Nottingham Evening Post 23 June 2004
Plans to build a tram route from the city to Beeston and Chilwell have been overwhelmingly backed by councillors. The ten-kilometre route would terminate at a 1,400-space park-and-ride site at Toton. It would take in the ng2 development site, University of Nottingham, Queen’s Medical Centre, Beeston town centre and Chilwell High Road.
Yesterday city councillors approved the £160m scheme, following the county council’s support last week.
A proposed route to Wilford and Clifton, costing a further £140m, was backed in April.
Next month the two authorities will meet to consider submitting a Transport and Works Act Order to the Secretary of State in August - with the likelihood of a public inquiry in the spring.
Pat Armstrong, NET tram project leader, said: “This marks another stage in a long process and we will continue working towards getting approval later this year from both councils for our application to Government.” The route would start from Nottingham railway station, passing homes in The Meadows, parts of Lenton, Beeston and Chilwell.
But NET is keeping its options open on some sections of the route.
Further investigations into noise and vibration will be carried out before deciding on whether to take the tram to the front or rear of the University of Nottingham’s Lakeside Arts Centre.
Building to the rear would mean land being taken from properties in Greenfield Street and Highfield Road. Audrey Sellears, 82, and her 91-year-old husband Albert would lose 12ft from their back garden. Mrs Sellears said: “Why can’t they take it from the other side of the arts centre?”
The university wants the route to run behind the centre because trams and traffic in front would be impractical. But spokesman Philip Dalling said: “We are urging NET to re-engineer that option so the land it takes would be university land and not gardens.”
The route also has implications for matches at Beeston Hockey Club, off University Boulevard. After talks between sports leaders and NET officials, the alignment was revised, taking the track 5.3m to the north of the pitch and putting in a barrier to screen the tramway. But the club is opposing the plans until they have written consent.
To allay the fears of Nottingham Tennis Centre and the Lawn Tennis Association, NET is proposing to put speed restrictions and noise barriers during major tournaments.
About 8,750 detailed booklets went out to the public during consultation. Responses were received from 530 people. A further 197 gave feedback at an exhibition in Beeston Square.
Petitions were submitted over the impact on properties in Chilwell Road, Beeston, and the route between Broxtowe College and Cator Lane, Chilwell.
There would also be major changes at the QMC. The main building would be served by a tramstop but plans for an interchange at the hospital, where buses and trams stopped, has been dropped. Mr Armstrong said the geography of the site had caused problems.
A QMC spokesman said: “This will be an exciting opportunity to radically improve the thousands of journeys to and from the site every day for patients, visitors and staff.”
A new viaduct would carry the tram over the River Leen, QMC car parks and the A52 Clifton Boulevard before descending into Science Road in the university grounds. It would mean the loss of buildings housing Merrivale Nursery School and the university’s Play Centre.
Widening Abbey Street in Lenton would see the demolition of six residential and four business properties in Abbey Street and Gregory Street.
Beeston Square would change with the demolition of 14 retail units to make way for an integrated tram and bus station.
The threat remains to Kings Meadow Nature Reserve if a tram and vehicle bridge is built over the railway at Lenton Lane. Notts Wildlife Trust has expressed concerns about losing half the reserve.
WCCO-TV Minneapolis June 26, 2004
Light-rail trains began running Saturday in the Twin Cities, a half-century after streetcar service ended in Minneapolis.
The first of the sleek yellow-and-blue cars pushed off on time after a morning ceremony. People waited in a line that stretched a block long in the downtown Warehouse District to get on the next train.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty and other dignitaries cut the ribbon. Pawlenty called it a day to celebrate while acknowledging that there’s “been a lot of water over the bridge on this project.” “We want to make this project as successful as possible,” Pawlenty said.
Among those waiting to board were lifelong Minneapolis residents Jack and Pat Parkin, both 69. The couple met in the seventh grade and has never owned a car. “I used to meet her at school on a streetcar,” Jack Parkin said. The Minneapolis streetcars stopped running in 1954.
“We’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” Pat Parkin said. “I hope people like it enough to expand it. I know I’m going to like it.”
For now, the trains will run from the Warehouse District to Fort Snelling. Rides on the trains and buses are free during opening weekend. The line connecting Fort Snelling to the Twin Cities airport and the Mall of America is scheduled to open in December.
The Hiawatha line was approved in 1997 at $400 million. That grew to $715 million, but officals have said the expansion came from inflation and project changes, not from overspending. They say the full line, which stretches 12 miles from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America in Bloomington, will stay within that budget.
The project has sparked controversy in the Legislature and among taxpayer groups, who have argued that the project is much too costly for the number of passengers it will serve.
Supporters hope more than 19,000 people will ride the train daily once the line going to the Mall of America and airport is completed.
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.; Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak; and Rep. Martin Sabo, D-Minn., said they hope plans for a line connecting the north suburbs and another connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul will go through. “This is not about a line, but about a system,” Rybak said.
Sabo called light rail’s opening day “the beginning of a new era.”
Jenna Dorn of the Federal Transit Administration presented a check for $12.2 million toward completion of the Hiawatha line. Dorn said the light- rail line is an investment that will pay off.
The trains filled up quickly, forcing many passengers to stand. Volunteers from the Minnesota Transportation Museum, in railroad costumes, monitored the doors to make sure people got on and off the trains safely.
Wearing pinstripe coveralls and hat, volunteer Robert Hawkins said he was excited to see trains in the Twin Cities again, albeit 50 years later. “They help cities grow,” Hawkins said. “We didn’t have the foresight to keep the streetcars we had. This is the next step to the future.”
Brooklyn Park couple Phil Carlson and Janet Lawson said the arrival of light rail was “better late than never.” “When I go east and I get on the trains I just go, ‘why don’t we have this here?”’ Lawson said.
Carlson and Lawson brought their 3-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son along. The family planned to ride the train “until nap time.” “They’ve been talking about trains for weeks,” Carlson said.
Elsa Peterson, who has lived in the metro area since 1940, said she thinks she’ll like light rail better than the old streetcars that she took to work every day. “It’s a lot more modern-looking and they’re not so clangy,” she said. “This is quite a few steps up.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune June 26, 2004
Debuting at a time of political division over what other transit improvements to make and how to pay for them, the Hiawatha light-rail line will bring people into the discussion on a grand scale — allowing them to vote with their feet.
“Once people have the chance to ride it and realize what an improvement it is over riding the bus, they will start demanding more,” said grass roots transit advocate John DeWitt of Minneapolis.
Said Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis: “We have always felt that a successful start-up will lead to a more serious discussion about adding other lines and other transit options.”
Supporters underscore that the train will not start toward the 19,300 daily ridership goal until the final 4-mile stretch opens in December. But a warm day in June is a good time to welcome riders.
It’s a better time to welcome Twin Citians to a new rail line than a cold day in December, said Minneapolis City Council Member Gary Schiff. “Lines that open up in the summer have far better success rates than lines that open in the winter.”
Those hoping for a positive bounce off the Hiawatha include proponents of the Northstar commuter rail line between Big Lake and downtown Minneapolis and the Central Corridor light-rail line along University Avenue between Minneapolis and St. Paul. A flock of riders to the Hiawatha can only strengthen the case for the Northstar, said Jeff Dahler, Northstar spokesman.
Transit advocate Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, said there is no need to wait for a final verdict on Hiawatha’s performance before expanding commuter rail. “The way transit will work is the way roads work. If you just build one road nobody could get anywhere. It has to be a system,” she said.
The opening of the rail line may be well-timed. Concluding that falling behind on road and transit improvements threatens the livability and economic competitiveness of the region, business leaders who have formed the Itasca group will present a plan for breaking the Capitol gridlock that has prevented progress on road and transit funding for decades, said Curt Johnson, a public policy leader who is advising the group.
Johnson cautions that performance of the Hiawatha line may be scrutinized like the arrival of a long-anticipated first child. “Too much will be expected.,’ he said.
Ready to go
The Hiawatha light-rail has passed the test.
The Federal Transit Administration and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety have inspected the track, power system, signals, control center, stations and operating procedures and declared it’s ready to roll.
In short, 13 rail cars are ready, 29 operators are certified to take the controls and tracks have endured the load of two-car trains during stepped-up testing with no incidents of rail pull-aparts. “The operators are well-trained. The organization is ready, said Joe Marie, Metro Transit’s assistant general manger for rail operations.
For the start of service today, 13 of the 14 rail cars Metro Transit had hoped to have operating are ready — 12 will be put on the tracks and the 13th will remain at the rail barn as a spare. To date, 15 cars have been delivered. Car No. 115 arrived last Saturday and has not yet completed safety testing. Car 105, delivered in September 2003, is not yet running properly.
Canadian car-builder Bombardier Inc. is still working on the heating system and train seats are still being tested to improve long-term durability.
The Department of Public Safety report urged Metro Transit to establish a Rail Change Review Committee to review accidents, incidents and any other factors that may require changes in operating procedures or to the rail line itself.
“It’s clear that Metro Transit has a culture of safety that runs through the organization,” said Maj. Kent O’Grady in the office of special operations for the State Patrol, which performed the safety oversight inspection on the rail line.
Minneapolis Star Tribune June 26, 2004
On the eve of its inaugural run for the public, the Hiawatha light-rail line is “a five-year project of mass deception,” Rep. Phil Krinkie, R-Shoreview, said Friday. The longtime opponent of the project complained about the inflated costs of construction and operation.
Standing in front of a 2004 BMW X5 sport-utilty vehicle, Krinkie, flanked by other foes, claimed that it would cost less to lease a luxury SUV for each anticipated new transit rider on LRT than to subsidize the line’s passengers.
According to figures compiled for the Minnesota Taxpayers League, which has opposed the line, the annual cost per rider for is expected to be $11,305. The annual lease of the BMW SUV is $8,928.
The League said federal figures estimate that 38 percent of passengers will be new transit users, while 62 percent will be existing bus riders simply changing modes of transportation. The figures were compiled by Wendell Cox, one of the best-known critics of the nation’s recent rush to rail.
“It costs that much to make this train go,” said David Strom, president of the Taxpayers. “The one problem with that is that the train has made driving so difficult wherever it goes.”
Approved at $400 million in 1997 dollars, the Hiawatha line’s budget has grown to $715 million in today’s dollars. Annual operating costs have risen from $10 million to about $16.5 million.
With plans being examined for an additional light-rail line, possibly in the central corridor between Minneapolis and St. Paul, along with commuter rail proposed for the northern suburbs, Krinkie said the cost overruns and failed expectations of Hiawatha should serve as a wake-up call.
“Hopefully we’ve learned from our mistake that by spending three-quarters of a billion dollar on trolley cars that run 11 miles, we won’t repeat that mistake,” Krinkie said. He was joined at a Capitol n ews conference by Sen. Mady Reiter, R-Shoreview, who held up a pair of running shoes to suggest that twice as many people reach their destinations by walking as by using public transit.
Sen. Wes Skoglund, a Minneapolis DFLer whose district includes portions of the Hiawatha line, is a supporter of the line, but he acknowledged that congestion issues related to the crossings along Hwy 55 still need to be worked out.
But Skoglund pointed out that about 180 cities competed for the federal money to make the line possible and predicted that the Twin Cities will be better off because of its construction. “With these guys [Krinkie, Reiter and the Taxpayers League], I don’t think you’d have paved roads yet,” Skoglund said. “They are totally against using government money for anything.”
Seattle Times June 26, 2004
Sound Transit officials were all smiles yesterday after the apparent low bid on a major light-rail construction contract came in 12 percent under the agency’s estimate.
Balfour Beatty Construction of Atlanta bid $82.7 million to retrofit the downtown Seattle bus tunnel for joint rail-bus use — nearly $11 million less than Sound Transit’s estimate.
The contract, which includes construction of a short, dead-end tunnel under Pine Street, is a major component of Sound Transit’s $2.44 billion, 14-mile light-rail line from downtown Seattle to Tukwila. Light-rail director Ahmad Fazel said the low bid for the tunnel work will keep the project on budget and on schedule to open in 2009.
Just six weeks ago, another light-rail bid opening left Sound Transit’s leaders disappointed. The low bid to build two stations and a tunnel through Beacon Hill came in at $280 million, 17 percent above the agency’s estimate.
At the time, Fazel attributed that outcome partly to a lack of competition. The Beacon Hill contract drew just two bidders. “When I found we had five bids (for the downtown tunnel), I knew we were going to have good competition,” Fazel said yesterday.
If Balfour Beatty gets the downtown-tunnel job, it will be the fifth of six major construction contracts to be awarded at a lower cost than Sound Transit had predicted. So far, construction is 3 percent under budget, said Martin Schachenmayr, project-control officer.
The agency plans to apply any savings from the project toward extending a light-rail line from downtown toward the University District.
Preliminary work on the new Pine Street stub tunnel between Seventh and Terry avenues could start in about four months, Fazel said. That tunnel will provide space for trains to turn around.
The 15-year-old bus tunnel under Third Avenue is scheduled to close for 21 months in September 2005. Workers will install new rails, overhead electrical wires, sprinklers and a signal system to keep buses and trains separated.
They also will lower the roadbed in the stations by 6 inches so passengers will be able to walk or wheel themselves directly from the platform onto rail cars and new, low-floor buses.
The bus tunnel originally wasn’t scheduled to close until 2007. When Sound Transit moved up the schedule earlier this year — over the objections of businesses worried about the impact of more buses on city streets — Chief Executive Joni Earl said the change could reduce construction costs.
Yesterday’s bid opening shows that decision was wise, Fazel said. If nothing else, “two additional years of inflation would have been added to the project (costs),” he said.
Balfour Beatty’s projects include a toll road between Austin and San Antonio, Texas, and seismic retrofits of several Bay Area bridges, including the Golden Gate. The firm has an office in Seattle.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER June 26, 2004
With more than two-thirds of the work to build Seattle’s light rail line now bid on, Sound Transit appears to be in good shape: Total bids so far are about 3 percent under its engineer’s estimates for the work.
The latest bid — to retrofit and expand the downtown Seattle transit tunnel — was opened yesterday and brought sighs of relief and smiles from Sound Transit staff. Balfour Beatty Construction, Inc., the apparent low bidder, came in about 12 percent below the engineer’s estimate.
The company, an American subsidiary of a British corporation, said it could do the downtown tunnel work for $82.7 million and committed to do the tunnel expansion under Pine Street in no more than 710 calendar days.
Sound Transit had estimated that the work would cost $93.7 million and specified that the Pine Street portion of the work had to be done in no more than 820 days.
The bidding was set up to provide incentives to get the Pine Street work done as quickly as possible to minimize the impact on nearby merchants, although most of the work will be underground.
Balfour Beatty not only bid the lowest amount but also promised to do the Pine Street work the fastest of any of the five companies bidding.
The entire tunnel project is estimated to take 21 months, said Ahmad Fazel, Sound Transit’s light-rail director. Because of a moratorium on doing work during the holiday shopping season, the picks and shovels won’t come out on Pine Street probably until after Jan. 2, he said. The tunnel itself won’t be closed and buses moved up to surface streets until September of next year.
With concrete and steel prices escalating, Sound Transit has had several less happy bid experiences recently. Most notably, the bid to bore the Beacon Hill tunnel and build the Beacon Hill and McClellan stations, came in 17 percent, or $41.3 million, over the engineer’s estimate last month.
Fazel and other Sound Transit employees had an admittedly uneasy moment yesterday, when the first bid opened — that of RCI Herzog . was announced at $118.4 million, or about 26 percent over the engineer’s estimate. But the rest of the bids were much lower than that and much nearer Sound Transit’s estimate. Three of the five bids were below Sound Transit’s estimate, while two were above it.
Fazel said yesterday’s bid experience underlined the importance of having as many bidders as possible for a project to create competitive conditions. Only two bidders bid on the Beacon Hill work.
“At 2 o’clock when I learned we received five bids, that told me we were going to have good competition,” he said. Fazel said $7 million of the tunnel work is going for repairs being done at King County’s request.
The 14-mile light rail line will run from Westlake Center to South 154th Street about a mile and a half from Sea-Tac Airport. Construction is actively under way on the segment that will run from the downtown tunnel to Beacon Hill and is just getting started in the Rainier Valley. Drilling on top of Beacon Hill is expected to be under way by August.
Yet to go out for bids is the part of the line that will run from the Rainier Valley through Tukwila and three systems contracts, which have to do with traction power, signaling and communications. The line is scheduled to open in 2009.
Balfour Beatty Construction Inc. is based in Atlanta but has offices in Washington, Oregon and California. The other companies bidding yesterday were RCI Herzog, Atkinson/Stacy/Clark, Midmountain/Aecon and Mowat Construction.
Canadian Corporate Newswire June 26, 2004
Bombardier Transportation today participated in the official launch of the first light-rail transit line in the state of Minnesota. The occasion marked the first phase of transit service on the new Hiawatha Line, which will eventually connect major financial and work centers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region. Presiding at the celebration was Mr. Michael Setzer, General Manager, Metro Transit, the regional transit system for Minneapolis/St. Paul. Distinguished guests included Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, U.S. Senator Norm Coleman, U.S. Representative Martin Sabo and Federal Transit Administration Administrator Jenna Dorn.
The Hiawatha project will ultimately establish a 12-mile (20-km) light-rail line providing transit service to downtown Minneapolis, the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America in nearby Bloomington. The first phase covers eight miles (13 kilometers) between the Minneapolis Warehouse District and Fort Snelling. Metro Transit has said it will open the remainder of the line no later than December 31, 2004.
William Spurr, President, Bombardier Transportation-North America, said Bombardier was proud to be affiliated with one of the most advanced public rail transit systems in the country. “We’ve worked closely with the team at Metro Transit on this project, and that relationship is now bearing fruit,” said Spurr. “This is going to be one of the finest light-rail lines anywhere in the United States, and we are pleased that our vehicles will play a part in its success.”
Phase I of the Hiawatha service utilizes 14 Flexity(i) light-rail vehicles (LRVs) manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. The LRVs represent the first North American application of Bombardier’s Flexity light-rail technology. Bombardier is manufacturing a total of 24 Flexity LRVs for Metro Transit based on a contract signed with the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metropolitan Council in January 2001. Metro Transit is the 11th largest transit system in the United States.
The Flexity LRVs employ service-proven engineering concepts from Bombardier Transportation’s low-floor, light-rail products in Europe - including LRV systems in Cologne, Germany and Stockholm, Sweden - while complying with all North American standards and regulations. The design features Bombardier’s 70% low-floor LRV technology, which positions 70% of the vehicle floor and all the entry ways just 14 inches above the top of the rails. The low-floor design facilitates passenger access at grade level, helping transit agencies avoid costly construction of special ramps and access platforms.
Car shells for the LRVs are manufactured at Bombardier Transportation facilities in Sahagun, Mexico with final assembly and testing taking place at Bombardier’s manufacturing site in Plattsburgh, New York.
Light Rail Transit Association June 26, 2004
The Tunisian capital, which operates a 32-km light rail system with 134 German-built high-floor cars, has decided to order 30 Citadis low-floor trams worth EUR 80 million from Alstom to work two new extensions. The Alstom group will also participate in the track and overhead contract (EUR 22 million) for the first of these extensions, due to open in mid-2006.
Light Rail Transit Association 26 June 2004
The first through test run on the new tramway built in the Greek capital took place in mid-June, marking the completion of the infrastructure on the 20-km line. Driver training with the AnsaldoBreda Sirio low-floor trams is now in progress, so that commercial operation can start in mid-July, a month before the start of the Olympic Games.
LRTA website 26th June 2004
The Green Line (originally called line B) will open on Wednesday with free rides between 3pm and 8pm. A 10 minute service will be provided from Sandyford to St Stephen’s Green. From Thursday 1st July until Sunday 4th July services will continue to be free and will operate from 5.30 until 00.30 every day. Trams will run every 10 minutes. The first day of normal operation will be Monday 5th July. From this time all passengers must have a valid ticket before boarding. It is expected that the Red line (lines A & C) will open in the Autumn. Details of fares and other information can be found on the Luas website.
Luas is the proposed light rail system for Dublin and its suburbs. The plans have gone through several phases of revision with much discussion of the merits of street or underground running in the city centre. The most recent plans derive from the report of the Dublin Transportation Office in May 2000 called Platform for Change and incorporate the more advanced portions of the previous plans. The proposed network is shown above with five surface light rail lines with a mixture of street running, reserved track and dedicated right-of-way. This will be complemented by a metro system (not shown above) on totally segregated track including underground tunnels in the city centre. Details including detailed maps, diagrams and illustrations are contained in the official LUAS web site.
Construction has started on the the first two light rail lines: from Tallaght to Connolly Station (formally known as lines A and C), and from Sandyford to St Stephens Green (line B), the latter mostly on the track-bed of a disused railway. Both these lines, which are not connected, are now due to open in summer/autumn 2004. The lines are unconnected, an earlier scheme using on-street running through the city centre being rejected in favour of underground running - now upgraded to Metro status.
Extensions to both lines are already in the detailed planning stage - their implementation mainly dependent on the availability of private finance. The other lines are in the planning stage with the completion of the whole system, if given the go-ahead, originally set for 2010. Recent controversy about public transport plans for Dublin probably mean future lines will re- evaluated once the current scheme is commissioned.
What does the name LUAS stand for? Luas is the Irish word for speed and so (as it is not an abbreviation) should be written Luas rather than L.U.A.S.
The Trams
Twenty-six Citadis 301A vehicles have been ordered from Alstom for Lines A/C. Length: 30 meters. Capacity: 235 people (60 seats). First tram was launched at UITP conference in London in May 2001 and delivered to Dublin in October 2001 where it was on public display for a weekend.
Fourteen additional Citadis 301A vehicles with extra centre sections have been ordered from Alstom for Line B. Length: 40 meters. Capacity: 300 people (80 seats).
The trams (and future Metro cars) are European standard gauge (4’ 8.5”) unlike the existing rail lines in Ireland which adhere to the Irish standard gauge of 5’ 3”.
The Depots
Because the first two lines to be built are physically separate, two depots are being constructed to house the trams. At Red Cow (line A) the buildings were completed in late 2001 ready to accept the first trams. The section of line adjacent to the depot was the first to be commissioned for test running in early 2002. The depot at Sandyford for line B was completed in early 2003.
The Routes
Two lines are under construction. A further three are proposed - but will probably undergo much revision before being authorized.
LUAS 1: TALLAGHT TO CONNOLLY STATION (and later DOCKLANDS)
Incorporates previous plans for Line A and Line C.
This line will run for 15km from Connolly Station, through the north inner- city, crossing the river south at Heuston rail station, before serving St. James, Rialto, Drimnagh, Bluebell, Red Cow, Cookstown and Tallaght. There will be a depot at Red Cow. 8km of track is on-street, the balance being on dedicated alignments and on the central reservation of the main Naas road (N7). Preliminary on-site work for this line started in August 1999. Full-scale construction of the depot started in spring 2000. Construction of the line itself started about June 2001.
First tracks were laid in spring 2002. 20 low-floor trams will carry 2,800 people per hour in each direction with 5 minute headways at peak times. Journey time: 38 minutes.
Line 1 extension: Connolly Station to docklands
Proposals for the National Conference Centre in the Dublin docklands include provision for a tram stop in Mayor Street. This would lie on a proposed extension of Line 1. The extension will terminate at the Point Theatre but its existence is partly dependent on the opening of the National Conference Centre. The outcome of the planning enquiry into the conference centre development which rejected high-rise high-density apartments and offices for this area has put the line extension in doubt although detailed plans for alternative routings have been published.
LUAS 2: ST STEPHEN’S GREEN TO SANDYFORD (and later CHERRYWOOD)
Incorporates Line B: St. Stephen’s Green to Sandyford
This line will largely follow the route of the closed Harcourt Street railway line from the city centre to Sandyford (9km) serving Balally, Dundrum, Milltown and Ranelagh. There will be a short section of street running along Harcourt Street and St. Stephen’s Green West (1km) in the city centre. A depot will be located at the end of the line at Sandyford. 13 low- floor trams will carry 3,000 people an hour in each direction with 5 minute intervals between vehicles at peak time (15 minutes otherwise). This line will be built to a standard to also accommodate metro trains which at a future date may dive underground through the city centre from Ranelagh. The precise details of the Metro have yet to be announced but presumably this means dual running of trams and Metro over the line although this has not been explicitly confirmed. (If not, the surface line to St. Stephen’s Green will have a short life). The line will open in late 2003. Journey time: 22 minutes.
Line B extension: Sandyford to Cherrywood
Plans for the extension of this line to the south, take it away from the old Harcourt Street alignment at Sandyford Industrial Estate, through Stepaside and Ballyogan to Carrickmines, where it rejoins the old railway and can be further extended to Cabinteely and Cherrywood. This extension would be part-finance by the private sector. This extension is also planned to take Metro trains which will eventually be extended to terminate at Shanganagh with an interchange with the DART suburban rail service.
LUAS 3: DUNDRUM TO AIRPORT
This line will branch off from Luas line 2 at Dundrum and will run through the southern suburbs of Dublin, through Harold’s Cross crossing the Liffey at Father Matthew Bridge in the city centre where it has a junction with line 1. It proceeds through the north of Dublin city via Drumcondra, Whitehall and Ballymum, terminating at a possible Metro station at Sillogue close to Dublin Airport. Much of the route will, it seems, be along existing roads. This line is currently in the planning stage.
LUAS 4: LUCAN TO DOCKLANDS
The published route for this line will serve the high density housing in west Dublin in Lucan and Ballyfermot . It joins line 1 at Bluebell and diverges again at Rialto, serving south central Dublin along the South Circular Road and connecting with line 3 at Clanbrassil Street and running concurrently with line 2 for a short distance at Harcourt Street. It eventually will cross the river Liffey on the new Macken Street Bridge terminating at the Point Depot with Line 1. The connection of this line with Lines 1 and 2 and 3 would open the possibility of a variety in routes through and around the city centre between Lucan, Tallaght, Dundrum, Sandyford, the Docklands, Ballymum and the Airport.
LUAS 5: WHITEHALL TO KILBARRACK
This line diverges from Line 3 at Whitehall and serves the North Dublin suburbs of Coolock and Killester, terminating at Howth Junction railway station.
METRO LINES
METRO 1: SHANGANAGH TO AIRPORT (and later to Swords)
Phase 1 of this line was given the government go-ahead in January 2002. It will share track with Luas 2 from Cherrywood to Ranelagh before diving underground through the city centre. Emerging at Broadstone, the line goes north to Finglas along another disused railway line and curves east to terminate at Dublin Airport. Later extensions at both ends will extend to a southern interchange with the DART system at Shanganagh and the north County Dublin town of Swords. However the estimated 4 billion price tag has raised serious concerns and alternative cheaper routes are being evaluated.
METRO 2: TALLAGHT WEST TO CITY CENTRE
METRO 3: FINGLAS TO BLANCHARDSTOWN (and later Tallaght)
Phase 1 of this line was given the government go-ahead in January 2002 along with metro line 1. It will act as a spur from Finglas to the large conurbation in Blanchardstown also serving the site of the proposed National Stadium. the future extension to Tallaght via Liffey Valley will form a western orbital line around Dublin linking major shopping, industrial and residential areas. The National Stadium plan is now paused and, due to costs, the metro line is far from certain.
Other Tentative Rail Plans
Recent reviews of rail services presented to government includes proposals for new rail developments:
Underground heavy rail link through south central Dublin from the National Conference Centre or Connolly Station to Heuston Station via Pearce Station and St. Stephens Green. This could link with the existing Kildare and Maynooth commuter lines, which would be electrified, to form a through service.
Airport Rail Line from existing Maynooth line at Broombridge. The Metro plan had superceded this scheme but, with doubts about finance, this cheaper option is looking much stronger. Another alternative is for a spur to the airport from the DART line at Howth Junction.
Rebuilding of the Navan Rail Line via Clonee, Dunboyne, Dunshaughin and Navan.
Luas progress chart
Luas 1 Luas 2 Line A Line C Line B
Public consultation & design — spring 1999 . Application for LRO July 1998 August 1999 December 1998 Public Enquiry November 1998 December 1999 13th April 1999- 6th May 1999 Report from enquiry December 1998 January 2000 June 1999 Decision to proceed May 1999 September 2000 August 1999 Tendering summer 1999 summer 2000 winter 1999 Contracts signed March 2001 March 2001 March 2001 Construction starts May 2001 May 2001 May 2001 Opening (tentative) August 2003 August 2003 June 2003 Opening (revised) August 2004 August 2004 June 30 2004
Pioneer Press June 27, 2004
More than 30 thousand people crowded into Hiawatha commuter trains Saturday for opening-day rides on the $715 million light-rail line that has been fought over by politicians and transit planners for 25 years.
At some stations on the 8-mile line, people waited in line for two hours to get on the silver and yellow rail cars that swooshed from the Warehouse District of downtown Minneapolis to Fort Snelling in a little over 20 minutes.
“We’re on a train, Olivia, in Minneapolis,” Emily Percy exclaimed to the 5- year-old in her arms as their standing-room-only train rushed south.
“I know!” responded a smiling Olivia Kipling Brownlow, the daughter of a friend.
“It’s a miracle,” said Percy, who lives in Minneapolis and said she plans to look for excuses to ride the train.
All the rides on the train were free Saturday, and they will be free until 9 p.m. today. From 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., buses will transport passengers between the rail stations while the Hiawatha cars are cleaned. Regular paid service — $1.25 for adults and $1.75 during rush hours — will resume at 4 a.m. Monday.
Supporters of the controversial project said Saturday that the Hiawatha Line will not be a real success until it becomes a much bigger part of the Twin Cities’ mass transit system and is linked to a proposed Northstar commuter rail line running northwest to Big Lake, and eventually to another light-rail line running down University Avenue to St. Paul.
“The truth is,” said former Gov. Arne Carlson, who attended Saturday’s opening ceremony, “you have to make a commitment to light rail for the long haul, and you have to figure out a strategy for it to be subsidized financially.”
Rep. Phil Krinkie, R-Shoreview, a light-rail opponent who also attended the opening ceremony, predicted that passenger traffic on the Hiawatha Line will not justify its construction cost or the big operating subsidies it will receive. “The capital costs for these are huge when you look at the people served … I don’t think these train cars, come Monday morning, are going to be filled to capacity,” Krinkie said.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who opposed light rail when he was in the Legislature but has become a fan of the Northstar project, a different, somewhat cheaper version of mass transit by rail, urged Twin Cities residents on Saturday to support the Hiawatha Line. But he said politicians and transit planners should closely evaluate its operations before they commit to another light-rail line. “It’s going to have to be a numbers-based decision,” Pawlenty said after riding the first train to Fort Snelling.
Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell, who Saturday said “world-class regions have world-class transportation systems,” said the council and Pawlenty support construction of high-speed bus routes, to Lakeville and to Rogers, that would connect with the ends of the Hiawatha Line. Bell said he personally also supports a link to downtown St. Paul. “It remains to be determined whether we’ll support rail there or a high- speed busway,” Bell said.
Metropolitan Council planners expect about 9,500 riders a day to use the rail line, which currently ends at a park-and-ride lot at Fort Snelling, during the rest of this year. They predict that after the line is extended to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of American in December ridership will hit 19,300 a day by next summer.
The federal government is paying $424 million of the Hiawatha Line’s $715.3 million construction costs. The state is paying $120.1 million, and Hennepin County and the metropolitan Airports Commission are paying $84.2 million and $87 million, respectively.
Fares will cover a little more than one-third of the $16.5 million annual operating cost. Hennepin County property taxes will pay about 24 percent, and the state will pay about the same percentage. The federal government will pay about 19 percent during the Hiawatha Line’s early years.
The line runs beside Hiawatha Avenue on a right-of-way that was cleared of homes in the 1960s for a road project that never was built. The feasibility and economics of a light-rail line were debated for years, and for a long time legislators expected that if any rail line were constructed it would link the Minneapolis and St. Paul downtowns.
In 1988, after several years of discussion, Hennepin County Board members planned an ambitious 29-mile project that was to fan out in five directions from a downtown Minneapolis tunnel and was expected to cost $497 million.
Later, strong support for light rail from Carlson and former Gov. Jesse Ventura, coupled with the availability of federal transit funding and the cleared corridor along Hiawatha, finally made the project a reality. Ground was broken in January 2001.
On Saturday, streams of people poured onto the Hiawatha’s two-car trains at every stop, but especially at both ends, at Fort Snelling and in the Warehouse District.
In the early afternoon, the line was more than two blocks long in the Warehouse District, and there was a two-hour wait at Fort Snelling. Transit officials planned to run six two-car trains and hold two cars in reserve; after they saw the crowds they quickly put the two spare cars into service and added bus service between the train stations.
People who made it through the lines raved about the train rides they got. “I like trains, and I like going through the tunnel,” 6-year-old Steven Reamer of Mendota Heights said of the Hiawatha Line’s brief dip under Minnehaha Parkway.
Steven, a brother and sister and his parents, John and Jill Reamer, got on the train at Fort Snelling and rode it to the Warehouse District. They planned to spend the afternoon downtown, then catch the train back.
Jill Reamer, who works at American Express downtown, said she may drive to the park-and-ride lot at Fort Snelling and use the train to commute. But she said precautions that transit officials have been taking to prevent car-train collisions along Hiawatha as the train was tested in recent weeks have dramatically slowed her normal morning commute down Hiawatha. “It’s horrible,” she said. “It’s at least another 20 to 25 minutes.”
Josh Collins, an employee of the rail project, said motorists have experienced, and will continue to experience, more red lights on Hiawatha Avenue than they did before testing began on the rail line. But he said current traffic delays will be reduced.
New York Times June 27, 2004
WASHINGTON — On the subway a few weeks after the Madrid bombings, I noticed a parcel under a seat. I asked other passengers, but no one claimed the object. I looked inside the parcel and saw some papers and an elaborately wrapped object the size of a grapefruit. The train pulled into Metro Center, the main station of the Washington subway. I contemplated that I might be about to pick up a bomb, but then I’d already been stupid enough to look inside, so I carried out the package, put it on a bench and told the station manager. Officers appeared quickly, though trains continued running and people kept milling past.
When I first saw the package, should I have used the emergency intercom to alert the motorman? Should he have stopped the train and evacuated everyone? When I alerted the manager, should she have closed the station, bringing the entire system to a halt? Had it turned out to be a bomb, pundits second-guessing the disaster that followed might have said the station manager and I were fools for not pushing the panic button. But what if a trainload of frantic people had been evacuated into a dark tunnel with a high-voltage rail, all because of an elaborately wrapped grapefruit?
This is an example of the practical limits to security in the post-9/11 world. With the introduction of sophisticated airport inspections, bomb-screening of checked bags, security stops at building entrances, better passport controls, “smart borders” with improved computers and identity scanners, and hundreds of radiation and bioweapon detectors installed in urban areas, security has significantly improved in just three years. This summer, residents of New York and Boston are seeing lots of extra patrols, bomb-sniffing dogs and police drills, in preparation for the political conventions.
But some of what’s being done is primarily psychological: to make people feel more safe, regardless of whether they really are. And though the government must try any reasonable idea to counter terrorism, in the next round of security improvements to come there will be serious limits to practicality and affordability.
Consider train safety. Recently the Transportation Security Administration tested screening of Amtrak passengers at the New Carrollton, Md., stop. Riders walked one by one through a device that sniffs the air for molecules associated with explosives. Probably anyone carrying a bomb would have been detected. But Amtrak has about 500 stations, half unstaffed whistle-stops. To add bomb-sniffers, plus personnel, to every station would be a significant expense.
The New Carrollton stop is a quiet suburban station handling roughly 1,000 passengers a day. The Washington subway system carries half a million passengers a day. Many enter at downtown stations that are mob scenes; to make everyone walk through sniffer machines would be incredibly cumbersome. The New York subway system carries 3.8 million passengers a day, boarding at 468 stations. Screening all those riders would be a logistical nightmare, even if cost were no object. Many New York stations would need extensive re-engineering, and the lines would stretch up the stairs.
And cost is an object. An estimated $11 billion has been spent to improve American airline security since Sept. 11, 2001. The airlines board about 1.5 million passengers a day. With the New York subway system alone carrying more than twice that, screening might cost about twice as much as has been spent on airline security.
Maybe there’s a way to avoid subway passenger screening. Starting in July, Boston transit police will hand-search the packages of travelers on the storied T subway system. Riders will continue to board unscreened. Officers, some with explosives-sniffing dogs, will wander through cars and demand that passengers open packages, briefcases or backpacks. Already there is an excruciating legal dispute about whether the officers should be scanning for those who fit terrorist profiles, or making random searches: that is, ordering grandma to show what’s in her purse while ignoring the Middle Eastern-looking young man with the backpack.
Set aside the legalities and concentrate on the practical. The Boston system has 247 transit officers, only a fraction of whom will be on trains at any particular time. What are the odds officers will stumble onto the one person, among hundreds of thousands, who is carrying something dangerous?
People will feel safer knowing that officers are there, and making people feel safer may be the next best thing to actual safety. In the months after 9/11, National Guard units in battle fatigues patrolled airports: those camouflage outfits would hardly have helped Guard members blend in against a backdrop of vacationers and Chick-Fil-A stands. Officers with assault rifles now walk Times Square, though the chances an assault rifle will be needed are slim.
Amtrak now demands that ticket buyers show a driver’s license or similar identification. Maybe this will catch a lone deranged person, but the 9/11 attackers made sure their paperwork was in order. Many office buildings now require visitors to show a driver’s license, which a low-wage desk worker glances at perfunctorily. During the Democratic National Convention in July, the police will close much of the highway system of downtown Boston.
How much has been spent on real action? Steven M. Kosiak, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington research group, estimates that since Sept. 11, 2001, about $26 billion has been invested in improving the security of critical infrastructure in the United States. Domestic security over all (personnel and preparedness as well as infrastructure) is a $41.3 billion line in the current federal budget, and President Bush has requested $47.4 billion in fiscal 2005, a request that includes allotments like $3.6 billion to stockpile vaccines and antidotes. Domestic antiterrorism spending is now at nearly 10 times the level of President Bill Clinton’s final budget for it. Nonetheless, last year a Council on Foreign Relations report said domestic security was drastically underfinanced.
Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, says he wants still higher spending. He advocates 100,000 more firefighters, 5,000 new police officers trained specifically for antiterrorism, special funds for states and cities whenever an orange-level security alert is issued and other new investments.
But money for more security must be weighed against other priorities. The Council on Foreign Relations study, for example, noted, “Only 10 percent of fire departments in the United States have the personnel and equipment to respond to a building collapse.” Yet should most fire departments have millions of dollars’ worth of equipment to handle a building collapse, when the chances of this happening in any one place, even any one big city, are tiny?
Further improvements in security may prove impractical, or threats to liberty. Should bus passengers be screened? Israel, that most security- conscious of nations, has found bus attacks nearly impossible to stop. Should all cars be inspected before entering parking garages? The first World Trade Center attack involved a van bomb in the parking garage. (Cars entering the parking lots at many federal buildings are now inspected; this is not done at most commercial lots under private skyscrapers.) Should everyone carry an identity card with “biometric” data coded into it? The economic considerations are just as daunting. Mr. Kosiak estimates $407 billion has been spent in the wake of 9/11, a figure that includes military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. If the estimate is correct, then more than 1 percent of the gross domestic product since 9/11 has gone to security improvements and to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. National prosperity has declined slightly as a result.
Extra security layers also burden the economy. Roadblocks slow the movement of goods; complex inspections of shipments add to processing costs; restricting entry to the United States of the 99.9999 percent of foreign citizens who mean no harm is bad for tourism, for movement of intellectual capital and other aspects of the economy. One reason America has prospered is that it invested heavily in removing friction from the economy by making trade, travel and transactions as convenient as possible. Since 9/11, “we’ve been putting the friction back in,” Brian Michael Jenkins of the RAND Corporation has noted.
Consider movement of shipping. Some 20,000 shipping containers a day arrive at United States ports, with perhaps 1 percent inspected. An estimated 250 million shipping containers are in motion around the world. The Central Intelligence Agency is believed to have concluded that a crude atomic bomb or other terror weapon is far more likely to arrive in the United States via shipping container than on a missile from a rogue state.
But 20,000 shipping containers per day cannot be fully inspected without significantly slowing the economy. The Department of Homeland Security has a program to place American inspectors overseas at ports like Rotterdam and Singapore. But there’s a practical limit to how secure shipping can be, just as there are practical limits to many ideas to improve security.
In a world of six billion souls, all it takes is one person a day willing to commit suicide to cause harm and sustain the sense of civilization in jeopardy. Governments will keep trying to improve public safety, but no matter how much is spent, there may be a limit to buying security against that one person.
Charlotte Observer June 27, 2004
The charming Charlotte Trolley will make a fun outing when your in-laws come to town.
They’ll laugh when the motorman reaches the end of the line and asks passengers to help him turn the trolley around.
Everyone stands up and slides their seat’s moveable back forward. Then they sit down again, facing the opposite direction. Suddenly everyone is facing “forward” as the motorman drives the trolley from a second set of controls at the car’s other end.
So maybe you already knew how to “turn the trolley around.”
Here are a few things you may not know about the seven-day-a-week trolley service, which officially starts Monday.
- The $1 fare covers only about 10 percent of the cost. Charlotte Area Transit System estimates it will collect about $100,000 in fares and spend $1.1 million on the service over the next 12 months. Its half-cent sales tax will make up the difference.
- Average speed is 12 to 15 miles per hour. A passenger getting on at the East Boulevard station will reach Second Street in 10 minutes or Ninth Street in 18 minutes.
- Technology has not caught up with the trolley. A security officer gets off at each crossing with a hand-held stop sign to halt cars. Two workers in the Charlotte Convention Center close doors to keep conventioneers from walking over the track and then open garage-style doors so the trolley can pass through the building. Those duties will be eliminated by electronic controls when light-rail trains start running on that track in 2006.
- Charlotte has only one track and one streetcar, so trolley traffic isn’t a problem for now. But when two more trolleys start running this fall, some of them will have to be side-tracked on a siding for a few minutes as another trolley passes by.
All that leads to the most frequent question I hear about the trolley: Why did Charlotte and CATS build only one track? Answer: They had to use their own money.
That second track won’t be needed until CATS starts running light-rail trains. So it held off building the track until the state and federal government agree to pay 75 percent of light-rail’s cost, including that second track.
So tell your taxpaying out-of-town in-laws how much you’ll appreciate their contribution.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri June 27, 2004
The region’s transit agency is threatening to dump the four engineering companies overseeing construction of its new $550 million light-rail extension because of project delays and management problems.
As a result, Metro, which operates MetroLink in Missouri and Illinois, may have to take a larger role in managing the massive public works project at a time when the agency itself is struggling financially and has only a modest cushion to absorb cost overruns.
MetroLink’s 8-mile extension from Forest Park to Shrewsbury is the agency’s most ambitious project since 2001, when it opened a new segment in St. Clair County. The extension is one of the most expensive public construction projects in the region, second only to Lambert Field’s $1 billion runway expansion.
Construction-related problems have plagued the MetroLink project in recent months. The fallout with the project engineering team is just the latest, and it could further set back the project’s targeted opening date of May 2006.
Metro has sent to the Cross County Collaborative two letters of default, a measure that begins the process of taking the work out of the contractors’ hands.
Cross County Collaborative is a joint venture of four engineering companies: Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas Inc.; STV Inc.; Jacobs Civil Inc.; and Kwame Building Group Inc. They are the prime contractors for the design and construction management work. The construction management portion of the contract provided oversight for the project’s schedules and timelines, Metro President and Chief Executive Larry Salci said. The design management part was responsible for the project’s overall design.
The rift between Metro and the collaborative is outlined in a June 15 letter from Salci to St. Louis County Council Chairman Richard “Skip” Mange, R-Town and Country. The letter is part of public documents the county compiles for its weekly council meetings.
The county is the largest source of income for Metro’s transit system. “It has now been eight months since the notice of default for design services and the CCC has not cured the design defaults,” Salci said in the letter.
The Metro chief executive said the collaborative “was not satisfactorily managing and coordinating” its tasks and “continued to allow the schedule to slip.”
Metro may have to take over the duties that are now handled by the companies. The transit agency placed help-wanted ads in the June 13 Post-Dispatch looking for staff to handle those functions in-house. “In the event they don’t cure the default, we’re protecting taxpayers’ interests by strengthening our internal capabilities,” Salci said.
While rare, it is not unheard of for a government agency to fire a contractor and take over a major construction project. Twice, the General Services Administration fired contractor Morse Diesel International Inc. of Chicago because of delays during the construction of the Eagleton U.S. Courthouse in downtown St. Louis. The second time, in 1999, the GSA took over as its own general contractor.
Richard Hardcastle, attorney for the collaborative, on Friday acknowledged that his clients had received the letters of default from Metro. He said he could not say anything else because he couldn’t reach them.
The first letter, on Oct. 24, concerned the collaborative’s design work. On June 11, the agency sent its second letter to the collaborative regarding its performance as construction manager. The companies have 30 days from that date to resolve the complaint. “They have a chance to cure the default, and they’re in the process of curing the default,” Salci said.
It’s unclear just how seriously troubled the MetroLink construction project is or what the potential impact could be to Metro or taxpayers, who in 1994 passed a quarter-cent sales tax to pay for expanding the MetroLink system. Unlike most other light-rail projects, local taxpayers are picking up the entire tab for the Forest Park to Shrewsbury segment.
Funding crunch looms
Metro, which is instituting a 20 percent fare increase Monday on its buses and light-rail system to help fund its current operations, has acknowledged that it would need to seek a tax increase in 2006 to avoid huge funding shortages. Salci declined to say whether he thought the collaborative would be able to meet the requirements in time. He also declined to release copies of the default letters on Friday.
Mike Fausz, chairman of Metro’s board of commissioners, said members haven’t been briefed on the default situation, and couldn’t comment on the possibility of delays.
One problem between Metro and its contractors has been incomplete drawings. Contractors have complained that they are not getting enough information to do their work and have requested clarifications from Metro. The result might cost Metro more time and money.
Metro first hired the collaborative on May 5, 2000, when officials signed a $40.75 million contract for design and construction management that would end on May 4 of next year. At that time, Metro expected the extension to open by May 30, 2005.
After project delays, Metro negotiated with the collaborative in December 2002 a split of the contract, one for design and the other for construction management. The new construction management contract gave the collaborative “a clean start,” Salci wrote.
Mange said Friday he and Salci had discussed Metro’s problems with the collaborative before Salci sent his letter. Metro should take the steps it needs to keep the extension construction going smoothly, Mange said. “We want to see it built and done on time and within the budget,” he said.
Workers began construction on the light-rail extension in May of last year. Almost from the start, contractors have run into delays.
Utilities had not removed their facilities from the construction areas when the contractors were ready to work there. Delays in relocating utilities have slowed excavation work for MetroLink tunnels along Forest Park Parkway.
More recently, residents living in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood complained that dump trucks were rumbling through their streets. Metro had to sue St. Louis and obtain a court order to let the trucks through.
Cross County Collaborative
Parsons, Brinkerhoff, Quade and Douglas Inc.: Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas has engineered highways, subways, bridges, airports and tunnels around the world. It built the New York City subway system. The company had managed construction of Boston’s Big Dig, a tunnel and related expressway improvements through the city’s downtown. The company was lead consultant of a team that recommended in 1971 that the St. Louis region build a $1.5 billion 86-mile rapid transit system, much of it underground.
Jacobs Civil Inc.: Jacobs Civil Inc., a subsidiary of Jacobs Engineering, has been active in St. Louis area projects, including work as a managing partner for Lambert Field’s $1 billion airport expansion. It has worked on other area projects including the new St. Louis County Jail, two publicly-owned parking garages in Clayton and the Thomas F. Eagleton federal courthouse. Several years ago Jacobs purchased the Sverdrup engineering company, a prominent St. Louis company. Sverdrup was in the team of consultants that recommended in 1971 an 86-mile rapid transit system for St. Louis.
- STV Inc.: STV entered the transportation industry more than 50 years ago. Its projects include highways, bridges, airports, ports, railroad and transit systems. It has worked on the Big Dig in Boston, the Betsy Ross Bridge between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and Southern California’s light rail system.
- Kwame Building Group Inc.: Based in St. Louis, Kwame opened in 1991 with a handful of employees. The company has since expanded and handles projects nationwide. Locally, it has worked on several large regional projects, including work for Lambert Field and MetroLink. The company won the Mayor’s Spirit of St. Louis Award in 2003.
The Boston Globe June 27, 2004
An update on repairs to MBTA commuter rail cars, which do not seem to be going as well as planned based on a correspondence between T officials and Joe of Norwood , who wrote that car shortages and air-conditioning failures on his Franklin Line were getting worse, not better.
Bob of Shrewsbury has noticed the same thing on the Worcester line. On Friday, Bob wrote that “the 7:24 out of Westborough never showed. The 7:54 out of Westborough never showed on time. However, around 8:30 the train that was reportedly the 7:54 finally showed up getting us to Boston around 10 a.m.
“Given the operations center kept telling people the train had left Worcester, I considered contacting the MBTA police to report the missing train,” he added. “I would have to estimate that well over 100 people left the Westborough station to drive in to Boston, which seems to defeat the whole point of the commuter rail. Who knows how many people left all the other stations along the Worcester line to drive into Boston.”
In late May, we wrote daily about MBTA commuter rail passengers being packed into sometimes stifling commuter rail cars as the T and officials at the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad, or MBCR, struggled to correct a shortage of rail cars and broken AC systems.
A month later, the pressure is mounting to get these cars fixed and online in light of the heavy, heavy, heavy ridership expected both before and during the Democratic National Convention.
After Joe complained via e-mail to Stephen Jones, chief of the T’s commuter rail , Jones replied, saying “We are disappointed that MBCR [the contractor that operates and maintains commuter rail] has not made more progress in reducing and ultimately minimizing the number of hot cars.”
There has been some progress, according to T spokesman Joe Pesaturo , who said of the original 143 coaches identified as having problems with their air-conditioning systems, more than half have been repaired.
He said about 70 cars still require some level of repair, and 36 of those have been removed from service. In fact, “MBCR maintenance personnel are working night and weekends to repair these cars and get them back in service,” Pesaturo said.
To help speed up the repairs to AC units on the double-decker coaches, he said, a second elevated platform has been erected at the Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility to allow more workers to fix the units, which are located on the roofs of the bi-level cars.
Still, on Friday morning, MBCR was 19 coaches short of the contractually mandated number of 335. MBCR has told T officials it expects to return the fleet of 377 coaches to full capacity next month.
Asked if MBCR will have these cars working and online by convention time, Pesaturo would only say: “That’s a very attainable goal.”
The MBTA’s new Super Station opens Monday at 7:15 a.m., taking the Green Line underground at North Station for the first time. The $111 million station will unite the Orange and Green Line train platforms at one level.
At the same time, the delayed shuttle bus service on the northern portion of the Green Line began Friday, marking the end of elevated subway service between Haymarket and Lechmere . The bus shuttles will be in operation now for the next year.
Boston Herald June 28, 2004
BOSTON - Civil rights groups said Monday that the MBTA’s proposed searches of bags and packages on subway and commuter trains would be unconstitutional, and urged riders to not give their consent.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority wants to begin random searches next month, an anti-terrorism measure it plans to have in place before the July 26-29 Democratic National Convention. The civil rights groups said they’ll file a lawsuit to stop the T from instituting the policy - which would be the first of its kind in the country.
``Public transportation is a community resource that should be available to everybody without requiring people to sacrifice their constitutional rights in order to use it,’’ said Michael Avery, president of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
Avery and leaders of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the American Friends Service Committee held a news conference outside the Downtown Crossing MBTA station to announce their public awareness campaign, a precursor to their lawsuit.
The policy, which officials have not finalized, would violate Fourth Amendment rights protecting people against unreasonable searches, and would likely bring unwarranted scrutiny on Arabs and Muslims, said Avery.
``Our concern is that the proposed security measures will further institutionalize discrimination against the Arab, Muslim, and South Asian communities,’’ said Sadaf Kazmi, head of the American-Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee.
MBTA Police Chief Joseph Carter said the policy, which will include explosive-sniffing dogs, was in part a response to the March 11 train bombings that killed 191 people in Spain.
The chief of police has pledged to implement the policy in a fair and responsible manner and in a way that complies with an individual’s constitutional rights,’’ spokesman Joe Pesaturo said Monday. ``We ask people to consider the safety and security implications that are foremost in the minds of MBTA officials.’’
The civil rights groups said they would distribute buttons that state ``I do not consent to a search’’ to riders at MBTA stations this week. They said riders can reject a search, but then would have to exit the station property.
Their plan drew mixed reactions from subway riders who stopped to listen to the news conference.
If they had searched people like they were supposed to, 9-11 wouldn’t have happened,’’ said Tresa Williams, 19, of Boston. ``I’ve got no problem with it.’’
Judy Meredith, 65, of Boston, suspects her bags won’t get searched.
If I happen to be brown or look Middle Eastern, I’d be in trouble because those are the ones they’re going to search,’’ said Meredith, who is white.
Newsday (New York June 28, 2004
The 1,000 business cards were printed at Staples for $25. “I only wanted 500,” the bearded inmate in a gray jumpsuit was saying on Rikers Island.
The cards included the image of a locomotive with the words, “INDEPENDENT RAILROAD SAFETY CONSULTANT… Captain Darius McCollum.”
New York’s most notorious transit phony said in a jailhouse interview Friday that all he needed was one of those cards to get into secure areas at places like Pennsylvania Station. The card, he said, also helped him get behind the controls of Metro North and Long Island Rail Road trains.
His claims, which could not be independently corroborated, seem to expose holes in an important segment of America’s sometimes hapless homeland security efforts. These have included money for stepped-up surveillance of tracks, tunnels, bridges and stations and for more guards, cameras and bomb-sniffing dogs.
“It’s so easy because nobody really questions anything,” McCollum said of what he termed lax railroad and subway security. “They don’t really challenge you. Very few people actually say, ‘Who are you? What do you do? Let me see some ID.’”
But McCollum, 39, was speaking from Rikers because he was challenged on June 11 when he walked into the LIRR train yard in Jamaica wearing a hard hat and safety vest and carrying several railroad keys. He had just spent 3 1/2 years behind bars for sneaking into a subway control tower in Manhattan.
In late April, fresh out of prison, McCollum had the safety consultant cards printed and started pretending again.
He strolled around subway construction sites unencumbered. He said he chatted up an LIRR transportation manager in a Penn Station crew room before being allowed to take an out-of-service train to the West Side rail yards. He said he also convinced the engineer of a Metro North train to let him operate the M-3 locomotive for a dozen stops from Mamaroneck in Westchester County, through the Bronx and into Grand Central, collecting and dropping off passengers. This happened one week before his arrest in Jamaica.
“It is scary,” McCollum said with a chuckle. “The rails are a wide-open target. It’s almost like anything goes.”
On Capitol Hill last week, a Federal Transit Administration official spoke of the challenges in balancing open transit with the need for security. Before their destruction on Sept. 11, 2001, the World Trade Center and Fulton Street subway stations alone handled more than 380,000 people each day - the equivalent of the entire population of Miami, Sacramento or Pittsburgh. More than 1,600 people per minute hurry through dozens of access points into Penn Station during a typical rush hour.
Still, of the billions already spent on transportation security, all but a sliver has been devoted to air travel.
On March 11, 10 explosions ripped through four commuter trains in Madrid, killing nearly 200 people and injuring more than 1,500. Since then, transportation officials have begun to ask: What about our trains?
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about new physical barricades, video surveillance systems, motion detectors, and chemical and radiological detection systems.
When McCollum was asked to assess MTA security during an interview, he painted a disturbing portrait. “Doors are left open all the time, buses are left unsecured - the doors to different rooms, crew rooms,” he said. “I was hanging out over on Delancey Street the other week. They have a big construction site in the subway there with outside contractors, on the F and J lines. Everything is open. Nobody ever asked me who I was. Anybody could go in.”
“A few people challenge you,” he continued. “I would show them my business card. ‘Oh, who hired you, the MTA?’ they would ask. ‘Yeah, the MTA,’ I would say. ‘Go right ahead.’”
McCollum said he often dropped the names of actual transit and railroad supervisors to get equipment and access to facilities. He insisted he isn’t alone. “It’s a widespread thing,” he said of people who masquerade as transit and railroad workers. “I know people who do dispatchers. I know people who do conductors and railroad clerks. And you would think they’re the real person that’s supposed to be there.”
McCollum’s supporters say that he suffers from a social disorder similar to autism, known as Asperger syndrome. Sufferers become obsessed with specific topics, such as train timetables or locomotives.
The conditions of his parole required that he stay off subway trains and New York City Transit properties. So McCollum turned to the commuter lines. “I know I’m too well-known in the subway,” he admitted. “That’s why I was avoiding the subway. I was going to other places like the LIRR and Metro North. … I feel the need to be part of the system.”
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN June 28, 2004
A weekend of free rides is over, and today Metro Transit will start collecting fares on the Hiawatha light-rail line.
Tickets can be purchased at machines on the platform.
Barrier-free boarding allows passengers to get on the train without passing through a turnstile or feeding a fare box. But Metro Transit police will be asking riders to show their tickets or passes before entering or leaving the train, as well as when riding, said Bob Gibbons, director of customer services and marketing.
There is $100 fine if a rider doesn’t have a ticket.
One caution: Buy individual tickets only for immediate use. They are good only for 2 1/2 hours from time of purchase. During that time, a ticket holder can take unlimited rides on trains and buses.
Rail riders have the option of the immediate ticket purchase or a $40 rail pass. The pass is good for a month’s worth of rides during the month in which it was purchased. The July rail pass will cover the few remaining days of June, Gibbons said.
The Go-To card, a new transit debit card, isn’t available yet. When introduced later this year, the card will let rail and bus riders deposit money into an account to pay for fares.
Jack Nelson, chief of Metro Transit police, said fare enforcement will be random but consistent. The goal is to inspect one of every four riders. “If someone doesn’t have the proof of payment and they have the ability to pay, maybe we get off at the next stop and they buy a ticket and have them be grateful we just saved them $100,” he said.
To catch repeat offenders, Metro Transit will keep a database of people who have been warned.
News 14 Carolina June 28, 2004
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Charlotte’s Transportation Committee toured several existing train crossings Monday to determine whether they can be removed to speed up the future light rail route.
After their inspection, committee members will decide whether the city will benefit from losing nearly a dozen crossings. “Well what we’re trying to do is get a better understanding of the impact on grade crossings for the heavy rail commuter rail that will go the north corridor,” said Charlotte City Council member Pat Mumford.
The committee said its job is to ensure public safety before the proposed commuter rail begins its run.
Leaders proposed closing 11 railroad crossings. “The importance today is that right now there’s one train that comes down that track daily,” said at-large council member Susan Burgess. “When we have our commuter rail completed, we will have 25 trips a day, at least. So public safety is going to be extremely important.”
That means taking a look at the 38 railroad crossings that lie within Charlotte’s city limits.
The committee proposed closing 11 of them to ensure the efficiency of a future light rail line. Monday’s tour was a chance for leaders to see what getting rid of those crossings would do to communities. “Today’s trip is to take a look at those, understand the impact of the neighborhood, be it positive or negative,” Mumford said.
Another challenge for leaders will be determining if roads that run parallel to the tracks are safe for heavy vehicles like school buses.
The Irish Times June 28, 2004
Connex, the French company contracted to run Luas for the next five years, has successfully managed transport systems in the 23 markets around the world where it has won contracts, except one.
In Britain, Connex has lost two franchises in the last four years amid accusations of financial mismanagement and operational incompetence.
The largest private transport operator in Europe, Connex has developed a huge international presence with an annual turnover of E3.7 billion. It has 57,000 employees, 4,000 km of rail track and operations on four continents.
In April the company, working with Yarra Trams, secured a AU$ 2.3 billion (E1.3 billion) contract to take over Melbourne’s metropolitan train and tram networks for four years. A month previously it won the franchise to operate the suburban passenger rail services in Auckland, New Zealand.
However, Connex’s track record in the UK is not good. In October 2000 it became the first company in Britain to be stripped of its rail franchise, losing the contract to operate the south-central rail service following complaints over poor punctuality and rundown trains.
This happened a year before the then minister for transport, Ms Mary O’Rourke, announced that Connex had won the E127 million contract to run Luas. Since then, in February 2002, Connex lost its second UK rail operation.
The Connex south-eastern franchise had been due to run until 2006, but its contract was terminated by Britain’s rail regulator, the Strategic Rail Authority in June 2003. The SRA cited Connex’s “failure to meet a detailed action programme of improvements”.
Speaking at the time, the chief executive of Connex in the UK, Mr Olivier Brousse said he was shocked by the “unexpected” decision. “Whilst we acknowledge the SRA’s decision, we strongly disagree with the reasons behind it.”
The company had been in negotiations with the SRA aimed at “restoring economic viability”, but Mr Brousse said Connex had not been given enough time to improve the service.
Connex has consistently denied accusations that it wasted money. Britain was a new market for it, but it was dealing with old infrastructure which, it said, had seen no investment for 40 years.
Connex trains had been criticised for being old and run down, but the company said as part of its negotiations with the SRA it had planned to introduce new trains on all its lines by 2004.
A spokeswoman for Connex in Ireland said the company’s difficulties in the UK would have no bearing on the performance and standards of Luas. “It’s irrelevant to Luas. That was a heavy rail system. It was an old system that Connex had inherited with old stock. There’s no comparison to Luas which is light rail and completely new.”
Luas would be more accurately judged against eight tram or light rail networks Connex manages around the world, she said. Connex runs trams in Barcelona, Berlin, Bordeaux, Goerlitz, Nancy, Rouen, Saint-Etienne, Stockholm and Sydney.
Under the five year Luas contract, the Rail Procurement Agency has the right to terminate the deal if Connex fails to perform satisfactorily.
Connex Transport in Ireland will headed by chairman, Mr Liam Connellan, and managing director Mr Richard Dujardin.
The Irish Times June 28, 2004
1990: An Italian company Ansaldo Transporti proposes reopening the former Harcourt Street railway line as an LRT Light Rail Transit system. Another group headed by Uinseann Mac Eoin, the architect and conservationist, puts forward a heavy rail option calling it “Dart 2”. Both schemes are studied by a working party. Separately, Prof Simon Perry of TCD determines that reopening the old Harcourt Street line with a spur to Tallaght would cost £ 53 million.
February 1992: The reopening of the old Harcourt Street railway line to provide a light-rail system to Sandyford Industrial Estate is approved by Cabinet.
July 1992: Consultants Steer Davies Gleeve appointed. It is widely expected the light-rail system linking Dublin airport with Dundrum and Tallaght will cost about £ 300 million.
1994: Cuts in the National Development Plan 1994 - 1999 result in the deletion of the Ballymun/airport light rail spur. CIE says trams could be running down Grafton Street in five years.
1996: Dr Garret FitzGerald argues that unless Luas goes underground in the city centre near-constant gridlock will result.
1997: The Tallaght to Dundrum LRT is on schedule for completion in 2000, transport minister Mr Alan Dukes tells the Dail. Government allocated £ 100 million for phase one. Public inquiry opens but is adjourned as the new Fianna Fail government announces a report into the underground section in Dublin.
MAY 1998: Cabinet decides to put Luas underground in the city centre. Public inquiry into two separate lines.
August 2000: “We can report that the two main suburban light rail lines from Tallaght to Abbey Street and from Sandyford to St Stephen’s Green are on schedule to be fully in operation three years from now (mid-2003) and in accordance with the government timetable set down in May 1998” - Mr Padraic White, chairman of the Light Rail Advisory Action Group.
“The prospect of an interim service being available by Christmas 2002 as recommended by the Advisory Group remains in place” - Mr White to the minister for public enterprise, Ms O’Rourke.
March 2001: Ms O’Rourke announces the awarding of the contract to build the Luas lines at a cost of £ 500 million (E635m). The main contract is awarded to a joint venture comprising Ansaldo of Italy and MVM of Australia. In October the minister of state, Mr Seamus Brennan, says both lines will be operational in 24 months’ time. First tram goes on display in Merrion Square in November.
2002: Magazine advertisements promises trams will begin running in 2003 and “after that its every five minutes”.
October 2002: The most likely date for operation of trams is in the first quarter of 2004, it is announced. But if construction was delayed, the opening date would be put back beyond the first quarter of 2004, said Mr Frank Allen, chief executive of the Railway Procurement Agency.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri June 29, 2004
Four engineering companies overseeing construction of Metro’s $550 million light-rail extension said Monday that they were surprised the transit agency might be trying to fire them.
Metro, which operates MetroLink in Missouri and Illinois, is threatening to dump the group, alleging project delays and management problems. The fallout could set back the project’s targeted opening date of May 2006. Metro has issued two letters of default against the companies, which form a joint venture called Cross County Collaborative. The letters are a first step in taking the work out of contractors’ hands.
In a statement issued Monday, the collaborative said it believed that it had resolved issues raised in the first letter, issued Oct. 24, which focused on design work.
The collaborative “responded to that letter in February of 2004. CCC has heard nothing further from Metro,” the statement says. The collaborative “assumes that Metro is satisfied with CCC’s response to the points raised in the letter,” the statement says.
MetroLink’s 8-mile extension from Forest Park to Shrewsbury is one of the most expensive public construction projects in the region.
Cross County Collaborative is a joint venture of four engineering companies: Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas Inc.; STV Inc.; Jacobs Civil Inc.; and Kwame Building Group Inc.
The rift between Metro and the collaborative, which was hired in 2000 for $40.75 million, is outlined in a letter June 15 from Metro President and Chief Executive Larry Salci to Skip Mange, the chairman of the St. Louis County Council.
It has now been eight months since the notice of default for design services, and the Cross County Collaborative has not cured the design defaults, Salci said in the letter.
Salci said the collaborative was not satisfactorily managing and coordinating its tasks and continued to allow the schedule to slip.
But the collaborative said the design drawings were on time and drew many competitive bids. And it said the second default letter, issued June 15 about the collaborative’s construction management services, was a surprise.
Adella Jones, a spokeswoman for Metro, declined to comment on the collaborative’s statement. She said the agency would not provide any more information about the issues involved in the default.
M. Celeste Vossmeyer, the agency’s general counsel, said the agency would not release the letters because they could become part of lawsuits.
The collaborative also said Metro may have incurred at least $14 million in additional costs. They are:
- $14 million for 45 proposals for extra and additional design services. - Reimbursement for costs contractors incurred because utilities weren’t moved on time.
Metro has not asked the collaborative to review claims for payment of these costs, the statement said. To the extent these claims are a result of late utility relocations, “these delays would be Metro’s responsibility,” the statement said.
Los Angeles Times June 29, 2004
Worried that the CenterLine light-rail project does not have enough congressional support to win federal funding, Orange County transit leaders on Monday began discussing whether the $1-billion proposal should be put to a countywide vote in November.
Orange County Transportation Authority board members plan to consider a ballot measure at their July 16 meeting in an attempt to resolve long- standing concerns that the project should go to the voters.
Such a countywide vote could be risky, however. Though OCTA officials say recent polls indicate people support light rail in general, if CenterLine were rejected by voters it might derail the project.
“The message we are hearing from Washington is that we are not receiving federal funds because of a lack of consensus in the county,” said Cathryn DeYoung, an OCTA board member and Laguna Niguel councilwoman. “I can’t support the project unless we get federal funding. It’s time to fish or cut bait.”
Monday, DeYoung requested that her colleagues discuss a countywide vote as a possible way to bolster federal support for CenterLine if the public approves the light-rail system. DeYoung said she is concerned that the project does not have enough backing among the county’s congressional delegation to receive the more than $400 million in federal funds the authority is seeking.
As now envisioned, CenterLine would run 9.3 miles from John Wayne Airport to the Santa Ana train station. It would travel through the South Coast Plaza area and the Santa Ana Civic Center, where a spur would take riders to Santa Ana College.
The Federal Transit Administration, which oversees funding for bus and rail projects, has recommended CenterLine for financial assistance. But the actual allocation is determined by Congress, which is grappling with a growing federal deficit and Bush administration efforts to limit transportation money.
Competition for those funds also is expected to be intense as more than $40 billion worth of new transit projects compete for $20 billion that has been set aside for such projects, an amount that could be cut as the federal budget battle unfolds.
While Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein have supported CenterLine, most of the county’s congressional representatives have not.
OCTA board members said it appears that only Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D- Anaheim) is seriously backing the proposal. Support has not been forthcoming, they said, from Reps. Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), Ken Calvert (R-Riverside), Edward R. Royce (R-Fullerton) and Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), whose district includes the CenterLine route.
Cox could not be reached for comment Monday. But in an interview early this year, Cox said, “OCTA has not built the broad base of support needed to fund the project through completion.” Cox said a ballot test for CenterLine might be needed to make sure his constituents are behind a project that will cost taxpayers an estimated $1 billion.
Though some OCTA directors were open to a countywide vote, others — such as Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and former board chairman Tim Keenan — were not. “I don’t know if a vote will satisfy anything,” Keenan said. “I’m concerned about the lack of congressional support, but other areas of the country have done light-rail systems without unified support.”
Some board members said OCTA polls show that a majority of voters support light rail in general. They also note that in the early 1990s, Orange County passed a ballot initiative setting a sales tax for transportation projects, including urban rail systems.
Although there has been general support for light rail in public opinion polls, CenterLine has been cut from 28 miles to 9.3 miles due to a lack of community and political backing. More than two years ago, the project was shelved until OCTA and the Irvine, Costa Mesa and Santa Ana city councils revived it.
Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange), a longtime OCTA board member and former Orange County supervisor, said there have been long- standing questions in the county about whether the public really supports CenterLine. “The project is now on life-support,” Spitzer said. “It is incumbent on OCTA to put this to the voters. We need to get the question out there front and center.”
If the OCTA board approves a countywide vote, it must go before the Orange County Board of Supervisors for final approval. To qualify the measure for the November election, supervisors must act by August.
Last summer, the Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 against the idea of placing CenterLine on the ballot. But Jim Silva, one of the supervisors who opposed the vote, said he is now “very likely” to support it as an OCTA board member. Silva said he originally opposed the ballot measure as a supervisor because it appeared at the time that CenterLine would obtain federal funding — a prospect, he notes, that is now uncertain.
Silva declined to comment on whether he would reintroduce the ballot measure to the Board of Supervisors. He said the issue first needs to be discussed by the OCTA board.
Baltimore Sun June 29, 2004
Southern portions of the light rail system opened to commuters this week - but that didn’t do much to help Ralph Chamberlayne yesterday morning.
The Baltimore resident never made his 8:45 a.m. business meeting at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. He blamed confusion over light rail - including which stations were reopened - for missing his appointment. “I’m going to have to get my own transportation,” Chamberlayne said.
For commuters, the first sign of major progress in the Maryland Transit Administration’s effort to add a second track to the light rail could be seen yesterday, with the reopening of six stations south of Camden Yards to North Linthicum.
The stations had been closed since the end of February - forcing riders to step off trains and instead rely on buses to go from stop to stop.
Commuters routinely complained of crowded shuttles and delays during the construction. Yesterday, they welcomed the chance to be back on trains, even though several stops at the southern end of the line remain closed. “There’s no real time delay,” said Eric Hall, a Baltimore resident.
MTA officials acknowledge that the construction has reduced the number of daily light rail users. More than 25,000 commuters boarded the light rail daily in 2003, and 60 percent came from the southern sections, according to MTA spokesman Richard Scher. He was unable to say exactly how much ridership has decreased.
The problem yesterday seemed to be that dozens of commuters were unaware that the six light rail stops had reopened. “It’s been hectic,” said Tanya Marshall, a Baltimore resident traveling south. After waiting for more than 20 minutes at a bus stop, Marshall learned from a shuttle driver that the light rail was back in business. But by then, she was running late.
Michael Hicks, a Von Paris Moving and Storage employee unaware of the reopened routes, waited 30 minutes at a Camden Yards shuttle stop a block away from the station, before finally boarding the light rail.
Scher acknowledged there was confusion yesterday, but said the construction will benefit the light rail’s thousands of commuters in the long run. Baltimore will boast a more “efficient, reliable, and flexible,” system, Scher said.
So far, the light rail’s double-track project has added a second track along two miles of the southern route. MTA officials say the goal is to prevent trains from having to pull over to allow other trains to pass in the opposite direction. The last few southern stations - Linthicum, Ferndale, Cromwell Station, BWI Airport, and the BWI Business Center - are scheduled to reopen in the fall.
Then, construction shifts north, and MTA officials say there’s a good chance they will close part of the northern route next year, again using shuttles.
By the time the project is completed in 2006, only 2.6 miles of the 30-mile light rail system will be single-tracked. “The project has a lot of growing pains, and we certainly apologize for any inconveniences riders face,” said Scher. But “people understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it; they understand that the finished product will be better than it ever has been before.”
As the cool morning heated up yesterday, Chamberlayne sat on a northbound train, worried about his missed appointment. A light rail conductor offered advice for disappointed travelers.
“You got to leave earlier,” said Jesse McClurkin, an MTA employee of 37 years, as he prepared to move the train. “You can’t leave at 10 and expect to get to your destination at 10:05.”
Business Journal (Minneapolis/St. Paul) June 29, 2004
Metro Transit reported that about 11,800 people rode the Hiawatha Light Rail line Monday, its first day of regular service.
The number exceeded Metro Transit’s goal by almost 25 percent, said Michael Setzer, general manager, in a statement. He noted that some of the passengers might have been just curious and will not become regular users. But, he said “We’re off to a good start.”
The ridership figure is based on a sampling of 30 percent of all train trips operated Monday. Staff members counted the number of customers boarding at each station, regardless of how they reached the light rail line.
Metro Transit said it will next report rail ridership on Tuesday, July 6, covering the first week of service. After that, ridership numbers will be reported monthly, the same way bus numbers are reported.
Commuter Weekly June 29, 2004
Some people like tinkering with old cars. Others love collecting stamps and coins or building model airplanes. Bird watchers, on the other hand, love watching and “collecting” bird species. Then, there are railfans-also known as train spotters, foamers (as in, “foaming at the mouth” when they see a train) and railbuffs. No matter what you call them, there are an estimated 175,000 railfans in the U.S., almost all of whom are men, and they all share one common passion: trains. Clubs, Web sites and even vacation excursions all serve to feed their passion for trains.
According to Rob Buckman, a railfan and owner of 3RI, a Web site dedicated to railroad images, the casual observer might not notice that trains are all that different. You’ve seen one train … you’ve seen them all, right? But, stresses Buckman, “Rarely will two trains be exactly alike. The engines pulling that train blocking the crossing and made you late for work? They might have been GP38-2s, an engine that is quickly fading from the scene like the steam engines of years gone by. Who cares? It is the same type of person who cares and knows about the old muscle cars, like an Olds Cutlass 442 or Barracuda.”
For many years, railfans were largely left alone, allowed to document their train sightings with cameras (most railfans are photographers, documenting trains through their lenses), and sometimes documenting engine paint schemes, engine numbers, number of cars, and train frequency in well-worn notebooks. But then came September 11, and, much later, train bombings in Madrid, Spain. Suddenly, an innocent pastime became viewed as maybe something a bit more sinister. Could that man with a camera really be a terrorist plotting out the best way to derail or bomb a train, or is he merely a railfan pursuing a hobby?
“Anyone seen taking photographs is going to be questioned,” said Richard Maloney, a spokesman for SEPTA, Philadelphia’s public transit authority, in a recent Time magazine about railfans. “The wide-open spaces and the freedom we have enjoyed to meander almost anywhere is gone.”
It’s a sentiment shared by John Almeida, profiled in the Time magazine article, who chases train every day during lunch hour. He sets up four video cameras on tripods beside the tracks and waits, listening to his scanner. Over the past 15 years, he has shot hundreds of hours of video and tens of thousands of pictures. And since September 11, he has been mistaken for a terrorist about once a month and has been followed by an Amtrak helicopter, questioned by police and rail workers and described to a 911 dispatch as a “suspicious Middle Eastern male.” (Although Almeida is of Irish Catholic descent.)
But regardless of how you feel about the situation-whether you think that railfans should be left to pursue their hobby or whether you think that railfans should pursue a different hobby in this post-September 11 environment, one thing is clear: no one should ever, ever walk on railroad tracks or enter private rail property without permission. It’s illegal and dangerous, with the consequences sometimes fatal. It will also be viewed by law enforcement as a security risk.
Operation Lifesaver, an organization dedicated to educating the public about railroads and ensuring the public’s safety, began a public outreach program in 1972, in fact, that has helped reduce the number of injuries and fatalities on the tracks by 75 percent. And since it became clear that railfans’ desires were often at odds with the desires of the Department of Homeland Security, Operation Lifesaver reached out to railfans with the Railfan Tips and Security Advisory, developed in cooperation with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
“Nearly 1,000 people die each year because they do not understand railroads,” Operation Lifesaver President Gerri Hall explains. “They underestimate the power of trains and the dangers around the rails. In particular, children learn from the example of their siblings and older friends, based on what they see, not what they hear.”
Operation Lifesaver’s complete Railfan Tips and Security Advisory is available online, but key points of Operation Lifesaver’s Safety Message which apply to everyone-include:
Do not trespass on railroad property or rights-of-way. It is illegal, it can be deadly, and you also may appear to be a serious security risk. Remember, railroad property may extend 200 feet on either side of the tracks. Do not enter private rail property without permission. Never walk out on a railroad bridge or trestle. Stay out of railroad tunnels. Do not climb on railroad property such as signal bridges, cabinets or other structures. Never climb on or crawl under railroad cars or equipment. Obey all highway-rail grade crossing signs and signals. Of course, both rail enthusiasts and the public can be a big part of the safety/security solution by always cooperating with law enforcement and, any time you see suspicious activities near the tracks, reporting them to local authorities.
By following these guidelines, pedestrians and rail riders can enjoy train travel and help maintain the security of our nation’s transportation system.
Arizona Republic June 29, 2004
Contaminated sites along the future light-rail route will be tested and analyzed for cleanup, now that the city has received a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The $400,000 grant, the maximum given in a single award, will be used to better define the contamination at selected “brownfield” sites, said Donn Stoltzfus, an environmental-programs specialist for the city. Brownfields are areas that have some form of contamination, usually due to soil or water pollution, that hampers redevelopment.
The southwestern corner of Camelback Road and Central Avenue will be the first site to benefit from the federal grant. This is where the rail line will make a crucial turn, as well as the site of a park-and-ride lot for rail commuters. The corner also the site of old gas stations, carwashes and dry cleaners.
The state already has a well at the site, pumping out groundwater that has been polluted by leaks from those former businesses. But Stoltzfus said the brownfields money will be used to help define the source, as well as map out a plan for removing it permanently.
The city should be able to deal with another three to five parcels with the grant money Stoltzfus said, although others have not yet been identified.
The grant can be used to analyze properties within 100 feet of the rail line, to encourage redevelopment along the rail corridor.
The grant comes from EPA’s brownfields program. Communities in 42 states and Puerto Rico were among the grant recipients.
Charlotte Observer June 29, 2004
Talk about a triumphant return. The vintage Charlotte Trolley carried standing-room-only crowds Monday when it returned uptown after a 66- year absence.
The 77-year-old streetcar was too full to pick up passengers at several stops as it made its hourly runs between uptown and the South End. Those passed by received coupons for a free ride.
About 800 passengers had ridden by 4 p.m., averaging 72 passengers per trip. The old car can seat 40 adults. Most passengers were visitors from the Moose International convention.
Take a Ride
When: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday- Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Fare: $1 for adults, 50 cents for ages 62 and older and 12 and younger with an adult. Kids 46 inches tall or less ride free with an adult.
Charlotte Observer June 29, 2004
Graves in uptown’s Elmwood Cemetery would not be moved to make room for passenger trains under a tentative agreement between Charlotte and Norfolk Southern railroad.
Charlotte Area Transit System chief Ron Tober said engineering problems have been worked out. He expects the railroad will allow a track change that would make room for passenger trains, keep freight moving and still protect Elmwood.
Tober told the Observer he hopes to announce a formal agreement with the railroad in a few weeks. “I am optimistic we have come up with a plan to keep out of the cemetery,” Tober said.
CATS would run commuter trains on a Norfolk Southern track that’s located on the cemetery’s eastern edge. That freight track would be replaced with a new track east of existing tracks, CATS project manager David Carol said Monday night. “I can’t announce we have solved the problem yet, but we appear to be on our way to doing that,” Carol told a meeting of Friends of Fourth Ward, an uptown neighborhood association.
The state has bought 27 acres east of the cemetery, much of which will be used to build tracks and a station at Graham and West Trade streets. The station would be used by Amtrak, north Mecklenburg commuter trains, Greyhound and CATS buses.
Plans released by the state two years ago called for moving hundreds of marked and unmarked graves to make room for the new passenger train tracks. The state’s plans angered relatives of those buried in Elmwood. Among those protesting was the widow of former Charlotte Mayor Ben Douglas, who is buried in Elmwood.
The exact number of graves affected aren’t known because many are not marked, but opponents say 600 to 900 graves are in that area. They and residents of nearby Fourth Ward insisted the city protect those graves.
Tober said his department was able to persuade Norfolk Southern to consider moving its tracks, something the N.C. Department of Transportation had thought was impossible. “They (told the state) don’t ask us to move our track and don’t mess with our railroad,” Tober said. “All along I didn’t see that was an absolute.”
Tober credits Carol with working out the compromise that calls for adding more tracks and protecting Elmwood. Carol has been negotiating with the railroad since December. “N.C. DOT puts highways through cemeteries all the time. I don’t think they realized the impact it would have on Charlotte,” said Carol. “It was a dumb idea.”
Reached late Monday, cemetery supporter Mark Alexander Palmer says he wants a written commitment from the city that tracks will not be built into the cemetery.
Palmer, whose ancestors are buried in the cemetery, helped form an organization, Historic Preservation of Elmwood and Pinewood Cemetery. That group successfully fought a developer’s plan in 2002 to build a road through the cemetery. It has collected 14,000 signatures against moving the graves.
“I know if we hadn’t bombarded the City Council, if we hadn’t contacted the White House and the governor’s office, this would not have happened,” Palmer said. He also credited Carol. “That man has really pushed and put a lot of time on this,” Palmer said.
Norfolk Southern and CATS also are talking about whether CATS will buy the tracks or buy the use of the freight line between uptown and Mooresville. CATS also may hire the railroad to operate its trains.
Those diesel-powered trains similar in size to Amtrak’s would begin operating by 2012 and would run two or three times an hour during rush hour and less frequently during the nonpeak periods. They’d travel up to 79 mph and would stop at 10 stations.
LAS VEGAS SUN June 30, 2004
The chain-link fence and “no entry” signs surrounding one of the most expensive infrastructure projects in Clark County are about two weeks closer to being torn down, the head of the company tasked with building the much-anticipated Las Vegas monorail said Tuesday.
After repeated tests of the computer and mechanical equipment that powers the monorail system, engineers have finally given the system the go-ahead. More than six months past its first scheduled opening, the monorail will be ready to carry passengers on July 15, said Jim Gibson, chief executive of Transit System Management, the company that will run the $650 million system.
Tuesday’s announcement is the first official target date monorail managers have set for the project since delays forced vague estimates of a “mid-summer” debut. “We’ve had a string of days where we’ve had great success, to the point where we are confident that we can open July 15,” said Gibson, who is also Henderson’s mayor.
As late as mid-June Gibson and others involved with the project had said the exact date for the opening was uncertain.
The company is about three weeks into a mandatory 30-day testing period, during which time the monorail must run trouble-free. The goal had previously kept the system from opening, as once a problem arises engineers must restart the demonstration period, he said. Gibson said he is certain the system’s opening will not be further delayed.
The monorail has long been touted as a transportation alternative for convention-goers who travel on the busy Paradise Avenue corridor near the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Jacob Snow, chairman of the Regional Transportation Commission, said the agency expects about 7 percent fewer vehicle trips each day because of the monorail, enough to relieve much of the traffic caused within the busy tourist areas. “It will not be a solution but it will be an overall panacea,” he said. ‘It will provide the movement solution people need.”
Gibson estimates the monorail cars will eventually transport up to 20 million people a year.
And some of those millions will consider the monorail something they want to experience, apart from its ability to carry them from resort to resort, said Rob Powers, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “It will be an attraction in and of itself,” he said. “A lot of people will be using it just to say they rode it.”
Brent Bell, president of Whittlesea Bell Transportation, a taxi company that employs about 900 drivers, said he hoped the monorail would relieve traffic in the valley. “I’m not worried about the monorail taking away business,” Bell said. “Our biggest problem is traffic. Taxi drivers would rather drop off customers and pick up another load than wait in traffic.”
The minimum Las Vegas taxi fare is $3, the same as the price of a single one-way ticket on the monorail.
Carol Gold, a tourist from the Chicago area, said she looked forward to riding the monorail. “It will be a lot nicer than the bus,” Gold said as she waited to board a crowded bus heading north on Las Vegas Boulevard.
The Institute of Food Technologists, a Chicago-based nonprofit food science organization based in Chicago, may attract as many as 22,000 visitors when its annual convention hits the Las Vegas Convention Center on July 12-16. The group’s Web site already touts the monorail as an alternative to taxis.
Rosetta Newsome, a spokeswoman for the group, said those attending the food technologists’ convention will be staying at four different hotels on the Strip. But almost all of the group’s activities will take place at the Convention Center, where the monorail station is still bound by a chain- link fence marked by “no entry” signs and boxes overflowing with metal connectors and outlet parts.
The MGM Grand, another popular convention spot which anchors the monorail’s southernmost station, is already expecting an influx of foot traffic through the 5,000-room hotel, said MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman.
He said it was difficult to speculate how many additional visitors will walk through the hotel, which until January 2003 had a monorail connecting the MGM Grand to Bally’s. The closure had shifted foot traffic away from the once-popular Starlane Shops near the monorail entrance, which will hopefully be wooed back to that part of the hotel when the new monorail opens, he said.
“There will be some changes in foot traffic patterns in the property,” Feldman said. “But I think it’s good for everyone along the (monorail) route. There’s not another city that I’m aware of that has the kind of people flow that we have and has a transportation system that’s anything like this. “We’re excited for the entire city.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune June 30, 2004
Now that light-rail trains are running through south Minneapolis, Ken Bacon goes out of his way to avoid crossing Hwy. 55.
He has already been caught several times in lengthy delays, stuck at traffic lights for as long as 20 minutes while driving the few blocks from the east side of Hwy. 55 to the west side. “I’ve turned around and gone back the other way,” he said.
But Minneapolis traffic officials said Tuesday that help is coming for Bacon and other drivers who are frustrated with the way the trains have affected traffic flow. The city has asked the Federal Highway Administration to help with the signals. “We are cranking away on it,” said John Hotvet, traffic operations engineer for the city. “I’m confident that they will see improvement in the near future.”
To stay on schedule, Hiawatha trains trigger traffic signals, stopping traffic on cross streets as they move south of Franklin Avenue on the west side of Hwy. 55. This interrupts the normal cycle of traffic signals, and over the last few weeks it has caused delays at cross streets, for drivers trying to turn off the highway and even for north-south traffic on Hwy. 55, which runs parallel to the tracks.
Two federal engineers have promised assistance. One has had experience in California, and another worked in Salt Lake City, said Jim McCarthy, traffic operations engineer for the Minnesota Division of the Federal Highway Administration. How quickly they can get here has not yet been determined.
In the meantime, Hotvet said his staff is making progress with the fine- tuning. “This is very much a step-by-step process. Once we get all the glitches out I think it’s going to operate very well.”
Improvement can’t come too soon for John Overholser, of Apple Valley, who works in south Minneapolis close to the rail line. He said he drove Hwy. 55 at noon Tuesday and had to stop for every light “for what felt like five minutes. Today didn’t seem any different than last week when I was on the road.”
David Wolfe, who commutes to downtown Minneapolis from Eagan, said traffic was lighter Tuesday. “I celebrated the fact that I made one light.”
When the traffic signals are working as they have been programmed to work, cross street traffic can be stuck waiting for up to seven or eight minutes, Hotvet said. And if there is a malfunction of safety arms, or if trains are running more frequently than every seven minutes, waiting time at cross streets has been longer, he said.
People waiting to make a left turn off of Hwy. 55 have been held at the lights because the left turn arrow is skipped after a train has gone past. Crews have improved that problem in the last few days, Hotvet said.
With the trains zipping past, triggering traffic lights as they go, Hiawatha may never get back to where it was before light rail started. “But it should be better than it has been for the last couple months,” Hotvet said.
Pioneer Press June 30, 2004
Riders boarded Hiawatha trains 11,800 times on Monday, the first day of paid service on the Twin Cities’ fledgling light-rail line, Metro Transit announced Tuesday.
The figure is higher than the daily ridership average of 9,500 that Metro Transit hopes to see by the end of the year and far less than what was seen over the weekend, when all trips were free. The line opened to the public on Saturday.
Metro Transit spokesman Bob Gibbons said it was difficult to say how many of the riders will become regulars — or even return. “We don’t know how many of the curious were out on Monday,” Gibbons said.
For example, some riders may have avoided the crowds on the weekend, when an estimated 95,000 people rode the trains, and decided to check out the line on Monday instead.
Gibbons said the total ridership tally for the first week of service, which will be released on Tuesday, would paint a better picture of how ridership is catching on.
Trains are now running on eight miles of track between Fort Snelling and downtown Minneapolis. Another four miles will open late this year and serve the MinneapolisSt. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America.
Metro Transit projects ridership will grow to an average of 19,300 people per day by the middle of 2005.
Hiawatha riders must buy tickets or passes before boarding trains and then show them to inspectors when asked to prove they paid for their trip. Because of that, the line does not have fare boxes or turnstiles that could count every rider.
To reach Monday’s estimate, Metro Transit sent staff onto about a third of all train trips and counted passenger boardings, then extrapolated the estimate from those counts. The monitored trips were spaced over the entire day. Some riders could have been counted twice, if they rode a monitored train to and from their destination, Gibbons said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution June 30, 2004
During the height of the Cold War, Albania’s totalitarian government warned Western visitors that they would be kicked out if they told Albanians about washing machines or other modern conveniences unknown in that poor, isolated country.
I sometimes wonder whether there is a similar prohibition against telling Atlantans about public transportation.
For six years, I zipped around town on subways and buses. I saved thousands of dollars by not owning a car, I got where I was going just as fast as if I had driven — - and I arrived much more relaxed. Then I moved back to the United States.
From Day One I realized I couldn’t get by without a car in Atlanta, the way I did in Munich and Hong Kong. That wasn’t a surprise; few U.S. cities have the kind of extensive public transportation systems that are common in Asia and Europe.
But what frustrates me is that so few Americans have any interest in seeing one develop here because they don’t realize how great such systems can be. There’s no governmental effort here to keep Americans ignorant about public transportation — - but the effect seems the same.
Much of the public debate compares the relative convenience of driving with the current inconvenient system of public transportation — - not with the convenient system we could have.
Let’s compare Atlanta and Munich. In Atlanta, I live 11 miles from downtown, where I work, but five miles from the nearest MARTA station. By the time I drive to the station and wait for the train, I might as well keep driving downtown.
If I took the bus to the MARTA train it would be even worse. By the time I walk to a bus stop, wait up to 20 minutes for a bus, ride to the train station, wait for the train and ride downtown, I could probably drive to work and home and back again.
Of the places I go, the airport is the only one for which it’s often more convenient to take MARTA. I also take it to Braves’ games, but I’m amazed that the subway route wasn’t designed to take fans right to the park.
In Munich I lived closer to work, but it was still as fast to take the bus as it would have been to drive. Several bus routes had stops just two blocks from my house. I could also walk 10 minutes to a station that had buses, trams, subways, suburban commuter lines and even trains going to other cities and countries.
Superimposing the Munich system on the Atlanta area, for example, most of us could hop on a bus or subway, transfer to a commuter line and get to Lake Lanier, Stone Mountain, downtown or a mall more quickly than if we had driven. At some stations we could transfer to trains for vacation spots in Florida, Tennessee or Alabama. When we got there, we could get around without a car.
In Munich, when public transportation wasn’t convenient, such as if I had a lot to carry, taxis were easy to get. There were taxi stands — - with phone boxes — - throughout the city. To get a license, drivers had to pass an extensive test, showing their knowledge of the city.
Munich and many other European cities also offer another alternative for short trips — - bike paths. I’m not talking about a risk-your-life “path,” such as the one along DeKalb Avenue. I mean paths, closed to traffic, wide enough for bikes to pass each other in opposite directions, running alongside sidewalks.
Hong Kong is an example of an Asian city with a similarly good system. It has an extensive subway system, buses and electric trams.
It also has a system of mini-buses that could easily be adapted for less-populated routes here. The mini-buses are about the size of a church van and follow established routes, but will stop wherever a passenger wants. I could hop on one downtown and take it right to my apartment building.
A good system should be simple to understand. Routes, schedules and fares should be clearly listed at bus stops and stations, as they are in Munich, and should be readily available online and in booklets.
The schedule should be reliable, security must be tight and no antisocial behavior should be allowed. Offered a choice, people won’t take public transportation if they have to be subjected to panhandlers or punks.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution June 30, 2004
You might say David Emory is a child of the MARTA system returning to restore his legacy.
Emory, 25, was a 12-week-old infant in his stroller when his parents, Bruce and Day Ann Emory, rolled him onto MARTA’s very first train. Bruce Emory, 61, was a MARTA planner on June 30, 1979. The family was among the dignitaries who boarded the train at the East Lake station with high hopes for the future.
They never suspected that a quarter-century would pass to find MARTA publicly tarnished, fighting for financial survival. Even with its recent 15 percent cutback in bus service, the transit authority is on track to exhaust its reserves in 2005.
Undermined by financial woes, MARTA has found its expansion now little more than wishful thinking. Maintenance has been cut back so much, some would-be riders are repelled. And fares have risen from 15 cents to $1.75, a price that many riders can’t afford.
Public perceptions of MARTA as unattractive and unreliable are painful to Bruce Emory. “It’s disappointing to someone who worked on it all those years,” Emory said of the system, which has grown to 48 track miles, serving 38 stations.
Given this week’s service cutbacks and employee layoffs, MARTA will commemorate the 25th anniversary with banners at rail stations. A splashier celebration would be inappropriate, said MARTA General Manager Nathaniel Ford, who wonders at the erosion of support for the transit system. “It’s difficult for me to understand how that vision was lost,” he said.
While MARTA’s future is clouded today, the dignitaries who gathered 25 years ago believed in transit’s importance to Atlanta.
Former Atlanta Regional Commission Director Harry West, who was among the riders on that first train, recalled the day as heady. It was “a dream come true,” said West, now a consultant with Parsons Transportation Group. “The sky was the limit.”
Despite the appearance of wastefulness fueled by a series of recent political and management scandals, MARTA’s financial problems have been caused by inadequate external support — - not extravagance — - said West and others familiar with the system.
Sam Massell, president of the Buckhead Coalition and former mayor of Atlanta, agreed. “That was more of a shortcoming at the federal level than at the MARTA management level,” said Massell, who rode the first train. “The federal government wasn’t forthcoming, and the state won’t help.”
Today David Emory, now a transportation planner himself, is a founding member of an advocacy organization campaigning for more state and regional support for MARTA.
In April, Emory and his coalition partners launched a “Save MARTA” campaign. A group of labor advocates supporting the campaign staged a march Monday to protest the cutbacks, which took effect this week. Today at 7 p.m., members of Citizens for Progressive Transit will ride a train from the Georgia State station to Decatur, where they will rally for more state and regional support for MARTA. “It’s good to acknowledge what we do have, but at the same time, whether we will maintain what we have is still an open question,” said David Emory, who commutes to work daily on MARTA.
Bruce Emory said that grass-roots support for buses and trains is essential to persuading state leaders to financially support MARTA. “It’s really going to take a change in attitude in the region as a whole toward transit,” he said.
Several riders who have watched the system expand say MARTA has improved in 25 years. “I’ve taken it since it’s been in existence,” James Ridley, 81, of Decatur said while aboard a train. “I like the way the system is now.”
Arthur Murray, 18, sat beside Ridley debating MARTA’s merits. Murray said the rail system should expand all the way to Stone Mountain. But he said the $1.75 fare and the recent cuts in bus service indicate the system’s trouble. “Instead of asking about the past 25 years,” Murray said, “you should be asking whether MARTA will be around another 25 years.”
Ford, MARTA’s general manager, said it will be, but only with the kind of strong civic leadership that created the system initially. “Twenty-five years ago, it took a lot of vision to create this system,” Ford said. “That’s what we need now.”
GRAPHIC: MARTA THROUGH THE YEARS 1960: First proposal for a specific rapid transit system. 1965: Cobb voters reject the concept of MARTA. 1966: MARTA established. 1971: Voters in DeKalb and Fulton counties approve a 1 percent sales tax to fund MARTA. Voters in Gwinnett and Clayton reject it. 1972: Clayton County voters reject MARTA again. 1976: Construction of rail system begins in downtown Atlanta. 1979: MARTA begins rail service, from Avondale to Georgia State station. 1980: MARTA eliminates or shortens 12 bus routes to balance its budget. 1981: Gov. George Busbee signs a proclamation commending MARTA for “the improvements it had brought to the lives of its users, and for the renowned dependability of its service.” 1984: Five stations open and shuttle bus started to link the Lakewood/Fort McPherson station with Hartsfield International Airport. 1986: MARTA helps open a library branch at the Avondale station. 1989: Cobb Community Transit begins service to Arts Center station. 1990: MARTA declared the safest bus system in the United States, its 11th safe-system award since 1974. 1991: MARTA eliminates 129 jobs and makes other cuts to balance its budget. 1993: Indian Creek station opens as the first MARTA station outside I-285. 1994: MARTA begins building a fleet of buses powered by compressed natural gas. 1995: MARTA breaks ground in Decatur on an improved station, which becomes the centerpiece of a revitalized downtown. 1996: MARTA begins accepting stored value cards at some turnstiles. During the Olympics, MARTA transports 17.8 million passengers. 1999: Gov. Roy Barnes joins MARTA in announcing that BellSouth Corp. will anchor MARTA’s first mixed-use development, at Lindbergh station. 2001: MARTA’s general manager releases plan to cut expenses to balance the budget. 2002: State lawmakers temporarily allow MARTA to use more sales tax revenue for operations instead of capital expenditures, such as expansion. 2003: MARTA cuts management jobs to balance its budget and begins looking at service reductions to cut costs.
The Irish Times June 30, 2004
When can I get on one of these trams? The public can board the Luas on the Sandyford/St Stephen’s Green line from 3 p.m. today. The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) has some final glitches to iron out this morning but it says “none are show stoppers”.
What route does it take? The “Green Line” between Sandyford and St Stephen’s Green opens today. The “Red Line” from Tallaght to Connolly Station on Amiens Street - passing through the Red Cow roundabout - is due to open at the end of August. The two lines do not meet.
How long does it take to get into the city? 22 minutes from Sandyford to St Stephen’s Green.
How much is a ticket? Travel on Luas is free until next Monday. From then, tickets will cost between E1.30 and E2 for one-way trips, and E16 for a seven-day unlimited ticket (reduced to E14 at selected retailers). OAPs will be entitled to free travel at all times.
Where can you get a ticket? Tickets are available from vending machines at the stops and will be sold already validated. There will be no ticket sales or ticket validating machines on the trams.
What can you take on board? Suitcases, golf clubs, baby buggies, wheelchairs and guide dogs. Bicycles are prohibited.
Are there park-and-ride facilities? Yes, at the stations at Sandyford (100 spaces), Stillorgan (300 spaces) and Balally (400 spaces). Both the Sandyford and Stillorgan facilites are located on Blackthorn Avenue. Parking will be free until next Monday when a flat fee of E4 per car per day will apply. Free parking for motorbikes and bicycles will be available. A start date for the Balally park-and-ride facility beside the station has yet to be announced.
Is Luas wheelchair-accessible? Yes. Lifts are available at stops and platforms are ramped at both ends.
What about on-street parking? Some free, legal parking is available along the route, including at Sandyford Industrial Estate, although this may change over time if local residents and business owners become irate at day-parkers outside their premises.
What hours will it operate? >From next week normal service will commence, with trams running from 5.30 a.m. to 12.30 a.m. Monday to Friday, from 6.30 a.m. to 12.30 a.m. Saturday and from 7.30 a.m. to 12.30 a.m. Sunday.
How often will trams come? Over the four-day period to Sunday, trams will run at a flat 10-minute frequency. From next week, morning and evening peak-time frequency will be one tram every five minutes, reducing to every seven and a half minutes at off-peak hours, and every 15 minutes after 11.30 p.m.
How many passengers can the trams take? Each has room for 300: 80 seating and the remainder standing.
How do you get off? Trams will stop automatically at each of the 13 stops so there is no need to signal that you wish to get off. When trams have stopped doors may be opened by pushing a button on the door.
Is there any etiquette for commuters? Passengers getting off trams have right of way over those getting on. You can’t smoke on board but you can listen to a walkman. “All we’d say is for people to be mannerly,” said an RPA spokesman.
Will it ease traffic congestion in the city? Time will tell. A 1996 report commissioned by CIE predicted that Luas would cut rush hour traffic by just 2 per cent. In Dundrum/Milltown, it said just 4-6 per cent of journeys would be made by light rail instead of car. But the RPA and traffic managers believe the knock-on effect will be greater as people gain more confidence in public transport.
Will there be trouble at junctions? Is it true the tram driver has a magic button in the cab to make traffic lights go green? Tram drivers have a button that allows them to get priority at a junction. Dublin Bus and Dublin City Council expressed concern last week that trams were seeking priority at junctions too frequently, and that on one day last week this added to traffic congestion in the city. There may be teething problems, but all sides are said to be working together on a “protocol” that will be fair to all forms of public transport.
Who is running the system? A French company called Connex has been contracted to run Luas for the next five years. The largest private transport operator in Europe, it has 57,000 employees and a turnover of E3.7 billion. In Britain, however, Connex has lost two franchises in the last four years amid accusations of financial mismanagement and operational incompetence.
Will it make a profit? The RPA claims the Sandyford and Tallaght lines will “at least break even”. The agency expects to pay Connex E20 million a year to run the system - a fee which it will fund through “fare box” revenue. If Luas fails to achieve its target of 20 million passengers in its first year, however, a shortfall of funds is likely.
What has Luas cost to build? According to the RPA, the final bill is E775 million - a dramatic increase on the initial estimate of £ 227 million (E288 million) in 1997. At least E30m of the cost overrun is accounted for by the acquisition and demolition of the ramp at Connolly Station, which the RPA later conceded was unnecessary. An extra E40m-E50m must also be spent on upgrading of the Red Cow interchange to allow the Tallaght line run smoothly.
Ireland On-Line June 30, 2004
Transport Minister Seamus Brennan has revealed that he is still determined to build an underground metro system between Dublin city centre and Dublin airport.
Speaking at the official launch of the capital’s LUAS light-rail system, Mr Brennan said finance for the metro project would have to be raised.
The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern raised concerns that it would not be possible to build the system in the near future. But speaking at the opening of the first Luas line in the Sandyford depot in Dublin, Minister Brennan said: “I certainly would like to get started on it.
“I think it’s a possibility provided we can get our sums right. We have a lot of work to do on the financial aspects but hopefully over the coming months, we can get these aspects sorted out and come to a final decision.” The cabinet is due to make its decision on the Metro project within weeks.
The new Luas line from Sandyford to St Stephen’s Green will carry 20,000 passengers a day, with trains arriving at the 13 stops every 10 minutes.
Minister Brennan said that Luas was not only for the people of Dublin but for people all over the country. “Today Luas returned a tram service to Dublin, 45 years since it finished. It reflects a new vibrant Dublin and the country as a whole.”
He paid tribute to the tram drivers who had worked in the old Dublin Transport Company, many of whom were in the 300-strong audience at the Sandyford depot. He also rejected criticism of the LUAS system and said Dubliners would have the final say on whether the project was worth it.
He added that he looked forward to seeing what nicknames Dubliners could come up with for the Luas. “I have already heard it referred to as the Daniel Day,” he said.
Washington Post July 1, 2004
Higher Metro fares and fees generated the most attention this week, but a more subtle change by the transit system is affecting thousands: It shrank the trains.
After 10 p.m. on Sundays through Thursdays — on every line — the subway has cut the length of its trains in half, operating trains with two cars instead of four.
Since the policy took effect this week, it has created a late crunch, especially on the heavily traveled Red Line in downtown Washington. At the Farragut North, Metro Center, Gallery Place-Chinatown and Union Station stops, angry crowds have found themselves competing for space on the trains at an hour when most had been accustomed to relaxing their urban combat skills. Those unable to push themselves aboard have to wait 15 to 20 minutes for the next train, as a new crowd forms around them.
“Did they do any research before they made this change?” asked Irena Sadbaraite, a 28-year-old accountant who failed to fight her way aboard a packed train to Vienna at 10:25 p.m. Tuesday at Metro Center. She waited 20 minutes for the next train, steaming. “I can’t believe they’ve done this, especially in summer, when people stay out for dinner and come back late.”
Donald Centner, 23, of Centreville takes Metro to his computer class in Tenleytown every Tuesday and Thursday. It ends at 10 p.m. “It’s a mess,” he said as he waited for a two-car Blue Line train at Metro Center. “Metro service has slowly, progressively, gotten worse. But this is ridiculous.”
Metro board Chairman Robert J. Smith, the architect of the change, said the cash-strapped transit system will save $1 million by running shorter trains late at night when ridership drops off. The average ridership between 10 p.m. and midnight last month was 12,600. The savings come from the cost of supplying electricity and labor and parts to maintain the cars. A Metro rail car can carry about 181 passengers, both seated and standing.
The cuts come as local governments and businesses in the District, Bethesda and Arlington are promoting nightlife and have been celebrating the region’s transformation into a thriving metropolitan area.
“We are moving full speed ahead to create a 24-hour downtown and city, and Metro is the lifeblood,” said Joseph Sternlieb, deputy director of the Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District. “The right response isn’t to reduce service. Bethesda, Arlington and we are all cruising at 1,000 miles an hour to create good restaurant venues, good entertainment venues. We want people to take Metro. We don’t want them drinking and driving. We don’t want them to have any anxiety that they’re going to have trouble taking Metro to get home.”
In addition to revelers, plenty of late-night riders are sober, tired workers trying to get to and from the job. “A lot of people work late in this town,” said Scott Glabman, a 52-year-old lawyer at the Labor Department who sat on a bench at Farragut North at 11:15 p.m. Tuesday, waiting for his Red Line train home. “This is a terrible idea. These rail cars tend to be very crowded at this time anyway, before the change. There’s not enough room to sit down or comfortably stand.”
Dennis Watson, 47, works the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift as a security guard at the Army-Navy Club in Farragut Square. “There are a lot of people who work at night who take the Metro,” said Watson, who rode a two-car train from the Takoma Station to get to work Tuesday night. “Security workers who work downtown, restaurant workers. If they can’t get on the train, that’s a problem. I don’t mind the fare increase, but I mind the short trains. It’s kind of stressful.”
One oddity about the short trains is that they take up just 25 percent of the platform, forcing panicky passengers to sprint to board the train after it stops in the station.
Smith said he isn’t worried about whether Metro’s late-night riders get seats. “If we have people standing on the trains, I don’t have a problem with that,” said Smith, who represents Maryland on the board. “These trains were designed to have so many people sitting down and so many people standing. We should use it how it was designed.”
Smith said he was unaware that passengers were being left on the platforms because they couldn’t board a shortened train. “We certainly don’t want to be leaving people on the platform,” he said. “But I’m planning to let it run for some period of time and see how it works out.”
When a special event attracts unusual crowds, such as a concert or a sporting event at MCI Center, Metro will operate four-car trains immediately after the performance or game and pare back to two-car trains later, spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said.
Operating short trains every 15 to 20 minutes doesn’t leave much room for the unexpected. On Monday night, Tom Peterson shoved himself aboard a packed Red Line train at Metro Center. It broke down at Gallery Place- Chinatown, and he and his fellow passengers got off, he said. Fifteen minutes later, another packed two-car train arrived — but only about a quarter of the people on the platform could fit inside. Peterson, 50, barely made it onto the next train.
“There’s no margin of error for breakdowns,” said Peterson, who sent an angry e-mail to Smith. “These cars are filled to their limit. People are looking at two or three trains to get on. That is not world-class service.”
Metro board member Jim Graham, who represents the District, said he would move to restore the four-car trains if riders are being left on the platforms. “We did this really hoping it might reduce the cost,” said Graham, a D.C. Council member whose district includes the nightclub neighborhoods of U Street and Adams Morgan. “If it’s resulting in overcrowding and this type of discomfort, it’s just unacceptable.”
Vancouver Sun July 1, 2004
TransLink brought the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid transit line back to life Wednesday after twice voting to kill it, and North Vancouver City Mayor Barbara Sharp — one of the two swing votes — said the choice was between RAV and nothing.
Sharp said a report from Vancouver city bureaucrats convinced her Vancouver would never approve the only apparent alternative to the RAV line proposal — a surface light rapid transit line. “We either move forward today … or we spin our wheels for another 20 or 30 years,” Sharp said before casting her vote in favour.
Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie, who like Sharp had opposed RAV, also changed his vote and the TransLink board approved the proposal 8-4 in a tumultuous meeting after twice rejecting it in the last two months.
Simultaneously, the board approved a second rapid transit project to the northeast corner of Greater Vancouver. But all the debate was about the RAV Line.
The Vancouver report, distributed to council members last week but not made public, warned that a surface light rapid transit system can’t work in downtown Vancouver.
Surface LRT could have “irresolvable physical, urban-fit and transportation impacts on the downtown commercial, retail and residential neighbourhoods,” said the report, signed by city engineering manager Dave Rudberg, current planning director Larry Beasley and city plans director Ann McAfee.
Sharp, who was given the report at a TransLink workshop last week, said Wednesday that “it became really abundantly clear that there was no way Vancouver was prepared to accept at-grade in downtown Vancouver,” which meant there was no cheaper alternative to the more expensive RAV line plan.
“So I would refer to the light rail transit as a ghost train, because in fact it would never happen,” she told the TransLink board. “Why would we waste another 20 years arguing about something that will not happen?”
Louie did not speak at the meeting, did not stop to talk to reporters and did not return calls from The Vancouver Sun. But he also changed his vote after seeing the Vancouver report.
The decision pleased provincial Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon, who said it meant TransLink directors had “listened to the public.”
Falcon confirmed the province’s $300-million share for the RAV line is still available. And he said the government will pass legislation in the fall to allow a new Fraser River bridge to be built and to implement a parking- stall tax needed by TransLink. The parking tax was withheld after TransLink initially rejected the RAV Line plan.
Falcon said he also intends to push ahead with plans to twin the Port Mann Bridge and add lanes to the Trans-Canada Highway between the bridge and Vancouver.
The RAV line proposal now goes to the “best and final offer” stage with the two consortiums still bidding to build and operate the line in a public- private partnership.
If it gets an offer that fits TransLink’s criteria, Ravco — the company created to facilitate the deal — can sign a contract and start building the line, estimated to cost $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion, without going back to the TransLink board.
The project has guaranteed funding of $1.35 billion from TransLink, Vancouver, the airport authority and the provincial government. The rest of the cost is expected to come from the private partner, and possibly from cost savings by reducing the amount of tunnelling along the Cambie Street corridor.
Ravco officials will meet next week with the two proponent teams “to confirm that based on this resolution, they are prepared to proceed to the next stage,” said Ravco chief executive Jane Bird. “Assuming that is the case, we proceed to the best and final offer stage.” That would take about eight weeks, until early fall.
TransLink will have to sign final funding agreements and Ravco has to obtain environmental approvals and go through another round of public consultation on design details. That means ground could be broken on the project “probably in the summer of 2005, about a year from now,” Bird said.
Wednesday’s meeting left exasperated TransLink directors pointing fingers at each other.
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, the project’s most relentless opponent, accused other directors of taking the money instead of pursuing the best project, and of capitulating to pressure from the provincial government.
Corrigan, who has been accused of opposing the RAV line on ideological grounds, said the real ideologues are the provincial government, “who bullied and pushed this board into one decision only, which is a private- public partnership.” But after the vote, Corrigan said he will abide by the board’s decision. “It’s been democratically approved by the members of the board and it will move ahead,” he said. “I think it’s the wrong decision, but my job as a politician is to try to make it work.”
Sharp denied she had been pressured to change her vote, saying, “I have not had any arm-twisting.”
Corrigan and Vancouver Coun. David Cadman tried to stall the project with various motions, but were either outvoted or ruled out of order by chairman Doug McCallum.
“We need to get on with life and get this thing going,” said Coquitlam Mayor Jon Kingsbury, who voted against RAV the first time but in favour the second.
Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, a steadfast supporter of the RAV line, did not take part in the debate. But when Corrigan and pro-RAV Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie fell into squabbling, he shouted across the floor, “Who cares?”
B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair was disappointed by TransLink’s decision. “This train doesn’t leave from Richmond, it leaves from Victoria,” he said. “And it just ran over the taxpayers again.”
The TransLink board heard from 16 delegations, 14 of them community groups or individuals opposing the project. The only groups to speak in favour were the Vancouver Board of Trade and a business lobby group.
Maurizio Grande of the Cambie Boulevard Heritage Society berated the board for ignoring the Arbutus corridor, which already has a right-of-way complete with rails.
Murray Dobbin of the Council of Canadians said the public interest had been “subverted.” “What kind of democracy is it when the losing position keeps being put back on the table until it wins?” Dobbin asked.
Denver Post July 1, 2004
Denver and RTD officials have agreed to a land swap that could give the transit agency property along Smith Road and Peña Boulevard for construction of a rail route to Denver International Airport from downtown Denver.
The agreement also calls for the Regional Transportation District to deed to Denver land that RTD owns along Buchtel Boulevard between South University Boulevard and South Colorado Boulevard. Other Buchtel property will be conveyed to Denver at a later date, according to the plan.
It is expected that Denver will develop much of the Buchtel greenbelt as a bikeway and pedestrian walkway. “We want to make it a park, a natural area,” Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown said at a council committee meeting Wednesday, at which the agreement was detailed.
The settlement, if it wins final approval from the full City Council, means Denver will finally pay the $15 million it had pledged four years ago for the T-REX highway expansion and light-rail project.
The deal also calls for Denver to pay an additional $2.5 million to build a pedestrian plaza over the Louisiana Avenue/Pearl Street light-rail station at Interstate 25.
If the T-REX budget has a surplus at the end of light-rail construction, Denver will be reimbursed the $2.5 million, according to the deal.
RTD officials have repeatedly expressed frustration that Denver held back its $15 million “local match” for T-REX while city officials negotiated terms of the intergovernmental agreement with RTD.
Other jurisdictions and organizations in the T-REX corridor, including Aurora, Arapahoe and Douglas counties, Centennial, Greenwood Village and Lone Tree, have paid or are in the process of paying an additional $15 million as part of their local contribution to T-REX.
T-REX, which stands for Transportation Expansion Project, is the $1.67 billion construction venture that is due for completion in late 2006.
The tentative agreement reached between Denver and RTD says the city will make its “best efforts” to pay for construction of a rail station at DIA, if a rail line to the airport is built as part of RTD’s $4.7 billion FasTracks transit expansion plan.
In November, voters in the seven-county Denver metro area will vote on a proposed sales-tax increase that will pay for FasTracks.
Las Vegas Review-Journal July 1, 2004
The launch of the Las Vegas Valley’s first rapid transit system Wednesday is expected to usher in an era of new, fast mass transit links in Southern Nevada and beyond.
The Metropolitan Area Express bus line, known as MAX, began trips along Las Vegas Boulevard North and will be joined on July 15 by the ballyhooed Las Vegas Monorail running behind the Strip.
Over the next few years, transit planners are looking at an expansion of the MAX network; extensions of the monorail to downtown Las Vegas and McCarran International Airport, and construction of a light-rail system from Henderson to North Las Vegas.
But the eyes of the public transit world are more closely following the progress of the less heralded MAX.
Since it doesn’t need tracks, it could be a much cheaper alternative to light rail lines being contemplated elsewhere. “Everybody in America is going to be watching Las Vegas. We’ve already had about a dozen visits from other transit agencies,” said Jacob Snow, general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission, which is operating MAX.
Added Leslie Rogers, a regional administrator for the Federal Transit Administration: “We really believe it has the potential to revolutionize transit systems throughout the country.”
Transit agencies from Los Angeles, Boston, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Tampa, Fla., and Reno are among those keeping tabs on MAX, Snow said.
And representatives from Washoe County and Phoenix were on hand for MAX opening ceremonies Wednesday morning in North Las Vegas. “There’s a lot of medium-sized cities that are trying to decide whether to go (with) light rail” or a MAX-type system, Snow said. “And there’s a lot of big cities that are interested in doing this to tie into their heavy rail systems.”
Although express bus systems have operated throughout the United States for years, MAX incorporates a unique combination of traits intended to maximize its speed.
It operates on bus-only lanes, allowing it to avoid traffic congestion. It will make stops only at “stations” along its route, where commuters buy tickets from automated kiosks before boarding. That will minimize stop times.
The MAX line also will be able to extend green lights at intersections. All those factors will allow MAX to travel its initial boulevard route from downtown Las Vegas to Nellis Air Force Base in 28 minutes, compared to 47 minutes for regular buses on that route.
“We designed the Metropolitan Area Express system to be as much like a train as possible,” Snow said. “It has its own right-of-way, so it doesn’t have to get stuck in traffic.”
The high-tech, bullet-shaped buses use environmentally friendly, diesel- electric hybrid engines and optically guided computers to make precise station stops.
MAX cost $19.4 million to set up here, or about $2.7 million a mile for its seven-mile route. That is far cheaper than $20 million to $30 million per mile typically needed for light rail, or the $148.6 million per mile needed for the monorail.
Federal officials hope programs like MAX will give cities an affordable alternative to traditional rail when trying to improve mass transit. “We recognize as local communities respond to congestion, there is not one size that fits all. There is not one handy and convenient solution,” Rogers said. “We want to provide choices. We believe the MAX system provides that sort of choice.”
Systems similar to the French-built MAX are in operation in Europe, but not in America.
The system has drawn praise from the Sierra Club, which has been a big booster of light rail plans in the valley. “It’s a service concept rather than the type of vehicle that’s important,” said Jane Feldman, a conservation chairwoman with the organization. “It’s one of the better solutions for air quality problems, for congestion problems. It’s great that we have it here in Las Vegas today.”
Most riders on the initial MAX route are expected to come from the existing Citizens Area Transit Route 113, the fourth-busiest CAT route in the valley with about 9,000 riders per day.
The existing ridership on the route was one reason it was picked for MAX use, along with a high concentration of low-income service industry workers in that area who rely on mass transit to get to work in the resort corridor or Nellis, according to the RTC.
Future MAX routes are expected along Boulder Highway, Rancho Drive, Flamingo Road, Charleston Boulevard and Tropicana and Sahara avenues. But it might be a while before those routes get buses. “I think it’s probably another three or four years before we see another one (route),” Snow said.
Northeast Times July 1, 2004
The rails that once supplied SEPTA trolleys are being covered with asphalt. The network of overhead wires and poles will go, too.
It was only the first day of resurfacing work along Torresdale Avenue, but state Rep. Mike McGeehan already was impressed. “Look at the progress!” McGeehan (D-173rd dist) said last week, pointing to the line of trucks working on the chopped-up road at Linden Avenue. As part of a $2.7 million resurfacing project for nine state highway’s in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is currently repairing 5.8 miles of Torresdale Avenue. That part of the project started on June 22. Crews from the James J. Anderson Construction Co., a local business, started at Linden Avenue and will finish at Frankford Avenue, where Northeast Catholic High School is located. This local segment of the resurfacing project will take about a month to complete and cost about $900,000 - all funded by the state.
“It’s a little inconvenience for huge progress,” said Joe Steward, legislative aide to state Sen. Mike Stack (D-5th dist) , who has been working closely with McGeehan to ensure that the state highway is getting the makeover it deserves. Initially, PennDOT was not going to start the resurfacing project until the fall, but McGeehan and Stack pushed for an earlier date. “Bottom line, it’s a question of quality of life,” McGeehan said. Gov. Edward G. Rendell, with his ties to the city as its former mayor, understood the politicians’ urgency to get the project moving. “It’s nice to have somebody who is going to listen,” Steward said of Rendell.
CAUTION: ROAD WORK
Construction will take place weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. PennDOT, McGeehan, and Stack urge the nearly 20,700 motorists who travel Torresdale Avenue each day to allow extra time to reach their destinations - because of lane restrictions to accommodate the work, or choose alternate routes to bypass construction zones. Expect to see crews make their way down Torresdale Avenue in the coming weeks. In particular, the Tacony, Wissinoming and Frankford communities will see the trolley tracks along Torresdale Avenue disappear under layers of asphalt. While that particular section of the avenue will be tough for motorists to traverse - there is only one lane on each side - the short-term inconvenience will be well worth it, McGeehan said. “They won’t miss the tracks,” he said of the old Route 56 trolley line, which stopped running in 1992 when SEPTA replaced the trolleys with diesel buses because the tracks were aging. “It: will be quieter, safer and more attractive,” he added. The tracks and cobblestones embedded around them, residents have complained, make driving a nuisance and are particularly slippery and dangerous on rainy days. Also, the tracks protrude in some areas because of sunken asphalt, creating a hazard to pedestrians.
But not everyone will be relieved to see a new asphalt layer bury the tracks. At recent meetings of the Tacony Civic Association, some residents, moved by nostalgia and memories of Torresdale Avenue’s heyday in the 1950s and ‘60s, argued that a trolley revival would attract shoppers to the neighborhood. SEPTA, however, replied that any plans for such a project would be farther down the line, and at a cost that was difficult to project. “Financially; it’s not feasible and not practical,” McGeehan said of restoring the trolley line.
THE POLES ARE OUT, TOO
The old poles and overhead wires that enabled the Route 56 trolleys to move along Torresdale Avenue will soon be history, just like the tracks. SEPTA crews started removing the wires last week, said Jim Whitaker, a spokesman for the transit agency, and when that task is done the poles will be removed. SEPTA’s part of the Torresdale Avenue project is expected to be completed by October: Residents had complained that the wire network was unsightly, especially now that the trolleys no longer exist. Earlier in the year, SEPTA resisted a civic push to remove the poles and wires because of the estimated $7 million expense to do the job. That’s when City Councilwoman Joan Krajewski (D-6th dist.) jumped into the debate and wrote a letter to SEPTA, threatening to encourage entrepreneurs to open competing newsstands around the transit agency’s new Frankford Transportation Center, and also vowing to gain support of a freeze on part of the city’s subsidy to SEPTA. The councilwoman also said she’d oppose efforts to build a parking garage at the transportation hub. As the battle lines intensified, SEPTA wrote to Krajewski and told her the wires and poles would be removed. McGeehan praised Krajewski’s steadfast commitment to the project, noting that he, Stack, and the councilwoman have forged a good partnership in the goal to improve Torresdale Avenue. “They were dogged at this, and this happened”, Steward said. Once the construction work on Torresdale Avenue is completed, Anderson Construction will resurface eight additional state highways, including Aramingo Avenue, between Orthodox Street and James Street; Harbison Avenue between James Street and Roosevelt Boulevard, Adams Avenue between Crescentville Road and Rising Sun Avenue, and Frankford Avenue between Linden Avenue and the Bucks County line.
The Houston Chronicle July 1, 2004
MetroRail’s average daily ridership grew to an estimated 26,000 in June as Houston’s first light rail line completed six months of passenger service.
The preliminary June count, released Wednesday evening, represents almost twice as many riders as carried during an average weekday in May and the fifth straight monthly increase. Most of June’s projected increase can be attributed to service changes effective May 30 that tied almost half of Metro bus routes into the rail line and curtailed certain routes to force bus riders onto the train.
Rail critics have characterized these riders as “bus refugees,” claiming that Metro uses them to pump up its train ridership count even though they don’t represent a net increase in transit use and thus don’t reduce traffic congestion.
Some riders have complained the switch increased their travel times, but Metro says most have benefited. “We’re encouraged by the first six months, definitely,” said Ken Connaughton, Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman. “Ridership has been good, as you know, and we are at least cautiously optimistic that we may have made significant steps toward solving the safety problem.”
The 7 1/2-mile Main Street light rail line has been plagued by collisions since it was completed Oct. 22 and opened for testing.
In the first three months of passenger operations, which began Jan. 1, there were 26 wrecks involving trains and vehicles or pedestrians. That number fell to 16 in the second quarter as the transit authority adjusted signals, signs, pavement markings and other items.
The problem has drawn national attention, including a story last week in the New York Times, and become the butt of local jokes. Metro’s board of directors, responding to public concerns, last month directed its staff and consultants to rethink building future rail lines on streets. Planners are considering a subway for the downtown segment of the Southeast line, where construction is planned to start in 2007.
Metro’s safety efforts continue. This week crews have been installing yellow “Approach With Caution” signs before six crash-prone intersections in Midtown, the Museum District and the Texas Medical Center. “We are trying to diminish the number of accidents we have and striving to improve service to riders and build ridership,” Connaughton said.
Metro is trying to lure more riders by improving the system. Most rail stations, only open for six months, already are being renovated to make ticket vending machines easier to use. Crews are turning the machines toward the inside of the platforms to reduce glare on the screens and to keep ticket buyers dry when it rains.
The change requires the removal of one seat from three-seat benches near the machines. “We felt it was better to give up some seats on the platform in favor of better weather protection for the vending machines,” Connaughton said.
Other issues linger. Metro has not scheduled a launch date for the “smart card” system, a method of paying fares with a special plastic card that had been scheduled to be available when the line opened.
Trains have no containers to hold copies of Metro’s newsletter, which are available to bus passengers.
And a contractor still is working out bugs in electronic signs posted at each platform to advise riders of service disruptions or changes and to display an alert when trains are within one minute of the station.
The authority has set a goal of 35,000 daily boardings on the rail line by year’s end.
Some statistics indicate that might be difficult to achieve, however. Use of the Fannin South Park & Ride lot, the only rail station where drivers can leave their cars in a Metro lot and hop aboard a train, has fluctuated. In June, an average 450 cars paid to park at the lot each weekday, about one-third of its capacity. For many commuters, the short length of the rail line makes it a tough sell to get off the South Loop, park and spend almost a half-hour on the rails to downtown.
The Irish Times July 1, 2004
The first Luas tram carrying the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, and more than 300 invited guests rolled into St Stephen’s Green from Sandyford at 1.35 p.m. yesterday - one minute ahead of the scheduled 22 minutes for the journey.
Twelve years after it was approved by the Cabinet in 1992, and at a cost of around E770 million, the Luas had finally arrived to a hugely enthusiastic welcome. People converged on vantage points and lined adjacent streets to see it go by. At least 30,000 people travelled on it during its first day of operation - the numbers boosted, perhaps, by it being free up to and including Sunday.
The level of interest was such that the intended 3 p.m. launch of public services was brought forward by an hour after the Minister’s tram was mobbed by enthusiastic sightseers in St Stephen’s Green.
The operators had to increase the number of trams from five to 11 by five o’clock as the evening rush got underway.
A spokesman said passenger numbers had far exceeded expectations. At one point in the afternoon, the frequency exceeded the intended one tram every five minutes, he said.
The day did not go entirely without a hitch, however, with one of the first trams to leave Sandyford running into problems closing its doors at the Kilmacud stop. The tram had to be evacuated and there was a 10 minute delay as passengers waited for another one. The Railway Procurement Agency later said a bottle had become jammed in the door.
Passenger services resume at 5.30 a.m. this morning - but morning commuters will have to wait until early August to enjoy the promised peak service of a tram every five minutes.
Between now and the end of July services are to be restricted to one every 10 minutes - a “running-in period” to allow drivers and passengers as well as other road users to familiarise themselves with the service.
Commenting that it was “an exciting era for infrastructure and public transport in Ireland”, Mr Brennan said: “There were those who said it shouldn’t be done; there were those who said it wouldn’t be done; and there were those who said it couldn’t be done. But it has been done. Luas is the foundation stone on which to construct in phases a city and county-wide metro system”.
He said comments by the Taoiseach in the Dail yesterday that the city’s metro could not be developed immediately related to the full metro network and did not reflect on plans for a metro to the airport.
Mr Brennan said the Luas was just one element of the transport agenda. He instanced the Dublin Port Tunnel, the completion of the M50, the DART expansion, the expansion of suburban rail services to Kildare and the development of additional quality bus lanes as “initiatives which are being rolled out aggressively” to address congestion in the city centre.
Public Release July 2, 2004
Washington, DC - Even though almost all working Americans drive alone or with others to work — and few take mass transit or walk — Americans overall are pretty evenly divided on whether government transportation spending should favor road-building or mass transit, The Associated Press/Ipsos Public Affairs poll on traffic and transportation shows.
Divided on Spending Priorities
Half (51%) think the higher priority should be on expanding public transportation. Only 46% prefer a priority be placed on building more roads and highways, even though 91% of working Americans drive to work, including 87% who drive alone.
Urban residents (60%), people in the Northeast (59%), and college-educated women (62%) all prefer spending on public transportation. Republicans (58%), especially Republican men (63%) prefer road building, as do people in the Oil Patch states (60%) and rural areas in general (57%).
While a majority of Americans say they would pay more in tax to improve roads and public transport, fully two-thirds in the Pacific region (65%) would be willing to pay up. This view is shared not only by Democratic voters (64%), but also half of Republicans (49%) and Independents (47%).
Commuting Life Today
Almost everyone who works outside the home drives to work, and almost all those drivers drive alone. Public transportation is most often used by people living in the Northeastern U.S. (13%), city dwellers (9%) and minorities (12%). Just 4% overall say they carpool, hardly more than the 3% who walk to work each day.
On average, Americans who drive themselves or ride with someone else to work spend about 22 minutes on the road each way. A third (32%) get to work in ten minutes or less, and only 2% say they drive more than an hour each way. Men (25 minutes on average) tend to have a longer commute than women (18 minutes), and men who are over age 45 (30 minutes), living in the suburbs (29 minutes) and married (28 minutes on average) have the longest commutes of all.
Six-in-ten Americans say that traffic in their area is an inconvenience, although more say it is a minor (39%) than a major one (21%). Four-in-ten say it is not an inconvenience. Traffic is most often reported to be a major inconvenience by people in the Pacific region (32%). Urban and suburban residents alike see traffic as a bother.
Signs indicate that traffic is only getting worse. Half (55%) say traffic in their area has gotten worse over the past five years, a third (33%) say it is about the same. Only 6% say traffic has improved in their area.
Residents of the Pacific region are among the most likely to say traffic has gotten worse (69%; 50% “a lot”), along with suburbanites (62%). Women who are married (65%), over age 45 (62%), have some college (63%) or a degree (61%), have household incomes over $50,000 per year (63%), and are Democratic voters (65%) are relatively more critical of traffic today than others.
Over three-quarters (78%) say they have made at least one change to their daily routine because of increased traffic. Half or more say they have allowed more time for travel (63%), avoided certain roads (57%) or driving during certain hours (51%). People living in the Northeast (72%) and Pacific (73%) regions are most likely to say they have changed their routine to accommodate increased traffic. However, only one in ten (11%) say they have taken mass transit instead of driving. This option is most common among people living in cities (20%) and the Northeast (20%; 14% in the Pacific region), non-whites (23%) and those with low household income (19%).
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) July 2, 2004
One of the main contractors building the new MetroLink Cross County extension has run into nearly $7.5 million worth of unforeseen costs in the past year.
McCarthy Building Companies Inc., which is building the $74.8 million stretch of new light-rail from Kingsland Avenue to Ritz-Carlton Drive, has gone through the so-called contingency money since it began work on the project last year. Metro, the regional transit agency, blames the excessive costs on design issues with the Cross County Collaborative, the engineering companies that manage Metro’s $550 million Forest Park-to-Shrewsbury extension.
That group, which was hired by Metro to handle the design and construction management of the new light-rail line, already was under fire from the transit agency.
Metro has issued two letters of default threatening to fire the collaborative, alleging it has caused project delays and management problems. The fallout could set back the project’s targeted opening date of May 2006.
Metro hired the collaborative in 2000 for $40.75 million. It’s made up of Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas Inc.; STV Inc.; Jacobs Civil Inc.; and Kwame Building Group Inc.
Metro, which operates MetroLink in Missouri and Illinois, originally set the entire project’s contingency fund at $48.4 million. By January this year, the fund had dwindled to $20 million; by March, it had shrunk to $4.96 million.
Last year, Metro awarded a contract to McCarthy to build a portion of the new light-rail line. McCarthy’s original cut of the contingency was $7.48 million, but it has exceeded that, Metro spokeswoman Adella Jones said. She declined to say by how much.
Commissioners will have to use some of the remaining $4.96 million to settle up with McCarthy. Susan Garritano, a spokeswoman for McCarthy, declined to discuss the negotiations between her company and Metro.
Metro President and CEO Larry Salci planned to alert Metro’s board to the problem at its June 25 meeting but couldn’t because two commissioners left early, Salci wrote in a letter Monday to board chairman Michael Fausz.
The commissioners’ departure meant that the board didn’t have a quorum, and the discussion had to be postponed.
In his letter, Salci says he wants to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the financial setback with McCarthy and problems with the collaborative. If the collaborative can’t resolve the problems outlined in two default letters, Salci’s management team has recommended changes in the way it manages the project.
The changes are “essential in the event of contract termination, which, if the default(s) is not cured, could occur by mid-July.”
The collaborative issued a statement this week that said it believed that it had fixed the design work problems mentioned in the first letter, which was sent in October. The second default letter, regarding management services, was issued June 15 and was a surprise, the collaborative said.
Salci also criticized board members for leaving last month’s meeting early.
Commissioner Betty Van Uum said Thursday that she had scheduled another meeting and had to leave early that day. The other, Jacob Johnson, couldn’t be reached for comment.
“To purposely dissolve a quorum, which prohibits the majority of the board from exercising their duties to serve the public, is irresponsible behavior on their part,” Salci wrote. “It is embarrassing to the agency and rude and discourteous to fellow commissioners, who commit their time and efforts to support the agency’s plans and policies.”
The Straits Times (Singapore) July 2, 2004
BANGKOK - In five years, people may have to pay to drive in central Bangkok.
The measure is one of a slew of integrated moves designed to curb traffic congestion in the city of more than 10 million people and currently around 5.5 million vehicles - almost half of which are motorbikes.
The plan has been tabled by Thailand’s Office of Transport and Traffic Policy Planning for whose officers Bangkok’s traffic problem is a personal one. Their office is almost exactly in the centre of the city; at rush hour outside their windows, the converging roads and expressways often become thick with knots of struggling vehicles.
The director-general of the agency, Dr Kumropluk Suraswadi, told the Cabinet recently that the city should have its entire mass transit plan in place by 2009.
The components include a high-speed rail link between the current Don Muang airport and the new terminal at Suvarnabhumi, to be ready by the end of next year. The train will link the airports at a speed of up to 160 kmh covering the distance in 25 minutes - an essential measure because Don Muang would continue to be used by low-cost airlines.
A second high-speed link will take travellers from Suvarnabhumi to central Bangkok in 15 minutes.
A total of 291km of new railway tracks are being planned for outer Bangkok and the suburban areas which are currently out of the reach of the Skytrain and the Underground.
Dr Kumropluk said the railway system, which would cost around 400 billion baht (S$16.8 billion) and would be integrated with the current rapid transit systems, would make it largely unnecessary to drive into the city centre. ‘As a result, anyone who wants to drive into the heart of Bangkok may have to pay a fee,’ he told the Cabinet.
An official in the department, who declined to be named, told The Straits Times: ‘People have to realise that for private cars, the cost of driving is going to be higher.’
He said there were no illusions about the difficulties of implementing a payment system for cars in the city centre, and comparisons with cities like Singapore and London were not valid because of Bangkok’s different culture. ‘What are we going to do with the motorbike taxis, for instance?’ he said. ‘We have learned from Singapore, but the situation is different.’
Every day, about 1,410 new vehicles are being added to Bangkok’s roads. Of these, 700 are motorbikes, he said. The average speed of vehicles in the city was between 10 and 15 kmh. ‘It’s not a good situation, but it’s not worse than before the 1997-98 crisis,’ he said. ‘Fifteen years ago it was much worse.
‘We have to develop a range of measures, not just mass transit. We have to develop park-and-ride facilities, we have to prohibit parking on more streets, and we have to develop the public bus system because right now the majority of people still travel by bus. ‘And the road network also has to be expanded, it is not that we can do without additional roads,’ he said.
The inner city business district was the most critical, he said. The Bangkok Metropolitan Area currently has a population of just over six million, but the population of the greater Bangkok area is more than 10 million.
Yorkshire Post July 2, 2004
THE state-owned railway of Holland and a British company are set to run more than 2,000 Northern rail services, train chiefs revealed yesterday.
British firm Serco and NedRailways, a subsidiary of Holland’s state-owned train operator NS, have been chosen to jointly run the new Northern Rail franchise - subject to final negotiations - from the autumn.
The partnership, which beat FirstGroup to the contract, already operates the Merseyrail franchise, which has nearly 95 per cent punctuality.
Northern Rail will stretch from north of Newcastle and Carlisle to Scarborough and Cleethorpes, across to Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, and down into Lincoln and Stafford. It will take on services now being operated by Arriva Trains Northern and First North Western for up to nearly nine years.
Northern passengers will also benefit from a tough incentive performance regime, said the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) which awards franchises. It said current services would be maintained and that buses will not be substituted for trains.
But the Rail, Maritime and Transport union yesterday criticised the decision as a “wasted opportunity” to bring services back into British state hands.
Union general secretary Bob Crow also said rail maintenance had improved since being brought back “in-house” and that the same should happen to franchises. “It is deeply ironic that this franchise is now at least partly back in state hands - it’s just the wrong state,” he added.
But the Rail Passengers Committee for North Eastern England said travellers were more concerned about more reliable, affordable and comfortable trains rather than who ran them.
And the Passenger Transport Executive Group, which represents key regional transport bodies, warned that a lack of Government investment could hinder improvements. Group members include the West and South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executives (PTEs), which co-ordinate public transport.
Group chairman Kieran Preston, who is also director general of West Yorkshire PTE, said: “The commuter rail networks of the North’s major cities need significant investment, and at present the level of resources likely to be made available to Northern Trains falls well short of what’s needed.
“As the railways emerge from their current financial crisis we will be pressing Government to ensure that sufficient resources are made available to give the cities of the North the modern and efficient rail networks that their European counterparts take for granted”. But he added that his members were looking forward to working with Serco and NedRailways and expressed hope they would bring expertise from their highly-performing Merseyside operation.
NedRailways managing director Anton Valk said funding would be limited but that improvements were possible, by using experience from running trains in Holland and Merseyside. He added cooperation with the Merseyside PTE had resulted in improved performance and that similar work with northern PTEs was essential for the new franchise.
The Department for Transport said £73m was being spent on the railways a week, while a huge amount was going on new trains and upgrading stations on the region’s TransPennine Express network. A spokesman added Northern Rail would provide a better focus on passengers
Firms hope to run up a big reputation
SERCO and NedRailways may not be familiar names to Yorkshire rail passengers but they will be increasingly well-known when they begin running Northern Rail.
And many travellers in the region may have already travelled on rail services operated by the two companies without knowing it.
The partnership already operates the Merseyrail train network in the Liverpool area and will take on Arriva Trains Northern and First North Western services under Northern Rail. Serco calls itself a “public services” company and runs the Docklands Light Railway in London, Manchester Metrolink and the Copenhagen metro.
But the firm also runs the National Traffic Centre as well as providing education services in Bradford. Its subsidiary Education Bradford was set up in 2001 and is paid by the city council to run the district’s schools. And anyone who has travelled on Dutch trains is likely to have an idea of the type of passenger services NedRailways would like to provide.
The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dutch state-owned NS train operator, which runs the majority of services in the Netherlands.
NedRailways draws on the experience in the Dutch rail sector because there are similar challenges to the UK, with both seeing significant passenger growth and a need to adapt to cope with further expected increases. Managing director Anton Valk also said parent company NS had experience of running trains on busy routes and drawing up effective timetables.
The Nation (Thailand July 2, 2004, Friday
Life is about to change significantly for millions of Bangkokians this weekend, when the long-awaited state-of-the-art US$2.8-billion (Bt114 billion) subway becomes a new major means for mass transport - a welcome alternative to crammed, sometimes filthy buses with moody drivers and conductors.
After more than seven years in the making, and far longer on the drawing board, understandable excitement is building in the final countdown to tomorrow’s opening of the 20-kilometre line by His Majesty the King.
Gleaming stations, banks of escalators, sliding doors, smooth-running trains and a ticket-sensor system will make underground trains in some major Western cities look obsolete.
The line is expected to carry more than 250,000 passengers a day, completing the 18-station, north-south journey across the sprawling metropolis in a shade over half an hour.
Now traffic-weary city residents will be able to, say, quickly come all the way from Chatuchak Park to have a lunch break downtown, something they could never dream of doing in a car or by bus.
The subway and the Skytrain will supplement each other and provide what hopefully will be the most effective solution to traffic problems in key parts of Bangkok. ‘I’m looking forward to the days when I can get half an hour more sleep every day and less stress during my journey to work,’ said office worker Pensuda Taptim.
A grand opening has been arranged, with His Majesty the King - accompanied by Her Majesty the Queen - graciously presiding.
Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit along with representatives from the Bureau of the Royal Household, the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand, and system operator Bangkok Metro Company Limited (BMCL) yesterday went on an inspection tour of Hua Lamphong subway station in preparation for the inauguration.
Their Majesties will also inspect the station before boarding the inaugural train there at 5.30pm tomorrow. They will travel to Bang Sue and back, before going to the maintenance centre located near Phra Ram 9 station for the opening ceremony.
About 900 guests - including senior diplomats, privy councillors, the Cabinet and civil servants - will be at the opening ceremony.
At 6.30 pm, the subway will commence public service.
The first 99,999 passengers will each get a souvenir, said BMCL managing director Sombat Kijjalak.
Until August 12 - the Queen’s birthday - there will be a flat fare of Bt10 per person, the total income from which will be presented to His Majesty for charitable purposes. During this period, all station parking fees - set at Bt2.50 per hour or Bt50 per day - will be waived.
The fares will range from Bt14 to Bt31 from August 13 until July 3 next year. They will then rise to Bt14 to Bt36.
The system, open from 5am to midnight, has 18 stations: Hua Lamphong, Sam Yan, Silom, Lumpini, Klong Toei, Queen Sirikit Convention Centre, Sukhumvit, Phetchaburi, Phra Ram IX, Cultural Centre, Huai Khwang, Suthisarn, Ratchadaphisek, Lat Phrao, Phaholyothin, Chatuchak, Kampeang Phet and Bang Sue.
Trains will run every six minutes, increasing to once every three minutes during rush hours.
About 250,000 people a day are expected to use the subway, said Sombat, a passenger level that this year should generate about Bt670 million.Sombat said an initial stock of 200,000 stored-value plastic tickets had been imported from Japan. The tickets, with a minimum initial stored value of Bt300, will be scanned automatically when customers pass the gate, he added.