brt comes to nyc -- from the nytimes+streetsblog:

 

 

5 Bus Routes Picked for High-Speed Runs

 

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

Published: October 24, 2006

Five bus routes, one in each borough, will be part of a pilot program that will use special lanes, computer-controlled stoplights and other means to speed bus travel, in an effort to change the prevailing image of tortoiselike service.

 

 

Putting Buses in the Fast Lane According to people briefed on the program, which involves state and city agencies, the list was made final over the summer and includes the route on First and Second Avenues in Manhattan. That route, with an average of 61,000 passengers each weekday, is considered by transit officials to be the most heavily used urban bus route in the nation.

 

The city’s transportation commissioner, Iris Weinshall, said this month that two of the routes would be in use by next fall, and plans call for the rest to be in use in 2008. Officials would not identify the two routes. If the pilot program is successful, the city envisions adding more.

 

The program is known as bus rapid transit, which may seem an oxymoron to people accustomed to buses that crawl rather than sprint through traffic.

 

The new souped-up service would replace current limited-stop buses on the five routes, but current local service would be retained, according to plans.

 

Stops would be spaced from one-half mile to a full mile apart. The bus lanes would be painted a special color, and the buses would get a distinctive paint job, to differentiate them from their pokier cousins. Cameras would be mounted on buses and bus stops to photograph trucks and cars blocking the bus lanes, so tickets could be sent to the vehicles’ owners.

 

To help speed buses along, on some of the routes they will have devices that transmit their location to a computer system that controls traffic lights: a green light could be kept on a few seconds longer, or a red light could turn green a few seconds earlier, to let the buses pass. At some bus stops, passengers would pay their fare at sidewalk turnstiles rather than on the bus, to make boarding faster.

 

For all that, the projected increases in speed are less than heart-stopping.

 

A report prepared for the city’s Transportation Department and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority estimated that the greatest time saving would come on the route along First and Second Avenues, where the new buses would run as much as 22 percent faster than the limited-stop bus service currently available. That means that if a trip on the current First Avenue limited bus takes 30 minutes now, it would take about 23 ½ minutes on the new buses.

 

The smallest saving would be on a route that would run along Pelham Parkway and Fordham Road in the Bronx, where the projected difference was only 8 percent, according to the study. There, a trip that takes 30 minutes now would take about 27 ½ minutes on the revamped buses.

 

The other buses are the Merrick Boulevard route in Queens, where buses would move an estimated 16 percent more quickly; the Nostrand Avenue route in Brooklyn, with an estimated time saving of 20 percent; and the Hylan Boulevard route in Staten Island that would run across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge into Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with the time saving estimated at 21 percent.

 

The transportation authority has earmarked $20 million for the program.

 

While bus rapid transit has been used successfully in other cities for several years, the city’s Transportation Department and the state-led transportation authority began studying the idea only in 2004. Transit advocates said progress had been slow, in part because any decision involved coordination between separate government entities.

 

The transportation authority controls the buses, but the city controls the streets and sidewalks, which is where much of the work must be done. Lanes have to be designated bus-only, and new bus stops have to be created, some of which will be configured to extend out into the street so the buses don’t have to take time to pull over to the curb.

 

One of the greatest obstacles to the program could be political. To clear the way for bus lanes, parking would be eliminated along some stretches of the routes, which could lead to protests from business owners or residents.

 

Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a nonprofit group that works to promote mass transit and bicycle use, said programs like bus rapid transit were crucial to keeping the city moving as the population grows and the streets become more crowded.

 

“It’s going to be about reprogramming our existing street space to get more transportation capacity and performance out of it,” he said.

 

and more from a blog:

 

Sketches from an internal BRT Study depicting the three general types of stations: A) Major Station: Includes extended canopy with windscreens and seating. Icon and full platform pavement treatment. B) Standard Station: Shelter with Icon and full platform pavement treatment. C) Minimum Station: For locations with narrow sidewalks: Icon and platform edge strip only.

 

In the urban transportation pecking order, New York City’s 2.4 million daily bus riders may very well occupy the lowest rung. At rush hour, you can walk faster than a crosstown bus. Shelters, benches and maps are optional. Schedules are a joke. Buses rarely get their own lane, and when they do, there is usually someone parked in it. It is, perhaps, the most perverse example of New York City transportation dysfunction that a single guy in an SUV with Jersey plates can keep fifty people from getting to work on time.

 

New York City’s buses are run by the Metropolitan Transit Authority. For years, the city has essentially ignored buses, treating them as "a state thing." Yet, the MTA’s buses run on streets that are managed and controlled by New York City’s Department of Transportation. There is much that the city can do to make buses run faster and better.

 

During his 2001 campaign mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg promised to establish an express bus system on the East side of Manhattan. Five years later, and after two and a half years of study, the Department of Transportation today announced the five bus routes that would be piloted as a part of the city’s first Bus Rapid Transit program. One corridor was selected in each borough. DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall told the New York Times that "two of the routes would be in use by next fall, and plans call for the rest to be in use in 2008." The smart money says the Bronx will gets one of the first two routes and either Queens or Staten Island gets the other one.

 

In other cities around the world, BRT has produced dramatic increases in bus speeds, reliability and ridership. Bogotá, Columbia is one of the biggest successes. BRT has been a key part of this city of seven million’s rapid transformation from traffic-choked dysfunction to model of sustainable urban development. This is what Bogota’s TransMilenio system looks like:

 

 

And here is a photo of the new Mobilien BRT system in Paris, France:

 

You will note one very significant difference between these two successful BRT system and the system being proposed for New York City. In Bogota and Paris, the buses are given their own, physically-separated right of way. While New York City’s BRT system will be a signficant advance over what we have now, the lack of physical separation has the potential to be a system-breaker. Without physical separation, that single guy in the double-parked SUV may still have the ability to delay the morning commute of 80 New Yorkers. Sure, Mr. SUV gets a $350 ticket (if he’s not a government employee). You’re still late for work. 

 

DOT believes that it can maintain BRT’s right of way through enforcement and technology rather than street design. The internal study document that I got a hold of says that bus lanes will be prominent and distinct but that "enforcement will be critical to the success of dedicated bus lanes, as their will not be any physical barriers." The study goes on to say:

 

DOT has commenced coordination with NYPD to enforce dedicated lanes. In addition, other techologies and treatments such as bus lane cameras, on-board bus cameras, effective pagement and sign markings are being explored. A joint traffmic management center is under construction, which will be coordinated effort among State DOT, City DOT and NYPD.

 

link:

http://www.streetsblog.org/2006/10/24/dot-announces-five-bus-rapid-transit-corridors/

 

 

 

 

 

Phoenix. Local government is building a rail system with an airport station. It's expected to begin operating in late 2008. Officials say passengers will be shuttled for free from the station to the terminals.

 

Woah..did I read this right..Phoenix is getting a rail transit system?

 

 

Not a typo. Here's a cool article from earlier this year...

 

2 February 2006

 

Phoenix:

Light rail benefits attracting businesses to locate along route

 

More and more Phoenix businesses are anticipating the benefits the region's light rail transit (LRT) project can bring them, according to a recent article in the Arizona Republic (24 Jan. 2006). That's materializing not only in support for the project, but locational decisions.

 

"Funny thing about 'knowledge workers': They don't like to drive" observes Republic reporter Mary Jo Pitzl, citing that as "one of the reasons Thomas Gorny decided on a site along the future light-rail line when he relocated his Web-hosting business to Phoenix from Santa Monica, Calif., late last year."

 

"I found that a lot of developers and IT people don't like to drive" Gorny, chief executive officer of iPowerWeb Inc., told the reporter. The fifth-largest Web-hosting site in the United States, the article notes, with 400,000 sites, iPowerWeb has 120 employees in Phoenix and 44 in California.

 

According to Pitzl, Gorny "hasn't plumbed his employees' psyches to understand why, but he estimates 20 percent of his 120 workers carpool, take the bus or bike to work, anything to avoid the car commute." The reporter adds that "When rail opens in late 2008, Gorny figures he'll be perfectly positioned at 919 E. Jefferson St. to use the rail as a perk for his transit-loving staff."

 

The article also recounts that "Light rail has appeal to economic-development officials, who are banking on the electric-powered train to transform central Phoenix."

 

According to the report, Bo Martinez, program manager for transit-oriented development for Phoenix's Downtown Development Office, expects some $600 million in private and public investment to materialize along the 20-mile rail line in the next few years. "That includes such big projects as the downtown campus of Arizona State University, such housing developments as the Portland Place condominiums and relatively modest office projects such as iPowerWeb."

 

Gorny emphasized that rail wasn't only the reason he chose Phoenix as a relocation site – for example, "he was impressed by the local talent pool". But, reports Pitzl, "it sweetened the deal."

 

The article also notes that, from their site on East Jefferson, iPowerWeb employees "have easy access into the downtown core as well as to Sky Harbor International Airport." The new LRT line will serve both those locations, as well as "popular destinations" in the suburban city of Tempe, Pitzl writes.

 

This is important to businesses like iPowerWeb to help accommodate growth. According to the article, "Gorny anticipates doubling his staff this year and said mass transit will help with parking issues."

 

"We have too many people for the parking spaces" he told the reporter.

 

Another locational decision involving the new LRT system, cited in the article, involves the Portland Place condominium project near Central Avenue and Roosevelt Street. A $120 million project, Portland Place will provide 230 condominium units on once-vacant land when completed.

 

According to the report, access to light rail was "a key reason" that Feliciano Vera and his development partners decided to pursue their project at that location on the line. "Specifically, access to a rail station was the vital point."

 

As the article relates, "The Roosevelt Street station will be located almost literally outside the project's front door." Vera told the reporter that having a rail stop so close allows future residents to live by what he called the "five-minute rule."

 

"You're five minutes away from most major downtown employment centers" Vera emphasized. He also pointed out that arts and culture sites, sports arenas, and "other destination spots" will be just "a few stops away on the train". For example, US Airways Center, Chase Field, the Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University (ASU), and various museums are also along located the route.

 

"There's a huge convenience to living along light rail" he told the reporter.

 

Pitzl also relates that "Other cities that have built light rail have touted the transformative power of a train. They point to sidewalk cafes and coffee shops, retail centers and service businesses that have cropped up to cater to the passengers that rail regularly carries."

 

Martinez, the Downtown Development Office official, underscored that ASU officials wanted ready access to the rail line as they planned their downtown Phoenix campus. "That's why the university is setting down roots at Central and Van Buren, which not only is along the rail line but also a stone's throw from the city's transit hub, where buses converge" writes Pitzl.

 

According to Martinez, "It's a 10- to 15-minute ride between campuses, and you don't have to worry about parking. And it's good for students."

 

Martinez also pointed out that city officials are endeavoring to encourage multi-use projects along the rail line. As Pitzl relates,

 

For example, city officials pushed for a retail component to a residential project being discussed for West Camelback Road, near 17th Avenue. They argued that ground-floor retail would serve not only the residents of the 175-unit project but also the foot traffic that will come to the area.

 

As a result, Pitzl reports, "A station will be located at 19th Avenue and Camelback, as well as a major park-and-ride lot."

 

###

Here's visual proof of Phoenix's light rail construction....

 

Demolishing a road bridge for a light-rail bridge

 

Right of way through the ASU campus

 

New light-rail bridge over the Rio Salado Parkway

 

And my favorite photo, light-rail transit tracks have come to downtown Phoenix, seen here looking north at Central Avenue and Washington Street

 

Those photos were thoughtfully stolen from http://www.valleymetro.org/Rail/

even with busses above and trains below there is still a push for light rail to travel across 42nd st in manhattan. i dk about priorities, pedestrian lawsuits and displaced traffic (i'd think there would have to london-style congestion taxation in place first).  it's a deck of cards that has been discussed for years, but otherwise it makes good sense to me:

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, here's the Future World vision of 42nd Street as a pedestrian mall with a light rail line, which you may have already read about, but the color renderings are cool. It's from Vision 42, which has gotten a boat load of publicity for its proposal to make 42nd Street a "pedestrian and light-rail zone." They say it would be worth $380 million a year in extra business. A couple of more renderings after the jump.

· An Auto Free Light-Rail Boulevard [Vision 42]

· Advocates of 42nd Street Light Rail Detail Benefits [sun]

· 42nd Street of Dreams [Metro]

· Get Rail, 42nd Street [NYPost]

 

link:

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/10/25/42nd_street_future_world_edition.php#more

 

 

mrnyc every one of your posts makes me want to move to new york

mrnyc every one of your posts makes me want to move to new york

Wanna buy a brownstone?

Dude I can't even buy Ramen noodles, who are you fooling

let us pause for a moment to sing happy birthday:

 

 

George Washington Bridge Turns 75

 

 

On October 25, 1931, 75 years ago today, the George Washington Bridge opened to traffic.

 

Spanning the Hudson between Washington Heights and Fort Lee, New Jersey, the bridge cost about $60 million to build.

 

Plans for the bridge were in the works as early as 1906. The lower deck was completed in 1962, bringing the total number of traffic lanes to 14.

 

The bridge span is more than 4,700 feet. Last year 107-million vehicles used the bridge.

 

The general manager of the bridge says a lot of work goes into maintaining the bridge.

 

"Lighting, paving, structural integrity, those are some of the things the maintenance force here focuses on," said Bob Durando.

 

When it first opened, the toll was just 60 cents. Today the cash toll is $6 for cars to cross the bridge city-bound, and trucks are now only allowed on the upper level.

 

The George Washington Bridge is the fourth-largest suspension bridge in the world.

 

ny1 video news link:

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=63753

 

gwb history link:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.washington-heights.us/history/archives/images/GWBatNight.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.washington-heights.us/history/archives/george_washington_bridge_4.html&h=260&w=183&sz=18&hl=en&start=17&tbnid=knh7om3WHK-boM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=79&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGeorge%2BWashington%2BBridge%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

 

 

 

 

like cindy adams says, only in ny kids

 

 

 

Girls' room his, too

 

Transgender men free to use ALL of MTA's loos

 

BY PETE DONOHUE

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

 

Helena Stone, formerly Henry McGuinness, stands her ground yesterday outside Grand Central Terminal's ladies' room, which can now be used by transgender men. 

 

The line for the girls' room just got longer.

Men who live as women can now legally use women's rest rooms in New York's transit system under an unprecedented deal revealed yesterday.

 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to allow riders to use MTA rest rooms "consistent with their gender expression," the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund announced yesterday.

 

The group filed a complaint against the MTA on behalf of a 70-year-old telephone repair technician who was arrested for using the women's room at Grand Central Terminal.

 

The technician, who is assigned to the terminal by Verizon, was born Henry McGuinness but now goes by Helena Stone.

 

"I'm a 24-hour woman," Stone declared proudly. "I just feel like a woman and I like to wear women's clothes."

 

The MTA would not comment on the settlement but Stone's lawyer said it also includes mandatory transgender sensitivity training for MTA employees and a $2,000 payment to the technician for legal fees.

 

Michael Sullivan, Stone's lawyer, called the settlement of the complaint with the Human Rights Commission a "milestone" toward recognition of the city law that prohibits discrimination against transgender men and women.

 

But some Metro-North riders at Grand Central yesterday were stunned by the ruling.

 

"I would not like that," said Gloria David, a retiree from Connecticut. "I have nothing against gay men or drag queens, but they can use the men's room. I just don't want to go to the bathroom next to a man."

 

One rider feared predators might dress as women and lurk in the women's room.

 

But Rena Gantz, 23, a college student, shrugged off the settlement.

 

"It doesn't bother me because it is a reality," she said. "If they believe they are women, they should be treated as one."

 

Originally published on October 24, 2006

 

 

I don't really understand the point of the 42nd St. pedestrian mall, other than to create a massive tourist trap served by a tourist tram.  It couldn't be a serious transportation improvement without grade seperation, even extending it down the high line wouldn't really do much because the running on 42nd would be so slow.  Nice in bad weather, but probably slower than walking to the 8th Ave. line and transfering to the 7. 

I don't really understand the point of the 42nd St. pedestrian mall, other than to create a massive tourist trap served by a tourist tram.  It couldn't be a serious transportation improvement without grade seperation, even extending it down the high line wouldn't really do much because the running on 42nd would be so slow.  Nice in bad weather, but probably slower than walking to the 8th Ave. line and transfering to the 7. 

 

Honey, Its already a tourist trap!  And as I have to go to 42 quite a bit, I would hate to see this!

 

The 7 Runs under 42 Street you can pick it up at GTC, Fifth - Six Ave, Times Sq .  Do you mean the "A,C or E" Trains?

Yeah, I meant taking the subway from the Chelsea area to midtown currently versus some sort of light rail extension down 9th, 10th, 11th, or the high line leading to a 42nd St. pedestrian mall.   

dont hold yr breath for lightrail on 42nd st. it's a plan that has been bounced around for years, but is never high on anyones priority list. otoh, staten island may actually get new light rail for its western end in the nearer future.

 

I don't understand it.  We've had a few light rail lines proposed in DC.  If they buses aren't moving fast due to traffic, what makes you think a surface rail line will move any faster? 

 

Never had a problem getting across town on 42nd Street.  What would the light rail do that the 7 can't?

Wow, BRT in NYC... who'd a thunk, mrnyc?...  btw, the following line from you article kinda jumped out at me:

 

In the urban transportation pecking order, New York City’s 2.4 million daily bus riders may very well occupy the lowest rung.

 

No city in the Western Hemisphere can make such a claim other than New York.

Push is on for Montgomery light rail:

Coalition of elected leaders and community activists join forces to squelch a Corridor Cities Transitway bus line

Friday, Oct. 27, 2006

 

by Melissa A. Chadwick

 

Staff Writer

 

As the state prepares to decide the mode of transportation that will be used for the Corridor Cities Transitway, a group of community activists and elected leaders came together on Monday to promote light rail.

‘‘We need it now. We need the CCT to be a high-volume rail line, not a low-volume bus line,” Rockville Mayor Larry Giammo said during a news conference at the Shady Grove Metro station as a mass of morning commuters boarded trains and buses.

 

The 14-mile state project, which has been planned in Montgomery County for 30 years, will connect the Shady Grove station and Clarksburg with either a light-rail system or an express bus route.

 

More at:

http://gazette.net/stories/102706/polia%20s190453_31944.shtml

^The Corridor Cities Transitway is just stupid.  Maryland already has a commuter rail line in that area.  Since the CCT would most likely be park-and-ride, since it serves automobile-dependent sprawl, it doesn't make any sense to build light rail through this sparsely-settled area; certainly not when it would be cheaper to improve and expand MARC commuter rail service.

 

Just another example of Maryland's idiotic transportation planning.

^Agreed. It's just another "extention" of the Red Line. It will take forever to get from Clarksburg to Downtown DC using the two lines. And if it takes too long...it won't convince people to stop using I-270.

People would still have to use I-270 to get to the CCT stations.  Not only would the CCT be a lower-capacity extension of the Red Line into an area not densely populated enough to support urban transit modes, it directly duplicates MARC's Brunswick Line, but at a far higher cost.  It's not altogether surprising, though.  Maryland is also studying extending the Green Line Metro out to BWI, despite having hourly service on the MARC Penn Line.

 

 

 

 

^^ You gotta be kidding. Not only do you have the Penn Line, you can take Amtrak from BWI to Union Station. That ranks up there with the "Silver Line" to Ashburn, in terms of wasted money.

If they buses aren't moving fast due to traffic, what makes you think a surface rail line will move any faster? 

 

better crosstown transportation is most certainly needed there (& elsewhere), but as i said, a light rail would only work in conjunction w/ congestion taxing among other lesser details.

 

funny thing, the pokey awards just came out the other day & even tho the 42nd st busses usually "win" this dubious award, my own bus, the m14, was just declared the pokey-est bus of the year by straphangers org. i dont doubt it in the morning rush.

 

I'm just envious that you guys get to complain about bad decisions on an existing transit system.  I'm still complaining about not having a transit system.

Two major new Amtrak services started up yesterday on existing Amtrak corridors. One is the new high-speed (110mph) Keystone Corridor service between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, adding three more weekday trains to the 11 already in service.

 

Here's a few photos from the following gallery of yesterday's start-up of service:

 

http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/photos/gallery.ssf?cgi-bin/view_gallery.cgi/penn/view_gallery.ata?g_id=3618

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/116226691973090.xml&coll=1

 

Amtrak's Philly run raises bar for travel

Amtrak's Keystone gets faster, smoother

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

BY FRANK COZZOLI

Of The Harrisburg Patriot-News

 

It's not like jumping in a fast car, hitting the gas pedal and holding it at 110 mph until you're in downtown Philadelphia.

 

Railroads, like highways, have reduced-speed zones. But Amtrak trains did hit 110 mph at times yesterday as high-speed rail made its debut in the 104-mile Keystone Corridor.

 

Yet it wasn't necessarily the speed that was wowing travelers. For some, it was the smoothness of the ride.

 

"It was pleasant," Anthony Merritt of Lancaster said as he arrived in Harrisburg yesterday morning. "The comfort and the speed, it was a good combination."

 

Larry Joyce of Summerdale, who's been riding trains since he was 4, agreed.

 

"You can feel the difference," Joyce said. "This was really a bumpy section coming out of Middletown to Elizabethtown."

 

Not any more, not with continuously welded rail.

 

New express trains, which stop only in Harrisburg, Elizabethtown, Lancaster, Paoli and Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, take 90 minutes -- a half-hour less than the old service.

 

Local trains, which include stops in Middletown and Mount Joy, now take only 105 minutes.

 

New York City-bound? Ten of the 14 Keystone trains from Harrisburg continue to the Big Apple. Riders who take express trains to Philadelphia and stay on to New York will get there in 3 hours, 15 minutes.

 

"That's faster than any plane or car," said Karen J. Rae, deputy secretary for local and area transportation for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

 

Supporters are calling what's happened in the Keystone Corridor a model that should be followed nationwide. To make the high-speed trains possible meant finding $145 million for the kind of extensive improvements to the corridor that hadn't been seen in 70 years.

 

In July 2004, Gov. Ed Rendell brokered a financial arrangement among Amtrak, the Federal Transit Administration and the state to make the needed upgrades.

 

Today, commuters between Harrisburg and Philly are riding the fastest trains in the country besides those in the main Northeast Corridor, which runs from Washington, D.C., to Boston, said Alexander K. Kummant, who took over last month as Amtrak's president and chief executive officer.

 

Kummant said building partnerships with states to run corridor service is the wave of the future for the rail line. He and others expect yearly ridership on Keystone trains, which was 823,097 in fiscal year 2006, to eventually grow to one million.

 

"Now that you have the increased frequencies and the skip-stop service, there's no reason ridership can't increase even more," said Ross B. Capon, executive director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.

 

Capon said the high-speed part of the service is often overhyped.

 

"For most people, the added frequency is probably more important," he said. In the Keystone Corridor, the number of trains has increased from 67 to 84.

 

Capon said he hopes the success of the Keystone service sends a clear message to the White House to stop "nickel and diming" Amtrak.

 

State Rep. Rick Geist, R-Altoona, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, called yesterday a great day for transportation in the state.

 

"I didn't think I'd actually live long enough to see it," he said during a ceremony in Harrisburg.

 

While he considered yesterday great, Geist said many tough days are ahead as Pennsylvania wrestles to solve its transportation funding crisis.

 

Within two weeks, a special commission convened by Rendell is to issue its recommendations on how to solve the crisis.

 

"It's a real issue," Geist said. "The physical plant of Pennsylvania is really hurting."

 

FRANK COZZOLI: 255-8454 or [email protected]

I'm just envious that you guys get to complain about bad decisions on an existing transit system.  I'm still complaining about not having a transit system.

 

I certainly appreciate what you're saying.  Mrnyc and I, as well as a few others, have to complain, though.  If our transit systems aren't up and running well (and into the future), our respective cities come to a grinding halt.

And, to the west of us, expanded Amtrak services in Illinois started operating yesterday on three routes out of Chicago. The biggest increase came to the Chicago - St. Louis corridor, where the number of daily passenger trains rose from six to 10. Illinois' capital city of Springfield is in the middle of the route. Here is coverage from that city...

 

http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/99482.asp

 

Amtrak's expanded service begins

 

By MIKE RAMSEY

COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

Published Tuesday, October 31, 2006

 

CHICAGO - The inaugural run of Amtrak's new Lincoln Service departed Union Station early Monday carrying dozens of travelers, including passenger-rail advocates, a business commuter and a junior college student taking his first train ride.

 

Train 301 left on time at 7 a.m. for St. Louis via Springfield - part of a $12 million Amtrak expansion in Illinois that will add four daily round-trip trains on three rail corridors linking the Windy City with downstate.

 

"Now we have the next step towards a real high-quality service," said Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, which lobbied state lawmakers and Gov. Rod Blagojevich earlier this year to pay for the extra trains.

 

Harnish and about 20 members of his Chicago-based organization reserved business-class seats on the first train to St. Louis. They planned to have lunch there before catching a northbound train that would bring them back to Chicago in the evening.

 

The new 7 a.m. train from Chicago is a daily express that skips some stops to shave minutes off the usual trip. It is one of two new Amtrak trains that will give passengers in either direction an additional morning and evening travel option.

 

The total number of trains on the Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor increases to five round trips - three state-supported Lincoln Service trains and two cross-country trains from Amtrak's national network.

 

Computer consultant Senia Bartl of LaGrange said she's happy to have a 7 a.m. train that gets her to Normal earlier in the day. She said she spends her work week in Bloomington and relies on Amtrak to get her to central Illinois and back. The cost: $22 round trip.

 

"It's cheap. There's no way to beat the ticket price," Bartl said as she prepared to board.

 

Jon Brengle, 19, was taking his first trip on Amtrak after missing a bus ride to the St. Louis area, where he attends Florissant Valley Community College. He said he expected the train to be "faster than a bus, smoother."

 

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said 92 people had bought advance tickets to ride the first southbound Lincoln Service, including 63 who were expected to board in Chicago. The train's capacity was about 225, he said.

 

Also departing for the first time from Union Station Monday was the new Carl Sandburg train connecting Chicago with Quincy via Galesburg (where the legendary Sandburg, a poet and LIncoln biographer, hailed from). Passenger train enthusiast George Strombeck of Rockford and his friend Deems Jensen of Chicago wanted to be among the first passengers for the 8 a.m. train heading west.

 

They planned to spend the day in historic Quincy before returning by train later in the day.

 

"We've been on last runs," Strombeck said. "This is a first run, and it's exciting."

 

The new trains - designed, in part, to stimulate business travel and tourism in Illinois - hit a potential snag last week when it was disclosed that Canadian National Railway Co. was having second thoughts about granting Amtrak access on two rail corridors.

 

The CN owns tracks on a portion of the Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor and all of the tracks between Chicago and Carbondale that will feature a new Saluki train, named in honor of Southern Illinois University. Under pressure from members of Congress, the CN came to an agreement with Amtrak.

 

Passenger rail proponents have said more travelers will choose intercity trains over automobiles and planes if they have several arrival and departure options. Harnish, head of the high-speed rail group, said Illinois ideally would offer passenger train service every two hours on the Chicago-to-St. Louis line.

 

The new trains, which are starting during the first four months of the state fiscal year, have doubled Illinois government's Amtrak budget to $24 million.

 

Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Matt Vanover said the agency would pursue a full year of funding in the next budget plan. He said it would cost more but declined to offer estimates; one source said the tab could be in the $30 million range.

 

Amtrak ridership on state-supported trains grew to nearly 1 million during the last fiscal year, IDOT has said. That figure included passengers who rode Amtrak's daily Hiawatha service connecting Chicago and Milwaukee; the cost is shared with the state of Wisconsin.

 

 

Mike Ramsey can be reached at (312) 857-2323 or [email protected].

In addition to the above, I want to make sure that readers saw the post about the other new service that started yesterday....

 

Go to http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=6079.msg136365#msg136365

October 30, 2006

 

PENNDOT & AMTRAK CELEBRATE INAUGURAL RUN OF NEW KEYSTONE SERVICE:

 

A new era in rail service in Pennsylvania begins today with the inauguration of the state's new Keystone Service providing passengers with fast, frequent and reliable service between Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and New York City.

 

Through a partnership between the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Amtrak with support from the Federal Transit Administration, the $145 million upgrade brings all-electric service with increased speeds — up to 110 mph — to the Keystone Corridor.

 

The new service will reduce most travel times between Harrisburg and Philadelphia by 15 to 30 minutes off the current 2-hour trip. Express trains with fewer intermediate stops will complete the trip in a brisk 90 minutes. Travel times between Harrisburg and New York City will also be reduced — 30 minutes for regular trains and 45 minutes for express trains.

 

Weekday roundtrips are increasing from 11 to 14 - with 10 traveling through to New York — making the service not only faster than driving, but more convenient and reliable than ever before.

 

"Transportation plays a crucial role as we revitalize Pennsylvania, making it an even better place to work, live and play," Governor Edward G. Rendell said. "Our efforts throughout the past fours years have included working to improve passenger rail service and expand freight service while we maintain a statewide network of highways and bridges that touch every community. I'm pleased to have been a partner with Amtrak in upgrading Keystone Corridor service."

 

"We have a great partnership with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - it is a prime model of how Amtrak and state governments can work together to develop successful corridor service," said Alexander Kummant, Amtrak President and Chief Executive Officer. "Pennsylvania has become a leader in recognizing a need for increased rail service and working to make it a reality."

 

The start-up of new service was celebrated with a kick-off reception in Harrisburg with a special inaugural train carrying VIP guests, news media and public officials from the state capitol to Philadelphia in 90 minutes — demonstrating the speedy travel time of new express Keystone Service trains.

 

The Benefit to Our Communities: Improving the mobility of Pennsylvanians is the goal of the improved service. Travel along the Keystone Corridor by car takes between 2 hours and 20 minutes to 3 hours depending on the traffic. By offering a faster rail alternative, the Keystone Service will remove more cars from the road. Commuters will save time, and with a monthly Keystone pass, they will save money as well. Highway commuters between Philadelphia, Lancaster and Harrisburg can save at least 25% by switching to a monthly Keystone pass, according to Penn DOT estimates.

 

This makes the new all-electric service the fast, frequent, energy-efficient and cost effective alternative to highway congestion. The new Keystone Service will not only provide better service for rail passengers, it will also aid highway travelers. Infrastructure improvements will result in greater freight capacity on the Keystone Corridor, taking trucks off nearby roads and highways. Also, through a separate agreement, the Commonwealth and Amtrak are working together to eliminate three public highway crossings along the route in Lancaster County.

 

A Partnership That Works for Passengers: The launch of the new Keystone Service is a testament to the strong partnership between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Amtrak. Working together on the $145 million project, the Amtrak-owned 105-mile rail corridor was upgraded to deliver faster, more frequent and more reliable service for thousands of Amtrak passengers in Pennsylvania.

 

In addition to the service upgrades for passengers, the work completed on the Keystone Corridor also provided an economic benefit for the region. In the course of completing the project, Amtrak purchased $100 million in goods and services, including $30 million spent on products manufactured or purchased in Pennsylvania.

 

Infrastructure Improvements: The new Keystone Service encompasses a number of infrastructure improvements that will result in increased top speeds — from a previous top speed of 90 mph to a maximum of 110 mph, the fastest outside the Northeast Corridor. In order to accommodate the higher speeds and faster travel times, signal and electrification systems, including more than two dozen signal instrument houses, were upgraded for the first time in 70 years.

 

New fiber optic cable will provide reliable communications and greater signal control, and electrification has been restored over the entire route. Amtrak also installed approximately 120 miles of continuous-welded rail which provides for a much smoother ride. Other infrastructure improvements include the installation of 185,000 concrete ties, nearly 80,000 wooden ties, and 53 new switches.

 

A new freight bypass will improve safety and reliability. Bridge structures and culverts have been replaced and drainage improved. Also improving travel times are ten cab-control cars that have been newly-rebuilt in the Amtrak shops. These cars allow engineers to operate the train from either end, eliminating the need to turn the train around thus saving time and allowing trains and train crews to complete more trips.

 

Popularity of the Keystone Corridor: The Keystone Corridor is one of Amtrak's most popular with 823,097 Amtrak passengers traveling the route in FY2006, a 13% increase from 730,360 in FY2005. In addition, Philadelphia rose to second place on Amtrak's list of the Top 50 Stations in 2005, bypassing Washington, D.C. In 2005, Philadelphia's 30th Street Station served more than 3.74 million passengers up from 3.69 million passengers in 2004. During the same period, the station in Harrisburg rose from 28th to 27th place on the top 50 list serving 340,000 passengers in 2005, up from 317,000 in 2004.

 

(Amtrak - posted 10/30)

Good news, but at the same time, it's getting depressing seeing all of these advances with rail in OTHER states...

 

 

Some images of the Amtrak services in Illinois that were doubled in their service levels yesterday....

 

Approaching Joliet, near Chicago, on the line to St. Louis

 

 

 

At the Joliet station

 

 

 

Joliet's classic old station (pretty substantial for a suburban station!)

 

 

 

Also served by very frequent commuter train service to downtown Chicago

 

 

 

Trains on that route will serve St. Louis' new Gateway Transportation Center

 

 

 

Interior of new Gateway Transportation Center

 

 

I'll see if I can find any shots from yesterday's events in Illinois.

st. louis-springfield-chicago?

 

harrisburg-philadelphia-new york?

 

but still no three c????? somethin aint quite right yet oh hi ya.

 

 

There's still an election in one week and still time to ask your candidate for the Ohio Senate or Ohio House where they stand on funding the Ohio Hub or improved passenger rail.  If they give you a blank stare or an otherwise inadequate answer.... vote for the other guy.

 

Seriously, if you want to see action on passenger rail in Ohio, vote in a legislature that will do more than pass resolutions with no funding attached.  The reason states like Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin are able to get things done (as KJP and others have posted) is that they have elected Governors and legislators that support funding for passenger & freight rail projects.

 

ORDC is only as good and potent as the funding it receives from the Ohio General Assembly.  Want that to change and get the Ohio Hub off the drawing board?.... then get off your duff on Election Day and make change! :x

Rapid transit may pull into Detroit

 

Grant will help city plan for new system, which could include bus service, street cars or a rail line.

Andy Henion / The Detroit News

 

DETROIT -- Armed with $3 million in federal funds -- and hoping to reverse more than 50 years of failure -- Detroit is studying a rapid transit system that may hook into a proposed regional route to Ann Arbor.

 

The Detroit Department of Transportation has hired URS Corp., a San Francisco-based engineering design firm, to create a feasibility plan by the end of 2007 for faster, more convenient public transit through the city, said Dan Meyers, project leader for URS.

 

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061103/METRO/611030350/1003

 

A decent article despite the political linkages cited herein.

____________________

 

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2006/3344electr_mainline.html

This article appears in the November 3, 2006 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

Pennsylvania Train Is Electrified,

But Congress Stalls

by Mary Jane Freeman

 

Electrified high-speed rail service, travelling between 90 and 110 mph, begins on Oct. 30 in the 104-mile Philadelphia-to-Harrisburg Keystone (rail) Corridor. Not yet at 150 or 300 mph, as in Europe or Asia, this will be the first electrified high-speed rail service established outside of the Northeast Corridor's Boston to Washington, D.C. route. This milestone, however, should have been realized decades ago, just as ten other designated high-speed corridors in the United States also should have been upgraded and built out.

 

The Pennsylvania project, conceived in the 1990s, wasn't acted on until 2004, when Democratic Governor Ed Rendell and rail development businessman David Gunn, who was then head of Amtrak, took the initiative to overcome obstacles put up by Congress and the Bush Administration, which had impeded the building of a 21st Century rail network in America. This project is the exception, rather than the rule in rail development. Congress has barely dribbled enough dollars to keep Amtrak running, and has failed to fund serious rail technology and infrastructure development, leaving ten other high-speed rail corridors, crossing 28 states, to languish.

 

U.S. rail development for two decades has been thwarted by a clique of fiscal conservative "reformers" out to privatize the nation's passenger rail network. The nation urgently needs rapid rail development to relieve air and highway congestion, and to bring American transportation into the 21st Century. To make it happen and catch up for lost years, we must retool our rapidly disappearing auto plants to build the components for rail, putting hundreds of thousands of skilled auto workers back to work and creating tens of thousands more jobs building the nation's aged infrastructure. Lyndon LaRouche's Emergency Economic Recovery Act of 2006 would do just that.

 

The potential to reverse the stalemate in rail policy, and in Congress, also exists in the form of a bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate in July 2005. The bill, S. 1516, introduced by U.S. Senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) titled, Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2005, won widespread bipartisan support, but was thwarted by the GOP agenda set by Senator Bill Frist and the White House. It would reauthorize Amtrak, over ten years with annual dedicated funding of $1.9 billion, and set up a Federal/State 80/20 funding match for states' projects. The bill sponsors would like to press for passage of the bill in the post-November lame duck session, but this requires support in the House which has not yet materialized. If it is not taken up then, Senators Lott and Lautenberg are prepared to re-introduce the bill in the 110th Congress in January.

 

The sad reality is that the United States could have built, by now, its first 21st Century rail corridors using magnetically levitated (Maglev) trains for freight and passenger service, had Congress acted two decades ago when the technology was invented by two Americans. Instead, Maglev was taken up by Japan and Germany, while all the United States did was to adopt the idea of incremental high-speed rail development. America was "Sputnik-ed" again. The United States lost the technological edge in this area and failed to nurture the skilled engineering workforce. Now, 20 years later, China has a Maglev test route in service travelling at 300 mph, while the United States barely has a national passenger rail system, its freight rail network lags behind most of Europe, and Maglev development is barely on the U.S. radar screen.

 

Partnership for Progress: The Keystone Corridor

The $145 million Keystone Corridor overhaul project brings this historic route up to a state of good repair, and has made possible 110-mph service, which is the fastest outside the Northeast Corridor. The express trip from Philadelphia to Harrisburg will be 90 minutes, while the local service will take 105 minutes. The rail corridor, in existence since 1834 as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was electrified in the 1930s, and used electricity as its power source until the early 1990s when lack of funding for Amtrak led to the maintenance problems that ended use of electric trains on the route.

 

When David Gunn became Amtrak president, he had a vision for the Keystone Corridor's potential, and acted on it. In January 2004, he met with Governor Rendell to propose a new partnership with a renewed focus on improving the infrastructure, especially the electric service, along the corridor. Amtrak agreed to fund 50% of the infrastructure upgrade programs and to fund necessary equipment overhauls. Rendell recognized the regional benefits—traffic congestion mitigation and economic development potential—and so agreed to renew the state's funding commitment. In the end, the funding for the project was split among the state, Amtrak, the Federal Transit Administration, and Norfolk Southern railroad.

 

With the Gunn-Rendell impetus, the project replaced all the overhead catenary lines; put in 200 miles of continuous welded rail; installed over 200,000 concrete ties; improved the track beds; and upgraded all crossings and signal equipment, including installing fiber optic cable for reliable communications and signal control. Refurbished push-pull electric train sets will elminate the need to turn trains around at end points. A number of stations along the route also have been remodelled.

 

The investment was justified as ridership had grown by 12%, from 640,267 riders in 2004 to 730,360 in 2005. Amtrak will add four new roundtrips to the route and it is expected that the increased frequency of trains will, in Governor Rendell's words, "easily draw a million riders a year," and address "fuel consumption" issues. In announcing the new service Rendell remarked, "Our experience with the Keystone Corridor ... shows that passenger rail is far from being relegated to our museums."

 

True High-Speed Rail Is Long Overdue

President Abraham Lincoln's vision to unite the nation with the transcontinental railroad was realized by 1869. Economic growth and new towns followed the building of the rail routes. Development of rail technologies continued, and by the 1930s America had 3,000 route-miles of electrified rail. In fact, Pennsylvania led the nation in building electrified rail routes.

 

In 1965, Congress passed the High Speed Ground Transportation Act defining a role for the Federal government in this type of rail travel. An early project was the continuous electrification between Washington, New York and Boston—today's Northeast Corridor. In the mid-1960s, physicists Gordon T. Danby and James Powell invented super-conducting magnetically levitated trains (maglev). But through the 1970s and 80s, the post-industrial society paradigm shift set in, and the technology was not developed in the United States. Instead, London and Wall Street bankers imposed market-based policies driving us from a production-based economy to a consumer-based one. The nation's rail policy shifted too. High-speed rail projects had to be "time-competitive" with air and auto trips of 100 to 500 miles which, as the Federal Rail Administration describes, "is a market-based, not a speed-based definition."

 

On May 3, 1990, Congress took testimony on the potential for U.S. development of third-generation Maglev systems—the Japanese had developed the first-generation prototype, and were then working on the second-generation technology. Dr. Danby, told the House Surface Transportation subcommittee, "Maglev is poised for commercial application worldwide while the U.S. is on the sidelines.... We can leapfrog to the forefront if we start now on a five-year construction program." He explained that the United States was fast losing the skilled engineering skills to do this: "... much of our industrial engineering culture has deteriorated ... it almost makes you cry to see what totally financially oriented managers have done to much of our basic industry." He passionately called on Congress to "restore our technical culture" for posterity, "I don't want my children to only flip hamburgers in a 'post-industrial' decline of the U.S."

 

Ten current members of Congress sat on that committee back in 1990, but failed to seize the advantage. Such "financially oriented managers" have today bankrupted the core of our auto and aerospace firms, leaving America with a huge deficit of next-generation skilled workers. Danby said then, "Maglev has much greater potential for widespread beneficial use than new high-speed rail." He was right, yet Congress didn't even build the high-speed rail service.

 

Corridors Designated but Not Built

In 1991, Congress finally designated five corridors for high-speed rail (HSR) development. By the close of the Clinton Administration another five were added. The Northeast Corridor is the eleventh HSR corridor. Securing this designation made states eligible for minuscule amounts of Federal funds to aid in safety upgrades. Each state made differing levels of improvements based on available funds. Congress meanwhile repeatedly threatened to shut down Amtrak as it also curtailed Federal funds for it and other rail projects.

 

From any rational or economical vantage point, new rail projects make sense. Comparative costs for constructing new limited-access highways or airport expansions versus rail, show that rail is highly cost efficient. For example, standard estimates to construct one lane mile of road is $40 million. Estimated costs, per mile, for passenger rail are $500,000 for trains at 110 mph, $3 million for 125 mph, and $5 million for 150 mph. Take these numbers and plug them into the projects: The Chicago Hub is a 3,000 mile project, for example. No state, or small group of states, can undertake such a capitol improvement project without Federal support.

 

Congress dallied for a decade but states, anxious to keep the potential for HSR corridors, spent millions to make incremental upgrades on the routes. This included eliminating at-grade rail/highway crossings, adding new signal technologies on the tracks and in trains, and renovating some stations. In many cases, feasibility, environmental impact, and economic impact studies for higher-speeds on the routes have been funded. Ridership has grown 10-15% in the last five years as upgrades were made even without improved on-time service, which depends on separating freight from passenger rail lines, or increased frequency of service, or refurbished rail cars. Spikes in fuel costs also added to this increase as commuters sought alternative travel options.

 

As of Fall 2006, except for the Keystone Corridor, no other state project has electrified rail routes. EIR detailed the status in the California, Chicago Hub, and Ohio Hub corridors in its May 19, 2006 issue. EIR's June 10, 2005 issue published a plan with a bill of materials to create a 42,000 route-mile electrified rail network, the impact of which would radiate through the economy and lay the basis for finally building U.S. Maglev corridors.

 

It is time for Congress to act in the interest of the general welfare of the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs, particularly in the manufacturing sector, over this decade. LaRouche's Economic Recovery Act of 2006 calls on Congress to do just that: Restore millions of jobs and spawn a new generation scientists and engineers to rebuild the nation's infrastructure of rail, locks and dams, water systems, schools, and hospitals, as the first step in rescuing the nation's economy and to build it into the 21st Century.

 

###

Passenger rail idea has a powerful advocate Railroad owner backs mayor on concept

Sunday, October 29, 2006

BY JOHN MULCAHY

News Staff Reporter

 

Louis Ferris - salesman, entrepreneur, financier and now railroad owner - believes a lot in creativity.

 

That will be a key element as Ferris joins up with Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje and other proponents of a commuter rail service between Ann Arbor and Livingston County and perhaps other points north.

 

In March, Ferris bought the Tuscola Saginaw Bay Railway and renamed it the Great Lakes Central Railroad. Operating on tracks that run north from Ann Arbor, through Howell and all the way to Traverse City, the line hauls cherries, logs, sand, rock and tons of grain.

 

More at:

http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1162108080182910.xml&coll=2

Real-time Metrorail and Metrobus information available at riders' fingertips

 

Metrorail riders can find out when the next train arrives at their station even before they get there. Riders will only have to look as far as their fingertips as Metro has made it possible for riders to access this information on their computers and web-enabled PDAs and wireless devices.

 

By following a few easy steps, riders find real-time train arrival information on their computers and Blackberrys identical to what they see on the Passenger Information Displays on the train station platforms. “With this information readily accessible, our customers can now plan their time more efficiently with real-time information before they get to a Metrorail station,” said Dan Tangherlini, Metro’s Interim General Manager.

 

“Having this information available over the internet and through wireless devices makes everyday life easier and more convenient for Metrorail riders. You can’t minimize the importance of that,” Tangherlini said. “This kind of customer-friendly service is another sign of Metro’s commitment to reach out to customers through new technological advances.”

 

To access train arrival information through a Blackberry or other web-enabled device, visit http://wmata.com/mobile, and select “Next Train Information.” Customers can select a train station by clicking on the appropriate station by its first letter, then clicking to the appropriate station to get arrival times for the next three trains.

 

Metrorail customers can also access the next train information via computer by visiting Metro’s Web site at http://www.metroopensdoors.com. Go to the “Maps and Stations” section then click on “Find a Stop/Station.” Customers choose their station, and click to “Next Train Arrival,” to get the arrival times of the next three trains headed in each direction. The page refreshes every 30 seconds.

 

Metro officials are also testing a system to provide bus arrival times called NextBus, that determines when the next Metrobus arrives at a stop. The test involves Metrobus routes 9A and 9E in Northern Virginia, F4 and F6 in Suburban Maryland and the 90, 92, and 93 in the District of Columbia and is accessible through http://www.metroopensdoors.com, then clicking on the NextBus link.

Now that is truely user friendly and forward thinking!  RTA & MTA are you listening...rather watching?

>The United States lost the technological edge in this area and failed to nurture the skilled engineering workforce

 

If the US were to initiate a large-scale passenger rail program, certainly GE or another American company could be enlisted to develop a new generation of rolling stock as well as rapid transit, light rail, and modern street cars if a nationwide expansion of those modes were to happen as well.  But today municipalities expanding and updating their rail mass transit systemts are at the mercy of the high price of foreign equpment.  To act as though the US, the uncontested leader in space exploration, could not design its own high speed rail system without having to enlist the help of German and Japanese engineers is preposterous.  Obviously, they wouuld want to consult them and perhaps would have to pay to use specific technolgies protected by international patents.   

For what it's worth, and  off-topic I know, there is no international patent (yet).  There is an international application procedure, but then you have to fight it out with the patent offices in each country where you hope to get a patent.  The translations alone mean that almost all inventions protected by patents in more than one country are owned by established corporations.

 

 

>The United States lost the technological edge in this area and failed to nurture the skilled engineering workforce

 

If the US were to initiate a large-scale passenger rail program, certainly GE or another American company could be enlisted to develop a new generation of rolling stock as well as rapid transit, light rail, and modern street cars if a nationwide expansion of those modes were to happen as well.  But today municipalities expanding and updating their rail mass transit systemts are at the mercy of the high price of foreign equpment.  To act as though the US, the uncontested leader in space exploration, could not design its own high speed rail system without having to enlist the help of German and Japanese engineers is preposterous.  Obviously, they wouuld want to consult them and perhaps would have to pay to use specific technolgies protected by international patents.   

 

Yep, we're definitely stuck buying "off the shelf" (but modified to American safety standards) from Europe.  Look what happened with the Acela rolling stock.  We tried to do a North American version based upon a couple of different European technologies that had never been blended before. There were problems with everything from the crapper doors to the brakes.  There was also something about the cars being built 4 inches too wide.  This led to people on rail advocacy lists sarcastically saying things like "Support an expanded Amtrak-- even if it's just 4 inches"

 

There was a lot of political meddling in the Acela equipment decisions though. That was a big part of the problem. 

 

We let our passenger rail car manufacturers die-- Budd, Pullman, etc and all of the good wage jobs that went with it.  It's nobody's fault but our own.

I'm just envious that you guys get to complain about bad decisions on an existing transit system.  I'm still complaining about not having a transit system.

 

I certainly appreciate what you're saying.  Mrnyc and I, as well as a few others, have to complain, though.  If our transit systems aren't up and running well (and into the future), our respective cities come to a grinding halt.

 

I remember reading a few years ago about a commuter rail passenger group in, I think, New Jersey, who were organizing to save the bar cars.  I just thought, man, wouldn't that be nice problem to have, because that means you actually have a rail system in your state!

>We let our passenger rail car manufacturers die-- Budd, Pullman, etc and all of the good wage jobs that went with it.  It's nobody's fault but our own.

 

Also right now every transit system in the country is buying equipment built to different specifications, with some exceptions such as Salt Lake City/ Dallas LRT and then Washington Metro, Baltimore, and Miami's common equipment.  Boston for example has incompatable equipment on each of its four lines and further complicated its situation with the Silver Line BRT, which incredibly (I believe I heard this correctly) is now running two different types of custom buses on its two operational (but disconnected) segments.  Obviously, in the case of metro and LRT systems, custom equipment is going to be necessary in some cases, especially when existing ROW's are adapted.  However in the case of a national high speed rail system obviously we are starting from scratch and so standardized equipment, voltage, platform heights, all that is possible.

Interesting list of transit-related levies and other measures on Tuesday's ballot in U.S. cities (and some statewide issues)...

 

http://www.lightrailnow.org/news/n_lrt_2006-10a.htm

>The United States lost the technological edge in this area and failed to nurture the skilled engineering workforce

 

If the US were to initiate a large-scale passenger rail program, certainly GE or another American company could be enlisted to develop a new generation of rolling stock as well as rapid transit, light rail, and modern street cars if a nationwide expansion of those modes were to happen as well.  But today municipalities expanding and updating their rail mass transit systemts are at the mercy of the high price of foreign equpment.  To act as though the US, the uncontested leader in space exploration, could not design its own high speed rail system without having to enlist the help of German and Japanese engineers is preposterous.  Obviously, they wouuld want to consult them and perhaps would have to pay to use specific technolgies protected by international patents.   

 

Conservatives!  What are they conserving?  Retrogression?  Transportation-wise... socially... international relations... environmentally...etc...etc...etc.....

>We let our passenger rail car manufacturers die-- Budd, Pullman, etc and all of the good wage jobs that went with it.  It's nobody's fault but our own.

 

Also right now every transit system in the country is buying equipment built to different specifications, with some exceptions such as Salt Lake City/ Dallas LRT and then Washington Metro, Baltimore, and Miami's common equipment.  Boston for example has incompatable equipment on each of its four lines and further complicated its situation with the Silver Line BRT, which incredibly (I believe I heard this correctly) is now running two different types of custom buses on its two operational (but disconnected) segments.  Obviously, in the case of metro and LRT systems, custom equipment is going to be necessary in some cases, especially when existing ROW's are adapted.  However in the case of a national high speed rail system obviously we are starting from scratch and so standardized equipment, voltage, platform heights, all that is possible.

 

Sounds like Boston wasn't very smart in buying different equipment for each line.  That's the kind of thing you need to consider in your planning.  However, there may be more to the story here that I don't know about. 

 

At least Cleveland RTA, as many other problems they have, is looking to standardize its rail equipment as the red and blue/green line equipment fulfills its federal commitment.  As I understand it, they are going to buy equipment with retractable stairs so that all equipment can run on any line.  That would be great-- Shaker Square to the Airport or Brook Park to the Waterfron without changing trains.

 

 

At least Cleveland RTA, as many other problems they have, is looking to standardize its rail equipment as the red and blue/green line equipment fulfills its federal commitment.  As I understand it, they are going to buy equipment with retractable stairs so that all equipment can run on any line.  That would be great-- Shaker Square to the Airport or Brook Park to the Waterfron without changing trains.

 

That will be a while longer before that happens. Given the federal funding situation, RTA is preferring to rebuilt its existing rail fleet. Maybe in another decade or two they'll replace the fleet with standardized, dual-platform equipment. Or maybe they'll just retrofit all the stations to offer platforms for high-level boarding.

mts the mta has talked about offering real time information for nyc transit for years. remember the most recent talk about making public a gps locator w/ all the busses? that quietly faded away.

 

my bet is it'll never happen.

 

the union just does not want anyone to know it's employees are drinking coffee and chitter chating at the end of the route instead of keeping it moving.

 

Given the federal funding situation, RTA is preferring to rebuilt its existing rail fleet. Maybe in another decade or two they'll replace the fleet with standardized, dual-platform equipment.

 

It wouldn't make sense for RTA to replace its current equipment.  The current fleet is only about 25 years old--the perfect age for mid-life overhaul.  Why buy all new cars when they'll be good for at least another 25 years?

 

 

Also right now every transit system in the country is buying equipment built to different specifications, with some exceptions such as Salt Lake City/ Dallas LRT and then Washington Metro, Baltimore, and Miami's common equipment.  Boston for example has incompatable equipment on each of its four lines and further complicated its situation with the Silver Line BRT, which incredibly (I believe I heard this correctly) is now running two different types of custom buses on its two operational (but disconnected) segments.

 

Baltimore's Metro Subway and Miami's Metrorail use the same equipment, and have ordered railcars together in the past (Budd).  This equipment is not the same as WMATA's equipment, though, which consists of cars from Rohr, Breda, and CAF.  WMATA typically orders rail cars at 150-200 or so at a time, and does not need to have compatibility with other systems to meet minimum order numbers.

 

I think Boston's varying vehicles among each rail line are due to the way the system developed over time.  For example, the Green Line has always been a streetcar line, the Red Line was built by Cambridge, and so on.  It would be worth investigating this, though.

 

 

Honolulu City Council panel backs rail as mass-transit solution

By Crystal Kua

[email protected]

 

Rail should be the city's mass-transit choice, the City Council's Transportation and Planning Committee decided yesterday.

 

The committee also signaled that the Council will chose one of five fixed-rail routes -- two of them are supported by Mayor Mufi Hannemann -- before the end of the year.

 

More at:

http://starbulletin.com/2006/11/03/news/story07.html