September 24, 20186 yr Create a citywide Transit Oriented development corporation to act basically as a citywide CDC for all areas along major transit corridors. The mission of this organization will be to maximize the use of land around RTA stations and drive ridership.
September 24, 20186 yr Author If the state invested the rainy day fund in treasuries, it could produce about $120 million per year for public transportation in Ohio, and leverage at least as much in federal transportation funds, some of which Ohio cannot tap because it lacks the nonfederal match. That $240 million per year is almost 10 times what Ohio is budgeting for public transportation now. OK. Time for some fun (maybe?). Image we did have 10x the current level of funding. For simplicity's sake, let's pretend all that funding could be used for our choice of either capital or operating costs. What could we do with that? My first thoughts, in no particular order. Note that the intention is not spend money willy-nilly, but to improve expand the system to the point where, when factoring in all measurable externalities, it begins to operate at a profit rather than a loss for the region as a whole and especially the city of Cleveland. (a) Catch up on all the deferred maintenance issues, since that maximizes the revenue minus costs going forward. (b) Offer frequent, rapid, and reliable service on a well-known set of corridors, with the goal of making a carless lifestyle possible on those corridors. (N.B.: Also work with local and transit police to reduce both the reality and the perception of violent crime at stops and stations to near-zero.) © Work with state, local municipalities, etc. to allow traffic signal prioritization and therefore *true* BRT on various appropriate corridors, starting with the three we already have (Euclid, Clifton and W. 25) and expanding as needed. (d) Start whittling down the numbers of major employment and residential centers in the county that are greatly undeserved by transit. (e) Build the Red Line extensions to Euclid. (f) Build some sort of true rail loop in and around downtown. (g) Look into working with adjacent counties, NOACA, etc. to re-establish commuter rail in places where it makes sense. Other folks' thoughts?? Check out the thread at: https://www.urbanohio.com/forum/index.php/topic,30302.0.html "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
September 27, 20186 yr Author Red Line is shut down for the rest of the day. I think this is due to something wrong with the trains because RTA during this morning's rush hour wasn't able to provide enough trains to operate more often than every 20 minutes. Normal rush hour frequency is every 10 minutes. @GCRTA The Red Line will be replaced with 66R buses through the end of service today. Look for the orange signs at Prospect and W 3rd to make the connection at tower city. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
September 27, 20186 yr WTF?!? They owe the public at least some explanation for throwing everyone on a bus for the pm rush hour. RTA can't afford to treat their passengers as sh!t who they can step on--they need to treat them with respect if they want to keep them. Looks like the new acting head is in over this head!
September 27, 20186 yr WTF?!? They owe the public at least some explanation for throwing everyone on a bus for the pm rush hour. RTA can't afford to treat their passengers as sh!t who they can step on--they need to treat them with respect if they want to keep them. Looks like the new acting head is in over this head! There was a track issue that was damaging the wheels.
September 28, 20186 yr WTF?!? They owe the public at least some explanation for throwing everyone on a bus for the pm rush hour. RTA can't afford to treat their passengers as sh!t who they can step on--they need to treat them with respect if they want to keep them. Looks like the new acting head is in over this head! There was a track issue that was damaging the wheels. Is RTA's switching system that antiquated that they can't operate a delayed service by single-tracking through the affected area of the repair?
September 28, 20186 yr Author The Red Line was shut down because a couple of train wheels came in damaged. They played "where's Waldo" combing the entire Red Line looking for bad track. Dozens of folks inspecting only to find nothing. They returned to service at 4:30 pm. They think it might be in the yard. RTA's Director of Rail Operations Sean Thompson is a safety guy. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
October 2, 20186 yr Author RTA speeds up work to get more Red Line cars in service https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/10/rta_speeds_up_work_to_get_more_red_line_cars_in_service.html "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
October 2, 20186 yr From the article: Meanwhile, UTCRAS has installed new wheels on five cars in four weeks, ahead of RTA's pace of about 2.2 cars per month. Crews have to retool the cars' axles and usually replace other parts in the process. Is this a talent/experience issue, or is the RTA staff sandbagging?
October 3, 20186 yr Author It's an issue of RTA not trusting its own workforce which said it could do the work just as quickly by working overtime but for significantly less money and, as is being proven by returned products, at higher quality. RTA brass rejected the offer of its Central Rail workforce and contracted the work out to this Philadelphia-area company at roughly twice the price. And the wheels and their surrounding apparatus (called a truck) are coming back with problems that RTA Central Rail workers are having to correct. RTA is an old-fashioned, top-down, militaristic organization (actually, the military does a better job of empowering its grunts to manage immediate challenges than does RTA does) where management knows best and the rank-and-file are not actualized. Their management style was outdated in the 1980s when Theory Y management came to America and they still have no inclination to change. Hopefully some of the new arrivals on the RTA board will force the long-overdue change. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
October 18, 20186 yr Author All Aboard Ohio has been predicting these outcomes for three years. In another three years, it is quite likely we will have no operational light-rail trains left. Riders are already fleeing the Shaker lines because they've become so unreliable, with ridership dropping 20+ percent so far this year.... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 14, 20186 yr Author Some good news for a change -- workers at RTA's Central Rail worked some magic and got a total of 19 light-rail trains working for the Blue & Green lines. Unfortunately, these lines' ridership is way down this year. Conversely, the Red Line's ridership is actually up, so far this year. It is the only service in RTA (Demand Response, mainline bus, light rail and heavy rail) that is experiencing a ridership increase this year. To continue a good news theme -- ODOT has awarded RTA an $8.6 million grant for Red Line track work. This will necessitate another rail shutdown for a few weeks next summer, between West Park and the Airport tunnel portal. RTA will replace rails and switches and possibly more. RTA will likey announce the grant tomorrow at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Red Line extension to the Airport. It was the first downtown-airport rapid rail link in the Western Hemisphere. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 15, 20186 yr Is there anything that keeps track of exactly how many days the Blue/Green lines were out of service? Many times I have planned to take the Blue Line downtown only to find out its down for the entire weekend. Seemed to coincide alot with events going on downtown which would normally boost the numbers. That could have something to do with the decrease. I always choose to drive when its down. Normally I take the train because it's much quicker than driving, but there's no way the replacement bus would be.
November 15, 20186 yr Author 13 hours ago, PoshSteve said: Is there anything that keeps track of exactly how many days the Blue/Green lines were out of service? Many times I have planned to take the Blue Line downtown only to find out its down for the entire weekend. Seemed to coincide alot with events going on downtown which would normally boost the numbers. That could have something to do with the decrease. I always choose to drive when its down. Normally I take the train because it's much quicker than driving, but there's no way the replacement bus would be. Not that I'm aware of. EDIT: I wouldn't be surprised if the Blue/Green lines were down at least half of the weekend days this year. Edited November 15, 20186 yr by KJP "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 15, 20186 yr I was in Cleveland in July. Stayed at an airbnb near Shaker Square, because I thought I could use the blue/green lines to get into Downtown. Womp-womp. The 33rd(?) Street station was closed for Opportunity Corridor (I think?) construction, so I just ended up driving basically everywhere. Wouldn't have stayed at Shaker Square had I known that was going on. I guess that wasn't a deferred maintenance issue, though. Unless it was, and they were disguising it as an Opportunity Corridor thing.
November 15, 20186 yr Author 8 minutes ago, Robuu said: I was in Cleveland in July. Stayed at an airbnb near Shaker Square, because I thought I could use the blue/green lines to get into Downtown. Womp-womp. The 33rd(?) Street station was closed for Opportunity Corridor (I think?) construction, so I just ended up driving basically everywhere. Wouldn't have stayed at Shaker Square had I known that was going on. I guess that wasn't a deferred maintenance issue, though. Unless it was, and they were disguising it as an Opportunity Corridor thing. GCRTA was wrapping its long-planned reconstruction of the East 34th station into an ADA-compliant facility. Not related to the Opportunity Corridor. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 15, 20186 yr Author These are the Blue-Green Lines shutdown dates I was able to find: Jan. 11-15 - no rail service Tower City-East 55th due to a water main break Feb. 15 - no Blue/Green line service east of Tower City Feb. 17-18 - no Blue/Green line service east of Tower City Mar. 18 - no rail service Tower City-East 55th July 7-8 - buses replace Blue Line trains between Shaker Square and Warrensville-Van Aken on Saturday due to overhead wire work July 14-15 - buses replaced Blue and Green Line trains between Tower City and E. 55 July 24 - no Blue-Green trains east of Tower City due to power outages Aug 19-Sept 1 - no trains between Tower City and South Harbor Aug 25-26, 2018 - Blue/Green Line shutdown Sept 16-24 - 67R buses replace Blue & Green Line east of Tower City due to multiple track projects Oct. 6-7 - no rail service between Tower City and East 55th Street Oct. 27-28 - buses replace Blue and Green Line trains east of Tower City this weekend due to track work That makes 43 days of interruptions, including 17 weekdays "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 15, 20186 yr 9 minutes ago, KJP said: July 14-15 - buses replaced Blue and Green Line trains between Tower City and E. 55 This is the weekend I was in town for the Yayoi Kusama show. Making two transfers just to get to Tower City was super unappealing.
November 15, 20186 yr Author "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 15, 20186 yr 7 hours ago, KJP said: These are the Blue-Green Lines shutdown dates I was able to find: ... That makes 43 days of interruptions, including 17 weekdays Thanks for finding that. At first glance that seems like an awful lot of down time (13.5%) of the year so far. Not sure how that compares to previous years or other rail systems though. I'm sure you would know better than I, but I'm under the impression most systems do maintenance at night when the trains normally don't run? I just recall the huge uproar when the DC Metro shut down for that one weekend for maintenance.
November 17, 20186 yr Author While this is great news, let's keep this in perspective....ODOT's own Transit Needs Study ID's a backlog of $240 million (actually understated--probably closer to $400 million) for GCRTA rail state of good repair by 2025. Ohio receives $1.2 billion per year in flexible federal funds, of which nearly 50% could go to transit. RTA Receives State Funding for Red Line Track Work The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) has announced that the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) will provide $8.68 million in state funding for track reconstruction on the Red Line. “ODOT contacted RTA this week saying that its Office of Transit is awarding $8.68 million of Ohio Transit Preservation Partnership Program funds to RTA for 2019,” said Dr. Floun’say Caver, RTA’s interim CEO and general manager. “Those funds will be used to reconstruct a critical section of track between the Airport and West Park Station.” MORE: https://www.pocketlist.com/rta-receives-state-funding-red-line-track-work "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 28, 20186 yr Author Edited November 28, 20186 yr by KJP "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 28, 20186 yr Author "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
December 4, 20186 yr Participants in online economic development forum like spending tax dollars on public transit, not sports venues Updated 4:41 PM; Posted 4:37 PM By Peter Krouse, cleveland.com [email protected] CLEVELAND, Ohio – The dozens of people who participated Monday in a digital forum on Northeast Ohio’s economy generally agreed the best way to spend regional tax dollars is to build a better public transit system. https://www.cleveland.com/news/2018/12/participants-in-online-economic-development-forum-like-spending-tax-dollars-on-public-transit-not-sports-venues.html
December 4, 20186 yr Anyone have more information on what happened on the Green Line today? I was driving down Shaker Blvd at about 4:40 and there was a train stopped near Eaton Rd with a bunch of police and passengers standing around. There were a bunch of guys who I thought looked like police swarming all over the train cars, though they could have been RTA. I didn't notice any RTA trucks around though. Regardless, it had to have been a b*tch for all the passengers in the wind and snow at the time.
December 4, 20186 yr 1 hour ago, PoshSteve said: Anyone have more information on what happened on the Green Line today? I was driving down Shaker Blvd at about 4:40 and there was a train stopped near Eaton Rd with a bunch of police and passengers standing around. There were a bunch of guys who I thought looked like police swarming all over the train cars, though they could have been RTA. I didn't notice any RTA trucks around though. Regardless, it had to have been a b*tch for all the passengers in the wind and snow at the time. Dont know, but I drove right past that spectacle as well at 4:40 pm ish today. Small world.
December 4, 20186 yr Author A wb train's pantograph got tangled in its overhead wires and pulled them down onto the train. The wires were sparking on top of the train. Your deferred maintenance at work.... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
December 4, 20186 yr Author "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
December 4, 20186 yr Author This is pretty good news.... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
December 4, 20186 yr 41 minutes ago, KJP said: This is pretty good news.... Do you know these people KJP?
December 4, 20186 yr Author Yes. They will do a good job. They can brutally honest and we need that in a transit agency stuck in a death spiral whose managers are afraid to admit that reality and hide all things truthful. Edited December 4, 20186 yr by KJP "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
December 4, 20186 yr 7 minutes ago, KJP said: Yes. They will do a good job. They can brutally honest and we need that in a transit agency stuck in a death spiral whose managers are afraid to admit that reality and hide all things truthful. Exactly what the doctor ordered!
December 4, 20186 yr This is pretty exciting news! From the outside, it seems like a dam broke with the departure of the sclerotic incumbents and RTA can finally get to work on some actual strategic planning.
December 4, 20186 yr A good strategic plan for RTA would do wonders for Cuyahoga county. I would like to see $3 billion or higher plan brought forward for the voters to decide on. A clear vision with serious improvements would keep the economy going in Cleveland. The amount of transportation data available to todays strategic planner would’ve been unthinkable 10-15 years ago. Via the cell phone network data, it can clearly be seen what the daily commuting and short trip traffic patterns are en masse. I wouldn’t be surprised if the gondola system comes back on the radar with fresh eyes looking at it. That could help make Cleveland a very bike friendly city especially with the new connectors about to implemented. I would expect public square to be adressed yet again since that seems like the lynchpin of the RTA network. This is a perfect time to evaluate since we know the direction Cleveland is going especially with all the county and city government office building changes and new construction under design.
December 4, 20186 yr Author This plan will show what RTA can do with its existing budget. It will say something like: we have enough money to provide X thousand vehicle-hours of service per day. So how can we apportion that to maximize access to population, jobs, education, healthcare, shopping, etc.? That includes reducing travel times and the best way of doing that is to reduce transfer times. That means running a grid of core routes very frequently. This was the outcome in many other cities that have done this. Houston, for example, saw no change in its bus ridership but a big jump in rail ridership. Columbus saw a nice increase in its bus ridership with less geographic coverage but more frequent core bus routes. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
December 5, 20186 yr Seems logical to me. We've spread the public transit service peanut butter too thin for too long. We need to reallocate resources so that transit friendly neighborhoods can actually have decent transit service.
December 6, 20186 yr Author "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
December 6, 20186 yr Author That's your primary takeaway from that data?? "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
December 21, 20186 yr Author An excellent article worth reading and considering over the holiday break. Unfortunately the writer grew frustrated with Cleveland's reverence of the status quo, especially when it comes to transportation. So she left for Washington DC.... Road Warriors The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority may soon be in trouble. We need a big, inspirational idea to save it. April 9, 2018 Alex Baca A few years ago, the transit system in Houston had an odd problem. The city, a Texas-sized success story, was growing. But the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County was somehow losing bus riders. The drop couldn’t have come at a worse time. A 2012 renewal referendum on funneling some of the Metro’s money into road projects would soon be put to voters. Leaders sensed a crash just around the corner — fewer bus riders could mean slack voter support for the referendum. “That really led to a focus on ridership as a big goal,” says Christof Spieler, a Metro board member. MORE: https://clevelandmagazine.com/in-the-cle/commentary/articles/road-warriors "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
December 21, 20186 yr 5 hours ago, KJP said: An excellent article worth reading and considering over the holiday break. Unfortunately the writer grew frustrated with Cleveland's reverence of the status quo, especially when it comes to transportation. So she left for Washington DC.... Road Warriors The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority may soon be in trouble. We need a big, inspirational idea to save it. April 9, 2018 Alex Baca A few years ago, the transit system in Houston had an odd problem. The city, a Texas-sized success story, was growing. But the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County was somehow losing bus riders. The drop couldn’t have come at a worse time. A 2012 renewal referendum on funneling some of the Metro’s money into road projects would soon be put to voters. Leaders sensed a crash just around the corner — fewer bus riders could mean slack voter support for the referendum. “That really led to a focus on ridership as a big goal,” says Christof Spieler, a Metro board member. MORE: https://clevelandmagazine.com/in-the-cle/commentary/articles/road-warriors " The big problem to overcome was, like Cleveland, Houston’s buses connected through downtown. " And unlike Cleveland, Houston's downtown is more or less centrally located. Several rapid stops, especially on the edges, should become hubs. Controlled access, free transfer zones.
December 26, 20186 yr Author Cleveland RTA–ready to repeat rail mistakes of the past? kjprendergast on December 23, 2018 Last week, rank-and-file workers of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s (GCRTA) Central Rail Facility were informed by the agency’s management about the status of replacing GCRTA’s 33- to 37-year-old rail fleet. GCRTA hired LTK Engineering Services to assess the replacement of the rail car fleet and issue a report by February of its findings. The findings are as unfortunate and as uncreative as many of us at All Aboard Ohio, at Central Rail’s shop floor, and even some within GCRTA management had feared. MORE http://allaboardohio.org/2018/12/23/cleveland-rta-ready-to-repeat-mistakes/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
December 28, 20186 yr Author "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
December 28, 20186 yr 15 minutes ago, KJP said: That page is a must follow around here. Often way ahead of the news.
January 3, 20196 yr Can you walk from the Amtrak station to Tower City? I've been reviewing Google Maps and Earth, and it looks like you have to walk on the freeway for a little while to get to W3. That can't be right.
January 3, 20196 yr 24 minutes ago, TBideon said: Can you walk from the Amtrak station to Tower City? I've been reviewing Google Maps and Earth, and it looks like you have to walk on the freeway for a little while to get to W3. That can't be right. There's a sidewalk up to East 9th. I've done the walk before. Getting from the Amtrak station to East 9th is a pretty bad walk.
January 3, 20196 yr How have transit times changed since public transit's heyday in Cleveland? Gordon Square to Case (currently looks like 40-50 minutes)? Cedar-Lee to Playhouse Square (currently also 40-50 minutes)? KJP -- do you have old timetables?
January 6, 20196 yr Author @Foraker Yes. I'll take a look probably tomorrow or more likely Monday. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
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