Washington, DC: Rail transit ballot measures pass on Nov. 2ndLight Rail Now! NewsLog 6 November 2004 Major rail transit initiatives passed handily in Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC on Nov. 2nd, reports Washington-area transportation engineer E. L. Tennyson. “Fairfax County, Va. passed a $175 million bond issue for MetroRail [rapid transit] cars, some Dulles [rail project] work, some buses, and some undesirable highway projects that the state is supposed to pay for, but can’t” says Tennyson. He adds that some “far-right Republicans” campaigned against the bond measure, calling rail transit “a waste”, but nevertheless the measure passed, 76 percent to 24, according to Tennyson. In addition, he adds, Arlington County, Va. also passed a “much smaller” bond issue for MetroRail support. He reports this passed, 80 percent to 20. “MetroRail may be poorly managed but it sure is popular” Tennyson observes. (Ouch!) |
Airline Workers See Little to Cheer as Crisis Widens and Cuts DeepenNew York Times November 6, 2004 These days, airplanes are filled with more passengers than ever, and with expectations for the busiest holiday season in four years, airline managers and their employees, by all rights, should be looking forward to ending the year on a high note. But instead of feeling cheery, the industry is caught in a crisis engulfing companies and workers alike. Airlines are furiously slashing costs and planning to eliminate jobs, already admitting that they expect to post weak results in the fourth quarter and see a bleak start to 2005. The most commonly blamed culprit is jet fuel prices, which have soared 74 percent this year to more than $1.50 a gallon. Meanwhile, ruthless competition is keeping the big airlines from passing any of that increase on to passengers, who are not willing to pay more for tickets. All of these factors are taking a huge toll on the industry, which analysts predict will lose as much as $5.5 billion this year, on top of $30 billion it has lost since 2000. The gloom is underscored by United Airlines’ disclosure late Thursday that it will seek another $2 billion in cost cuts, including more concessions from its unions. The airline, a unit of UAL, which has been in bankruptcy since December 2002, also said it wants to terminate its employee pension plans. “The urgent financial situation facing the entire industry has forced United’s hand,” the airline said in court documents filed yesterday. United’s employees are not alone in being asked to sacrifice. Yesterday, pilots at Northwest Airlines voted to approve $265 million in concessions, more than a year after the airline insisted it needed to bring down costs. Next Thursday, pilots at Delta Air Lines close their vote on a proposal to slash pay by 32.5 percent, as part of concessions worth $1 billion that the airline demanded under the threat of a bankruptcy filing. Meanwhile, unions for flight attendants and mechanics at US Airways are negotiating permanent concessions with the company, also in bankruptcy protection, to replace a 21 percent pay cut imposed by a federal judge. And American Airlines’ employees, who agreed 18 months ago to pay cuts, are wondering just how many more jobs will vanish as the industry’s biggest airline tries to slash costs again. All of that prompted Raymond Neidl, an analyst at Calyon Securities, to predict this week that airlines would not turn a profit until spring. For the unions, “it’s basically hopeless,” said David L. Gregory, professor of labor law at St. John’s University. That is not what the airlines had originally expected for 2004. They had hoped that the year would finally end a losing streak that began four years ago and was aggravated by the September 2001 terrorist attacks. But in August, hurricanes in the South helped diminish third-quarter results for the major airlines, which collectively lost $1.1 billion. And the outlook for this quarter is equally dismal, particularly for airline industry employees who have already suffered several rounds of pay cuts and have seen their benefits taken away. Delta, which outlined plans in September to cut up to 7,000 jobs through 2006, said yesterday that those cuts would include up to 2,000 mechanics and 3,100 customer service agents. Professor Gregory said that it was little comfort to Delta pilots that employees at other companies were making concessions. “These folks are just stranded,” he said. And even if Delta’s pilots approve the cuts next week, there is no assurance that their concessions will get the airline back to profitability. That is also the case at United, which won an initial round of pay cuts worth $2.5 billion from its unions last year, only to have to start over on its restructuring after a federal board rejected its application in June for loan guarantees. As part of the $2 billion in cuts announced Thursday, United wants concessions worth about $725 million a year from union members. That is on top of roughly $700 million in savings it would attain from ending its pension plans. If unions do not grant the cuts during negotiations, the company can ask a bankruptcy court judge to impose new labor contracts. “I think it’s fair for all of you to ask whether this challenge and sacrifice is worth it,” United’s chief executive, Glenn F. Tilton, said in a recorded message late Thursday. In response, United’s flight attendants’ union said the demands, which would mean $137.6 million in total reductions in wages and benefits, would be “disastrous.” The union vowed to “fight the company over every dime.” But executives say the steps are necessary before United can secure the financing that it needs to emerge from bankruptcy protection, which may take months to occur. “We need to have a business plan that’s financeable,” United’s chief financial officer, Frederic F. Brace III, said last week. “We will have a better idea of where we are,” he said, once the company reaches new labor agreements and reworks its pension plans. What happens at United is being closely watched by the industry’s biggest airline, American, which stepped up its cost-cutting efforts after posting a $214 million loss for the third quarter. American, which will spend $500 million more on fuel in the fourth quarter than it expected, said earlier this month that it would lose up to 1,100 pilot and mechanic jobs. On Wednesday, American said it would cut jobs further after the first of the year. The dire times are leading some analysts to predict that it will only be a matter of time before some of the familiar brand names disappear. But James Beer, American’s chief financial officer, said he thought further reductions would take place before any airline was liquidated. “It seems as though we have an awful lot more gradual shrinking than the exit of an entire organization, although that would seem to be completely plausible,” Mr. Beer said Wednesday. |
Airlines should charge passengers by the poundAustin American-Statesman November 6, 2004 A study shows that the airlines are having to buy hundreds of millions of gallons of additional fuel to fly America’s fat people around. If that’s the case, shouldn’t the airlines start charging passengers by the pound? When you ship a box by UPS, you don’t expect to pay the same amount for a 3-pound package that you’d plunk down for a 357-pound package, right? Same deal with airline tickets. If you’re a 357-pound package flying to Seattle, you should pay more to get on the plane than some guy who weighs 150. It’s that simple. OK, so it’s not that simple. Some folks are taller than others, so height and other factors should be considered. One measure that could be considered at the gate is your vertical leap. At the gate, if you can jump straight up less than, say, three inches, that means you’d have to pay more to get on a plane. Also, the airlines could station an attendant by the entrance ramp with a set of calipers to measure your love handles. A new government study shows that hurdles-challenged Americans are costing this country’s already financially strapped airlines a bunch of money. During the ‘90s, Americans gained an average of 10 pounds each, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study said that the extra weight forced the airlines to spend an additional $275 million on fuel in 2000. No wonder the airlines don’t feed their passengers. You could see how this weight thing could be a problem. You got a plane full of 200 people who are all, say, 32 pounds overweight, you’re lugging around an additional 6,400, or the equivalent of Shamu. Anyway, all this increased poundage meant that the airplanes had to burn an extra 350 million gallons of fuel in 2000. And, as anybody who has been to a gas station lately can testify, they ain’t giving this stuff away. So at 5-11, 205 pounds, why should I have to pay for these loads? You know that wooden box at the gate that your bag has to fit into before they’ll let you bring it on the plane? Maybe they could have something like that at the gate for your butt. If your butt can’t fit in this space, it’s an extra $49.95. It’s not that I don’t feel sorry for people with weight problems. I have had weight problems, off and on. I take it off; I put it on. And, let’s face it, There are moves the airlines could make to cut down on total poundage. How about hiring little people as flight attendants? Sure, they might have trouble reaching the baggage compartment to get you a pillow. But they could stand on each others’ shoulders. Another reason the airlines have to burn up so much fuel? It’s these enormous bags people bring on board. The trouble started when wheels began to appear on luggage. Suddenly, Americans could roll all of their household belongings onto the plane. Are you people flying to Cleveland or moving to Cleveland? If your bag is so large that you can’t lift it into the overhead, then either you or the bag should be thrown out onto the runway. And while you’re out there, do us all a favor and lose the grilled cheese sandwich. |
Sound Transit gets OK to keep collecting tax; Bond contract outweighs I-776, judge decidesThe Seattle Times November 6, 2004 Background — Initiative 776, approved by voters in 2002, repealed the motor-vehicle excise tax and set off a long legal process. Sound Transit can keep collecting its motor-vehicle excise tax for 24 more years, even though Initiative 776 repealed the tax two years ago, a King County judge ruled yesterday. In a four-page order, King County Superior Court Judge Mary Yu said cutting off the tax would interfere with a contract Sound Transit signed with purchasers of agency bonds in 1999. The state constitution’s prohibition against impairment of contracts trumps I-776, she ruled. In that contract, Sound Transit pledged the 0.3 percent tax as collateral and promised to keep collecting it until the bonds are paid off. That isn’t scheduled to occur until 2028, and over the next 24 years, the tax will generate far more revenue than the $350 million the agency owes the bondholders. But “this court has no authority to order early retirement of the bonds, nor the power to direct how Sound Transit spends the [excise tax] funds,” Yu wrote. State voters approved I-776, which also repealed two other vehicle taxes, in 2002. Yesterday’s ruling was another milestone in the long legal process of sorting out just what the measure does. But it won’t be the last word. Initiative sponsor Tim Eyman said last night that his Permanent Offense organization will appeal to the state Supreme Court, which last year reversed a Yu ruling that I-776 was unconstitutional. “Her word isn’t holy scripture,” Eyman said. State Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald, a Sound Transit board member, said Yu’s ruling came as a relief. Losing the money “would have made Sound Transit’s funding problems even more serious,” he said. The vehicle tax generates about 20 percent of Sound Transit’s revenue. In court papers, an agency official said losing the money would have meant less-frequent train and bus service and abandonment of some transit capital projects — but not the controversial Seattle light-rail line Eyman had targeted during the I-776 campaign. Eyman said Sound Transit “presented this false choice: either satisfy the bondholders, or satisfy the taxpayers.” Since the tax brings in much more money than the bondholders require, “there’s no reason why they can’t do both,” he said. Eyman’s lawyers had urged Yu to tell Sound Transit to repay the bonds sooner and end the tax earlier. Yu declined. Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick yesterday acknowledged the agency could pay off the bonds before 2028 if it chooses to do so. “But it’s not something we could do without hurting our mission of building a regional mass-transit system,” he said. While I-776 passed statewide, voters in Sound Transit’s district, which includes urban parts of King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, rejected the measure by 57 to 43 percent. “It’s pretty clear that the people of this region support alternatives to sitting in traffic,” Patrick said. But Eyman said a move by Sound Transit to end the tax before 2028 would help restore trust in government. “They’re kind of doing `Neener, neener — we don’t have to,’ “ he said. “That’s one of the reasons people don’t like Sound Transit.” I-776 does prohibit Sound Transit from raising the motor-vehicle tax or extending it beyond 2028. That will reduce the agency’s capacity to expand the system it’s already building, Patrick said. In addition to Sound Transit’s tax of $30 on each $10,000 of vehicle value, I-776 also repealed four counties’ annual vehicle-license fees and state weight fees on light trucks. When the Supreme Court upheld the initiative, collection of the two other taxes stopped. But the justices didn’t address whether Sound Transit could continue to levy its vehicle tax, sending that question back to Yu. Sound Transit argued even before the I-776 vote that its bond contract shielded its motor-vehicle tax from the initiative. The state Department of Licensing announced before the 2002 election that it would continue to collect the tax until a court told it to stop. I-776 includes language stating that, if repeal of Sound Transit’s tax affects outstanding bonds, “the people expect” Sound Transit to use other revenues to pay them off ahead of schedule. But, in her ruling, Yu said that language isn’t legally binding. She also rejected arguments from Eyman’s lawyers that Sound Transit had no authority to sign the contract because the agency wasn’t formed according to state law — in effect, that Sound Transit doesn’t legally exist. Sound Transit’s formation in 1996 complied with a 1994 law, she wrote. Yu’s ruling was the second blow this week for Eyman. Tuesday, state voters overwhelmingly rejected his Initiative 892, which would have expanded gambling and used some of the proceeds to cut property taxes. “He should give it a rest,” said Richard Borkowski of People for Modern Transit, a group which generally supports Sound Transit. “His days as a grass-roots crusader are pretty much over.” |
Getting around undergroundThe Advertiser November 6, 2004 IT’S not a tourist attraction, but for visitors to New York, to ride the subway certainly is a travel experience in more ways than one — and it’s been going on for 100 years. The first subway trip was in October, 1904, when a single fare cost a nickel. Even now it costs only $US2 ($2.70) to get a ride through four boroughs of the city. Today, New York’s subway has more kilometres of track than any underground transit system in the world and whisks 4.5 million passengers daily through the city. And to celebrate, last week there were festivities with passengers riding on vintage subway trains dressed as passengers would have when the the new subway began to change New York; bands playing, speeches, museum displays with everything culminating with a jam concert at Grand Central Terminal. Above ground, New York’s skyscrapers point toward the clouds, and the streets teem with pedestrians and cars. Below the surface is the Big Apple’s nervous system: the subway, which is a world of its own. A busy weekday afternoon on the D train is a classic example. Hispanic teenagers board in the Bronx, joking in Spanish. Then a stop in mid-town Manhattan sends office workers rushing aboard. The scene changes again as the train rumbles southeast into Brooklyn: African Americans, Asians and Russian immigrants stream in. The D train, like its alphabetic and numeric counterparts across the city, is a cross-section of humanity — an unwitting, usually unnoticed celebration of a diverse city. One of the important things the subway did was to disperse the population and accelerate growth in the outer boroughs. So how could you possibly find a better way to bring cultures together than the subway? The inaugural trip carried then-mayor George B. McClellan Jr, 14.6km from City Hall to 145th Street. “City Hall to Harlem in 15 minutes!” amazed city fathers exclaimed. That 1904 milestone came after workers spent four years digging tunnels 16.5m wide and 4.5m high, while pumps drew out rainwater. The system has always been an engineering marvel. Subway lines were carved through bedrock, granite and quicksand. An innovation known as “cut and cover” allowed streets to be excavated, tunnels built and streets then restored. In those following 100 years, the trains have forced New Yorkers hip to hip and stitched together their neighbourhoods, essentially creating the city north of midtown and linking it with far-flung areas of Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens. For some, the subway has a reputation for danger — characterised by tabloid headlines about commuters pushed in front of trains by deranged vagrants, and other types of crime. Today the subway averages about nine major crimes a day, the lowest in decades, according to police statistics. Still, if some fear the underground world, others revel in it and it certainly is a piece of New York which everyone should experience. |
IT’S 25 years since Glasgow’s Subway was given a new lease of life and became an integral part of the city’s transport system.Evening Times (Glasgow) November 6, 2004 IT’S as much a part of the fabric of Glasgow life as the Fair Fortnight, the Clyde or a wander around the Barras. And in its 108-year history it has seen off two world wars, four kings, a queen and 20 prime ministers. Now, almost two billion passengers later, Glasgow’s Subway is celebrating 25 years since it was transformed from an ageing and under-used system to an integral part of the city’s transport network. A quarter of a century ago this week the Queen travelled in the driver’s cab of a Subway train for the journey between Buchanan Street and St Enoch. The third-of-a-mile trip was the most momentous few minutes in the network’s history since The Glasgow Subway Company opened its doors to become only the world’s third underground rail operator in 1896. The massive refurbishment, costing £ 43million, the equivalent of around £ 150m in today’s terms, ensured the Subway’s thriving future. Before then, passenger numbers had dropped to just seven million a year, almost half the current tally. Stations were crumbling, the trains were small and slow and massive investment was needed. The situation had become so dire that bosses at the Greater Glasgow Transport Executive, the forerunner to SPT, had considered shutting the system down completely. Only congestion on the roads convinced authorities that coughing up the cash to improve public transport was the best way to beat the escalating traffic problem. The refit, which took two and a half years to complete, involved almost an entire overhaul of the whole 15 station network. It involved the relaying of six and a half miles of track, repairing the tunnels and replacing the signalling system and power supply. Stations were rebuilt and escalators were installed, while CCTV, new lighting and fire escapes made the stations safer. Platforms were lengthened to take three carriage trains and bright orange rolling stock was also introduced. Trains were to run at four minute intervals seven days a week. And along with the new system and new branding came a nickname which the Underground is still known by today, the Clockwork Orange. Since the Underground opened to the public the following April it has carried over 322m passengers, with over 13m using it every year — on average some 36,000 a day. Trains during morning and evening rush hours are packed, with thousands of commuters taking advantage of the park and ride facilities at Kelvinbridge and Shields Road or the Govan and Partick bus and rail interchanges. It also links major tourist attractions and shopping centres. From the city centre visitors and locals alike can make it to Kelvingrove Museum, The Science Centre, Byres Road, Ibrox Stadium and The Carling Academy in around 10 minutes. And while it is occasionally dogged by delays, shut downs and industrial action it is still considered the most efficient jam-free way of negotiating the parts of the city it serves. As it celebrates its 25th modern birthday, transport bosses and commuters leaders hope it will going round in circles for a long time to come. And SPT chairman Alistair Watson has even raised the notion of an expansion of the network to take the Subway into its next 25 years. Mr Watson, who is also councillor for Cardonald, said: “Government ministers sometimes ask me what the plans for the Subway are and I tell them if they give us the money then we will have major plans. We need to sit down and look at where the Subway is going for the next quarter of a century and if the money was there we’d love to see the network expanded. “The Subway shows how radical our Victorian planners in Glasgow were. And if we are to tackle the issue of public transport in a conurbation the size of Greater Glasgow for the 21st century then we need the same radical approach.” Robert Samson, director of the Rail Passengers Committee Scotland, added: “The Subway plays a crucial role for tens of thousands of Glasgow citizens and visitors alike every day. The Partick interchange is a great example of how different types of transport are linked. You could take a train from some of the furthest reaches of the greater Glasgow region to Partick and within minutes be in any of a dozen areas across the city.” Modern system had royal seal of approval TIME was when John McDonnell rarely saw daylight. Working in Glasgow’s subway making sure the systems were in working order, almost every waking hour was spent underground. His tireless toiling paid off though on November 1 1979 when he was invited to join the Queen and Prince Philip on the subway’s maiden journey of the modern era. But as he recalls it was not all plain sailing. He said: “The night before we were busy getting things ready and special branch and the army were all over the place. We were so concerned everything would work OK we almost forgot who our guests were. “Then the royal couple arrived and the Queen seemed very interested in how the subway operated. But the signal failed at Buchanan Street and we had to pass it at danger. Then my colleague Jimmy Cameron was so busy talking to the Queen he forgot to open the doors. Those assembled at the St Enoch platform thought the doors were broken. I’m not sure Prince Philip enjoyed himself but the Queen seemed fairly relaxed.” In his 33-years since joining the forerunner of SPT, the Greater Glasgow Transport Executive, he has seen massive changes. But tellingly he’s also currently witnessing a return to much of the pre-1976 subway. He said: “In 1979 we became the underground, had a new orange livery and new rolling stock. Now we’re going back to the old brown and cream logos and once again we’re the subway.” Mr McDonnell regrets that the network was not extended in 1979 and hopes that more investment may come the way of the Subway in the future. He said: “It would be fantastic if we had more investment and that more people in Glasgow, as well as visitors, used the service.” When it was opened by the Glasgow Subway Company in 1896 it was the world’s third underground railway. London and Budapest got there first. Initially the cable-powered cars had a top speed of just 13mph and took 45 minutes to get around 15 stations. Glasgow Corporation took the Subway into public control in 1923 and electrified the trains and track in 1935. It became the Underground in 1937. Underground lines were built to Summerston via Botanic Gardens, Maryhill and Ruchill and to Glasgow Airport via Ibrox, while a secondary circle taking in Duke Street, Carntyne, Celtic Park, Dalmarnock and Bridge Street was also constructed. |
WITH 9 TRAINS STUCK IN NIIGATA, THE JOETSU BULLET SERVICE SHUGS ALONG; AT 60The Asahi Shimbun November 6, 2004 If it seems like there are more people squeezed into Joetsu Shinkansen services-or fewer trains running these days-that’s because it’s true. East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) is desperately short of high-speed bullet trains for its truncated Joetsu Shinkansen service between Tokyo and quake-shattered Niigata. A casualty of the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake that struck Oct. 23, services are still suspended between Nagaoka and Echigo-Yuzawa stations. Forty-five bridge piers under Shinkansen tracks are fractured; tracks in four tunnels have buckled; and the derailed Toki No. 325 still blocks the line. JR East says it will be at least another month before services are restored to normal. They also cited buckled tracks and strong aftershocks for the slow pace of restoration work. The severed route has taken a gouge out of available trains-nine of its 23 are stuck on the Niigata side, forcing the hugely profitable Tokyo end to make do with just 14. Even the route’s two extra stand-by trains are stranded in Niigata. A detour used by regular JR lines between Tokyo and Niigata is off-limits. Shinkansen bullet trains use wider tracks than standard trains. Trucking trains from seasonally snowy Niigata to the Tokyo side of the fractured route, where they are needed most, is also out of the question-a single car weighs about 60 tons. Trains are now packed solid during rush-hour. The Joetsu Shinkansen gets heavy use south of Echigo-Yuzawa Station, where it hauls daily commuters to and from the Tokyo metropolitan area. It is quite the opposite of the northern stretch on the Niigata side. There is a big discrepancy in the number of passengers and train services between the two sections. According to JR East, for example, there are about 85,000 daily travelers who use the Shinkansen between Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, and Omiya in Saitama Prefecture, alone. About 10,000 are assumed to be regular bullet-train commuters with train passes. There are normally 93 daily departures and arrivals in Tokyo, compared with 56 for Niigata. Since the Oct. 23 quake hit, Tokyo service is now slashed to about 60, JR East officials said. Tokyo operators are trying to cope by having more trains make numerous round trips. But officials say sustaining 60 percent of regular services is the best they can do at the moment, given the limited amount of trains available. It is possible to borrow bullet-train cars from JR East’s Tohoku Shinkansen Line, but it has none to spare. The line is busy handling crowds of tourists heading off to picturesque Tohoku. “We will just have to eke by with what we have by tinkering with train inspection schedules,” said one JR East official. |
TRAVEL: THE GATE TO FREEDOM; WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE WORLD FAMOUS STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCOBirmingham Post November 6, 2004 I hardly expected to find myself exploring the marvellous US West Coast city of San Francisco, with up and-coming actress Julie Fernandez — from the award-winning BBC comedy series The Office — as one of my companions. However, the purpose of our visit was work rather than pleasure. When the final phase of the Disability Discrimination Act became law in Britain on October 1, hotels, tourist attractions, shops, offices and public buildings now have to make themselves accessible to all. And we will start to catch up with the United States, which brought in similar laws ten years ago. The new Disability Rights Commission — which explains rights and obligations under the new law on its website at www.drc-gb.org — took our group to San Francisco, to show us what has already been achieved in the States and what we can expect to see back home in the months and years to come. As a disabled person in Britain, I long ago accepted that able-bodied people — and officialdom — look the other way and make out our problems doesn’t exist. Some people ask the companion of a wheelchair-borne individual if he or she takes sugar in tea, as if the disabled person is mentally as well as physically incapacitated. In Britain it can be difficult, often impossible, to get wheelchairs into shops or restaurants, negotiating frustratingly narrow doorways and aisles, or steps up and down. Oddly named ‘Disabled Toilets’ often become storerooms, possibly because they’re often too difficult for a disabled person to access anyway. In San Francisco and the surrounding area, however, the one thing disabled people cannot be said to be is invisible. They are all around, out and about, living independent lives, coming and going as they wish. On the BART — Bay Area Rapid Transit, the San Francisco area’s equivalent of the Underground — severely disabled people in powered wheelchairs travel freely. Access is so easy that they don’t need able-bodied companions to help them through the stations or onto trains. Most buses are also wheelchair accessible, while shops and restaurants also accept that accessibility must be as easy for the disabled as for the able-bodied. In many buildings, signs are in large print for the partially sighted, with the same information in Braille for the blind. There are ramps as well as — or sometimes instead of — stairs. I wandered around the tourist area of Haight Ashbury, the birthplace of hippiedom, and San Francisco’s answer to London’s Camden Lock. Buildings are painted in colours which would spark apoplexy in British planning officials. Nearly every shop had an entrance at pavement level and wide doorways for wheelchair access. Ironically, one exception was the Anarchist Bookshop, where staff said they could not afford changes to allow easy access for the disabled. An ice-cream parlour had a wheelchair level sales point opening on to the pavement for the use of passing customers, while a bank on a street corner had a cash machine fitted at the right level for wheelchair users — and separate machine for the able-bodied. On every street corner, kerbs were lowered to help people with mobility difficulties. At City Hall, a refurbishment installed a myriad of aids for people with disabilities. Next to the front entrance is a new ramp for wheelchair users, and immediately inside the main entrance, a lift carries wheelchairs up steps into an imposing main foyer. Lifts take three or four wheelchairs at a time, and floors are all level, with no steps. Doors to rooms where public meetings are held have power-operation buttons, and signs in large print with Braille. There are loop systems for those using hearing aids. Visitors with sight problems can also get radio-location sets — devices to pick up signals broadcast from various stations throughout City Hall which tell you where you are and where you are going, with the information becoming more detailed as you approach your intended destination. The system allows the blind and those with only partial sight to navigate their way around the building with relative ease. In the city of Berkeley, east of central San Francisco, one bank has a talking cash machine for the blind and partially-sighted. It gives customer instructions through headphones to ensure privacy. Sadly, I was unable to try it as vandalism is such a problem that anyone keen to use such a machine takes his or her own headset along, because those fitted to the machines themselves are smashed within a day or so. Julie Fernandez, who has the genetic disorder brittle bone disease and campaigns for disability and access issues, was even more impressed than me. ‘It’s exciting being here,’ she said. ‘In a city full of hills, this is one of the most accessible places in America. ‘It is a wonderful experience because you don’t have to plan ahead all the time. Most service providers here are accessible, and when you come across one that isn’t, it is something of a surprise. It’s not just shopping. For example, we went on the Underground here — and I’ve only ever been on the London Underground twice in my life.’ It’s hard to predict how fast change will happen in the UK. It might take time, but perhaps it won’t be too long before disabled people are as common a sight going about their business in our cities as they already are in San Francisco. |
The Metropolitan Transit Authority is considering plans to expedite travel to Bush Intercontinental Airport next yearHouston Chronicle November 7, 2004 Joseph Fletcher of Bristol, England, boarded Metro’s Route 102 last week expecting to take a quick trip from downtown Houston to Bush Intercontinental Airport. What was labeled an “express” bus to the airport, however, was anything but that. A trip from the Hilton Americas-Houston downtown to the airport took more than an hour, including stops. “It did seem to be a very poor form of transport,” Fletcher said as he headed to check in for a flight home. “It’s hard to make a service like that appealing to a wider group of people because they want to drive their own car.” Even though he’s an out-of-towner, Fletcher’s experience was similar to that of area residents who find it difficult to get to Bush Intercontinental in far north Houston without a personal car. Taxis are expensive, bus service is limited and rail service is nonexistent. Houston and Detroit have the fewest city-to-airport travel options among the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. Both cities also are the only ones that don’t have door-to-door shared-van shuttles. Houston bans the shared vans from servicing homes and offices; they may only take passengers to and from hotels. City Council is now reviewing a change to that ordinance proposed by the Houston Airport System. “It’s ridiculous” that this region doesn’t have more travel options, said Toni Laas of Sugar Land. “In a city as big as Houston, we’re still living in the Dark Ages.” The Metropolitan Transit Authority is considering plans to improve the bus service next year. Metro is discussing a nonstop bus from the airport to the city center, connecting with the Main Street light rail line and numerous bus routes at the Downtown Transit Center. It might also stop at major hotels. “I have traveled to the airport on the bus from downtown, but it is too slow,” said Erika Abud, who flew in last week from her hometown of Puebla, Mexico. Abud said she now takes a hotel shuttle to and from the Houston airport but would welcome a direct bus route. Service cutback Options for getting to and from Houston’s major airport became even fewer last week as Metro eliminated two of its routes serving Bush Intercontinental in a cost-cutting measure. Route 55, which provided service between Greenspoint and Kingwood, and Route 101, which linked Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports, stopped running a week ago. The cutbacks leave travelers with only Route 102 to the airport. And it attracts few fliers because of its lengthy travel time to downtown. It takes about an hour to travel downtown because of numerous stops at apartment complexes and other locations between the airport and Interstate 45. On Fletcher’s trip, the bus was full when it left downtown, but nearly all the passengers were Northside commuters who got off well before the airport. Only five people disembarked at the Terminal C stop, and only Fletcher was catching a flight. Darren Bush of Humble bemoans the lack of good, affordable ground transportation options. Bush said when he lived in Washington, he never drove himself to the airport. He used the subway, a bus or a taxi. “This is really the only large city that I know of that doesn’t have any good rapid-transit infrastructure,” Bush said. High taxi prices The high cost of taxis in and out of Bush Intercontinental has long been an irritation for residents and visitors. The airport’s distance from the city — 19 miles north of downtown — produces jaw-dropping fares. The fixed rate to downtown is $37.50. It’s $73.50 to get to Clear Lake and the Johnson Space Center. Fares outside the city are unregulated. “I always have to have somebody bring me here (airport) because the taxis are so expensive,” Laas said. “From my house, a taxi is $90.” Direct bus route study Metro Chairman David Wolff said the inaccessibility and high cost of using Bush Intercontinental is a major sore spot for the region’s efforts to attract businesses and tourists. He hopes the transit authority can step in with a “first-class,” point-to-point bus service that will draw numerous travelers out of their cars. Metro has dubbed the bus route under study the “30/30.” The concept is for buses to depart every half-hour and take only 30 minutes to make the trip from the Downtown Transit Center to the airport. The idea of a direct bus has failed before. The authority discontinued a direct downtown-to-Bush Intercontinental bus in June 2000, less than two years after it began. The ridership was miserable, averaging about 200 people per day. That route was designed mostly for airport employees and never caught on among travelers. Wolff said the proposed premium bus would be designed for fliers. Metro would likely purchase new buses, he said, and would plan an aggressive marketing campaign. Smooth transfers The addition of the light rail line and the transit center, both of which opened Jan. 1, will enable better transfers, Wolff said. Smooth connections are essential to the proposed bus route’s success because few Houstonians live downtown and a minority of Houston’s work force is employed there. Roger Smith, Houston Airport System spokesman, said Metro hasn’t brought up the concept with airport officials. But “we would say any new option that would be provided to help passengers get to and from Bush Intercontinental Airport is something we are not opposed to,” he said. Wolff said there’s no time frame yet on when the premium bus might start. |
Train to DIA finds traction; FasTracks vote puts drawing-board plan on course for ’14 debutDenver Post November 7, 2004 It’s all aboard the Air Train to Denver International Airport — even though passengers won’t be loading luggage for another 10 years. Planners were energized by passage of the FasTracks tax increase by metro Denver voters last week because suddenly the train has gone from a paper exercise to a blueprint for a real steel line. “We now have an identified funding source,” the Regional Transportation District’s Mike Turner said about voter support for a $702 million rail line from Denver’s Union Station to DIA. Tuesday’s vote in favor of FasTracks means an ongoing environmental study of the DIA transit line “will be more than a document that just sits on the shelf,” said Turner, RTD’s project manager on the study. Construction is due to start at the beginning of 2011, and the line is scheduled to open in late 2014. On Friday, Turner and other officials revealed two DIA train options that will be studied further. One would use a diesel-powered commuter train in the Union Pacific Railroad corridor adjacent to Interstate 70. At Peña Boulevard, it would head north, running parallel to the airport road. The line would have two stations between I-70 and DIA. One would be near RTD’s existing park-n-Ride at East 40th Avenue and Airport Boulevard. The second would be near East 72nd Avenue and Tower Road, said Bill Sirois, a transportation consultant working on the environmental study. The other option calls for substitution of electric-powered light rail for the diesel train. From Union Station to roughly East 56th Avenue and Peña Boulevard, the light-rail alternative would run in the same right of way as the diesel train. At 56th, the light-rail line would jog slightly to the east up to East 67th Avenue. There, the line would turn and travel through an area planned for commercial development before following Picadilly Road to rejoin the Peña corridor. In the segment from I-70 to DIA, light rail would have three stops, Sirois said. Aurora officials strongly favor the light-rail alternative for the Air Train. Earlier this year, Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer told RTD and Colorado Department of Transportation officials that a light-rail line to DIA would allow passengers “to complete trips with a minimum of train transfers and delays.” Reinforcing Tauer’s point, Aurora traffic services manager Dick Havercamp said Friday that a diesel-powered commuter line to DIA would have an awkward connection with light rail serving the Interstate 225/Fitzsimons medical complex corridor that will meet the airport line. “We don’t like ‘cross-platform connections,”’ Havercamp said, referring to the cumbersome junction of diesel and light-rail lines that would occur. But DIA officials have concerns that the light-rail option for the Air Train — with more stops — could slow service. “We need to be able to get people downtown from the airport rapidly,” said Rick Busch, the airport’s chief planner, on Friday. DIA might be able to support the light-rail alternative if some trains ran on an express schedule between the airport and downtown, with fewer local stops, Busch said. Cal Fulenwider, whose real estate development company owns property in the corridor, said his firm needs to see more details about how the train would intersect roads. Property owners also need to know whether rules about airport noise will allow residential development to occur next to the rail corridor, he said. Tuesday’s vote did more than propel the Air Train. It also includes $791 million for rail and express bus improvements from Denver to Boulder and Longmont, and about $500 million for a west corridor light-rail line to Lakewood and Golden from downtown Denver. In all, FasTracks calls for $4.7 billion in transit improvements over 12 years. |
With the River Rail now up and running, Keith Jones is seeing eight years of hard work rewarded. As CATA’s main man, he’s aiming for further improvements in central Arkansas’ public transitArkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock November 7, 2004 It’s a step back in time to walk into the office of Keith Jones, Central Arkansas Transit Authority executive director and general manager. Every window ledge and wall space is packed with relics that evoke the transportation industry’s past. Jones points to a few — a toy trolley, an old model commuter bus, antique tools. Then he breaks into a mischievous smile when his eyes rest on a placard sitting square in the middle of his desk. “I don’t guess you can print that, can you?” he says, still smiling. “It says it all: `Just ride the darn bus.’” His eyes move to the window ledge where a gray metal and glass contraption, resembling a scientist’s microscope, rests on a stack of old books. Gingerly twisting it in his hands, Jones explains that the surveying instrument was used for years by his father, Raymond Jones, during his long tenure as an engineer for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. Jones excitedly sifts through the stacks of paper and books on his desk, in search of another treasure before he proudly produces a black-and-white photo. “I want to have one taken just like this and have them framed side-by-side,” he says, his eyes twinkling as he points to the half dozen men smiling at the camera as they peer from the doorway of a trolley in downtown Little Rock. “That was Christmas 1947, the last run.” The trolley — which took eight years and $19.5 million to revive — was christened twice on Monday, first by North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays and Pulaski County Judge Villines at the Alltel Arena stop on the north side of the river. It then crossed the river for the second dedication by Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. Free rides have been available to everyone during grand-opening week, which ends today. “The bridge ride itself is going to be a great attraction to both downtowns,” Jones says. “I will really enjoy seeing the public ride, all wide-eyed and open-mouthed.” Dailey lauds the River Rail as “another important piece in the downtown renaissance. While it will be an easy way for visitors to travel downtown, I think it will also be beneficial for people who work downtown. It also excites me that the current route is only the beginning. Future phases are in various stages of planning. The River Rail can really be a major player in the continued development of central Arkansas.” Jones vividly remembers the day in 1996 when the River Rail was born. He was called to a meeting in Dailey’s office but wasn’t warned about the subject. As he walked through the doors, he was greeted by the “three amigos”: Dailey, Hays and Villines. “I had flashbacks of being called to the principal’s office,” he says. “What they wanted was the answer to the question: `How can we build a rail line connecting the [Alltel] arena to the River Market?’” The first thought on Jones’ mind was. “Where are we going to get the money?” He knew from his days as a transportation engineer with Public Technology Inc. in Washington that the project would require Congressional action to earmark money specifically for the rail construction. “I honestly didn’t think we had a chance of getting it. But I prepared the proposal and Senator [Dale] Bumpers called one day to say we had gotten $2 million and to get started on the design,” Jones says. “We undertook this thing with a lot of faith. We started out without a lot of money. I kept thinking, `What happens if we can’t finish.’ But every year, we got the money to keep going.” Jones says he, the “three amigos,” and the CATA board of directors, led by president Bob Major, spent countless worryfilled hours bringing the River Rail to life. His coordinating role was vital, according to Hays. “I have little doubt that we wouldn’t be where we are today if it weren’t for Keith,” says the North Little Rock mayor. “I wouldn’t change jobs with him for anything. I have one city council, he has three principals and the CATA board. Then you add the funding vehicle. It’s a tough job. I daresay that I know why Keith has so little hair on the top of his head. It’s not genetics. He’s pulled it out.” Dailey says Jones “has transformed CATA. Under his leadership — and with the support of the CATA board — the organization has retained its mission of providing bus service to citizens in Pulaski County while expanding into new areas. CATA is certainly a stronger, more dynamic organization under Keith’s leadership.” Jones says he didn’t realize how harried he was until he got the stress-reducing news two weeks ago that federal overseers had given their safety approval. “I’m usually up by 4 a.m. every day, but that Saturday, I slept till 10 a.m.,” he says. “All I feel now is relief. This project has really strained our little organization. You don’t grow unless you’re challenged. We’re the second smallest city in the nation to get a street car line, and we did it without adding staff.” With 21 /2 miles of track and three cars, Phase One of the River Rail loops through the downtowns of Little Rock and North Little Rock. Jones and the community leaders say that the economic boon they hoped the trolley would bring has already begun, but the best lies ahead. “A street car system can be an asset, not just a necessity,” Jones says. “Development will happen around the street car line and in some ways it already has.” Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines agrees, “When you have these fixed rail transit operations, people begin to locate their businesses on it. I think you will see it even more in the future when we begin to extend it out. From an environmental standpoint, we’ll have better air if people get out and use this transportation mode. “I think Keith has done a heck of a job putting this thing together,” Villines says. “It has hurt his golf game. I can beat him now, and that wasn’t the case before we started. His sacrifice is to our benefit. The trolley system is the first stage of the future for transit for central Arkansas. Keith is the one who actually made it work.” A $9.2 million expansion is already in the works to accommodate the Clinton Presidential Center and the Heifer International projects, while a third phase will link the rails to a proposed $25 million ballpark on the north shore. Jones points to Memphis as an example that started with three cars in 1993 and now has 20. He says that when he called other communities with rail systems, their main advice was, “You’ll need more cars.” The “three amigos” agree. “Buddy, Pat, and I each have our own jurisdictions, but there are times when it makes sense to collaborate and share resources — such as with a regional mass transit system,” says Dailey. “If there are `Three Amigos,’ it is really the three government organizations working together. That is what it takes to get things done.” ENGINEERING A FUTURE: Born in Searcy to Raymond and Bobbie Jones, Keith Jones grew up on Park Hill in North Little Rock with a bus stop at the corner of his front yard. “My mom was never happy about the fact that people waiting on the bus kept the grass worn down on that corner,” Jones says. “She still lives in that house, but I moved the bus route to JFK.” He swears the shift wasn’t for his mother, but simply to streamline the service. He rode the bus religiously when he was a boy, but knows that parents today are hesitant to let their children ride alone. “It taught us independence back then,” he says. “I remember I always had to look for the `E’ or the `W’ in the window of the Park Hill bus. If I got it wrong, I’d end up at the old ArkMo Highway.” Transportation engineering was a legacy passed along from his father, who died in 1998. He has fond memories of watching his father design roads and work out problems as an engineer with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. “I looked up to him a great deal,” Jones says. “He was from the World War II generation. He had a great sense of humor and worked hard. He was very family oriented and never let anyone down. I think he would be pleased with what I’ve done so far.” Initially, Jones was drawn to rocket science as a career, but his aspirations became more earthbound. He earned a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and later completed graduate work in urban transportation engineering. After college, he worked as a transportation engineer with East-West Gateway Coordinating Council in St. Louis, moved back to Arkansas briefly in 1975, held a position in Washington, then settled back in Arkansas in 1979 to become the director of Statewide Planning for the Highway Department. In 1986, he was tapped to lead the newly created Central Arkansas Transit Authority. His first job was to design and build a new headquarters for CATA in North Little Rock, a task he completed in 1991. He then took on several other notable projects, including restructuring the route system, and replacing the old dinosaur fleet of buses with new vehicles. Perhaps his biggest point of pride was the completion four years ago of the River Cities Travel Center hub and transfer station on East Capitol in Little Rock. “If I left today, that would be my biggest accomplishment,” he says. “For years, bus riders went without shelter, restrooms or information. The travel center is a great civilizing venture for our bus riders.” Major says, “It’s that sense of service and protective attitude for his bus riders that signifies Keith’s career. He is a visionary as far as looking at the needs of the area then having to deal with the funding constraints that we have. He truly cares about the people he serves.” The safety of those bus passengers, an estimated 8,000 per day, is at the top of his priorities, Jones says. “The bus system is not warm and fuzzy like the trolley, but I’m just as proud of my buses as I am of the street car project,” he says. “We’ve given people safe transportation for years. There’s a lot of gratification in that. It only takes an instant for a reputation to be lost. My dad always said that we’ve got to have a safe and fully trained staff. You’ve got to take care of things and not just take them for granted. Safety is a big legacy to leave here.” Jones requires his staff, including himself, to ride the bus at least once a month. “I want our staff to know what our product is,” he says. “They talk to the riders and the bus drivers. We’ve gotten a lot of great suggestions that way. When I get down or overwhelmed, I go ride the bus. It’s a self-motivating thing to do.” FUND THE DARN BUS Jones’ self-proclaimed greatest failure in his tenure at CATA is not having dedicated funding for the transit system. He brought the sales-tax initiative to the public twice over the years, only to have it voted down. He explains that only 20 percent of the annual operating budget comes from fares, another 2 percent from state funding and the balance from the Central Arkansas cities he serves. Dedicated funding “is my No. 1 goal,” he says. “I’ve been here 17 years, and we still don’t have it. We’ve made a lot of strides, but it’s been a big disappointment for me. We’re basically reborn every Jan. 1. We need stable funding or we’re not going to attract people to ride by choice.” Major points out that Jones is almost as dedicated to the Central Arkansas Transit System as he is to his own children, spending sleepless hours brainstorming ways to expand coverage and frequency, and how to offer more of an incentive to make the bus a method of choice, not just necessity. “Obviously, as much as he loves golf, if you play with him, you know he’s spending a lot more time working on public transit than he is on his golf game,” Major says. Hays observes, “You build a foundation and the most visible part is the cornerstone. That’s what Keith has been to this community for so many years. We got a bunch of votes for transit in those elections. I don’t look at it as a step backwards because every time you conduct a campaign, you carry your story.” With the River Rail now rolling, Jones says he’s ready for more challenges and an opportunity to get back to his family. |
Ridership of 32,941 in October sets a recordHouston Chronicle November 7, 2004 Ridership on the Main Street light rail line went up again in October, setting another record, the Metropolitan Transit Authority says. October numbers released last week show 32,941 average weekday boardings, up 2 percent from the 32,292 recorded in September. That was the first month the daily ridership count topped 30,000. Average weekend ridership also went up 2 percent compared with September’s count, not counting three Sundays in October when the Houston Texans played home games at Reliant Stadium. MetroRail ridership typically doubles on a Sunday home game. The record weekend count remains from January, when an average 41,648 people per weekend rode the train during its inaugural month of service. Total ridership, including special events, for October was 853,542, up 4.5 percent from September’s record high. Metro collects ridership data through “automatic passenger counter” devices embedded above train doors. |
Elevated Light Rail Opened in ChongqingChina Broadcast November 7, 2004 An elevated light rail line opened for sightseeing on Saturday in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality. Each train has four cars, and can hold about five hundred people. It has attracted nearly ten thousand visitors on its first day of operation. Currently, rail line is open only on Saturday and Sunday morning and tickets cost ten yuan per person. It is the Phase I of the Chongqing Light Rail Line 2, which is expected to be finished by 2005. |
As post-Dig transit projects stall, lawsuit loomsBoston Globe November 8, 2004 The state will not make court-ordered deadlines on a half-dozen transit projects promised as a condition for building the Big Dig, inviting a lawsuit that could force the projects to be built on a strict schedule. Three other Big Dig-linked projects the state is required to build — extending the Green Line through Somerville, building a connection between the Red and Blue lines in Boston, and establishing rail service between Boston and T. F. Green Airport in Rhode Island — have not been funded or actively pursued, the Conservation Law Foundation says. “The state found the money to spend $15 billion for the Big Dig. There should have been a parallel effort to find money for the transit piece of the puzzle,” said Philip Warburg, president of the foundation. “The state has to be held accountable.” State officials acknowledged that several projects will be late, in some cases for reasons beyond their control, such as a delay in the delivery of subway cars. But they say some need to be revisited to determine whether they are really worth doing. “We have presented achievable schedules . . . for the short-term projects and have established an open and public process to examine the long- term projects,” said state Transportation Secretary Daniel Grabauskas. “This will be a comprehensive and inclusive process every step of the way.” The commitments were made in 1990 in a deal that cleared the way for the $14.6 billion Big Dig. The rationale was that improving the transit system would give motorists an alternative to the new underground highway system, thus reducing air pollution. The state already missed one round of deadlines on the transit projects in the late 1990s and was ordered by a judge to meet a new set of target dates. One deadline — to restore trolley service on the Arborway line in Jamaica Plain by the end of 2000 — has already come and gone. The state will miss the next deadline, to complete a draft environmental impact report on the Urban Ring circumferential transit line around Boston, by Nov. 30, as well as Dec. 31 deadlines to provide Silver Line bus service to Logan Airport, extend all Blue Line station platforms for six-car trains, and modernize signals and buy 18 new cars for the Orange Line. The state also appears unlikely to secure federal funding for the proposed underground Silver Line bus tunnel linking Roxbury and South Station, which it is required to have in place by next year. Attorneys for the Conservation Law Foundation plan to sue Governor Mitt Romney and multiple state agencies, including the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, in federal court on Jan. 3 — after the November and December deadlines have formally been missed — alleging violations of the Clean Air Act. If successful, the suit could lead to a judge ordering the state to build all the projects on a strict schedule. Warburg said the state has dragged its feet on the short-term projects, such as modernizing the Blue and Orange lines, and refused to lay out a plan for funding the longer-range projects, such as extending the Green Line through Somerville to West Medford. There has been “no transparency” by the T or the Executive Office of Transportation on the status of projects or reasons for delays, he said. Although the total costs of the transit projects exceeds $5.4 billion, Warburg said that outlay would still be a fraction of the cost of the Big Dig. Equally important, said Carrie Schneider, an attorney for the foundation, was that the state entered into a legally binding agreement to undertake the projects. “The Big Dig would not have gone forward without these requirements,” she said. “This wasn’t just a nice idea afterwards.” Douglas Foy, Romney’s secretary for Commonwealth Development, declined to answer questions about the state’s progress on the transit projects. Foy is former president of the Conservation Law Foundation, and helped put together the 1990 pact forcing the state to commit to the projects. Jon Carlisle, spokesman for the Executive Office of Transportation, said there was a hitch in the delivery of Blue Line cars that pushed that modernization project back by at least a year. In addition, he said, the T was going to retrofit old Blue Line cars to satisfy the requirement for 18 new Orange Line cars, but after spending $1 million concluded that it would be too costly. As for Silver Line service to the airport, Carlisle said that hinges on the delivery by mid-2005 of so-called “dual mode” buses, which would convert from electric power to compressed natural gas in their trips to Logan. The state continues to lobby for federal funds for the Silver Line downtown tunnel linking Roxbury and South Station, Carlisle said, and the draft environmental impact report on the Urban Ring will be a few months late as final revisions are done. The Arborway trolley restoration, the Green Line extension, and the Red- Blue connector should be reexamined, Grabauskas said in a Sept. 2 letter to Robert Golledge, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, which is responsible for enforcing the transit commitments. The state would like to explore whether other transit projects provide equal or better clean air benefits, Grabauskas wrote. |
MetroLink money gets tentative OKSt. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) November 8, 2004 The East-West Gateway Council of Governments is close to receiving $2.7 million that would allow it to start planning a MetroLink extension that mainly would be on the north and south sides of the city of St. Louis. The council has received tentative approval for a federal distressed communities tax credit that would finance the work. The staff must provide more details and answer other questions before the government finally approves the credit. Les Sterman, Gateway’s executive director, said the study would take about two years to complete and would help Gateway’s directors decide where the next MetroLink expansion should go. The corridor to be studied would run north from downtown St. Louis, generally along North Florissant and Natural Bridge avenues and north across Interstate 70 to Jennings. The study area also would include downtown and a corridor to the south, along Union Pacific railroad tracks to Interstate 55 and Bayless Avenue. Gateway has sketched potential MetroLink lines along those corridors. They run farther than the study area, with the north corridor going to Florissant Valley Community College along Interstate 270 and the south corridor traveling to Green Park, just north of Interstate 55. However, the tax credit limits the study to area the federal government designates as distressed, Sterman said. Donna Day, manager of MetroLink planning for Gateway, said the amount of money available could further limit the study to St. Louis. Day said the staff was working out details of the study and did not yet have definite limits for the study area. Gateway would hire consultants for the work, and the study could begin early next summer, she said. A plan for the study is one of the items Gateway must submit to the government to obtain final approval of the tax credit money, she said. Meanwhile, Gateway’s staff and consultants are wrapping up a study that led to three alternative routes for a south extension. On Oct. 27, Gateway’s directors delayed a decision to pursue any one of them. The alternatives are generally along the Burlington Northern right of way and Interstate 55 to Butler Hill Road, along the River Des Peres and I-55 to Butler Hill and along the River Des Peres and I-55 to Reavis Barracks Road. The south study cost $4.5 million, Day noted. The new study would have only $2.7 million available, so it would not be as extensive, she said. But it should provide enough information to help MetroLink directors to decide on future expansions, she said. On Thursday, Sterman discussed MetroLink’s future with Metro commissioners at a daylong retreat at the Renaissance Grand Hotel in downtown St. Louis. Larry Salci, president and chief executive officer of Metro, and Sterman stressed that any proposal for a MetroLink expansion faced stiff competition for federal money. And Sterman pointed out that the region has no local money for an extension. To get federal money, a project must be cost-effective, have a solid financing plan and have political clout behind it, they said. The federal government is establishing increasingly strict requirements for cost-effectiveness and financing, Salci said. The Federal Transit Administration, which makes recommendations to Congress, has established a cost-effectiveness formula intended to show the cost per hour for each user. Consultants have told Gateway that figure is $20.50 for the south routes either along the Burlington Northern right of way or along the River Des Peres to Interstate 55 ending at Butler Hill Road, but only $14 for the route along the River Des Peres ending at Reavis Barracks Road. St. Louis is competing with about 25 other metropolitan areas for funding, Salci said. One of the projects heading toward approval is a connection between the Long Island Railroad commuter lines and subways in lower Manhattan in New York City, he said. That project would cost $5.265 billion, Salci noted. With the federal government spending about $1.5 billion a year on light-rail construction nationwide, “you can hear this great sucking sound” from the New York project, Salci said. That effort gained support after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Transit advocates want Congress to finance that work separately from other projects, he said. Metro commissioners also discussed the finances of the agency’s transit system at the meeting. In a briefing book provided for the retreat, the staff said the system faces a deficit of $9.33 million in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2006, and $19.14 million in the following fiscal year. Passenger revenue and total operating revenues would increase in those years, but subsidies would peak in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2006, the staff estimated. Salci said Metro has trimmed its deficit estimates by cutting operating costs, increasing fares and attracting more passengers. |
Hope He Got a Good Grade; A Vision of TransitGoverning Magazine November 8, 2004 People in the business world love to tell the story of Fred Smith, a guy from Memphis who wrote a paper at Yale in the mid-1960s about how packages could be delivered overnight using airplanes and trucks. Legend has it that Smith made a C on the paper. (Smith says he doesn’t remember but believes it wasn’t a good grade.) Rest of the story: Smith is CEO of FedEx, which he founded in 1971, using airplanes and trucks to deliver overnight packages. Well, cities may now have their own Fred Smith story. In 1999, an urban planning student at Georgia Tech wrote a master’s thesis about how Atlanta could use a 22-mile ring of mostly abandoned rail lines around the city to create a light-rail corridor and “necklace” of green space. And, in one of those moments academics dream about, somebody paid attention. Ryan Gravel’s idea found its way to Cathy Woolard who, as president of the Atlanta city council, started championing the idea of a “Belt Line” transit corridor through the city’s rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Rest of this story: The Belt Line is now one of the region’s highest priority transportation projects. Latest signs of acceptance: A respected real estate investor is snapping up land along the Belt Line, in anticipation of its construction, while urban planners and others are looking at other railroad property near downtown as possible redevelopment opportunities. (There are three large railroad yards, including one that’s said to be the largest underdeveloped tract of land in the city.) The railroads insist they won’t sell, but, hey, nobody thought Fred Smith’s crazy idea would fly either. As one Georgia Tech professor observed, “In academia, the sky’s the limit. But every now and then an idea, while not really viable at that moment, takes root. If it meets a need and can be funded, it could happen.” Footnote: And what happened to Ryan Gravel? He’s working for a nonprofit group on — what else? — the Be Belt Line project. |
Americans discover charms of living near mass transitUSA TODAY November 8, 2004 LOS ANGELES — The last thing Alex Thacher wanted was to jump from the frying pan into the fire, from the molasses of Washington, D.C., traffic to an even more gut-churning commute here. So Thacher found an apartment in Pasadena next to a light-rail station. He leaves his building, steps onto a train and walks into his downtown L.A. office 40 minutes later. Alex Thacher, who lives in an apartment above a transit station in Pasadena, Calif., heads home. That’s a bit longer than driving but stress-free and cheaper — parking costs $200 a month, but his firm reimburses for rail fares. Thacher and his wife, Tiffany, stroll two blocks to one of the region’s trendiest shopping and entertainment districts — Old Pasadena’s Colorado Boulevard. “We hated the commute in D.C. It was awful,” says Thacher, 29, a lawyer with PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Now I get on the train and read the paper or do some work. From what I understand, all around here is just a miserable commute.” He’s got that right. Greater Los Angeles has some of the nation’s nastiest congestion. Traffic on the Pasadena Freeway — Thacher’s route if he drives — crawls at rush hour. The future looks worse because the region can’t add freeway capacity fast enough to handle 6.3 million new residents expected by 2030, experts say. But Thacher and many others are surprised to learn that driving is no longer the only option here. Since the 1980s, Los Angeles has quietly built a mass-transit network — subway, commuter rail, light rail, rapid bus — that’s slowly taking strain off roads. Development around that network is taking off. New housing near transit hubs is in sharp demand by commuters like Thacher. Shifting housing demographics are stoking interest around the USA in development near transit, according to a study for the Federal Transit Administration released last month. City living draws singles, aging baby boomers, minorities and young couples more than suburban families with kids. And those groups are growing faster than suburbanites. “Suburbs want to remake themselves around transit to capture that demographic, and urban communities are suddenly becoming desirable again,” says Hank Dittmar, the study’s author and president of Reconnecting America, a non-profit group focused on transportation and community issues. Los Angeles isn’t alone. The study predicted that by 2025 nearly 15 million U.S. households will want to rent or buy near transit, double today’s number. Demand will be highest in regions that have extensive systems — New York City, Boston, Chicago — and those with large growing systems like Los Angeles. But many other cities are converts. Portland, Ore., has been a leader in creating density around transit. San Diego is investing heavily next to rail. Denver’s downtown redevelopment focuses on transit. The Miami regional transit agency’s new chief is a developer pushing projects close to commuter rail stations. Salt Lake City’s light rail is attracting developer interest. A project on Dallas’ light-rail line near Southern Methodist University mixes entertainment, dining, high-end retail and housing. At least five cities on a rail line between San Francisco and San Jose are planning “transit villages.” L.A. challenges myth From Hollywood to Long Beach to Pasadena, this megalopolis of 17 million is one of the nation’s hottest centers of development linked to mass transit. Across the region, more than 40 projects worth nearly $6 billion are underway or have opened since 2000. “The myth everyone believes is that L.A. — from Randy Newman to the Beach Boys — is all about cars. The place where the freeway was born, where you drive to the house two doors down,” Dittmar says. That image is changing. The metro area is running out of places to spread more subdivisions. Housing must be packed more densely into Los Angeles and adjacent cities if growth is to be managed. Developers see the potential of turning scores of aging strip malls and random real estate into housing. Pair those trends with clogged freeways and smog, high gas prices and the lifestyle costs of tedious commutes, and transit gains appeal. Tinseltown isn’t exactly Transit-town — yet. Trains and buses provide just 5% of the region’s trips, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority says. But transit’s share is rising, and even small shifts in L.A.’s travel habits can pay huge dividends. MTA estimates, for instance, that boosting car- pooling from 1.1 occupants per car to 1.3 would eliminate most freeway congestion. The gold standard for residential development near transit stations is Arlington County, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., urban planners say. In the 1970s, Arlington decided to concentrate development along its 3-mile subway route to maintain the character of suburban neighborhoods. That was novel and controversial at the time. But the results are impressive: 35,000 residents living in 18,000 houses and apartments, 75,000 jobs, 1,900 hotel rooms and 17 million square feet of office and retail space within walking distance of subway stations. The half-mile-wide corridor contains just 7.6% of Arlington’s land but generates a third of its tax revenue, keeping residents’ property tax bills lower than anywhere else in the region. Neighboring Fairfax County opted for massive parking facilities around its subway stations and shunned the housing-office-retail mix. A result was more sprawl throughout the county. Now plans at two stations for clusters of residential towers have sparked neighborhood opposition over traffic. Only 30% of the newcomers would commute by subway, studies show. “In Arlington, three-fourths of people walk to the train,” Dittmar says. “In Fairfax, two-thirds drive. The difference is just dramatic.” Pedestrian-friendly spaces are critical, planners say. Arlington learned from early mistakes that buildings had to open onto sidewalks and invite walking. If a goal is to cut car trips — only a fourth of all trips are work trips — give residents fewer reasons to drive by mixing shopping, housing and entertainment, planners say. It will lead to fewer cars per household. Offer housing choices — apartments, condos, townhouses and single- family homes. Single uses such as office buildings make for dead after- hours downtowns. Mixing uses creates 24-hour villages and more transit ridership. Barely a decade ago, Arlington’s Clarendon neighborhood was economically stagnant with aging housing and limited retail stock. Today, it’s one of metro Washington’s hippest areas. Bars and restaurants hum late into the night. Commuters rushing home pack upscale groceries for gourmet dinner dishes. Atlanta took a bold crack at a transit village, Lindbergh City Center, but overstuffed it with office space and parking structures, then isolated housing between a rail line and a freeway. “It’s essentially a suburban office park,” Dittmar says. “The neighborhood completely freaked out.” Sprucing up Los Angeles Los Angeles seems to be getting it right, too. Transportation officials see nothing short of an urban renaissance as thousands of new city dwellers inhabit lofts and condos converted from historic office buildings and warehouses. Transit is a big part of it. Nearly 300 apartments will be finished next year near Union Station, an Art Deco jewel and nexus of bus, rail and subway a few blocks from City Hall. Major projects rise near Gold Line light-rail stations in Pasadena and South Pasadena, with more planned in Chinatown and other neighborhoods. Seedy sections of Hollywood, including the commercial and theater district around the Walk of Fame, have been revitalized by Red Line subway openings since 1999. At crime-plagued Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue, on MTA donated land, a dilapidated building was torn down and 120 affordable apartments went up over the subway station. Across the street is a new supermarket and mall. Developments at two Wilshire Boulevard subway stops will add nearly 600 housing units, plus a new middle school. Stores and 199 apartments are planned at MacArthur Park, a block of condos, stores and a hotel at Hollywood and Vine. “Aspects people around the world associate with Hollywood have been restored,” says Gordon Olschlager, a project manager with design firm Nakada & Associates. As transit expands further, new projects will follow. The Blue Line light rail that runs south from Union Station has sparked $1 billion in development at Long Beach stations where the route ends. A 5-mile Gold Line extension into densely populated, mostly Latino east L.A. is underway. A 24-mile extension east to San Bernardino County will open rail access to tens of thousands of commuters in the San Gabriel foothills. Mass transit on two of the USA’s most brutal commutes — the 10 mph rush-hour creep from the San Fernando Valley and west L.A. into downtown — could halve drive times. Light rail will run from downtown past the Staples Center to Culver City and eventually Santa Monica. Orange Line rapid buses will run 14 miles through the Valley on restricted roadway paralleling clogged U.S. 101. Bus drivers will have control of traffic lights to cut down on intersection stops. Officials believe that even though the Orange line isn’t rail, developers will be won over by permanent stations, the core of any urban village, built at mile intervals. “The way we’re doing it, it will have the same kind of economic impact as rail,” MTA chief Roger Snoble says. So far, the building splurge hasn’t boosted transit use much. Subway, bus and rail ridership has been flat since 2002. The Gold Line especially — 14,000 daily boardings — has been disappointing, but officials note that it runs only 13.7 miles and new links will pick up more riders. The subway took years to attract 111,000 weekday passengers. Initial opposition fades Most of L.A.’s high-density urban projects meet not-in-my-backyard resistance, even though developments around transit invariably raise neighborhood property values. “The community kicks up a huge fuss because it’s the end of the world,” Snoble says. “Then on opening day you can’t keep people off the podium.” Pasadena’s building spree since 2000 sparked a backlash, and the city retreated to an earlier, more deliberate master plan. “There are elected officials who will resist the notion of this kind of development and higher density,” says Jeff Lustgarten, spokesman for the Southern California Association of Governments. “But we view the alternative as pretty grim.” Michael Dieden built Mission Meridian — lofts, townhouses and detached, single-family houses with street-level retail and underground parking — in affluent, traditional South Pasadena one block from a Gold Line station. Neighbors were wary. But Dieden says, “When you develop density with high design and do it in a sensitive way, it becomes acceptable even to those traditionally critical of it.” |
Voters approve $40 billion in funding for transit and highway projectsGreenwire November 9, 2004 Brian Stempeck, Greenwire senior reporter Voters across the country affirmed dozens of ballot initiatives to fund local highway and transit projects last week, choosing to use sales tax revenue and bonds to raise billions of dollars for transportation efforts. On Election Day, voters considered 28 measures to boost funding for public transportation and ended up approving 22 of those initiatives, according to the Center for Transportation Excellence. The various tax and bond plans affirmed last week would raise more than $40 billion for public transit, CFTE said. “This has been a record year for transit initiatives,” said Stephanie Vance, program manager at CFTE. “We’ve seen a significant jump in the number of transit initiatives on the ballot and in how many passed.” Vance noted the success of ballot initiatives in major metropolitan areas as well as smaller cities like Parkersburg, W.Va., and Kalamazoo, Mich. Voters in Phoenix, Ariz., approved a 0.5 percent sales tax extension to fund a $16 billion regional transportation plan, CFTE said, including $2.3 billion for 27 miles of light rail additions. More than half of the Phoenix funding would be dedicated to highway projects. Meantime, voters in Denver, Colo., supported a $4.7 billion transit expansion, including light rail and commuter rail projects, despite the opposition of Gov. Bill Owens (R). CFTE said the plan would be funded by a 0.4 percent sales tax increase and would also fund rapid bus service. California voters faced the most transportation proposals last week. Sacramento County citizens voted to extend an existing transportation sales tax, which would raise $4.7 billion for highway and transit programs. Similarly, a sales tax ballot initiative in San Diego would split $9.5 billion in funding between road construction and transit improvements, while also funding bike paths and other facilities. Absentee ballots are still being counted for that initiative, which needs two-thirds of the vote in order to pass. Highway groups said many roadbuilding ballot initiatives were successful as well. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association said voters approved 46 of the 55 construction-related projects it was tracking last week, some of which overlap with CFTE’s findings. The initiatives will raise nearly $28 billion for transportation, ARTBA said. Roadbuilding groups were also encouraged that voters in some states chose to alter transportation law. For example, Missouri voters decided to dedicate all of their state gasoline taxes to transportation projects. Currently, half of the gas tax revenue in Missouri goes into the state’s general fund. Under the federal gas tax system, and in most other states, gas taxes are fully dedicated to highway and transit construction. Also, voters in Florida decided to repeal a provision in the state constitution that calls for the construction of a high-speed rail project. Some transportation experts said the delays surrounding reauthorization of the federal transportation program may have encouraged state and local governments to seek alternative sources of funding. Lawmakers in Congress were unable to finish a proposed $299 billion highway and transit package this fall and recently passed another extension of current transportation law, although the House and Senate may take up the transportation bill during the upcoming lame duck session ( Greenwire , Oct. 26). |
New High-Speed Electric Trains to Appear on Russian Railways by 2007Economic News November 9, 2004 Munich. Yesterday, the president of JSCO “Russian Railways” Gennady Fadeev has paid a working visit to Germany within the framework of which JSCO “Russian Railways”, company “Siemens AG” and financial and industrial group “New transport technologies” have signed the protocol on intentions for development and production of high-speed electric train of new generation, public relations department of JSCO “Russian Railways” informed. Taking into account need of JSCO “Russian Railways” for development and organization of production of a new high-speed electric train and presence of modern technological development and practical experience in designing and production of a high-speed railway rolling stock for passenger transportations at the company “Siemens AG”, the parties have agreed upon creation of a high-speed electric train of new generation adequate to all European standards and norms for JSCO “Russian Railways”. In particular, the parties have discussed conditions of creation of three joint working groups. The working group on technical issues will engage in preparation of projects on electric trains’ creation, including development of high-speed one-system electric trains for the route Moscow — Saint Petersburg and between other large cities of the Russian Federations, and two-system — for the route Saint Petersburg — Helsinki. The working group on organizational and financial issues will provide development of structural model of cooperation, business-model and scheme of financing of the project, definition of exact volume of need of JSCO “Russian Railways” in electric trains, etc. Problems of working group on creation of infrastructure of high-speed electric trains’ production become preparation of specifications for creation of pilot production of high-speed electric trains on the basis of Russian industrial capacities and definition of planned schedule of the plan of capacities’ commissioning. In the course of negotiations held on November 8 in Munich, Gennady Fadeev and Heads of the Central Board of “Siemens AG” (Siemens Akziengesellschaft) Edward Krubasik and Rudi Lampreht have reached basic arrangement at coordination participation of the financial and industrial group “New transport technologies” (NTT) that new high-speed trains will be produced on the basis of Moscow locomotive overhaul factory. On results of negotiations, the draft contract on creation of joint venture in the form of Limited Liability Company on the territory of the Russian Federation with use of technologies provided by “Siemens AG”, on the basis of which production of high-speed trains of new generation will be carried out, has been prepared. Thus “New transport technologies”, acting as coordinator of the project, plan to carry out search and attraction of Russian industrial enterprises-manufacturers of units and accessories. It is expected that the company JSCO “Russian Railways” will produce an electric train not distinguished from the European analogues in 2007. Its speed will reach 230 km/h. Such rolling stock will run on the routes Moscow — Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg — Helsinki, and in future — on routes Moscow — Rostov-na-Donu, Moscow — Nizhni Novgorod. According to tentative estimations, for successful development and organization of production of high-speed trains on the territory of the Russian Federation, minimal party in 60 electric trains is economically grounded. According to joint expert estimations, perspective need of JSCO “Russian Railways” for various types of high-speed electric trains can make over 150 units. |
Bronco’s LRT vision on trackCALGARY SUN November 9, 2004 It’s full-steam ahead for Mayor Dave Bronconnier’s plan to expand the LRT system using $1 billion promised by the province. City council approved Bronconnier’s wish-list — which includes buying 33 LRT cars and moving forward on LRT growth — but not before hitching their own pet projects to the C-Train expansion scheme. “A billion dollars is a lot of money, but it’s not a lot of money when you’re spending $4.5 million a car, and it’s not a lot of money when you’re spending $20 million a kilometre,” said Bronconnier, warning aldermen not to get their hopes up for a share of the cash. The new cars will be ordered immediately for delivery in two years, while the when-and-where of LRT expansion goes back to city administration for further study. Their report, due Nov. 23, will determine which unfunded LRT projects are most deserving of a share of the billion, in terms of their impact on Calgary as a whole. Bronconnier said he believes northwest expansion and a new west leg of LRT up Bow Tr. will get the most people moving, and he’s asked administration to make them a priority when conducting their study. Ald. Ric McIver made a successful pitch to have the southeast LRT leg included on the mayor’s priority list, but he said it’s really a matter of finding out what’s best for the whole city. “It’s so we have a perspective on all the options — we must know which is the most important infrastructure for the benefit of all Calgarians,” said McIver. Once the study is complete, council will vote again on which projects will get a share of the provincial billion. |
JR East to bolster tunnels after Chuetsu quakeThe Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) November 9, 2004 East Japan Railway Co. plans to construct antiseismic reinforcements in tunnels on its Shinkansen lines after concluding that a radical review of the earthquake protection of Shinkansen tunnels was needed in the wake of damage caused by the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake, company sources said Monday. The company discovered a large section of the inside wall of the Uonuma Tunnel on the Joetsu Shinkansen Line collapsed onto the tracks, meaning the damage was more serious than the railway operator had predicted. It plans to examine and reinforce damaged sections and sections considered vulnerable to earthquakes in the 179 tunnels it manages in mountainous areas in the region. According to Toshihiro Asakura, a professor at Kyoto University who took part in JR East’s inspection from the perspective of tectonic engineering, Uonuma Tunnel was the most seriously damaged. A section 6 meters high and 3 meters wide collapsed at a point about 2.4 kilometers from the south opening. Concrete blocks about 50 centimeters thick were found on the tracks running in both directions, he said. Joetsu Shinkansen Toki 325, which was derailed when the earthquake occurred, passed that point in the tunnel just a few minutes before the quake. Inspectors found smaller scale concrete wall collapses in four other tunnels, he added. JR East has not reinforced the tunnels since the Joetsu Shinkansen began service in 1982, even after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, because it was believed that tunnels through mountains moved flexibly with the movement of the mountains during quakes, and therefore tolerated quakes relatively well. Central Japan Railway Co. believed that construction techniques for the Tokaido Shinkansen, which opened 40 years ago, were insufficient to prevent damage during earthquakes. It began reinforcement construction on tunnels located between Shin-Yokohama and Toyohashi stations in fiscal 1979, and completed the work in fiscal 1996. The government had announced that some areas needed to prepare for a possible Tokai earthquake. JR Tokai bolstered the tunnels by injecting materials between the concrete and the earth surface of the tunnels and hammering bolts in. “In areas near the epicenter of an inland earthquake (like the Chuetsu Earthquake), it would be difficult to completely avoid damage in tunnels due to their structure,” Asakura said. “(But) the reinforcement |
ROMNEY SAYS MBTA EXPANSION IN WORKSThe Boston Globe November 10, 2004 Governor Mitt Romney says he needs more time to plot an orderly lineup of MBTA expansion projects as the state faces a possible lawsuit over its failure to improve the transit system as required under the approval for the Big Dig. But the Bay State’s lone representative on the House Transportation Committee, US Representative Michael Capuano, said the Romney administration needs to put together a definitive plan quickly or risk losing federal money. “My job to fight for Massachusetts is made more difficult when the state cannot determine what projects should move forward,” Capuano wrote in a letter to the governor, citing a Boston Globe report on several projects that have fallen behind schedule. An environmental group, the Conservation Law Foundation, says it will file a lawsuit in January, alleging that the state has failed to meet the commitments in a 1990 agreement to improve the transit system, as a condition for building the Big Dig. When first asked about the lawsuit after a Monday press conference, Romney said he was not familiar with it. When told it concerned expanding the transit system and asked if he supported that, the Republican governor said, “The answer is yes, but it’s a question of timing.” He said all future transportation projects will be spelled out in a “25-year plan” that the administration is putting together. “Governor, your administration has been saying for well over a year now that a list of priority transportation projects is being developed . . . meanwhile, deadlines come and go, and the question of how the state will help pay for future transit projects remains unanswered,” Capuano, a Somerville Democrat, wrote in the letter, dated Monday. “A long-term plan for prioritizing our state’s transit needs is long overdue. When will this plan be finalized and released?” State Transportation Secretary Daniel A. Grabauskas said yesterday that a draft of the long-range plan should be ready by early next year. “We’re doing something that’s never been done a statewide, multimodal transportation plan,” Grabauskas said.”I make no apologies for being deliberate in coming up with a thoughtful draft. To criticize the administration for [not] achieving that goal based on someone else’s time line is just counterproductive.” Under the 1990 agreement, which was updated in 2000, the state was required to modernize the Blue and Orange lines, submit an environmental impact report on the Urban Ring, and provide Silver Line bus service to Logan Airport before the end of the year. The state won’t make any of those deadlines. The state is also legally bound to build the Green Line extension to West Medford, a Red-Blue line connector underneath Cambridge Street in Boston, and to restore trolley service on the Arborway line in Jamaica Plain. But Grabauskas said those projects need to be revisited to determine if they are worth doing. |
UNEASY RIDERS SENDING A MESSAGE; TRAIN PASSENGERS WANT NFTA TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT UNRULY STUDENTSBuffalo News (New York) November 10, 2004 Take the bus. Ride the subway. Leave the driving to mass transit. That’s what the new Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s radio and television commercials are highlighting to increase ridership. But what the commercials miss — according to a group of downtown workers who ride the train together — are the many misbehaving and sometimes violent Buffalo high school students who also ride Metro Rail. And the adults have their own suggestion: Put the kids in a separate rail car. “I have to laugh every time I hear one of these commercials, saying, ‘Ride the NFTA. It’s great,’ “ said Vickie Moore, a county Medicaid employee who has been riding the train for a decade to and from her Town of Tonawanda home. “Yeah, it’s great if you can go to work at 10 in the morning and leave at 6,” Moore said, referring to times when crowds of students aren’t on board. Moore is one of a group of co-workers who commute — or used to commute — together on Metro Rail. They say they have witnessed fights and some have changed their work schedules to avoid the commotion. One woman stopped riding the train altogether after she was punched in the face by a student. Many said they have noticed some improvement over the past few months, since problems and public complaints last spring prompted officials to unveil new efforts to maintain order. NFTA officials attribute the improvements to: • More transit officers patrolling the system. • New brochures for students and teachers with information on rider etiquette and NFTA police and sensitivity training for students and the police. • An upgraded Metro Rail video surveillance system, which helped police solve a recent assault involving several boys at the Lafayette Square Station. But despite the improvements, riding mass transit from 3 to 5 p.m. — when the students are dismissed from school — remains a generally unpleasant experience, the adults say. “People are scared (when riding mass transit), and they should be because of all the noise and the kids,” said rider Barry Weinstein, an Erie County Department of Social Services employee. Students don’t deny there are problems. Conflicts often start in the morning and build throughout the day. Because the students can’t fight in school, the issues get resolved on Metro. “Somebody could be in a bad mood. You can look at them the wrong way or bump into them by accident, and they flip,” said Maggie Poletowski, a Lafayette High School senior and one of 200 students who went through two days of sensitivity training in May. The training cost the NFTA $50,000. But the problems are costing the agency riders. Kathy Ernst of Getzville doesn’t even take the train anymore. She hasn’t in months, since the rowdiness became too much for her to take. “It’s costing me more to drive with parking and gas, and I don’t get home any earlier, but I don’t care,” said Ernst, who works for Medicaid. Marsha Doering, another Medicaid program worker, changed her 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. work hours about a year ago to avoid riding the trains at the same time as the students. “It’s ridiculous people feel they have to do that, and I’m sure I’m not the only one,” she said. Fear often prevents Doering or others from chastising the students. Several years ago, Deberra Neri was punched in the face and knocked to the floor by a male student after coming to the aid of a girl who wouldn’t defend herself from a boy who had her in a headlock while hitting her in the face. “I’m a social worker. I speak up when I see something wrong,” Neri said. “But that was my final episode. My glasses went flying off. He cut my ear with a ring or something like that he had on.” Neri filed a report, “but nothing came of it.” From that point on, she decided she would no longer take the train. David M. Johnston, a county Social Services Department counselor, refuses to be chased off. “I have actually gone over and pushed a button so the conductor can be made aware of what’s going on. I have personally said, ‘Will you please get some security on this train,’ “ Johnston said. “We have stopped entire trains until the NFTA supervisor got on.” The commutes have gotten better recently, he said, largely due to the increased police presence. But the ride is still bad. What could solve the problem? The NFTA tried training, paying the Nation of Islam’s Dennis Muhammad $30,000 to teach students how to behave and another $20,000 to train the NFTA’s 83-member police force how to keep order without being abusive. Students say the premise was good but the execution was faulty because neither NFTA police nor teachers nor administrators were involved in the sessions with the kids. “They had good intentions, but how they went about it was wrong. If you want to spread the message, have a representative from everywhere — the teachers, students and police,” said Angela Carmichael, another Lafayette senior. Muhammad said that’s how he has done it in other cities. But in this case, there was no funding for training school personnel. He said he does plan to get the students and officers together, perhaps within the next six months, for a follow-up. But the adult riders have another idea: Designate one of the subway cars as a student car. Almost every day, there’s enough available space that all the kids should be able to ride in one car, they said. That would allow the students to let off steam, while relieving some of the pressure on the adult passengers. “My beef is with the NFTA because this is a very solvable problem,” Moore said. Designating specific cars for students might sound good, said NFTA spokesman C. Douglas Hartmayer, but segregating a segment of the population is not the message the NFTA wants to send. “We’re trying to work with everybody for a safe and convenient ride,” he said, explaining that the NFTA favors other options. For example, Hartmayer said, the video surveillance equipment along the subway route was expanded and upgraded. The cameras led to the arrest of three juveniles suspected of assaulting a 16-year-old youth in the Lafayette Square Station at about 4 p.m. Sept. 30. In addition to the surveillance system, last spring the NFTA started assigning additional officers to patrol the system in the hours after school is dismissed. They’ve identified a suspect in an Oct. 1 assault on a kid at a bus stop. The adults said they have noticed the change. “Right after that (April 1 Buffalo News) article, there was a bigger (transit cop) presence,” said Weinstein. “Then it went down in the summer, but I’m seeing more NFTA cops this school season. “ That was by design, said NFTA Police Chief Joe Riga. “Depending on the manpower level for that day, there could be one officer on each car,” he said. And the NFTA worked with the Buffalo News’ Newspapers in Education program to produce brochures on rider etiquette and safety procedures. The free brochures will be mailed to all junior and senior high schools in Erie and Niagara counties, officials said. “We’re not causing the problem,” Hartmayer said. “We’re trying to work with everybody so we can alleviate the problem.” |
ROAD PROJECTS VIE FOR PIECE OF FEDERAL PIEThe Oregonian November 10, 2004 Summary: Clackamas County transportation plans are in the mix as Metro weighs how to divvy $42 million A dozen Clackamas County transportation projects — from building a section of the Trolley Trail to improving the Oregon City Amtrak station — are in the running for about $42 million in federal transportation money. Metro, the Portland area’s regional government, controls how the federal money is spent and will decide in March which projects to pay for. In all, 73 projects from across the region worth $129.8 million are competing. Metro has about $58 million for the next funding cycle, which covers 2008-09. The money comes from two unusually flexible federal sources: One is a grant program that can go to anything from sidewalks to bike paths, and the other is for projects that improve air quality or reduce congestion. About $16 million already is dedicated to the future Interstate 205 light-rail line between Gateway and Clackamas Town Center, commuter rail in Washington County and development of Portland’s South Waterfront area. That leaves about $42 million for other projects. Because the amount of money requested is more than twice what’s available, competition is tough, said Tom Kloster, Metro’s transportation planning manager. Clackamas County projects in the running are: • A system that would funnel train information collected at several rail crossings in Oregon City and Milwaukie to the county’s emergency management center. The information could help guide emergency-response vehicles. • Extension of Southwest Kinsman Road from Barber Street to Boeckman Road west of Interstate 205 in Wilsonville, providing a freight route and a connection to the interstate. • Pedestrian improvements to Southeast Main and Harrison streets in downtown Milwaukie. • Adding a parking lot and moving an old Oregon City freight station building to the Oregon City Amtrak station. • Widening Southeast 172nd Avenue in Clackamas County from Oregon 212 to Southeast Sunnyside Road. • Building bike lanes and sidewalks along Southeast Jennifer Street in Clackamas County. • Rebuilding a section of Southeast Lake Road in Milwaukie to include sidewalks, turn lanes, landscaped medians and bike lanes. • Safety improvements to the intersection of Boones Ferry Road and Lanewood Street in Lake Oswego. • Building the final four segments of the Trolley Trail between Southeast Arista Drive and Southeast Glen Echo Avenue. • Land-use planning for a proposed light-rail station and park-and-ride facility at Southeast Fuller Road. • A study of options to add traffic capacity to the Interstate 205/Oregon 213 interchange in Oregon City. • Sidewalks and a bike lane along Southeast 129th Avenue in Happy Valley |
GONE TO THE DOGS; GREYHOUND BUSES HAVE LOST THEIR WAY — AND TRAVELLERS ARE PAYING THEThe Independent (London) November 10, 2004 A packed Greyhound bus arrives at Atlantic City, America’s down- at-heel east coast alternative to Las Vegas. Under a drizzly sky, the passengers from New York disembark and head straight for Caesar’s, a giant Roman-style casino, to gamble the $ 15-worth (pounds 8) of chips they each got with their $ 27 return ticket on the specially named “Lucky Streak” route. Every day, more than 2,000 people go back and forth on the Lucky Streak — Greyhound’s most popular route. But the story across most of the bus company’s enormous network is quite different. Since an all-time high at more than 25 million in 2000, customer numbers have fallen by three million and in 2002 and 2003 combined, Greyhound incurred nearly $ 140m in losses. Laidlaw, the private, Dallas-based corporation which runs the Greyhound Bus Line, has said that passenger volumes are no longer sustainable, especially in small, rural areas, where for decades it has held out as the only form of public transportation. As a consequence, the company has decided to cut 269 stops, largely in small towns, across 17 states. Of half of the stops to be discontinued, no outbound tickets were purchased in 2003. Last year the company laid off members of its administrative and supervisory staff, and abandoned an order for 200 new buses. For the company that was set up in 1914 by a Swedish immigrant, Carl Eric Wickman, to transport Minnesota’s miners for 15 cents a ride, this is a the last gasp for survival of a national icon. A spokeswomen for Greyhound explains why the radical restructuring, which will take two to three years, is necessary. “The primary reason is to return our company to financial health,” she says. “And secondly, we want to improve service for the majority of customers by offering a faster service with fewer routes.” But for those who have relied on the bus service because they cannot drive or do not want to, it means isolation. One place to lose its service is Ritzville, a small, wheat-growing town in Washington state. With a population of 1,750, few people come off the nearby Interstate 90 for a visit. There has never been an airport, and the train station, which once used to service private passengers, is a ghost stop through which freight trains rush on their way to larger, distant cities. Craig Ulleland, the major of Ritzville, says the termination of the Greyhound service has had a big impact on the community. He believes Greyhound could have been more imaginative in dealing with dwindling passenger numbers while still offering a service to the people of Ritzville. “I don’t see why they wouldn’t use cell phones to call ahead to see if there were any passengers,” he says. Major problems have been caused by Greyhound cutting its routes in America’s sprawling rural hinterland for the local jails. Both in Adams County, where Ritzville is located, and Lovelock, one of the five destinations to be dropped in Nevada, prisons have always relied on Greyhound buses to transport prisoners who have served their time to wherever they want to go to restart their lives. Rosemary Seals, an associate warden at the Lovelock Correctional Centre, says: “Our institution is 120 miles from Reno, the second largest city in Nevada. The closest town outside Lovelock is 60 to 80 miles away. When people are first on parole they usually go to Reno or Las Vegas. Without a bus service, we have to transport them weeks before to another centre.” It is not just the prisoners who are loosing out in Lovelock, which has a population of less than 2,000. “There is one hardware store here,” she says. “If you need anything beyond the basics, you have got to drive to get it.” But if you do not own a car — or know a friendly neighbour who will give you a lift — it is difficult to go anywhere. It is a depressing climb down from the proud history of the Greyhound line, which has been at the centre of America’s culture and history. Greyhounds’ red, white and blue colours and chrome body were recorded in all their retro glory in films such as the 1934 screwball comedy It Happened One Night. Later, Greyhounds were to sum up the excitement of the road trip along the country’s seemingly endless highways and through its different terrains in Simon and Garfunkel’s anthem, “America”. The buses have also been there at key moments of America’s history. When people protesting against segregation between black and white people in the 1960s went south, many rode on Greyhounds. These days, it is Greyhound’s image which is one of its biggest problems. Interstate buses, such as Greyhounds, may be officially the safest way to travel around the US — with a better record than cars, trains and even aeroplanes — according to the US transport department, but many people are put off choosing Greyhound because it is perceived to be the domain of the poor and the weird. Greyhound is trying to appeal to a wider audience and argues that it is unfairly stereotyped. Greyhound points out on its website that a third of its customers earn more than $ 35,000 a year, and about the same number have “a college degree and are better educated than the US population as a whole”. The Greyhound spokeswoman adds: “It is a young demographic. There are a lot of 18 to 34 year olds. Most people are travelling to see family and friends.” Indeed, it is easy to wrongly stereotype Greyhound customers. At New York’s Port Authority, the transport terminal in downtown Manhattan where the Lucky Streak service starts and finishes, there are plenty of people sitting on the floor with their belongings in plastic bags. On the bus there are a lot of people who appear to be going to gamble with money that they cannot afford to lose. But also travelling is Steve, who works for the German investment bank Dresdner and is just back from a business trip to London — where he stayed in the hip St Martin’s Lane Hotel near Covent Garden. He is visiting his parents who live just outside Atlantic City. “I take the bus because it is a hassle to hire a car from Manhattan,” he says. “The buses come all the time, and it is the easiest way to get there.” This summer’s cuts to its network are the first of many changes planned by Greyhound in its struggle to survive as a competitor to the increasing prevalence of low-cost airlines. It must also contend with the rival bus services which have sprung up along the more popular routes, such as the almost unfeasibly cheap routes operating out of New York’s Chinatown, with their destinations written only in Chinese characters. Greyhound’s plan is to offer a simpler network. It believes most of its customers do not want to stop at every small town along a journey, but instead go straight between large cities in as little time as possible. It says its second most popular route after Atlantic City is New York to Washington. An alternative plan is to try to establish subsidies from the federal government or the individual states to help Greyhound run its loss-making rural routes. Six senators in affected areas are lobbying the company to reopen the services it has cut and have said they will consider ways to find public money so that Greyhound could at least break even on these routes. Back in Atlantic City, just along the seafront from Caesar’s, is this weekend’s major attraction, the Miss America beauty pageant. Hundreds of young women have streamed here for the annual competition. Whether, in years to come, Greyhound buses will be on hand to deliver these sublime examples of American femininity from small towns all across America remains to be seen. |
Mayor changes masks in tragicomedyNewsday (New York) November 11, 2004 It wasn’t Shakespeare in the Park but close enough. The Metropolitan Transportation (read: Theatrical) Authority staged its second hearing on plans to raise fares and cut service at El Museo del Barrio’s magnificent Teatro Heckscher. The TV news trucks and chauffeured cars used to transport transit bigwigs idled along Fifth Avenue in the November chill until the production concluded around 9:30 Tuesday night. The venue was the Heckscher Foundation for Children building, a former orphanage completed in 1923. What an appropriate setting for a gathering of the most disadvantaged and shortchanged transit riders in the state. The theater, in fact, was originally intended to entertain abused children. It is decorated with stained-glass roundels and 30-foot murals depicting fairy tales such as “Hansel and Gretel,” “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “Cinderella.” The stage once was home to Broadway tryouts and Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival. On this night, however, poker-faced MTA board members and executives, including executive director Katie Lapp and chairman Peter Kalikow, sat quietly on stage as one speaker after another railed against what they called the authority’s bloated payroll, uncontrolled spending and deceit. These 14 unenviable actors were mostly middle-aged white men appointed by upstate Republican Gov. George Pataki, who has allowed the agency’s financial plight to steadily worsen. Two were African-American, two others women. They will likely approve dramatic fare hikes and service cuts next month, but first, state law allows the histrionics of the public hearing. Last night, the MTA took its act to Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn and The Little Theater at the Westchester County Center in White Plains. That’s right, The Little Theater. The Heckscher sits more than 600 people, but fewer than a third of those seats were filled. Mostly this speaks to the riding public’s complete lack of faith in the transit bureaucrats and politicians who control the system’s purse strings. Less than two years after increasing the base subway and bus fare to $2 from $1.50, the MTA announced in July that it faced deficits in coming years of more than $11 billion. Fare increases and service cuts, it warned, were part of the solution. Transit bosses, those masters of stagecraft, painted a doomsday scenario that included raising the price of a monthly MetroCard from $70 to $84 and more than 1,600 job cuts. Suddenly, late last week, the agency said it found enough money to avoid the worse — at least for the moment — thanks to projections of unexpected new revenue from dedicated taxes. Voila! So, in its most recent proposal, the authority instead seeks to increase the price of a seven-day card to $24 from $21, a 30-day card to $76 from $70, the express bus fare to $5 from $4 and fares on the commuter rail lines by 5 percent. It also wants to close 164 station booths and reassign agents to roam the stations. One of Tuesday evening’s best performances came from Mayor Michael “Hike” Bloomberg, the first in a long line of grandstanding politicians who commandeered the bulk of the night with speeches. While the mayor has almost zero control over transit fare increases and service cuts, his administration has significantly slashed funding to the MTA’s capital plan. The subway-riding billionaire, who will seek re-election next year, had long refused to criticize the authority publicly. At a subway centennial ceremony late last month, Bloomberg praised Kalikow and Lapp for “doing a hell of a job.” On this cold night, however, the Heckscher was inviting. Rather than ask riders or the state or the city for more money, Bloomberg said, the authority “should look in the mirror” because “business as usual just doesn’t cut it anymore.” The mayor cited a recent state comptroller’s report that questioned, among other things, why the authority retained a legal staff of more than 440 people and still spends $10 million a year on outside law firms. “Bloated payrolls, out-of-control spending, needless redundancies,” said Bloomberg, his voice rising. “Ladies and gentlemen, I would argue, this is no way to run a railroad — and no way to earn the trust of the people who ride the nation’s largest bus and subway system, either.” But cheers and applause quickly faded into boos when Bloomberg said the authority’s biggest savings would have to be achieved “out on the streets and under the ground.” |
NJ Transit OKs rail-plan dealsThe Record (Bergen County, NJ) November 11, 2004 NJ Transit officials took another step Wednesday toward bringing rail service to the Meadowlands, a key component of the proposed Xanadu shopping and entertainment center. The NJ Transit Board of Directors gave the go-ahead for agency officials to broker deals with other state agencies to handle funding, design, construction and management of the rail spur, which will connect to the Pascack Valley line. “Rail service to the Meadowlands will transform the region,” state Sports and Exposition Authority President George Zoffinger said in a statement. “It will help alleviate traffic to and from the site as well as be a benefit to all commuters.” The $150 million rail spur, funded entirely by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will connect the Pascack Valley line in East Rutherford to a new station in the Meadowlands. The Pascack line runs from Montvale through Hackensack to Hoboken. This 1.5-mile spur is expected to be completed in 2007. Under the plans approved on Wednesday, NJ Transit will create a project team that will include staff from the sports authority and the state transportation department. The sports authority will be responsible for hiring professional and construction services, and NJ Transit and the DOT will approve the design and obtain permits. NJ Transit also will manage the funding of the project and own, operate and maintain the new link. Security and maintenance at the station will be provided by the sports authority. “With the advent of Xanadu, there will be a major new job center and leisure-travel destination in northern New Jersey that needs public transportation,” Transportation Commissioner Jack Lettiere said in a statement. Xanadu is a $1.3 billion entertainment, retail and office complex that is expected to generate 20,000 jobs and more than $1 billion in income annually. The rail link is part of NJ Transit’s plan to revamp public transportation in North Jersey. Other components include building a new train tunnel under the Hudson River and creating better rail connections between Bergen and Passaic. “The Meadowlands rail spur will fit with … other regional transportation projects as we look beyond outdated plans and revisit decade-old assumptions about the economic, environmental and transportation needs of Bergen and adjacent counties,” NJ Transit Executive Director George Warrington said in a statement. |
Newcomers Reinvent Denver With an Unlikely Idea: TrainsNew York Times November 11, 2004 LAKEWOOD, Colo., Nov. 10 — Mass transit systems get tougher to build as cities age and grow, planners say. But as the Denver metropolitan area begins work on one of the most ambitious urban transportation projects in the nation’s history — 120 miles on six new rail lines to be built all at once over the next 12 years — that logic has been turned on its head. Politicians and planners say that for reasons of economics and car culture, Denver could never have embarked on such an adventure in urban thinking at any imaginable time in the past. In the late 1990’s, 644,000 people moved to Colorado from other states for jobs and a better way of life. The influx, mostly in the Denver area, created big problems. Traffic snarls multiplied, and sprawl extended out in every direction. But to a great extent, politicians say, it also led to a reinvention of what Denver could be, because the newcomers who created the need for better transit also had a solution. They liked trains. A survey commissioned by the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation this year found that support for mass transit was in direct correlation to how long people had lived in the state. Among those here 15 years or less, two out of three liked the idea, compared with about half of the people who had been here 30 years or more. The $4.7 billion transit project, called FasTracks and financed by an increase in the local s |