assumes that any rail expansion in Ohio ever happens. We live in one of the worst countries for transportation policy and one of the worst states in that country. Why? Because more Americans have joined the Flat Earth Society than have joined passenger rail advocacy organizations (that was true at one time, at least).

Actually, Red Line. Do you mean the Red Line Greenway? And that 1,500-foot stretch, owned by GCRTA over which Metroparks has an easement, was actually designed for six tracks (including the Abbey and West 25th ovepasses) even though only four tracks were ever built. The greenway can be moved over 15 feet or relocated to the parallel Columbus Road as a cycletrack. I like the latter alternative because it can route the cycletrack into the Flats to connect with all of the trails down there.

They actually hoped to open in 2021. There's even a sign still atop of the back of their building announcing it.

What's the bigger concern is that Slife and others believe that expanding passenger rail service via the lakefront is "easy." It relatively easy is if we're adding just six daily 3C&D trains. But the Amtrak Connects US plan also proposes adding six more dailies to/from Detroit. Add that to the four nightly Amtraks and we're up to 16 Amtrak trains per day between Downtown and Berea. That's a lot of passenger trains to throw into the mix of 70 daily freights, many of which back in/out of Rockport Yard near Hopkins to pickup/set out cars. Adding track capacity to the Downtown-Berea mainline is very problematic with the Red Line on one side and industries, houses and bridge abutments up against the mainline on the other. Or the mainline freights could be moved off the lakefront to the lakefront bypass, which requires building the same extent of infrastructure there that would be necessary to restore Cleveland Union Terminal. Its even most of the same routing.

And, here. We. Go....

Thanks @GISguy!! Irishtown Bend work to barge in on river traffic By Ken Prendergast / April 26, 2024 In the coming weeks, the U.S. Coast Guard is expected to establish safety zone requirements for the barge-based installation of steel-wall bulkheads along the edge of the Cuyahoga River at Irishtown Bend in Cleveland. Those requirements will likely result in the daily closure of the river channel to commercial shipping for hours at a time but leisure and recreational boating is not expected to be significantly affected. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2024/04/26/irishtown-bend-work-to-barge-in-on-river-traffic/

Reminder that the Haslams need to stay as far away from football decisions as possible...

Turns out there's more to the story. Stay tuned....

As promised but had to wait on quotes from people....

Amtrak seeks $300m for Great Lakes-area stations By Ken Prendergast / April 26, 2024 Cleveland and other Northern Ohio cities would gain new, larger train stations from a program proposed by passenger railroad Amtrak to improve its intercity services here. The program, a five-year, $300 million Great Lakes Stations Improvement initiative, represents the first time in Amtrak’s 53-year history that it has pursued such an aggressive development effort for this region and specifically for the Cleveland-Chicago route. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2024/04/26/amtrak-seeks-300m-for-great-lakes-area-stations/

And Library Lofts added seven floors in the same amount of time.