Travelers get more mass transit options to airports

Updated 9/27/2006 7:37 AM ET

By Gary Stoller, USA TODAY

 

New mass transit options are making it easier for travelers to commute to airports.

"Access to airports is getting better and better as more and more municipalities improve rail lines and bus rapid transit," says William Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.

 

Many Americans, though, remain wedded to cars and taxis and aren't taking advantage.

 

Find this article at:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2006-09-26-airport-transit_x.htm 

 

selling railyard rights to pay for a subway transit extension? good idea here:

 

 

 

West Side Rail Yards: We Want 50 BLUEs

 

 

Remember the Jets Stadium and the Olympic bid thing? It seems almost like a dream that never actually took place. But it did (no, really—check the archives), and since it all blew up, the West Side rail yards have been waiting patiently for the next plan of action. And here it is! The city is dropping its attempt to buy the development rights from the MTA, instead striking a deal to rezone the 13 acres on the west side of 11th Avenue between 30th and 33rd Streets for high-rise development, and sell off the land to the highest bidder. No developers' names have been tossed around just yet, but this should lead to a nice frenzy.

 

link:

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/09/27/west_side_rail_yards_we_want_50_blues.php

 

old but interesting news from western hoboken, nj :

 

'A culturally friendly transit village'

 

Monroe Center development will include condos, artists' space, restaurants, retail

 

By Tom Jennemann

Reporter staff writer  01/24/2006

 

ABOUT TO BREAK GROUND – The developers of the Monroe Center believe that their artist friendly and transit-accessible project will attract area home buyers. 

 

Monroe Center Development, LLC is ready to break ground on Jan. 27 on a high-rise condominium tower at 800 Monroe St.

 

link:

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15988060&BRD=1291&PAG=461&dept_id=523585&rfi=6

 

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/15569421.htm

 

Developers seek to hitch projects to light rail

Proposals see Scaleybark station as center of area to live, shop; all seek public funds

 

RICHARD RUBIN

[email protected]

 

Despite cost overruns and political dustups, Charlotte's light-rail line is still popular with at least one group: developers.

 

Some of the city's most prominent firms are vying to build the South Corridor's signature neighborhood: a dense complex of homes and stores at the Scaleybark station, just beyond the bustling South End.

 

 

Public Transportation Ridership Continues To Climb In 2006

 

Nearly 5 billion trips taken on public transit in the first six months -- a 3.2% increase

September 21, 2006

Contact:

Virginia Miller

(202) 496-4816

[email protected]

 

 

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) today announced that public transportation ridership has increased by 3.2% in the first six months of 2006, as Americans took nearly 5 billion trips on public transit.

 

"In the first six months of this year, more and more people rode public transportation and transit ridership grew by 3.2%," said APTA President William W. Millar. "This continued growth in transit ridership shows how important public transportation is to millions of Americans across the country."

 

To see the complete report, go to http://www.apta.com/research/stats/ridership/.

 

***

 

APTA is a nonprofit international association of 1,600 member organizations including public transportation systems; planning, design, construction and finance firms; product and service providers; academic institutions; and state associations and departments of transportation. APTA members serve the public interest by providing safe, efficient and economical public transportation services and products. APTA members serve more than 90 percent of persons using public transportation in the United States and Canada.

U. of Mich student/writer bashes minimization of Detroit, transit-wise [posted originally in the Michigan Daily]

 

By Sam Butler

9/18/06

 

PrintEmail Article Tools Page 1 of 1

 

 

"I will build roads where jobs are and where jobs will be." That is the one of many deliberately ambiguous headers in Dick DeVos's "Economic Turnaround Plan" - and it scares the bejesus out of me. It is alarming for two reasons. First, it reveals Dick DeVos's commitment to building more roads. In his section entitled "Building a Transportation System that Encourages Job Growth," DeVos doesn't mention public transportation once. He rails against how much money we lose through gas prices and traffic congestion and yet proposes to solve these problems by building more efficient highways.

 

I am among those who believe that bringing mass transportation to the more than five million people in the Metropolitan Detroit area is critical to revitalizing Michigan's economy. Detroit is one of only a handful of major cities without public transportation, and young Michiganians often cite this shortcoming when they leave for Chicago. Unfortunately, from the debilitated DARTA to the pathetic People Mover, mass transportation in Southeastern Michigan has become the frustrating Holy Grail of Michigan politics. Contrary to popular belief, the biggest opponents are not the automakers - they would love the added manufacturing work - but, as DeVos displays, Michigan's public officials.

 

However, if Michigan were able to muster the necessary political and financial capital to create a mass transit system, where would it likely be built?

 

Why, Grand Rapids of course.

 

This brings us to the second part of why DeVos's statement is so frightening. Where does DeVos think jobs will be in the future if not where they are now? Although not explicitly stated, the Grand Rapids native would probably answer his hometown. After all, it is where the Amway heir's office is located and where more roads and public transit would make his commute a whole lot easier.

 

In April, after some political brawling, Governor Granholm and the Republican leaders of the Legislature announced a major transportation package. The bill allows residents of Grand Rapids and Southeastern Michigan to vote to approve 25 year tax levies that would be spent on proposed mass transit projects in each of those areas. Such long-term millages are vital because local funds are required to gain access to the $114 million in federal funds that are earmarked for Michigan mass transit projects.

 

Originally, the $114 million was meant to fund a light rail line between Ann Arbor and Detroit. However, these funds were hijacked by an entrenched Republican contingent in the State House that wanted those federal funds to go exclusively to a different Michigan city and its suburbs - yep, Grand Rapids. They passed a transportation bill that was thankfully vetoed by Governor Granholm last December precisely for its exclusion of Southeastern Michigan.

 

I had the privilege of listening a state representative speak to a group of students recently. Most of us had just spent the summer commuting from Ann Arbor to Detroit, and the status of the rail line quickly dominated the conversation. He was surprisingly candid about the legislative fisticuffs and explained how there is a growing Republican notion in the state Legislature that Michigan's second-largest city should become the new linchpin of Michigan's economy and cultural identity.

 

As the saying goes, that would be funny if it weren't so serious. Detroit is the center of Michigan's vitality, and strengthening the connection between Ann Arbor and Detroit would strengthen Michigan as a whole. Imagine being able get out of a class and hop on a train to a Tigers' game, or being able to drink at one of Detroit's many bars or casinos and safely come back home to campus while sufficiently inebriated to not remember how much money you lost.

 

If both the Grand Rapids and Detroit areas passed transit millages, how the federal funds would be allocated between the two cities is still up in the air. Now call me cynical, but I don't foresee the two projects being able to share the funds nicely. My skepticism over the chances of either project being built aside, the troubling part of the debate is that it points to a larger right-wing mentality that any funds put towards revitalizing Detroit are wasted. DeVos's reluctance to pay attention to Detroit is one of the most important gubernatorial election issues that nobody is talking about.

 

Southeastern Michigan had better gear up for an upcoming political fight over those federal funds. SEMCOG is busy with an alternative analysis, but it needs input on what kind of line from Ann Arbor to Detroit potential users would enjoy. As the campaign season revs up, we should express how willing we would be to visit downtown Detroit. I encourage students to contact the good people at Transit Riders United, a group at the forefront of this issue. We should let legislators and SEMCOG know that a rail line from Ann Arbor would help Detroit get back on the right track.

 

 

Butler can be reached at [email protected].

 

 

And I thought Ohio was screwed up!

That development in Charlotte is frickin' beautiful.  It's like a livable version of Easton with a better mix of residential/retail/commercial AND a solid connection to mass transit.

 

If RiverSouth or City Center in Columbus turns out to be anything like that (with a streetcar rolling through it), I'll almost certainly be retiring here (and I'm only in my 20's).

This sounds nice technologically; I just wonder about the sociological effects.

 

UTA Putting Bus Riders Online

September 29th, 2006 @ 9:53pm

Ed Yeates Reporting

 

Connecting with your bus is about to take on a whole new meaning. The Utah Transit Authority has launched a pilot project to see how business commuters like having wireless access to the internet while they ride to and from work.

 

A UTA express bus is about to let Troy Fillerup clock in, on the job, the minute he steps on board. He sits down, opens his lap top, and connects to the internet.

 

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=528477

 

 

Transit plan sends TRAX to the back

Salt Lake County voters' OK of a sales tax hike would aid Utah County commuter rail

By Patty Henetz

The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune

 

Just two counties - Utah and Salt Lake - have on their November ballots proposals to boost sales tax by a quarter-cent to pay for mass transit and highways.

  But only Salt Lake County is asking voters to approve a measure the Legislature passed in a special session Sept. 19.

  If the county's voters approve, the vote will raise sales taxes by a quarter-cent, bringing the portion dedicated to transit to three-quarters of a cent. But a good portion of the increase will be dedicated to linking Utah County commuter rail with the rest of the Wasatch Front. As a result, some of the new planned TRAX lines might have to wait.

 

more at:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4429092

Just to prove that cities other than Cleveland can make bad decisions  :-o...

 

Tangherlini leaving DC Metro for potential DC city manager's post

 

Big Loss for Transit Riders

 

Given a choice between a firm job offer from one potential boss, versus a possible job offer from multiple bosses, Dan Tangherlini, Metro's interim general manager, went with option A. David Nakamura and Lena Sun report in today's Post that mayoral candidate Adrian M. Fenty offered Tangherlini the job of D.C. city manager and Tangherlini will take it.

 

The D.C. government wins. Metro may still come out of this okay, following it's nationwide search for a new leader, but it has lost the management momentum created by Tangherlini following the forced departure of Richard White, whose administration had become sluggish and disconnected from riders and employees.

 

Tangherlini had brought new ideas and -- maybe more important -- a new spirit to the top spot. He connected both with the workforce and with the customers.

 

 

Dammit.  I've been hurting over this the past two days.  Tangherlini would have been great for Metro--especially since he, unlike his predecessor, takes the subway to work (egads!).

 

 

Virginia to Review Rival Bid For Tysons Rail Extension

 

By Alec MacGillis

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 1, 2006; Page B01

 

Virginia officials are considering a proposal from contractors allied with a major Tysons Corner landowner to take over construction of at least half of the Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport, a prospect that threatens to further delay the project.

 

The state has a no-bid "public-private partnership" with a Bechtel Corp. and Washington Group International Inc. consortium, which has done extensive work over the past two years in preparing to build the 23-mile line from West Falls Church. But the state revealed yesterday that as part of its consideration of switching to a tunnel instead of an elevated track for the Tysons part of the line, it is now weighing a proposal by a group linked with WestGroup, a major Tysons landowner and tunnel supporter.

 

The revelation of the competing proposal injected additional uncertainty into the $4 billion project, which is hung up on the question of whether the four-mile Tysons portion of the line should be built above or below ground. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) is planning to announce that decision by the end of this month. At stake, say tunnel supporters, is Fairfax County's vision of transforming Tysons into a vibrant, walkable downtown, which they say would be hard to achieve with an elevated track.

 

Tunnel backers, including Tysons landowners and Fairfax officials, have been urging the state to rethink its deal with the Bechtel group, which has criticized a tunnel as too costly. By re-bidding the whole project, tunnel supporters say, the state could get an affordable price for a line with a tunnel.

 

But going with the rival proposal probably would mean a time-consuming process to end the existing partnership and to re-bid the project. The state is facing warnings from the project's top federal backer, Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), that the tunnel option threatens to imperil $900 million in federal funding and delay the extension, which was to be done by 2015.

 

Yesterday, the Federal Transit Administration offered its own words of caution. In a public statement, the agency said it is "important to note that should [Virginia] choose to make significant changes to its original plan, including building a tunnel, [the agency] will need to make new, additional examinations" of the project.

 

The revelation of the rival proposal came in a briefing yesterday by the head of a panel of engineers that studied the tunnel question at the state's request. The panel has concluded that a tunnel would be preferable and would cost about $250 million more than an elevated route -- less than the Bechtel group estimated.

 

The panel's chairman, Potomac engineer Robert S. O'Neil, said the panel's tunnel estimate was based on a proposal submitted to the state three weeks ago by a group consisting of WestGroup, Bethesda-based Clark Construction Group LLC, Lane Construction Corp. of Meriden, Conn., and Dragados, a Spanish company that specializes in the large-bore tunneling being considered for Tysons.

 

Dragados has previously proposed to build the tunnel, but this was its first offer -- together with other contractors -- to take over the whole first phase of the line instead of acting as a subcontractor to Bechtel.

 

The group said it could build the first phase for $2 billion, a price the engineering panel revised upward to $2.5 billion.

 

Based on that price, the panel concluded that a tunnel was worth it, because it would cause less disruption during construction and offer countless "intangible benefits" over the long term, O'Neil said. The reviews necessary for switching to a tunnel could be done within a year, he said.

 

It is possible that the state could decide on a tunnel but retain the Bechtel group, with it subcontracting to a tunnel builder like Dragados. Deputy Transportation Secretary Scott Kasprowicz yesterday declined to say how seriously the state is considering re-bidding the project or how long that would take.

 

There is some historic irony in WestGroup's involvement with the rival contractor group. The landowner initially was part of the partnership with Bechtel, before dropping out two years ago amid concerns about the propriety of having a major Tysons landowner directly involved in the project.

 

WestGroup spokesman Mark Lowham played down the company's role in the rival team's new offer, saying WestGroup had been in talks with the contractors but was not an official part of the team.

 

"We understand that other contractors have taken a look at [the project] and are pleased, because it's in everyone's best interest to take a second look," he said.

^^ I live right by where the extention would run. WestGroup owns a fair amount of building and land around Tysons, in which they never stop giving away to companies to build mid-rise office buildings. My guess -- Developers like WestGroup will keep building office/apartment buildings along the Dulles Access/Toll road in hopes this 'Silver Line' will get built. It won't. North Fairfax County will have Bangkok-like traffic by 2015. In turn Fairfax County will start losing population by 2020. Those folks buying homes in ever growing Loudoun County will get the real shaft though. Unless they get more business to go out there...that may be the fastest boom to bust county in American history.

I honestly don't envision very successful transit-oriented development along the Dulles Corridor.  I think it's a waste of money to think that urban heavy-rail is the best choice for transit out there--especially since they're locating the line in the worst possible place (in the highway median).  All this is doing is giving Maryland the stupid idea that Metro to BWI is a good idea, and potentially wasting billions of federal dollars.

 

Quite honestly, Metro to Tysons isn't a bad idea.  For trips to Dulles, though, why is "commuter rail" such a bad word? 

 

Agreed that Fairfax is facing some *serious* problems.  Unfortunately, no matter how many roads you build, or buses or trains you run, the traffic isn't going to go away so long as the county remains almost exclusively automobile-oriented.

I agree with ya Dan. It's an incredible waste of $$. And the line wouldn't end at Dulles...it's proposed to go all the f'n way out to Ashburn. The Purple loop line that gets no press...would make 10 times more sense.                                                                                                                                                                               

And I thought Ohio was screwed up!

 

Jennifer Granholm may not have all the Mitten State's economic answers (esp given the Ford & GM's near collapse state), but she has supported rail, esp a proposed Lansing to Detroit service and (I think Detroit area commuter rail)... Meanwhile, this DeVos character obviously has no clue at all... He needs to stick to throwing Amway parties.

^^Ugh, I agree, the Dulles metro line should be a non-starter.  I was lving in the DC when there was hot talk about a DC-to-Baltimore Metro linkage... Makes no sense, urban rapid transit was not meant for such long distances -- heck, I think the 23-mile Shady Grove Red Line, w/ all its many stops into downtown DC is, itself, too long a rapid rail line.

Especially since it parallels (in some stretches by a matter of feet) the MARC line out to Brunswick and beyond.

That development in Charlotte is frickin' beautiful.  It's like a livable version of Easton with a better mix of residential/retail/commercial AND a solid connection to mass transit.

 

If RiverSouth or City Center in Columbus turns out to be anything like that (with a streetcar rolling through it), I'll almost certainly be retiring here (and I'm only in my 20's).

 

do you really think so? i think it looks like they took it right off the shelf from crocker park or easton or fill in the blank recent lifestyle mall. very charlotte of them. still, i cant knock the transit linkage, thats impressive.

Also the orange/blue shared trackage is apparently approaching capacity, I haven't been able to find a recent article about the proposed new blue line tunnel, which would run under M St. through Georgetown and then down Massachusetts Ave. and end at Stadium-Armory.  There would be up to 11 new stations, with transfers to the red line at Farragut North and Union Station and the yellow/green line at the convention center.  The most recent articles I've been able to find were from around 2001. 

You're thinking of the study conducted by Vukan Vuchic, systems engineering professor at Penn.  He predicted the downtown core would come to a grinding halt by 2020, precisely because of the lack of redundancy in the system.  Is Metro taking steps to listen to their consultant?  Hell no!  They're excuse?  Building a new subway line is "too expensive".  Tell that to New York!

 

Metro's genius solution (I'm being sarcastic, of course) is to re-route half the rush hour Blue Line trains across the Yellow Line bridge--and share trackage with both the Yellow and Green Lines in the downtown core.  Can you say "clusterfuck"?

 

It's an odd mentality here.  In Ohio, it seems like no one wants transit, because it will "bring in undesirable elements."  Here, everyone wants a Metro station at the front door, no matter how far out they live.  All I know is if the federal government can help Maryland build an unneeded $3 billion highway that won't reduce congestion on the Beltway (as its supporters claim), they can help build another Metro line through downtown, as well as the Purple Line in Maryland.  Dammit, you can't run a 21st century boomtown on a transportation system designed for a 1950s city.

 

^ well building new subway is hella expensive no doubt about it. my fav? how's about $2B for a one stop extension of the number seven train? that one is a go. crazy. the cough, cough haha, yeah sure future 2nd avenue line comes in at $16B for 8 miles of subway. there are two $6B commuter rail line expansion projects on the front burner too among other odds&ends. the staggering costs takes your breath away. anyway, here's some more nyc transit expenditure news in a nutshell:

 

 

Transportation

New York's Subway System Finally Starting Major Expansion

 

(newyork.construction.com, May 2006 issue)

 

By Tom Stabile

 

Infrastructure designers and contractors around New York endured a tense wait for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's new capital program to take shape last year, but the bumpy ride may have been worth it. The MTA's subsidiaries have since unleashed dozens of projects, including major jobs to expand the region's transit capacity.

 

The logjam broke after New York's state legislature and Gov. George Pataki agreed to fund a $21.2 billion 2005-09 capital program for the MTA last year. Voter approval of a $2.9 billion transportation bond on the ballot last November provided an extra boost, said Mysore Nagaraja, president of the MTA's Capital Construction Co., which oversees large-budget efforts, including two - East Side Access and the Second Avenue Subway - that split $900 million from the referendum.

 

"That was voted for overwhelmingly - by 55 percent - and gave a mandate that the projects are important," he said. "The confidence level for funding from both the state and federal perspectives is up."

 

New York City Transit is another busy MTA division, with more than $2 billion a year in the new capital program for bus depot, rail yard, fan plant, station rehabilitation, signal, track, and tunnel lighting projects in the five boroughs, said Cosema Crawford, the agency's chief engineer.

 

advertisement

 

 

"It's good work across all disciplines - a lot of deep excavation work, complex logistics work," she added. "It's a great capital program for contractors of all sizes."

 

New Work Expands System's Reach

 

The MTA's docket has three high-profile projects, two to expand the city's subway system for the first time in decades, and the third to transform commuting patterns for thousands of suburbanites.

 

One is an extension of the Flushing line, known as the 7 train, from its terminus at W. 42nd Street and 7th Avenue. It will head west and south to the Jacob K. Javits Center on W. 34th Street and 11th Avenue. New York City is footing the $2 billion bill, which does not include funds to acquire land, such as a planned staging site on W. 26th Street, Nagaraja said.

 

The MTA plans to award a $350 million to $400 million contract by year's end to tunnel from 26th Street north to W. 41st Street and 10th Avenue. A contract to build the 34th Street station would follow next year. The agency is also hiring a construction manager consultant this fall.

 

"My goal is by 2011 to finish the whole thing," Nagaraja said.

 

The 7 line will have to work around various underground features, said David Donatelli, project manager for New York-based Parsons Brinckerhoff, the design consultant. Those include the 8th Avenue subway; Amtrak's West Side rail yards, access tunnels, and open tracks; infrastructure for the Lincoln Tunnel and Port Authority Bus Terminal; the viaduct supporting 11th Avenue; and a planned $6 billion commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson River from New Jersey that would end at 34th Street and 7th Avenue.

 

"We will have to make sure that the other features are shored up properly," Nagaraja said. "But we will be digging deep."

 

Another subway expansion has a much larger reach - the $16 billion Second Avenue line planned to one day stretch 8.1 mi. from 125th Street and Park Avenue in East Harlem down to Hanover Square near Wall Street. Aimed at easing congestion on the Lexington Avenue line on Manhattan's East Side, the four-phase project would start next year with construction of a leg from E. 96th Street to E. 63rd Street, where it would link to an existing station, said David Palmer, a principal with London-based Arup, a lead firm on the joint-venture design team.

 

The job will involve a cut-and-cover dig for a station at 96th Street and mining with TBM and other deep excavation equipment for stations at 72nd and 86th streets, Palmer said. Three tracks heading south into the 72nd Street station will fan out to four on the other side, added Don Phillips, an Arup principal.

 

"You have to plan for crossovers between the tracks at both ends, which means you have to mine larger caverns," he said.

 

Preliminary engineering and environmental approvals are complete on the first $3.8 billion, 2-mi. phase, Nagaraja said.

 

"My hope is that next spring we'll have the tunnel contract," he added.

 

The first leg would finish in late 2012 or early 2013 to serve an expected 202,000 riders, Nagaraja said. The design effort so far has cost $400 million, and funding for the rest of the first phase would come from $1 billion left over from the 2000-2004 capital plan, $450 million from last November's referendum, $1.5 billion in federal money, and future MTA funds.

 

The significance of adding a new line led the MTA to ask its design team to also develop modern systemwide station construction guidelines. The template will also apply to the 7 line expansion.

 

"One of the things we tried to do is make the space as attractive as we can - it has to function well day and night," Phillips said. "For instance, the platforms will be column-free spaces so that people can see all around the train arrival area."

 

The project brought together DMJM Harris and FXFowle, both based in New York, Arup, and others. They took roost in an MTA office, drafting preliminary and conceptual designs over three years, said Sudhir Jambhekar, a FXFowle principal.

 

"It was an amazing collaborative process," he added. "Projects of this nature are led by serious engineering decisions, so we had to be cognizant of that as we designed stations and streetscapes."

 

At some point, the teams on Second Avenue may cross paths with crews working on another MTA project - the $6.3 billion East Side Access program that will bring Long Island Rail Road trains, which currently head straight to Pennsylvania Station on Manhattan's West Side, into a new station complex deep under Grand Central Terminal on the East Side.

 

The busiest phase is approaching with the planned award next month of a $380 million contract to bore 1 mi. southward from the existing 63rd Street rail tunnel - which connects to Queens under the East River - in order to reach Grand Central in a deep dig under existing subway lines. Nagaraja said he also expects to award a $90 million contract next month to build rail infrastructure under Amtrak's Sunnyside Yard rail complex in Queens.

 

Nagaraja said he hopes to clear up East Side Access funding by locking in an expected federal contribution this year. His agency has spent about $1 billion so far and has $1.1 billion on hand in funds from the last capital plan and the November referendum. He expects the federal government to contribute $2 billion.

 

Another East Side Access contract for a $150 million chilling and ventilation facility on E. 50th Street in Manhattan, set for award next year, will end a bitter fight with neighbors, who objected to the planned seven-story height. Nagaraja said the solution to move three to four floors underground and add a park added $50 million to the tab.

 

"It was frustrating," he said. "But it's a good design that's friendly to the neighborhood."

 

Upgrading the Core Infrastructure

 

Expanding a 100-year-old transit system may capture the imagination, but the MTA is also deep into efforts to maintain or upgrade its bus and rail infrastructure. That translates into scores of big projects.

 

A signature effort is New York City Transit's $260 million Grand Avenue Bus Depot in Queens, which began in December 2003 under the last capital plan. The work is under a design-build contract with Granite Construction Northeast of Mount Vernon, N.Y., as contractor and Gannett Fleming of Camp Hill, Pa., as engineer, said the transit agency's Crawford.

 

"We wanted to go quickly, and design-build allows that," she added. "We like to use it when we're off the right of way."

 

The 560,000-sq.-ft. depot, slated to open in August, will hold 200 buses and 27 maintenance bays and have green features, including a 200,000-gallon underground rainwater collector tank to supply bus washing water, a 200 KW fuel cell on the roof, and natural lighting.

 

Another big upgrade in Manhattan is creating the Fulton Street Transit Center - an $847 million subway complex that will greatly ease transfers, said Arup's Palmer, whose firm is designing the project.

 

"Now, you have 11 lines and six stations where you go through a rabbit warren to get around," he said. "The goal is to open up the space and make it all visual."

 

The 215,000-sq.-ft. job will open up the maze by demolishing old corridors, adding new passageways and mezzanines, and building a grand entry hall with a glass-domed atrium designed by London-based Grimshaw Architects - all while keeping the stations open for 275,000 riders. The construction managers, Bovis Lend Lease and Parsons Brinckerhoff, are both based in New York.

 

Nagaraja's office scaled back the project last year after work had begun. The original $750 million budget is now $847 million, but includes $150 million for land buys, he said. It is funded by federal redevelopment money for Lower Manhattan.

 

Two contracts are under way. Citnalta of Bohemia, N.Y., is general contractor on a $35 million reconstruction of two station areas, and Slattery Skanska of Whitestone, N.Y., is general contractor on a $133 million pedestrian tunnel to connect the complex to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's planned World Trade Center transit hub. A contract to demolish several buildings to make way for the main hall is slated for award in June.

 

"By the end of this year, almost all of the contracts will be out," Nagaraja said.

 

A $106 million rehabilitation of the Columbus Circle subway station in Manhattan is also starting this spring. It entails rebuilding the roof, upgrading platforms, and adding a new entrance, which alone will require digging up W. 60th Street, driving soldier piles, and installing a precast deck to temporarily support the road, said Rich Ocken, vice president for Judlau Contracting of College Point, N.Y., the general contractor.

 

"There's a lot of staging and mobilizing on this job because at Columbus Circle you can't close anything," Ocken added.

 

Other big jobs wrapping up include:

 

a $192 million overhaul of 4 mi. of elevated track and 10 stations on the White Plains Road line in the Bronx. Judlau is rebuilding mezzanines, canopies, wind screens, and guard rails, while also installing several elevators, Ocken said.

 

installation of communication-based train control on the Canarsie line, known as the L train, to replace 70-year-old signal systems. CBTC will run trains by computer for parts of routes, allowing for closer train spacing, while funnelling train location data to the agency's command center and eventually to passengers. A Siemens, Union Switch, and Railworks joint venture is adding train and switch equipment, software, and systems for the $287 million job finishing in August.

 

 

 

 

Expensive?  Sure.  You know damn well the value that the extra transit service adds, though, in the form of increased development and property values.  I think the figure Arlington County, VA uses is a "19% annual return on investment in Metro".  When was the last time any other investment produced that kind of return?

Well now that DC's system as originally planned is complete, it is facing the same problem that New York has faced since about 1920 in that new lines need to travel under existing lines.  This means the existing tunnels must be underpinned and new stations will be even deeper than DC's already relatively deep system.  The M/Massachusetts line would add stations in areas with no service at all right now, it seems to me to be the most logical major improvement to the system within the central area of the city. 

 

Meanwhile the 2nd Ave subway will travel under upwards of a dozen other tunnels, meaning it and its stations will be uncharacteristically deep for New York City.  Although the southern route of the 2nd Ave. line has been established, one of my friends suggested it should turn east at 116th or 125th and interchange with the 4/5/6, 2/3, A/D, and 1.  Actually the 1 is on that large viaduct at 125th, but even without the 1, those connections would only involve a mile or so of new tunnel and would add an immeasurable amount of redundancy to the system.  Unfortunately I think the rich people on the upper east side fear the bad element coming down from Harlem and The Bronx, so that won't happen until those areas are a 100% gentrified, which might only be 15 years away at the rate things are going.

Privatize the South Shore Line?[/b]

 

BY PATRICK GUINANE

[email protected]

317.637-9078

 

The state should consider selling off or leasing out the South Shore Line, advisers have told Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

 

And the state already has begun to explore privatization of the South Bend-to-Chicago commuter railroad, the South Shore's top executive told The Times on Tuesday.

 

More at:

 

http://www.nwitimes.com/articles/2006/10/04/news/top_news/8542d846cb60879f862571fd00033c85.txt

Privatizing the South Shore??? Oh, those Indiana idiots! :wtf:

Expensive?  Sure.  You know damn well the value that the extra transit service adds, though, in the form of increased development and property values.  I think the figure Arlington County, VA uses is a "19% annual return on investment in Metro".  When was the last time any other investment produced that kind of return?

 

two billion dollars for one subway stop? i'd like to see the return on that. hell in clev terms thats dual-hub money. the javits conventioneers will like it but thats it. regardless, its a done deal and its going to happen. crazy. i'm similarly dubious about the commuter rail tunnel extensions re cost/benefit.

 

otoh, i'm all for the 2nd ave subway. that should be the priority, no question that one is for city dwellers....but it keeps getting shoved to the backburner for this other stuff.

 

Well now that DC's system as originally planned is complete, it is facing the same problem that New York has faced since about 1920 in that new lines need to travel under existing lines.  This means the existing tunnels must be underpinned and new stations will be even deeper than DC's already relatively deep system.  The M/Massachusetts line would add stations in areas with no service at all right now, it seems to me to be the most logical major improvement to the system within the central area of the city. 

 

Meanwhile the 2nd Ave subway will travel under upwards of a dozen other tunnels, meaning it and its stations will be uncharacteristically deep for New York City.  Although the southern route of the 2nd Ave. line has been established, one of my friends suggested it should turn east at 116th or 125th and interchange with the 4/5/6, 2/3, A/D, and 1.  Actually the 1 is on that large viaduct at 125th, but even without the 1, those connections would only involve a mile or so of new tunnel and would add an immeasurable amount of redundancy to the system.  Unfortunately I think the rich people on the upper east side fear the bad element coming down from Harlem and The Bronx, so that won't happen until those areas are a 100% gentrified, which might only be 15 years away at the rate things are going.

 

Actually, the information i've gotten is the line would run on 2nd ave to about 110 street and veer east and connnect with the 6 inbetween 110 and 116 street as this is where the 4/5/6 have crossover tracks http://www.nycsubway.org/maps/track/detail-125-lex.png  before the 4/5 decend.

 

The line would then continue into the Bronx as a local (the six would run on the single express track during rush hours) in the BX.

 

Non of this is set in stone, but i've never heard one thing about it runing east/west under 125 street.

^Hadn't heard that, but it makes sense to get some of the traffic off of the Lexington Ave. line and avoid having the line terminate up in that area.  I believe one of the 2nd Ave's lines trains is going to share trackage with the F south of 63rd St. and the other is going to continue south under 2nd, terminating somewhere downtown.  It might not interchange with either the 7 or the L, since the L has stations at 1st and 3rd and the 7 at Grand Central, west of the Lexington Ave. line.  The 7 is likely sloping steeply under 2nd Ave in order to pass under the East River, meaning any new station would be sloping at a 3% or more grade. 

 

RTA enlists help in push for more funds

Agency hopes allies will help send message to state legislators

 

By Richard Wronski

Tribune staff reporter

 

October 6, 2006

 

In a major campaign to build broad support for increased public transportation funding, the Regional Transportation Authority has recruited more than 280 municipalities, civic organizations and agencies so far to lobby Illinois legislators, officials said Thursday.

 

"This is the most comprehensive outreach effort that the RTA has ever conducted," Executive Director Steve Schlickman said. "In order to convey the message to the legislature, we have to show them we have the support for what we're trying to do. We have to show them that, yes, everyone wants that world-class transit system that the region deserves."

 

More at:

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-0610060273oct06,1,3218041.story

^^ noozer, you threw me for a second; I thought it was Cleveland's RTA pushing for more funds... oh well.

Actually,, GCRTA is joining other RTA's around the state in a push for more funds in Ohio.

 

Check out the story at this link:

 

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061006/NEWS11/610060354/-1/NEWS

i have not heard of the 2nd ave subway going west, but thats a good idea. an uptown cross train has been talked about in the past, so who knows?

 

also, the 2nd avenue subway could most certainly connect to the 7 train and the L train. it would just be a matter of escalators & stairs in the former and connecting pedestrian tunnel paths in the latter.

 

meanwhile, a big call for western lightrail in staten island (video in the link):

 

 

 

Schumer Throws Support Behind S.I. Light Rail System

 

 

A political heavyweight is throwing his support behind a proposed light rail system on Staten Island.

 

Senator Charles Schumer says new passenger rail systems along the island's north and west shores are essential to meeting the borough's growing transportation needs.

 

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=60287

 

>also, the 2nd avenue subway could most certainly connect to the 7 train and the L train. it would just be a matter of escalators & stairs in the former and connecting pedestrian tunnel paths in the latter.

 

You're right, I forgot to remember that the platforms themselves are 600-700ft. long, or roughly a block length.  Also, I'm too lazy to look it up but I believe the 7 and the L themselves can't connect via 10th or 11th Ave because they run different equipment, whatever that IND versus BMT compatability problem is. 

 

There have also been various proposals to connect Manhattan and Staten Island via a 5 mile subway tunnel under the harbor.  A tunnel between Staten Island and Brooklyn was actually begun, and I think I read somewhere some dirty business kept rail off the Verazzano Narrows bridge. 

^yes, wasn't the original proposal for a Verazzano Br link?  Cost comparative-wise, wouldn't this still be, by far, the cheapest alternative?

I'd guess, but it's about a 8-9 mile trip to Lower Manhattan from Staten Island via Brooklyn, which would be a very long subway ride unless a new express line was built.  My guess is the ferry could still beat it. Brooklyn is of course a pretty substantial destination in itself but probably not enough of one or else there would be more of an outcry for a rail link.  And I also believe I read recently that ships are now being built which are too tall to pass under the Verazzano Narrows Bridge, which is hard to believe.     

^according to the article above what is most likely to happen is a theoretical new western sirt line will hook up with the actual new nj hudson-bergen light rail in bayonne, which will take riders to the path trains to get to manhattan. seems like the express busses and ferry might be quicker tho as thats two transfers and thats just to get in. we'll see.

 

i dk if a verrazano train will ever happen, there is no talk about it and way too many other new hella expensive projects going on or planned at the moment.

 

also in regard to the new 7 train extension that is for sure going to happen as far as i know it is not supposed to veer down south enough to connect up with the L train. its really for the conveniance of javits center conventioneers and i suppose any future railyard housing development residents. otoh it would make sense to bring it on down to 14th st and connect it up with the L train (via a ped tunnel transfer) at some point, esp given all the new development on the far westside of chelsea. prob is on its current path the 7 runs too far west for riders to walk in a tunnel to the 8th avenue L train stub --- which is a problem. that may be resolved as i have heard plans of for a njtransit or path train to come into manhattan at 14th st via a new tunnel under the hudson someday. so maybe eventually that train and the L and 7 trains will meet up in some futureworld hyperdeveloped meatpacking district.

 

some sad news to report here for railfans. i am bummed:

 

 

New York Up Close

For the City’s Choo-Choo Charlies, the Shade Is Slowly Drawn

Liz O. Baylen for The New York Times

 

By ALEX MINDLIN

Published: October 8, 2006

RACHAEL LAMBERT, a 24-year-old office worker and part-time student from Howard Beach, Queens, took a practiced stance on Tuesday at the head of a J train that was clattering eastward across the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn. Peering out the scratched window at the front of the train, she offered in her slight Midwestern twang a running commentary on the view.

 

“You see the green-yellow?” she said, pointing to a pair of signal lights beside the elevated tracks. “We’re going, but we’re being diverted to the middle track.”

 

A few minutes later, the train reached one of Ms. Lambert’s favorite spots, near the Myrtle Avenue station, where the M line veers northward across the J line, and in doing so crosses a spaghetti-like tangle of rails.

 

“It’s great in winter,” she said. “When they’re afraid the switches are going to freeze, there are little pilot lights on them, and they light them, and it looks like the tracks are on fire.”

 

But Ms. Lambert’s is a dying pastime. Over the last few decades, and with increasing speed, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been phasing out cars with publicly accessible windows in front, a feature that is often called the rail-fan window because of its appeal to subway buffs. In 2000, nearly half of all cars had such windows, according to Charles Seaton, a spokesman for New York City Transit. This year, they appear in only about one-fifth of the fleet’s roughly 6,200 cars.

 

And over the next decade, rail-fan windows will probably disappear entirely. A new model of car that lacks the rail-fan window is currently being tested on the A and N lines; the city has ordered 660 of the cars, set to arrive in 2008, and has an option to buy an additional 900 or so.

 

In these newer cars, the train operator’s cabin takes up the entire width of the cab, essentially blocking the tracks from public view. The redesigned cabs are more comfortable, and let conductors open doors on both sides of the train without walking from car to car. But subway buffs complain that the new cars are much less fun.

 

“It’s awful,” said Brian Weinberg, the owner of railfanwindow.com, a Web site featuring pictures of New York subway cars. “It’s totally going to remove a whole aspect of the subway.” And on Rider Diaries, an Internet message board for New York public transport fans, a user who identified himself as MikeGerald45 wrote: “It was a lot of fun just watching the ride from the front window of the train. Now, that will be something that we can tell our grandchildren about.”

 

Indeed, it is the young who seem to love the rail-fan window the most. “I don’t like to hog the window so much,” Ms. Lambert said, “because a lot of times little kids get on, and the first thing they do is run to the window.”

 

Ms. Lambert recommends a sideways stance anyway, for safety. During her first months in New York in 2001, she sometimes spent two hours a day riding the subway just for pleasure, she said. But she learned not to brace herself against the window with her arms. “If I try to hold on,” she explained, “I usually bang my face into the glass.”

 

Larry Furlong, a spokesman for the Electric Railroaders Association, a group of train enthusiasts, had a different strategy for rail-fan posture when he was a boy in Astoria, Queens.

 

“I was a member of the flat-nose society,” Mr. Furlong said. “At Christmastime my father would take us into Radio City Music Hall to see the show. You would stand at the front window, and you would press your nose against the glass. At the beginning, my father would have to hold me, and eventually I got tall enough.”

 

In a sign of the strong appeal of the rail-fan window, even Mr. Seaton, the New York City Transit spokesman, has fond memories of it. “I especially liked the ones that opened,” he said.

 

Will he miss the windows when they are gone? “No,” Mr. Seaton said, “because I’m not 10 years old anymore.”

 

 

 

 

urban ohio alert.

from the daily free paper amny.

port authority photo ban in nyc region draws serious complaints:

Transit

 

Photographers take on Port Authority

 

By Chuck Bennett

amNewYork Staff Writer

October 9, 2006

 

 

New York's feisty photojournalist association says the Port Authority's strict ban on photography is way out of focus.

 

"We are getting ready to do battle," said Todd Maisel, vice president of the New York Press Photographers Association and a veteran Daily News lensman. "At the bus terminal, the PATH train, bridges, tunnels they are putting up signs that say no photography."

 

http://www.amny.com/news/local/transportation/am-photo1009,0,616629.story?coll=am-topheadlines

 

^Does the Red Line have any such seat in the rear car, or is this blocked by luggage racks?  I'm pretty sure the front is taken up entirely by the motorman.

^Does the Red Line have any such seat in the rear car, or is this blocked by luggage racks?  I'm pretty sure the front is taken up entirely by the motorman.

 

there is no seat in the front, but you can stand and see through the luggage storage area.

October 8, 2006 

Governor Blagojevich Announces Amtrak Carl Sandburg to Start Running October 30th

 

Building on momentum of record passenger growth, additional Quincy to Chicago passenger train added; tickets on sale today at Amtrak.com or 800-USA-RAIL

 

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois - Governor Rod R. Blagojevich announced today that beginning October 30th, Illinois' partnership with Amtrak will include an additional train on the Quincy-St. Louis corridor. The expanded service comes after news that all state-sponsored Amtrak routes posted record ridership levels for Illinois' Fiscal Year 2006; the expansion also includes additional round-trips on the Chicago-Carbondale line. Tickets for all the new trains are now on sale.

 

This expansion is part of a plan to more than double state-sponsored passenger rail service. Round-trips between Chicago and downstate will increase from three daily to seven daily by the end of October.

 

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Copy/News_Release_Page&c=am2Copy&cid=1093554066642&ssid=180

10/13/2006    Budget

CTA proposes $1.1 billion 2007 spending plan, recommends capital projects

 

Yesterday, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) proposed a $1.13 billion fiscal-year 2007 budget that would maintain current fares and service levels. The budget is $96.5 million, or 9.3 percent, higher than the FY2006 budget because of anticipated increases in health care and pension contributions, and energy costs.

 

 

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/prdailynews/news.asp?id=9627

^ wow interesting to compare as i just read somewhere the nyc mta's 2006 budget is $10B, which is according to that article $2B more than chicago's total capital needs dreams. thats not even including port authority and etc. yipes.

You're thinking of the study conducted by Vukan Vuchic, systems engineering professor at Penn.  He predicted the downtown core would come to a grinding halt by 2020, precisely because of the lack of redundancy in the system.  Is Metro taking steps to listen to their consultant?  Hell no!  They're excuse?  Building a new subway line is "too expensive".  Tell that to New York!

 

Metro's genius solution (I'm being sarcastic, of course) is to re-route half the rush hour Blue Line trains across the Yellow Line bridge--and share trackage with both the Yellow and Green Lines in the downtown core.  Can you say "clusterfuck"?

 

It's an odd mentality here.  In Ohio, it seems like no one wants transit, because it will "bring in undesirable elements."  Here, everyone wants a Metro station at the front door, no matter how far out they live.  All I know is if the federal government can help Maryland build an unneeded $3 billion highway that won't reduce congestion on the Beltway (as its supporters claim), they can help build another Metro line through downtown, as well as the Purple Line in Maryland.  Dammit, you can't run a 21st century boomtown on a transportation system designed for a 1950s city.

 

I left DC in December of 2000 after living there for three & one half years.  If I may make a suggestion, the Metro needs a "Florida Avenue" loop or something like it, that will take you between the commuter avenue lines without having to go downtown.  For a city with a rather extensive rail system, it was essentially an automobile functioning town.  I had a car there for my last year and half, getting tons of Zone 2 parking tickets simply because there was no other convenient way to travel between Rosslyn & Georgetown.  Of course towards the end of my time there my parallel parking skills were immaculate.  Good times.

A more-or-less opinion piece responding to the recently released results of a study on commuting patterns.  Virginia's results are likely skewed a bit--the Commonwealth is just smaller than Ohio, but has 95 counties.  This does not account for incorporated cities, which are not part of any county.

 

http://www.dcist.com/archives/2006/10/17/its_the_suburbs.php

 

It's the Suburbs, Stupid

 

When local media, including this site, discuss our countless transportation and traffic problems, it is often to be described as D.C.-Metro or Washington-area congestion. However, statistics indicate that something along the lines of Va./Md.-Metro area congestion might be a more appropriate description.

 

Eric Weiss, the Post's new transportation reporter, has kicked off his duties with articles exploring several recent studies on commuting trends across the region and the nation. He reported last week that the potential savings on housing prices in farther-out suburbs could be outweighed by the cost of commuting and living in a spread-out landscape that requires a car trip for the smallest errand. He followed up today, pointing out that Virginia and Maryland have, on average, the nation's greatest proportion of lengthy commutes. While the District may be the geographical center of the region, it seems that Virginia and Maryland are closer to the center of the problem.

 

More at link above:

Riding a train of thought

 

By BETTY ADAMS, Blethen Maine News Service

 

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

 

GARDINER -- A passenger train stopped at the Gardiner railway station Tuesday for the first time in six years.

 

About 80 passengers climbed down briefly at the shuttered station. Many took photographs to document the historic occasion.

 

"We never thought we'd see a train up here again," said John Coughlin of Windsor, a member of the DownEast Rail Group, which held meetings at the station in the 1980s.

 

More at:

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061018trainride.html

10/20/2006    New Start

TriMet to launch construction on commuter-rail line

 

Next week, the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) will begin building the 14.7-mile Washington County Commuter Rail line.

 

To be completed within 30 days, the $117.3 million project’s first phase calls for replacing track, ties and ballast between Beaverton and Wilsonville. Scheduled to begin in 2007, the second phase includes building five stations and a vehicle storage facility, installing a signal system, adding a second track along portions of the line, realigning a track segment and constructing park-and-ride lots.

 

More at:

 

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/prdailynews/news.asp?id=9671

Dude! Rock n Roll Meets L-A Transit!  Righteous!  Wonder if we can get them to tour Ohio transit systems?

 

The Secret Machines' quest for public transit

By Sandra Barrera, Staff Writer

LA Daily News

 

 

Among the Secret Machines' reasons for relocating to New York City from Dallas was to get away from car culture. So, when asked to help raise awareness about public transportation in Los Angeles with a free performance Tuesday night at the historic Union Station, Brandon Curtis says his psychedelic alt-rock trio jumped at the chance.

 

"The fact that it's normal for one person to get in a car and drive 45 minutes each way to work just doesn't make sense. It just seems like more attention needs to be drawn to mass transit as a possibility," says the singer-keyboardist-bassist, speaking by phone midtour from Iowa City about his upcoming Union Station gig.

 

More at:

http://www.dailynews.com/music/ci_4529542

 

not holding my breath, but...:

 

 

Second Ave. subway plan picks up speed

 

 

 

BY PETE DONOHUE

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

 

Breaking ground on the Second Avenue subway - a dream for generations - is just months away, transit officials said yesterday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority hopes to award a contract to build a new tunnel for the East Side subway line by year's end, Mysore Nagaraja, president of the MTA's Capital Construction Co., said.

 

A giant underground boring machine will be used to drill through the rock below Second Avenue between 92nd and 63rd Sts., making progress at an estimated 40 to 50 feet a day, officials said.

 

Before the tunneling begins, possibly as early as next summer, the MTA will excavate a launch site for the boring machine. That work - and other preparations - could start in late December or early next year, Nagaraja said.

 

"After 60 years of planning, we are now building," Nagaraja said.

 

The first leg of the project will feature stations at 96th, 86th and 72nd Sts., and new entrances to the existing 63rd St. station on the Broadway line.

 

Trains would switch over to the Broadway line at 63rd St.

 

The $3.8 billion first phase of the Second Avenue subway is scheduled to be completed in 2013; it will carry about 200,000 riders a day.

 

The Federal Transit Administration is expected to give the MTA the green light soon to begin construction in anticipation of a full-funding agreement with the agency. That commits the feds to steady, long-term funding.

 

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow has vowed not to step down until he's satisfied that the Second Avenue subway, and the planned LIRR extension to Grand Central, are well on their way toward fruition. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the leading gubernatorial candidate, has said he wants new leadership at the MTA.

 

Originally published on October 24, 2006