http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080618/NEWS01/806180323/1056/COL02

 

Does all of this business with the Metro have any impact on streetcars?

yeah... if all of this pans out with Metro, it means we won't have to worry about SORTA getting control of them ever... because they won't exist anymore. wahoo!

yeah... if all of this pans out with Metro, it means we won't have to worry about SORTA getting control of them ever... because they won't exist anymore. wahoo!

 

Yeah, except that the exurban counties may even be less supportive of the streetcar. Consider where all the negative streetcar letters in the Enquirer have been coming from.

 

For sure, because of union rules, Metro's drivers -- whoever they are working for -- will be driving the streetcars. I could imagine that the streetcar could actually fare worse under a new arrangement for regional transit.

That's what I was wondering.  Considering this whole thing is being spearheaded by Cranley, I assume there is some negative impact as far as streetcars go.

Here's the problem with the subway tunnels:

 

...So that leaves the tunnels to be used only by the Western Corridor aliong I-74 to Green Township via, say, Northside. Looking at the votes from 2002, I really wonder how soon Green Township is going to want that service.

 

So I'm not for filling them in. I just don't see a use for them anytime soon. Plus, I think transit is usually more city-friendly when it runs at the surface. But times change. We'll see.

 

I think transit is perfectly city friendly when it runs below the surface.  A major problem with the 2002 MetroMoves plan (which makes up the above described corridors) is that it seemed, to me at least, to focus to much on abandoned right of way for the transit corridors than say, going to places where people lived.  Why one would take the Central Parkway Subway transit corridor from Northside out I-74 rather than up Colerain to Colerain Township, which is the largest township in the County by population, that I don't know.

For fun I drew out a West Side rail scheme using the subway...the blue uses the C&O ROW and the red would be a mostly in-street LRV.  The distance from Fountain Square to the Glenway Crossing shopping center is 7 miles using both lines and the distance to the intersection of Bridgetown & Glenway is 10 miles.  The Glenway Crossing area would be redeveloped into a higher density TOD.  This setup means people would use these lines to travel throughout the area, not just to downtown.  The red is traveling north on Boudinot and west on Harrison, then Bridgetown. 

 

For inspiration here are some shots of Pittsburgh's light rail line, which does not travel through the city's midtown (Oakland, Squirrel Hill, etc.) areas at all.  It has a downtown subway and a half-mile tunnel under Mt. Washington.  Not only does Pittsburgh have the same topography and trees as Cincinnati, the housing looks about the same too.       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    ^---- The Red and Blue Lines above make an interesting strategy comparison. The Blue Line would be faster, cheaper to build, and cheaper to operate because it is mostly on private right of way. The Red Line offers more traffic development.

 

   

The western half of the city doesn't deserve rail (that's Cranley and

Witte territory) Take it East and North but not anywhere close to Sharonville or West Chester.  :-D

The way I was thinking of it, the blue is itself a higher speed bypass, but it could also run express trains in the mornings and afternoons that would have no stops between Glenway Crossing and the Liberty St. subway station.  It's a distance of 5 miles, so the trains could easily average 45mph for that entire distance, hitting 60mph for the mile crossing the railroad yard, meaning an express run from the Bridgetown terminus could reach Fountain Square in about 15-17 minutes, far faster than buses and cars.  Any stations without major employers around them could be skipped in this express service, so really even Liberty could be skipped. 

 

The cheaper variation of the red line idea would for it to simply share trackage with the blue to the Bridgetown terminus, I'm not really sure how much additional ridership it would attract from Boudinot Ave. and Cheviot.  The I-74 line was purely political, it would not have gotten very high ridership and it surely wouldn't have done a thing to help the west side's business districts. 

 

 

 

is all the ROW that blue line is shown to run on still available? I know that there area around bridgetown rd isn't really, as it's been redeveloped.

^----"The I-74 line was purely political..."

 

    My honest opinion is that west siders saw through the politics and voted against the Metro Moves. It's not that they are against transit.

"Is all the ROW that blue line is shown to run on still available?"

 

 

  No. The railroad actually offered the right-of-way to the City of Cincinnati around 1994; the city did not purchase it. Instead, the railroad sold off pieces to the highest bidder. The right-of-way was 300 feet wide in some places, so it was a lot of valuable property.

 

    Bits and pieces of the right-of-way remain, and can be traced on maps, but large pieces of it have been obliterated by new development.

Well the Metro Moves plan really did stick it to the West Side by both offering that poor I-74 routing AND having it last in the cue.  I think people had every reason to suspect that at the end of the 30-year tax (or however it was set up) there would be no I-74 light rail line.  But again this just points to how idiotic transit funding is here in the United States. 

 

Here is a view of the old yard from the Glenway Ave. bridge where Glenway Crossing Shopping Center is now:

 

Also, here is a view of a still-existing trestle on an active part of the line out past Fernald.  The viaduct that ran above Fairmount was very similar to this, but even higher, and had a spectacular "mountain railroad" look to it similar to contemporary trestles that remain near Pittsburgh.  The C&O ROW had a lot of positives but this viaduct and most of the climb up parallel to Queen City Avenue and Guerley were single-track.  I seem to remember that the Bridgetown Bridge was single-track too but I might be wrong. 

^----"The I-74 line was purely political..."

 

    My honest opinion is that west siders saw through the politics and voted against the Metro Moves. It's not that they are against transit.

 

Yea,  as you can see from Jmeck's map, most people live within the routes he points out.    The I-74 route is  pretty isolated from the heart of where most of the populous lives.    It's not even close to being on the map above.    The 2002 plan had it's flaws and I agree that most westsiders saw through this.  I hope that any future rail albeit Streetcars or Lt. Rail throughout Western Hills stays near the main corridors. (Which I know will be difficult in the name of land acquisition, which is why I believe the map above nails what needs to be done.)

^^That train trestle in Okeana is one of the more beautiful rail structures I've seen with my own eyes. As a kid I saw it once, and never knew where it was, until I worked for the Butler County Engineer. It's certainly a relic to the past.

 

    Aparantly Norfolk Southern would like to abandon a portion of existing railroad in the Norwood area. I think this portion is part of the "belt line" and was considered for light rail at one point, but it's not part of the I-71 corridor.

 

 

"NOTICE OF INTENT TO ABANDON RAIL SERVICE Norfolk Southern Railway

Company (NSR) gives notice that on or about July 16, 2008, it intends

to file with the Surface Transportation Board (STB), Washington, DC

20423, a notice of exemption under 49 U.S.C. 10502 from the prior

approval requirements of 49 U.S.C. 10903, permitting NSR's

abandonment of a 1.10-mile line of railroad between milepost CT 2.50

(Cincinnati) and milepost CT 3.60 (Norwood), which traverses through

United States Postal Service ZIP Codes 45207 and 45212, in Hamilton

County, Ohio."

@Jake, can you make a quick map of that abandoned line? 

So, can the city snap that up (if it would be useful for a future light rail plan)?  Or is it more likely that this ROW will be destroyed via future development?

I think this is that single-track section that wraps north from the Cintas Center, then across Reading near the Talbert House, then across I-75 on a single-track bridge.  If so this is the connector that was intended for the I-75 line, not the I-71 line and some people have said that ROW is being preserved on the east side of I-75 north of that point for light rail. 

Okay, I think the section being abandoned is in red.  This track has been abandoned for many years and is totally overgrown.  In blue is the CL&N ROW, which has been sold off and homes built in its path.  The I-71 light rail line was to have run on this ROW in the shopping center area and mostly likely on Montgomery Rd. between Dana and that point. 

 

I always wondered what a bridge was there on Glenway Ave for. Now a i know. Do you have a map that shows the path of that old line also?

 

Also since the bike path is so underused that goes through Milford-Miamitown all the way to kings island. Would that be a potential for a light rail line?

^ i sure hope not. 

I'm just saying that's an option to build cheaper. Without taking out homes and businesses.

For fun I drew out a West Side rail scheme using the subway...the blue uses the C&O ROW and the red would be a mostly in-street LRV.  The distance from Fountain Square to the Glenway Crossing shopping center is 7 miles using both lines and the distance to the intersection of Bridgetown & Glenway is 10 miles.

 

Jake, do you know if the Cincinnati and Westwood ROW still exists intact?

Parts of it do, but I think it has been broken up in quite a few places.

I was up in Cleveland for the Indians/Reds game last weekend and we too the RTA from Brookpark to Terminal Tower.... I will have to say that I wish Cincinnati had something like that from say... Western Hills, the Airport, the tri-county area, Kenwood, and around Anderson to downtown somewhere--- like fountain square or union terminal (with stops along the way) with maybe free connection to a comprehensive streetcar/subway system...I enjoyed the Rapid.

I bet!  Sounds cool!

Tunnels and tracks

http://www.pulsedt.com/blogs/default.asp?Display=2360

This is a conversation redirected here from the Amtrak thread.

 

OK JJ, I'm posting pictures of the Portland LRT line in the downtown area. I realize this is a different service that the Portland Streetcar route. But to the casual observer, in some instances, there is no difference between a streetcar and LRT. In some instances, they are the same....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, I spend several weeks a year in Portland, so I've ridden those trains many times.  I totally agree that to the casual observer, Portland's Light Rail (MAX) line could be viewed as a Streetcar, and honestly within downtown it functions as such.  However, I'd argue that this doesn't make Light Rail and Streetcars equivalent, even though Light Rail can and often does serve as a Streetcar.  Sort of like how all squares are rectangles, some rectangles are squares, but not all rectangles are squares.  I was just annoyed that the author basically equated Light Rail and Streetcars without clarification, since so many people already aren't familiar with the similarities and differences of these two types of rail, and I myself even get stuck on what is and isn't Light Rail occassionally.

 

Which brings me to my next point.  Thanks for posting those pictures of the MAX.  I believe that much of the opposition to the Streetcar plan in Cincinnati is based on people not understanding what it is.  I hear A LOT of complaints from people in the suburbs that basically amount to it not being Light Rail, and thus not benefitting them.  What they don't realize is that Streetcars and Light Rail can co-exist in the same city, serving different purposes, while being nearly indistinguishable to the casual observer.  I think people who have favorable yet uninformed opinions on rail transit are afraid that if Cincinnati gets Streetcars, this somehow will prevent Light Rail from ever happening or will become redundant if/when Light Rail does arrive.  We've seen a lot of pictures of Portland's Streetcars in the local paper, but no pictures of the MAX, to the best of my knowledge.

Dear KJP,

 

May I use some of the pics above when we (soon) rebuild www.protransit.com -- the site of the Alliance for Regional Transit. They are really good.

 

Thanks,

 

John Schneider

Tunnels and tracks

http://www.pulsedt.com/blogs/default.asp?Display=2360

 

Randy, excellent article.  Thanks for sharing it.

What a nightmare!! If only these kids had light rail to downtown..  Now they are probably going to go back to their home country and say how much Cincinnati sucks.

 

-Team: American Dream Taken For A Ride

Reported by: Hagit Limor

Web produced by: Neil Relyea

 

Every summer more than 100 international students scrape together up to $3,000 to come to America, to work one summer at a spectacle unlike they've seen before - the great American amusement park.

 

But some of those students who've come to King's Island north of Cincinnati, Ohio, say their experience hasn't been so great.

 

On a sumptuous, sunny summer's day, thousands of people have come to enjoy the swinging good time, stuff-your-face, buckle-up-the-kids Screamfest that is King's Island.

 

And there to greet them at the front gate are Ghenadii and Vasili from Moldova.

 

Mederer from Kyrgyzstan is selling soft drinks drinks. Daniel from Colombia is serving Skyline coneys. And Melissa from the Dominican Republic is selling trinkets at a store geared for little girls.

 

They're some of 138 international students who spent thousands of dollars each to come here for the summer to work at King's Island.

 

The park's public information officer calls the jobs a great opportunity. He says he's certain they're having a good experience and enjoying themselves.

 

But some of the students tell a different story. Jorge from the Dominican Republic says, "They told us really nice things 'til we get here."

 

The students are living for three or more months in an apartment complex under extreme renovation. To get to their apartments they have to walk past missing ceilings, dangling doors, exposed wires, and sticky sub-floors.

 

Some of the apartments have mold, bugs, and sliding doors that won't lock. Miguel walks down a hallway with exposed ceilings and ripped-up carpeting and mutters: "In my country we don't live like this."

 

Frank, also from the Dominican Republic, says "It's terrible. I feel very, very bad here." Jorge adds, "We're humans."

 

The only furniture in the bare apartments:  air mattresses on the floor.

 

Some of the students have improvised. A cardboard box becomes a dining room table. A shoebox makes a nightstand. And then there are the sofas or mattresses some have been lucky enough to scrounge from a dumpster.

 

Jorge is a hotel management student and calls the situation unfair. "We come to a developed country that we admire a lot over there, and then we got this minimum living conditions."

 

Jorge says it wouldn't be so bad if the students could just sleep here, and leave to explore the area. But, they can't.

 

The complex is in West Chester, miles from public transportation, which is limited in this far north suburb, 21 miles from Cincinnati and more than eight miles from King's Island.

They're so far from the city and its sights, the students say they may as well be a world away.

Their only transportation is a van King's Island uses to shuttle them only to work. It doesn't run on their days off, so they feel stranded. And on their work days, it's often full.

The I-Team watched as students couldn't find seats and had to wait for the next van. They say they've each wasted dozens of hours of their only time in America, waiting for limited rides to work and home.

 

For Jorge, it's been a huge disappointment. "We are stuck here," he says. "We almost think we're in jail." He says his entire cultural experience in America has consisted of rides from his apartment to King's Island and back.

 

Frank says he came here to immerse in the culture, to "Meet the people, meet the city, but I can't. I can't go. I don't have transportation."

 

That's not the deal the students say they signed.

 

Their journeys began with a trip to a glitzy website for Worldwide International Student Exchange. WISE places students at stores and resorts all over the United States, including King's Island, promising students will, "Experience another culture while earning money to support their stay."

 

The students signed job offers with Kings Island's Human Resources manager. The offer required them to sign a housing agreement with a hostel, "less than a mile", "within walking distance" to the Park, near public transportation. There would be "free bicycles available to borrow" and "assistance with finding second jobs" to help pay back their expenses for coming here.

 

The Kings Island Travel and Employment Information packet even boasts that the housing includes "computer/internet" and "telephone" access.

 

Engineering student Miguel says it sounded like a great experience. But he and the others say they found none of those promises once they arrived. No bikes, internet or phone at home.

 

So limited by the van schedule, they couldn't get to any second jobs, they say, much less anywhere else. "We got nothing here, almost nothing," says Miguel.

 

He says his one job sweeping at King's Island won't pay back the nearly $3,000 he spent coming here. He can barely cover food and what he pays King's Island for rent.

 

He and three others spend $1,200 a month for each two-bedroom apartment. A neighbor in the same building as some students told the I-Team her 2-bedroom costs $680. King's Island wouldn't tell us how much it's paying per unit.

 

Jorge says he feels misled about this experience. "We are frustrated here. Why they didn't find [a] nearby apartment, I don't know. Why they didn't get another place in Cincinnati, a place with public transportation, I don't know."

 

But the amusement park's public information officer promises, "It's certainly not something that we go into trying to mislead anybody. We want it to be the best experience for anybody."

 

Don Helbig says he'd never heard any of these complaints until the I-Team brought them to his attention.

 

The students say they've tried repeatedly to talk to the woman who hired them here but could never get in to see her.

 

Helbig says he knows these aren't the accommodations the students expected, but that King's Island will address the problems.

 

He says other housing the park had arranged fell through at the last minute and this was the only option King's Island could find to keep about 50 students together. "The rooms that they [the apartment complex] showed us were in good condition. We knew there were some renovations going on, but we were not shown all of the rooms."

 

Helbig says with 31 students already on the way, there was no way to notify them of the change. He says "There's no intent at all to mislead or misrepresent or anything like that at all."

 

And Helbig promises there was no attempt to make money on the living accommodations.

 

After our initial interview, King's Island sent an employee to visit every apartment to list its problems.

 

Then Helbig called us back to say they were doing more, that the park had bought a bus that would be available to the students even on their days off, so they could visit the sites of Cincinnati.

 

The students who spoke to us know they took a chance. King's Island sponsored their visas. If they lose their jobs, they could be deported.

 

When the I-Team asked if the students would be fired for making their living conditions public, Helbig said, "That's an answer that I can't give you. I'm not their immediate supervisor. I'm not the person that would be in charge of the associates here."

 

But he added that the park would, "look into the situation and try to help them and make it be the situation that they were looking to have when they came over."

 

Some of the students aren't waiting to find out. Miguel decided to leave King's Island, striking out for his own American adventure.

 

Summer is waning for some of the students already here six weeks, and yet to see any of the land they once revered, but now think of as Third World compared to their homes.

 

For Jorge, the experience has changed his opinion of the United States. "I'm really frustrated."

 

He says when he goes back home and his father asks, "How was Cincinnati?," he'll have to answer, "West Chester, you mean?" And when his father asks, "How was the museum? How were the Reds?," he'll have to say he never got to see them or the city he thought he'd experience this summer.

 

Helbig says King's Island now has made it a point to talk to as many international students as possible and find out their needs.

 

The park also is planning outings to take the students to Reds games, the Museum Center and the zoo.

 

And King's Island is looking ahead to to next year, to accommodations more in line with what the park AND the students expect.

 

 

http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=76b7df73-2080-4380-a42a-f8b5321418d1

These international workers used to live on UC's campus during the Summer.  They then were able to use the Kings Island Metro shuttle to/from work.  When they weren't working they were then able to take in the sights/sounds of the city, and actually experience Cincinnati.

 

I became friends with a guy from Romania who was absolutely thrilled to be here.  I took him around and showed him the city.  He was able to use the internet on UC's campus for emailing back home and he had access to Metro service.  Most of the international workers did not have vehicles and desperately needed that service.  I wonder why that program isn't in place anymore.

Dear KJP,

 

May I use some of the pics above when we (soon) rebuild www.protransit.com -- the site of the Alliance for Regional Transit. They are really good.

 

Thanks,

 

John Schneider

 

I didn't take those photos, unfortunately. I don't remember who did. They are from my collection of thousands of rail, transit and urban photos I've saved over many years (most are prints and still haven't been digitized). Feel free to use them, but don't be surprised if you get an e-mail from some photographer who questions how you got it. They can only ask you take it down. The lawsuit comes only if you don't.

 

EDIT: I just remembered that the second picture (of Skidmore Fountain) is from PB Placemaking. They gave me the OK to use it as long as I credit them. Please give them the same credit.

Carbon Savings:

 

Streetcar: 28,068 tons of CO2 per year 

-$182 capital, approx 3.5 million operational [$308 million over 36 years]

 

Switching all Metro buses to hybrids: 12,770.55 tons CO2 / year

-$46.9 million every twelve years [$140.7 million over 36 years]

 

City Portion Metro Moves: 2,160 tons C02 /year

-$12 million every twelve years, $8.3 million operational [$334.8 million over 36 years]

 

 

 

Are there still groups from cincy meeting in Portland?

^ Yes. Next trip is August 15th.

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=blog17&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a6c36495b-2fd9-484c-856e-72612d184729Post%3a6df7a443-d581-4451-8f39-cff1b044ab78&sid=sitelife.cincinnati.com

 

This is from the Cincinnati.com's new talking transportation blog.

 

Hello group: My name is David Ruffner and I live in Mt. Washington. I've studied railroads all my life and I was a volunteer employee at an operating railroad museum for twenty years. I know a little bit about passenger train operations and I believe we could use a rail based mass transit system in Cincinnati.

 

There are several rail lines radiating out of Cincinnati that are crossed by I275. I think we should explore using these lines for passenger trains from park and ride stations off of I275 to as close as downtown as possible, with intermediate stops along the way to connect with bus lines. I do not favor the idea of building new lines right away, but instead would rather see money spent to upgrade existing lines for passenger traffic. And while I would like to see electric powered trains eventually, I think that using new hybrid diesel locomotives to pull unpowered passenger cars would be the best way to start.

 

And now for the part most likely to get me in trouble with folks: I cannot support the streetcar idea. I've looked at Cincinnati's history with streetcars and I'm afraid this will be a waste of our money. It is very hard to get out of the downtown are without climbing a hill or crossing a bridge. Yes, it can be done, but the additional cost is very high. If we're really serious about getting rid of the pollution in downtown, by all means let's string wires. But instead of spending money to install and maintain rails in the street, let's invest in electric busses, like we used to have. Dayton is still running these and they climb hills much better than a streetcar can.

 

That's all for now. I look forward to hearing everyone's comments, even the unfavorable ones.

 

 

^ I dunno.

I think he's missing the part about the economic revitalization that comes from having solid tracks in the ground.  This project is not only important from a transportation point of view, but also because it will help out OTR and Downtown, and maybe get the rest of Cincinnati to start considering light rail and other mass transit options.

Yeah, I think this guy just has a different agenda than most of us.  It sounds like he supports a truly regional rail transit system, whose purpose would be to make commuting from the suburbs more palatable.  While I'm not necessarily opposed to that, I also don't care much if people living beyond 275 have rail access to downtown or not.  Just give me a way to get from Oakley to Covington and all points in between, and I'll be happy.  If people in the 'burbs want rail all of a sudden, let them push for it.  I'm focused on the city right now.

 

Also, I don't view rail as a way to "reduce pollution".  Yeah, maybe it does, but I see that as a bonus.  I think rail is key to making a city more walkable and ultimately more livable.  We want people to relocate to Cincinnati, not only from within the region, but from other places as well.  And more importantly, we want them to STAY.  As taestell pointed out above, this has as much to do with economics as it does actual transportation.  We need to be able to compete with other cities, and passenger rail is a glaring omission from our checklist, especially given the direction gas prices seem to be headed in.  I don't presume to speak for all of the streetcar supporters, but it seems like their wish is to make the city itself more vibrant, as opposed to making life easier for people who have chosen not to live within the city.

 

So while I understand where Mr. Duffner is coming from, I respectfully disagree.

I especially like how you can't post comments.  So the purpose of his blog is to share his opinion, but readers can't comment???

 

cincinnati.com lets you comment on "Man shot in Northside" but not on this issue.  Unfortunate.

^Having seen the transit-related comments on enquirer.com, that may not be such a bad idea after all.

Does anyone know the time table for getting private dollars so this project will start? how are they going about it?

An interesting article on CNN.com today about increased ridership numbers on public transit nationwide, and what cities are doing to cope with that.  Here is an excerpt, but I recommend reading the entire article, hyperlinked below:

 

'A sharp rise in ridership

 

Americans used public transportation in record numbers the first three months of this year, according to the APTA. They took 2.6 billion trips on public transportation during that period, an increase of 85 million more trips compared with the same period last year.

 

Meanwhile, the number behind the wheel dropped. Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles from April 2007 through April 2008, according to figures released by the Department of Transportation in June. The numbers represented the sixth consecutive monthly drop.

 

In some places, the growing embrace of public transportation has been an ongoing trend for the past few years, reflecting a steady and gradual change in commuter behavior. iReport: Show us your commute

 

For instance, ridership increased during a period of high fuel prices from 2005 through 2006 in Tulsa, but did not decline after fuel prices went back down, said Cynthia Stabb of Tulsa Transit.

 

"Once people get a chance to try public transit and they find it works for them, they stick with it," she said via e-mail. Asked about the current high levels, she responded, "We believe the demand is here to stay."'

 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/16/mass.transit/index.html

 

 

Does anyone know the time table for getting private dollars so this project will start? how are they going about it?

 

From my understanding, City Manager Milton Dohoney is sitting down with key companies/individuals and negotiating with them.  These negotiations may range from power discussions with Duke Energy, to sponsorship discussions with P&G.  Companies like P&G, Federated, etc have been very instrumental in the redevelopment of OTR via the Gateway Quarter.  These companies are trying to create a product here in Cincinnati that can attract the top young talent they are after.  A streetcar falls right in line with these goals...just as long as financing doesn't conflict with further OTR efforts (which it isn't).

 

Dohoney said a few months ago (when City Council approved the financing plan) that he hopes to have these discussions finalized by the end of the year.  He said something along the lines of if there isn't time for it in my current schedule - we'll make time for it (the discussions/negotiations).  If that self-imposed deadline can be met, then the whole project is still on track (pun intended) for taking on passengers in early 2011.

Remember back in June when

 

I-75 has a source of funding.

 

roads are funded through the gas taxes and ...fees.

 

well here's your road funding;

 

The Transportation Construction Coalition, a group of industry companies and unions, said that if Congress does not do something about the shortfall, states will lose about one-third of their road and bridge money in the budget year starting Oct. 1. That would put 485,000 more jobs at risk.

...the commission recommended gradually increasing the current federal fuel taxes to 40 cents a gallon.

Other ideas that will be on the table when lawmakers write a bill next year including more toll roads and public-private partnerships, congestion pricing ...

 

The streetcar keeps looking better and better from where I sitting.

 

Great article...please be sure to forward this on to as many people as possible.  Especially those who may be indifferent on the issue right now.

 

A Streetcar Named Renewal: If We Build it, Will They Come?

http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/24streetcar.aspx

“Cincinnati used to compare itself to London, to Paris, to Vienna,” Chirch says.

 

I say BS.