Toronto: St. Clair streetcar reservation project gets green lightLight Rail Now! NewsLog 11 October 2004 For many months, an effort by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) to place the St. Clair streetcar (light rail transit/LRT) route on a reservation (dedicated right-of-way) on St. Clair Avenue West. The TTC proposes to do this in connection with a long-overdue overhaul of the existing tracks and street scheduled for 2005. An environmental assessment (EA) has already recommended the streetcar reservation as its preferred alternative. However, store owners on a section of the route have mounted a vigorous campaign against any change, even though the TTC’s upgrade proposal keeps on-street parking (except during rush hours), adds some off-street parking, leaves one lane for cars at all times, and has two lanes for cars in each direction during rush hours – promising what one would think this would be a win-win situation. The TTC’s proposal for the St. Clair streetcar reservation is modelled on the spectacular success of a similar project on Spadina Ave. some seven years ago. The 6.7-km (4.2-mile) Spadina project prompted sharp controversy at the time – hailed by some merchants and residents along the line as boon to the area, but bitterly resisted by others as a disruptive intruder. [Toronto Star, 18 Sep. 2004] Yet, seven years later, the Spadina streetcar line with its mid-street reservation is recognized as a huge benefit. For example, a survey of about 60 area merchants conducted for the city and TTC showed that 34% believed their business had improved since the line opened, while only 19% said it had declined. About 47% believed the project had had little or no impact on their business. The same study found major positive economic impacts in the Spadina corridor compared with the rest of the city. [Toronto Star, 18 Sep. 2004] In addition, the TTC found that the LRT streetcar attracted significantly higher ridership than the previous bus service on Spadina. Ridership on the new Route 510 streetcar soared to about 35,000 a day, compared with about 26,000 on the previous Route 77 bus. [Toronto Star, 18 Sep. 2004] The TTC’s proposed St. Clair “streetcar right-of-way” (reservation) would upgrade the existing St. Clair streetcar line, currently running in mixed traffic, for 6.7 km (4.2 miles), from Yonge St. to west of Keele St. – an improvement expected increase the streetcar service’s speed (6 minutes per end-to-end trip) and safety, and to attract significantly higher ridership. The projected cost of Canadian $65 million (US $52 million, or about $12 million/mile) includes replacing the line’s worn trackage, construction to rehabilitate crumbling infrastructure, plus streetscaping, parks, lighting, and other urban amenities added to win public approval. [Toronto Sun, 30 Sep. 2004; Eye, 29 May 2004] Coalescing supporters of the St. Clair project has been undertaken by the SCRIPT group (St. Clair Right-of- way Initiative for Public Transit), described as “local residents who support improving transit and the quality of life along St. Clair Avenue West by creating a right-of-way for TTC streetcars.” More information on SCRIPT and the St. Clair project ban be obtained on their website. The efforts of SCRIPT and other supporters of the St. Clair project have evidently paid off. In mid- September, a joint session of the City’s planning and transportation committee, works committee, and TTC voted 20-1 in favor of the reserved alignment. Then, at the end of September, the Toronto city council voted 36-7 to give the plan the go-ahead. “With this approval, the city has made public transit a priority” observed a reporter for the Toronto Sun. [R. J. Halperin, 18 Sep 2004; Toronto Sun, 30 Sep. 2004] |
Subway’s last hurrah; Council’s transit advocates say subway expansion is dead and cheaper light-rail transit is the wave of the futureNOW – Toronto OCT 14 - 20, 2004 When the Toronto Environmental Alliance issued the city’s 2004 Smog Report Card this week, it was full of congratulatory remarks about the many “clean air initiatives” Mayor David Miller and his left-leaning council have adopted. There were kudos for a new energy efficiency program, the purchase of bio-fuels and hybrid vehicles for the municipal fleet, the political rejection of an expanded island airport, the recent adoption of a harmonized tree bylaw and the approval of a dedicated streetcar right-of-way along St. Clair West. “Toronto has become a real leader in fighting smog,” Keith Stewart, TEA’s lead climate change campaigner, told a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday, October 12. In just 12 short months, the city managed to improve its grade from a dismal C- to a respectable B+. And the mark would have been even higher (an A) had the powers that be at 100 Queen West gotten around to implementing the TTC ridership growth strategy the previous council approved in March 2003. “Better transit is the missing piece,” said Gord Perks, TEA’s transportation guru. “We need to stop talking about ridership growth and start doing it.” TTC commissioner Joe Mihevc couldn’t agree more. “The status quo is not acceptable,” the Ward 21 (St. Paul’s) councilor says. “We have seen automobile traffic increase by 3 or 4 per cent since about 1970, and we have a lot of lost ground to make up. If we really are interested in improving the economy, cleaning the air and developing our official plan, then we have to get into an expansion mode and put some resources into transit-oriented development. That’s the new biblical text that has to govern City Hall for the next while.” To Mihevc, the recently approved St. Clair streetcar right-of-way “shook some people up” and may spark an important debate about the overall future of transit. “We’re at the beginning of asking the question: ‘Is this the rebirth of streetcars in Toronto?’ We had a very sophisticated light rail transit (LRT) network before we fell in love with buses and subways, and I believe the time for rethinking that is now. What we need is an LRT master plan.” Mihevc spent three days in Atlanta this week at the American Public Transit Association conference with TTC chair Howard Moscoe and came away convinced that light rail transit is making a comeback in the United States. “The Americans are getting it,” he says. What makes streetcars travelling on dedicated right-of-ways so attractive is their relative low cost compared to the construction of new subway lines. Laying a kilometre of LRT track costs $10 million compared to $100 million for an equal length of subterranean steel. Add on the expense of building underground subway stations and the costs really start to snowball. As the mayor, himself a TTC commissioner, is quick to point out in an interview this week, it would cost between $4 billion and $6 billion to complete a subway beneath St. Clair from Yonge to Keele. The bill for the new streetcar line along that route – complete with major street improvements – will be about $65 million. “They’re a way to bring very high-quality transit at a reasonable cost to neighbourhoods that don’t have it,” Miller says. “I think people will look back on the St. Clair experience and see that it was the start of a way to provide excellent transit right across Toronto.” Like Mihevc, the mayor sees a number of major transportation corridors identified for intensified redevelopment in the Official Plan as prime candidates for future streetcar lines or reserved bus lanes. “Eglinton, particularly in Scarborough, is ideal for rapid transit,” Miller says. He even suggests it may make economic sense to have a streetcar route along Sheppard to Scarborough Town Centre rather than continue the subway line there (at a cost of $2 billion) from where it now ends at Don Mills. Mihevc offers Finch as another possibility for light rail track to and from the Yonge subway line. The Kingston Road streetcar route could also be extended from where it now ends at Victoria Park all the way to the city’s eastern boundary, the councillor says. And the waterfront east of Yonge along Queens Quay and beyond would also be ideal for light rail. “My hope is that we start to develop some of these lines so that we prompt the next generation of streetcars to be developed earlier than the current 2015 target date,” says Mihevc. “These streetcars we have now? They’re not streetcars. They’re tanks that hold a lot of people, 2.5 times the weight of the sleek European-designed low-floor, wide-door models. What we’re aiming for here is an above-ground subway.” Is the councillor dreaming? He doesn’t think so. “The reality of the TTC is that we’ve had to be obsessed with keeping the system we have in a state of good repair. We haven’t allowed ourselves the luxury to dream,” Mihevc says. “But now, with the gas tax coming from the province and the feds, we can hopefully start to think beyond state of good repair and bring our ridership growth strategy in line with our Official Plan.” And get Toronto an A on the next smog report card. |
Copenhagen plans light rail by 2012Light Rail Now! NewsLog 11 November 2004 The light rail transit (LRT) boom in Europe continues with the announcement that Copenhagen is planning for a 19.6-km (12.2-mi) LRT line, to be operational by 2012. As reported in Tramways and Urban Transit (Nov. 2004), “The finishing touches are being put to an agreement between the city and an Arriva-led consortium for a public/private project” to construct the line.” As T&UT reports, the LRT line would extend “between Lundtofte and Glostrup via Lyngby.” The total cost is estimated at DKK2.2 billion, or about US$557 million – calculating to about $28 million/km, or $46 million/mile. The LRT line is projected to carry ridership of 52,000 rider-trips per day on 18 light rail vehicles (LRVs). Planners hope the service will attract motorists from 8,000 to 9,000 private cars off the city’s Ring 3 highway every day. The LRT line will add to Copenhagen’s growing network of rail transit, which includes an extensive regional rail system (the S-Tog) and a light metro. The metro, using standard rail technology with totally automated operation, opened in 2002 with a line running from east to west. According to UrbanRail.net, “This construction project was combined with a major city development called Ørestad in the south of the city. The line has two branches on the eastern side, one south to Ørestad and the other south-east to Copenhagen’s Airport (Lufthavn).” The first phase of the metro project (placed in service on 19 Oct. 2002) includes the route segments connecting Nørreport-Ørestad-Vestamager via Copenhagen’s city center; in addition, there’s a south-eastern branch which extends as far as Lergravsparken. Two more stations, Forum and Frederiksberg, were added in May 2003. On 12 Oct. 2003, the metro reached Vanløse, and a Flintholm station opened in early 2004. An additional City Ring line is also proposed. This would be a 16 km (10 mi) route in subway with 16 stations, estmated to cost €1.7 billion. At current conversion rates, that calculates to about US$2.0 billion, or about $206 billion per route-mile. With a total length of 11 km (about 7 miles), the metro line runs underground for 9 km (5.6 mi), with 9 relatively small underground stations (61 m long, 20 m wide, or about 200 ft X 12 ft). The remainder of the route is either elevated or on the surface. All stations have elevators and escalators and platforms are separated from the tracks by a glass wall and automatic screen doors – a growing feature of automated systems. The Copenhagen metro has a fleet of 34 trains, each with 3 walk-through cars, 6 doors on each side, 100 seats in a total capacity of approximately 300 passengers a train. The system is designed for maximum train speeds of 80 kilometers/hour (c. 50 mph) with an average speed of 40 kilometers/hour (24 mph) with one to two minutes between stations. A total ridership of 250,000 boardings per day is projected to use the system regularly after the third phase begins operation, and the full system is placed in service. [UrbanRail.net, 2004/11/11; Union Switch & Signal Inc., 22 November 2002] |
Heidelberg: Light rail tramway extension project under wayLight Rail Now! NewsLog 15 November 2004 The small German city of Heidelberg has started work on a 4.4-km (2.7-mile) extension of its light rail transit (LRT) tramway system, according to the November issue of Tramways & Urban Transit. The extension, linking the system with the community of Kirchheim, is targeted for completion in late 2006, although the first 800 meters (half-mile) should be finished by May 2005. At a cost of EUR 30 million (about US$39 million), the extension is costing about $9 million/km, or $14 million/mile – once again, suggesting the bargain price of LRT in delivering quality urban public transport. The extension will augment Heidelberg’s existing 19.7-km (12.2-mile) tramway system. |
Developer set to build monorail depot next weekJakarta Post November 20, 2004 After months of little or no progress on the ambitious monorail project, the developer is set to prioritize constructing its nine-hectare depot complex above the West Flood Canal in the crowded Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta. “The depot will be built on a reinforced concrete platform built above the Canal. The site has been finalized. The construction will start next week,” the company’s director Sukmawaty Syukur told The Jakarta Post on Friday. Sukmawaty said that the depot would serve as warehouse as well as a repair shop for monorail cars. Different from the previous design plan, Sukmawaty said the company scrapped additional plans for an apartment block and a shopping mall conjoined with the depot, due to space constraints. Previously, the company proposed to build a 20-story apartment block, a five-story shopping mall and several theme parks in the planned 12- hectare depot complex. Those additional facilities were deemed necessary in a bid to generate side-income in addition to revenue obtained from monorail tickets, which will likely be priced between Rp 3,500 and Rp 7,500. The construction of the depot above the canal, which is near the Tanah Abang railway station, is also an effort to minimize land clearing problems in the crowded area, which is already overrun by squatters’ slums. Meanwhile, the company’s president Ruslan Diwirjo said that the construction of the depot would be followed by the construction of the first five kilometers of the line for trial before the monorail becomes fully operational. “We will rev up the construction of other parts of the project, including monorail stops or stations and rail lines in March next year after the disbursement of the loans,” Ruslan asserted. The US$650 million monorail project will be financed mostly through soft loans of $300 million and rupiah loans equal to $200 million with 12 percent interest. The remaining $150 million will be provided through equity by the company. Ruslan admitted that the construction work that had begun on May 19 had hit a snag due to several unexpected changes in the planned route. The company has changed the route along Jl. Gerbang Pemuda from Jl. Asia-Afrika to Jl. Palmerah in order to integrate the monorail system with commuter trains plying the Tangerang-Jakarta route via Serpong and Bintaro. In an effort to net more potential passengers, the company has also revised the route to Taman Anggrek shopping mall on Jl. Let Jend. S. Parman, in West Jakarta as the last station instead of Roxy in West Jakarta. The developer is planning a two-line monorail system, a “green line” that serves a 14.8-kilometer route in the city’s lucrative business districts of Kuningan, Sudirman and Senayan and the “blue line” serving a 12.2- kilometer route from Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta to Taman Anggrek in West Jakarta. The green line is expected to start operations in December 2006, while the blue line would start in early 2007. |
India better at subways than New York? It’s trueNew York Daily News November 27, 2004 When I moved to New Delhi, India’s chaotic capital, I scarcely expected to find a model for urban transit from which New York could learn. But New Delhi’s Metro Rail is just that: a great new system that makes me reflect sadly on the glacial progress of New York’s long-delayed Second Ave. subway and the continuing public wars between the mayor and transit officials. New York is talking - again - about starting work on the 8-mile Second Ave. line. It’s budgeted at $17 billion and scheduled to take up to 16 years to complete. Given the MTA’s history, the time and cost estimates are undoubtedly low. Meanwhile, India, a developing country with a per-capita income approximately 1/13th of America’s, is building a 21st-century system at a fraction of that cost. New Delhi started from scratch in 1998 and now has 13 miles of rail line up and running. The system is due to grow to 40 miles by next June, as workers complete their jobs three years ahead of schedule. The cost of all this: $2.3 billion, a mere fraction of the Second Ave. estimate. And the city plans to expand the network to 150 miles by 2021, about the time the Second Ave. subway might be ready. How has New Delhi done it? Obviously, wages are phenomenally lower than they are in New York. But that still doesn’t begin to explain the cost differences. And it certainly does not explain the difference in time lines. New Delhi’s team is kept on schedule through the leadership of a 71-year-old engineer, E. Sreedharan, who is a legend in India for his ability to finish complex projects ahead of time and under budget. That’s a lesson for New York: Leadership matters, and New York’s can’t- do bureaucrats are in desperate need of some. In contrast to Delhi’s count-every-minute attitude, New York officials have talked about a Second Ave. subway since the 1920s and actually began building some sections more than 30 years ago. But the project has plodded along, a victim of bureaucratic inertia, construction kickbacks, intransigent unions and fund diversions. By 1972, there had been at least four formal project delays. That’s when the city’s Transit Authority put out a brochure titled, “The Line That Almost Never Was.” It still isn’t. New Delhi’s experience shows that world-class public transport can come to one of the world’s largest cities - even one in a low-income, developing country - ahead of schedule and under budget. If New Delhi can do it, why can’t New York? |
Strange Bedfellows; Greens and RepublicansCounterPunch: November 27 / 28, 2004 You probably haven’t heard of it. It goes by the name of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), and it is fast becoming the latest fad of the Green Party and others. So what is this PRT anyway? As Aaron Naparstek recently wrote in NY Press, “PRT is a computerized, driverless mass transit system. The passenger enters a sleek, four-person pod that is guaranteed to be waiting at the station, swipes a fare card, punches in a destination and goes. The pods run on a web of elevated tracks 16 feet above street level with stations every two or three blocks apart. PRT advocates promise transportation with no wait, no traffic and no smelly strangers.” Even David Cobb, the anointed leader of the GP, has touted PRT as a “Green Technology” and trumped its potential benefits while “campaigning” in Minnesota last year. Dean Zimmerman a Minneapolis, Minnesota city councilman and GP member says that PRT “is going to be a major breakthrough in how people move around urban centers.” Zimmerman has even spoken publicly with right-wing Republicans to make a case for more public funds to study the technology. Sounds odd. Are Republicans turning green on us? Or is the national Green Party losing its marbles? Sorry to say, it’s the latter. In reality PRT has never worked despite over 30 years of research and development. Combining the small carrying capacity of a small car, with the expensive infrastructure of mass transit, PRT offers the worst of both worlds. Plus, it’s the brainchild of Ed Anderson’s private corporation Taxi 2000, who has already made a bundle of cash by convincing city and state governments that it is in their best interest to hand over phat research checks. Although Los Angeles and Santa Cruz California have voted down proposals to allocate money to study the futuristic transit system, New Jersey, which has already appropriated $75,000 to PRT, plans to up that by $100,000 this coming year. While out in Minneapolis and Duluth, Greens and others are hoping their government will pony up the needed cash to go through with the PRT study. Despite the past failures of PRT, hopes among its boosters remain high. Perhaps their hopes aren’t for a green public transit system; rather they hope PRT can continue to swindle even more loot out of government accounts. “PRT is really a stalking horse for the pro-highway, anti transit lobby,” claims Ken Avidor who has kept a watchful eye on PRT in his home state on Minnesota. “It is supported by highway engineering firms, right-wing Republicans like [Minnesota] State Senator Michele Bachmann and Tom Delay.” This new marriage surely makes for strange bedfellows, as Greens and Republicans seem to see eye to eye on the PRT boondoggle. Plus, Greens should know the history of those they are jumping into bed with. The state of Illinois and Raytheon, the maker of “Bunker Buster” bombs, Tomahawk, Patriot missiles, and other assorted weaponry — has invested over $38 million to study PRT in the Chicago metro area. “Though it all sounds very gee-whiz innocent, PRT is a major scam,” writes Naparstek in NY Press. “In Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Seattle, Chicago and elsewhere, PRT has burned through tens of millions of dollars of public and private investment. The only tangible result has been to clear the way for highway construction and make legitimate mass transit projects more difficult to build. In at least a few cases, after finally running PRT out of town, citizens learned that the public officials most enthusiastic about PRT had financial stakes in the companies developing it.” |
Line saves time, if not money; Legislators say fares on new Ma On Shan rail service are too high, while minibus operators fear for their futureSouth China Morning Post November 27, 2004 Commuters will save time but not always money at the new Ma On Shan railway that opens next month. Fares on the new line, announced by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation yesterday, show travellers will save time and money on a trip to Central, and time but not money on trips to stations in Kowloon. Commuters from Ma On Shan to Central, switching to the Mass Transit Railway at Tsim Sha Tsui, will pay $ 17.40, including a $ 1.50 discount offered by the MTR for interchanging passengers. The trip will take 13 minutes less than on cross-harbour buses, which charge 80 cents more, the corporation said. The 11.4km line, running between Tai Wai and Wu Kai Sha with a total of nine stations, will be the third opened by KCRC in about a year after West Rail and the East Rail extension to Tsim Sha Tsui East. The line will be divided into north and south zones - Wu Kai Sha to Shek Mun and Tai Shui Hang to Che Kung Miu - with travellers paying $ 3.70 within each zone and $ 4.50 to cross zones. A single-station journey within the same zone is $ 3.20. Presenting the fares to legislators yesterday, KCRC chairman Michael Tien Puk -sun said they had been decided after considering the need to cover at least operating expenses and the value of time saved, and he was confident they would be competitive and attractive to commuters. “We believe the fares are very attractive. Being down to earth, I think the fare is really a bargain. We don’t want to negotiate with you every time. But, just ask your conscience, does the fare surprise you a bit?” he told the legislators. But legislators said the fare to Tsim Sha Tsui was too expensive compared with buses and cast doubt on the railway’s attractiveness to cross-harbour commuters, even though the fare was lower. “It appears to be cheaper and saves time. But passengers have to change twice and squeeze into the jammed trains and walk a long way to change to the MTR at Tsim Sha Tsui. I wonder if there is further room to make the fares more attractive,” Liberal legislator Miriam Lau Kin-yee said. Democrat legislator Andrew Cheng Kar-foo also criticised the line as flawed in design as it failed to offer a direct rail access to the urban area and warned that it might fail to compete with buses offering more direct and comfortable services. But Mr Tien said the cross-harbour fare had taken into account time lost in interchanging and was therefore lower than the buses. He stressed it was impossible to please every passenger. “If they want to sleep right after getting on board, the rail will still fail to attract them even if we are offering services free,” he said. Mr Tien said the $ 10 billion rail should attract about 190,000 passengers a day by the end of the first operating year and receive income of $ 245 million, slightly above the $ 227 million operating expenses. He said KCRC had to fulfil its statutory obligation to operate commercially as it still had to pay $ 300 million interest a year or taxpayers would have to further subsidise the services. The Ma On Shan line is likely to lead to a restructuring of local transport and hit bus and minibus operators. Minibus driver Cheung Hon-kow, who has been driving the 803 route from Tai Wai to Ma On Shan for five years, said he feared losing his job after the rail opens. “I was very upset when I heard the news because they had said the fare would be $ 7.50,” he said. “It was like having cold water splashed on me. It’s going to be hard for me to make a living in future.” Mr Cheung gets $ 2 out of every $ 6.20 his passengers pay for their ride. The rest goes to the minibus company. This equals a daily wage of about $ 300. A spokeswoman for Kowloon Motor Bus yesterday said it was too early to comment on the impact on its business. |
Europe: New Tramways Underscore Continent’s Light Rail BoomLightRail Now website November 28, 2004 Since the beginning of 2004 alone, Europe has seen no less than four totally new LRT tramway startup systems go into public service (in Nottingham, Barcelona, Dublin, and Athens) - underscoring the continuing worldwide surge in the development of light rail transit. Dallas: Light Rail Expansion Continues With Opening of Victory Station Dallas’s light rail transit system passed yet another milestone in its seemingly relentless expansion with the opening of a 1.25-mile extension to Victory Station, just west of downtown. USA: Whopping Public Mandate for Transit in Record Number of Ballot Successes Across the USA, a record number of transit-supportive ballot initiatives were approved by voters this year in what seems like a massive mandate for more transit - particularly rail transit. US Rail Transit Hits the Trifecta! Big Wins in Austin, Denver, Phoenix American rail transit virtually hit a political Trifecta on Tuesday, November 2nd with solid wins for three major ballot initiatives - two authorizing significant light rail system expansions (Denver, Phoenix), and a new-start regional “commuter” rail project in Austin, Texas. Winnipeg: Rail better than bus for rapid transit With its “BRT” plans now shelved, Winnipeg should be looking at rail transit, argues Jeff Lowe in this commentary . |
Buses’ controversial 200-foot tripAustin American-Statesman November 28, 2004 Maybe it’s just much ado about 200 feet. But it really matters to Jerry Balaka, and to Capital Metro. “It” is the spot where Capital Metro’s Route 100 bus stops at Austin- Bergstrom International Airport when it comes by once every 40 minutes. For the first four years after the airport opened in 1999, that spot was on the outer lane on the lower level, opposite the terminal’s most easterly exit. But about 18 months ago, with traffic down, airport management decided to let Capital Metro move that stop closer to the center of the terminal. The idea was that with the buses in a more accessible spot, more travelers would opt to take the bus for 50 cents to downtown and the University of Texas. They would save the customer money, the thinking goes, and Austin’s air would be a wee bit cleaner as a consequence. The move, according to Capital Metro statistics, did indeed increase ridership on No. 100, the Airport Flyer. According to samplings in 2002, before the move, and 2003, after the move, total bus boardings and deboardings at the airport increased from 97 a day to 270. But that’s only 10 more per hour (the bus run 17 hours a day). Because many more people take a cab or a shuttle (including the parking lot shuttles), airport Executive Director Jim Smith intends to move the bus stop back to its original location. Something like 260 people an hour come out and head to a cab or shuttle, Smith says. By the airport’s recent count on three days, fewer than 5 people an hour get on the Flyer. Capital Metro thinks those numbers are way low. Smith says the recovery of the airport’s business has created more cab and shuttle traffic. And the current bus stop, awkwardly wedged in between cabs and shuttles, often causes traffic jams, airport officials say. Looking to serve the interests of the bulk of customers, Smith will move the bus stop Wednesday. Bear in mind, however, that he’s not moving it to Bastrop. We’re talking about 200 feet. Nonetheless, Balaka, who in his software quality assurance job with IBM Corp. travels a lot and has a real passion about connecting mass transit to airports, says this sends a terrible signal just after voters approved commuter rail here. He’s been rattling city cages to stop the move and to put up a huge sign alerting travelers to the bus option. It seems counterintuitive, but airport bus service might be a niche product. A small niche: Capital Metro’s 270-a-day count is about 1 percent of airport travelers. People are in a hurry to catch flights when they’re going, then tired and in a hurry to get home when they return. There’s luggage involved, maybe several pieces. A car or a cab sounds awfully good in those circumstances. With Smith dug in on the subject, Capital Metro has thrown in the towel. Aside from the big sign at the stop, they’re now talking to Smith about other signs in the airport to direct people to their bus. We’ll check back in in a few months to see what all this does to the numbers. |
Developer hitching wagon to light rail; McGough leading with $700M housing, retail project at Bloomington stationSt. Paul Pioneer Press Nov. 28, 2004 What McGough Cos. originally envisioned as a traditional office park in Bloomington has blossomed into plans for a $700 million development with much more, thanks to the Hiawatha Line. Now, Tom McGough Jr. said the company is planning Bloomington Central Station with condos, a boutique hotel, shops and restaurants, as well as offices at the suburban light rail stop. “I’m not sure how much light rail will do to reduce congestion,” said McGough, president of the St. Paul company. “It will certainly lead to unique opportunities in development.” Backers of light rail promised that the Hiawatha Line would spark development. A federally funded market study conducted in 2000 shows the line could be a catalyst for 7,150 new housing units, more than 19 million square feet of commercial development and more than 67,000 new jobs along the rail corridor by 2020. So far, condos, restaurants and homes are popping up along the state’s first light rail line, and McGough’s Bloomington Central Station is the splashiest yet. But Larry Lee, Bloomington’s community development director, said the real impact of light rail on development isn’t known. “Nobody will be able to say definitely how much difference light rail will make for five to 10 years,” Lee said. Because McGough project designers are planning on hundreds of residential units to complement the light rail station, city officials are zoning other land in that area south of the airport for housing to one day create a new transit-friendly neighborhood. “The light rail is a very important part of selling that lifestyle,” Lee said. Unlike Minneapolis, Bloomington officials have the liberty of much bigger spaces available for potential development near the Hiawatha Line. Bloomington officials have designated several areas south of Interstate 494 and east of Cedar Avenue for future development, but the role of the Hiawatha Line in those locations remains to be seen. “Light rail is certainly going to help,” Lee said. “The other reason is simply because they’re available for development.” The McGough enthusiasm for the Hiawatha Line has spilled over to a neighboring stop as well, only two blocks from Bloomington Central Station. McGough is negotiating a deal with the Metropolitan Airports Commission to purchase 10 acres surrounding the light rail station at 28th Avenue South and East 80th Street to develop a medium-size retail center and a 600-stall park-and-ride facility. Both of the McGough-proposed developments are located at stops between the airport and Mall of America. Previously, the Metropolitan Council planned the 28th Avenue Station to include only the park-and- ride. Even some developments near the Hiawatha Line that weren’t designed with light rail in mind could benefit from another mode of transportation to the airport or downtown Minneapolis. Wirth Cos. is behind the Grand Lodge and Water Park of America, a Minnesota lodge-themed hotel with an attached water park billed as the largest in the country. The complex is scheduled for a March 2006 debut near Cedar Avenue and I-494 in Bloomington. Jeff Bornmann, the Wirth chief operations officer, said proximity to the light rail line wasn’t a real factor in deciding where to locate the hotel/water park. “It is an important amenity but we didn’t choose to build there because light rail was there,” he said. “We chose to build there because the Mall of America is there.” When McGough executives started planning Bloomington Central Station, light rail wasn’t much of a consideration. Then McGough said they realized the potential for much more than a standard office park. Now, months before the February groundbreaking, condos in the first glass towers — called Reflections — are up for sale at a price of $166,000 to $700,000. The remaining condos, shops and offices will be built over the next 15 years in the 45-acre area east of the megamall. The Hiawatha Line would cut through the middle of the development and the station would be almost directly in the center. This McGough project may receive tax-increment financing but no proposal has come forward or been approved. Meanwhile, McGough officials are in talks with potential corporate tenants. They’re all too aware of the bleak office market with high vacancies but insist that light rail offers a special opportunity. Still, they’re not taking any chances. “We’re bullish on the opportunity, but that said, we’ve taken a very conservative strategy to implementation,” McGough said. |
Hopes high for linking downtowns; But at $840 million, so are LRT’s costs, making fast-bus lanes a cheaper option between citiesSt. Paul Pioneer Press Nov. 28, 2004 As Metro Transit readies to open the Hiawatha line’s last leg on Saturday, transit advocates are waiting for a federal report they hope will bolster their case for a second Twin Cities light-rail route, connecting the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Whether the second line gets built, however, could be called a $600 million question. That’s the difference in cost between a proposal to build a $840 million light-rail line from downtown St. Paul to Hiawatha’s downtown Minneapolis stations and a $241 million plan to run fast-service buses on much of the same route. The Federal Transit Administration analysis, expected by the end of the year, will examine both options and whether their costs are worth the benefits they provide to the region. Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell said higher-capacity public transportation in the 11-mile Central Corridor is sorely needed to draw commuters off congested Interstate 94. The council oversees local transportation planning and manages Metro Transit, which operates the Hiawatha line. Even with the federal government covering half the cost of either proposal, Bell said coming up with hundreds of millions of dollars in state, county and local funds is not easy, particularly when the best planners hope to do is slow the rate at which congestion worsens. “That’s an unsatisfying prospect for a policy-maker to bring to the public,” Bell said. HOW IT WOULD WORK If the light-rail line were here now, it would share four downtown Minneapolis stations with the Hiawatha line. At the Metrodome, Hiawatha trains turn southeast; Central Corridor trains would jog east, toward the University of Minnesota and across the Mississippi River. A tunnel would carry trains beneath the campus and congested Washington Avenue. Plans call for the trains to then run down the middle of University Avenue to the state Capitol before turning to downtown St. Paul. Traffic signals would be synchronized so trains would move with the flow of traffic on University so vehicles on busy cross streets would not have to stop for trains. The current design would keep two lanes of traffic in each direction on University and allow parking along each curb, except near intersections served by stations. The fast-service bus route — called bus rapid transit, or BRT — would be unlike anything now running in the Twin Cities. Passengers would buy tickets before boarding, as they now do at light-rail stations, and the buses would drive in their own dedicated lanes down the middle of University, with stops at stations just like those for trains. APPLES AND ORANGES? The difference between the proposals is greater than whether the wheels are made of rubber or steel. BRT vehicles would mix with regular traffic in both downtowns and at the university, putting them at risk of getting tied up in traffic and limiting the number of buses — and therefore the number of passengers — that could travel in those areas. Because of that, planners say BRT could fail to meet passenger demand by 2020, while adding an extra car to each train would expand light-rail capacity. “It really is like comparing apples to oranges,” said Barb Thoman, program director for Transit for Livable Communities. “You are not buying the same quality of stations and the same quality of infrastructure.” Ramsey County Commissioner Susan Haigh agreed, calling light-rail “an alternative that is really going to stand the test of time.” She contends trains will draw more redevelopment dollars. But the difference in the state and local share of the two projects totals $300 million — and funding can’t be ignored, particularly as state budgets are tight and Gov. Tim Pawlenty holds the line against increasing state tax burdens, Bell said. Bell said the Pawlenty administration is considering whether to ask counties to pay a larger proportion of the higher-cost rail line, if county leaders prefer that to BRT. Haigh criticized that idea. “When we built the interstate system … we didn’t go to the business owners along the freeway and say, ‘Now you’re going to pay triple or quadruple in property tax,’ “ Haigh said. WHAT’S NEXT The Federal Transit Administration report’s release will be followed by a likely 60-day public-comment period, said Steve Morris, Central Corridor project manager. Then a committee that includes county and city officials will make a recommendation to the Met Council, which was appointed by Pawlenty. The council then chooses one of the modes for a more detailed engineering study — which could take up to two years to complete. Only when it is finished will policy-makers be asked to decide whether to go ahead with construction. For the coming weeks, however, “we are waiting,” Bell said. “The council is waiting, and (the Pawlenty) administration is waiting for the cost-benefit analysis … and then we will get out our sharp pencils and make some decisions.” |
Houston has earmarked transportation money; Medical center, Metro and the city will split most of itHouston Chronicle Nov. 28, 2004 Congress is getting ready to send $31.5 million to Houston for transportation initiatives, including MetroRail expansion and Park & Ride lot upgrades. Local transportation allocations include $23 million for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, $4.5 million for the city of Houston and $4 million for the Texas Medical Center. Metro will use $8.5 million of its fiscal year 2005 appropriation to help implement the Metro Solutions transit-expansion plan approved by voters a year ago. The money should cover completion of preliminary studies and environmental impact statements for the four light rail lines scheduled for completion by 2012, said Metro spokesman Chip Lambert. They should also cover preliminary engineering expenses for the next two lines, he said. The other $14.5 million will go toward Park & Ride lot improvements, including a ramp from the Addicks Park & Ride to the new Katy Freeway High Occupancy Toll lanes, which are under construction and due to open in 2008. The federal discretionary funds are part of an omnibus appropriations bill pending final approval in Congress, expected early next month. The bill is stuffed with local projects inserted by senators and representatives. These are formally known as “earmarks” but derided by many government watchdogs as “pork” that adds to the soaring national budget deficit. The transit authority had requested $75 million from the local congressional delegation this year, mostly to save for construction of future rail lines. But Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, declined to support that because Metro has yet to gain approval for those lines from the Federal Transit Administration. |
Passaic, Bergen get on track; New commuter line closer to realityHerald News (Passaic County, NJ) November 28, 2004 It’s not a monorail or high-speed bullet train. It’s doubtful that the rail line will open with a chorus of people singing “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.” But there is still reason to cheer as a commuter rail link between Hawthorne and Hackensack moves closer to reality. Last week, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, announced that $6 million in federal funding had been appropriated for the proposed line. Pascrell, a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, has been fighting for the money in Congress. The state had agreed to kick in $10 million in matching funds if the federal money was appropriated. Pascrell is confident another $10 million in federal money will pour into the project after President Bush signs a $275 billion transportation bill. That is $26 million toward a project that could cost anywhere from $50 million to $150 million. It is a very good start. The train would run directly through Paterson and provide a vital link for workers in Paterson and Hackensack. Living in North Jersey without a car is a serious handicap. While there are bus routes and NJ Transit does link Passaic and Bergen counties, the bus routes are limited and existing trains are scheduled for commuters heading into Manhattan and Hoboken. The new rail line initially will cater to inter-county commuters. Eventually, it could connect to the Meadowlands and the proposed Xanadu sports/entertainment complex. The beauty of this rail line is that it utilizes existing freight tracks. There is no need to obtain easements for land or to lay track. There are still negotiations needed between New York, Susquehanna & Western, the owners of the freight track, and NJ Transit. Pascrell hopes to link the two systems. A transfer station that would connect the commuter line with the Bergen Line would enable riders to access trains to Manhattan as well as NJ Transit trains at the Secaucus Junction. The train stations, aside from the transfer station to the Bergen Line, would be simple, no frills. In total, there are nine proposed stops in Passaic County and three in Bergen County. In a state slow to embrace mass transit, this would be a huge step forward. While it could be three years before trains start rolling, there is reason to celebrate. The $6 million from the House Appropriations Committee is a green signal that the trains will come. Aside from Pascrell’s effort, Reps. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, and Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-Harding, who sit on the Appropriations Committee, helped bring these dollars back to North Jersey. The state doesn’t get enough bang for its tax dollars in Washington, D.C., particularly when it comes to transportation. This time the gravy train is stopping locally. |
D.C. Subway Shoots for Clean, Not MeanLos Angeles Times November 28, 2004 Spencer Lancaster, a street musician performing outside the Gallery Place/Chinatown subway station, clasped his hands when Officer Salicia Belton emerged from the escalator. “This one’s for you,” he said, launching into a whistling rendition of the James Bond theme by blowing into his hands and moving his fingers to play the notes. Belton smiled. “He’s here all the time,” she said. “He knows the rules…. He knows just how far away to stand from the entrance.” Lancaster and other street performers add to the list of things Belton and her fellow officers of RATS — the Rail Anti-crime Target Squad — must keep an eye on as they patrol the 103 miles of tunnels and tracks that wind through the nation’s capital and into neighboring Maryland and Virginia. Belton, 32, a squad member for three years, is constantly on the alert for pickpockets, panhandlers and soda pop. “I think it’s great,” she said of Metro’s strict policies. “Nobody wants to sit in someone else’s food.” Under Metro regulations, it is against the law “to smoke, eat, drink, transport dangerous/flammable materials, spit, transport animals (with the exception of service animals), and use audio/video devices without earphones.” Live music — which includes Lancaster and his movie-theme whistling — is also forbidden, as is littering. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has always insisted on a near-zero-tolerance policy to keep the subway clean, safe and rider-friendly. But the task of balance has never proved easy for Metro’s transit police, who have been the target of numerous complaints about overzealous enforcement. In September, for example, a Metro officer asked a pregnant woman using a cellphone to lower her voice. Their disagreement escalated to the point that the officer wrestled her to the ground and handcuffed her; charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest were dismissed a month later. In July, an Environmental Protection Agency employee who had not yet passed through the turnstile was arrested for chewing the last bits of a chocolate bar after she had been told by a Metro officer that eating in the station was forbidden. She was fined $10. In October 2000, a 12-year-old girl was placed in handcuffs for eating a single French fry on a boarding platform. A federal court later ruled that the arrest was “foolish,” but that her Constitutional rights had not been violated. Metro has since ceased handcuffing minors for eating. An incident in 1987, involving a participant in the Iran-Contra scandal and a banana, shows that run-ins with the low-tolerance policy are nothing new. An officer at the Red Line’s Metro Center station issued a $10 citation — for eating on Metro property — to Fawn Hall, the secretary who shredded National Security Council documents for Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North. The strict policies of Washington’s Metro system were adopted from the beginning to create a different type of experience for riders than Boston’s T and New York’s subway offered. Zachary Schrag, an assistant professor at George Mason University who wrote his dissertation on the history of the Washington subway, said that back in 1967, Metro officials knew they had to come up with something that would lure people out of their automobiles. They looked at the big city up the coast for some lessons on what not to do. By the 1960s, the New York subway system, notorious for rats and graffiti, had earned a reputation for filthiness and crime. So, Schrag said, “the template for Metro was to build something as far from New York as possible.” The system’s designers and policy-makers came up with a plan: Provide a unique, pleasant aesthetic and keep a tight rein on its day-to-day operations, and the customers would come. The Metro’s spacious concrete tunnels are connected to the surface by elevators and escalators, including the longest in the Western Hemisphere — 230 feet — at the Red Line’s Wheaton station. The tunnels form the country’s second-largest rail transit system, providing passage for about 700,000 people a day. The Metro has its own 385-member force, including the RATS program, designed to hold court over not one jurisdiction, but three: Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Officers such as Belton must know when an offense may warrant a fine in one state but an arrest in another, and when the state line has been crossed. The publicity this year over the confrontations between the transit police and the public — and the outcry those incidents sparked within the community — led to a series of moves by the agency to try to ease tensions. On Nov. 16, about 250 Metro riders attended the system’s first town hall meeting in its 28 years. The exchange between Metro officials and the public covered an array of subjects — including anti-terrorism efforts and bus drivers talking on cellphones. And this weekend, 20 officers are learning “verbal judo,” a pilot program to train them how to better handle unruly customers by using words, rather than force, to encourage compliance. To better understand the riders’ daily grind, Metro’s chief executive, Richard A. White, began commuting to work by subway in October — four years after he took the job. All the discussion has shed light on a divide among Metro’s riders. “Veteran riders, they love it,” Lt. Ronald Pavlik, who has been an officer with Metro for 10 years, said about the system’s policy. “The newer riders are more like … ‘You locked them up for eating?’ “ About 40% of Metro’s riders favor the low-tolerance policy and 60% against it, Pavlik said, adding, “It’s all about perception.” |
STREETCAR NAMED WESTON; NEW TRANSIT LINE ARRIVES IN 1925The Toronto Sun November 28, 2004 IT WAS EXACTLY 79 years ago today that the residents in and around the suburban community of Weston were finally able to ride the TTC streetcars to and from the big city to the south. While the privately-owned Toronto Suburban Railway had opened an electric line through to Weston in the late 1800s, service was less than satisfactory. It wasn’t until the Township of York signed an agreement with the newly established TTC in the summer of 1924 that its citizens got proper streetcar service on four routes within the township, Oakwood, Rogers Rd., Lambton and Weston Rd. While the TTC operated the service, all capital costs and deficits were the responsibility of the township. The new Weston route, which went into service on this day in 1925, ran from The Junction (Keele and Dundas) to Humber St. in Weston. The accompanying photo shows the inauguration procession headed north on Weston Rd. In 1948, trolley buses replaced the streetcars and they in turn, were replaced by diesel buses 44 years later. |
Portland, Ore., Selling $ 32.5 Million to Retire Interim Financing for Light Rail.The Bond Buyer November 29, 2004 Portland, Ore., will sell $ 32.5 million of urban renewal bonds this week, allowing it to retire an interim financing for a light rail project. The financing helped the city to finance its share of the project before the property values in the urban renewal area could support the debt. The Interstate MAX light-rail line opened in May, adding a 5.8-mile-long northern spur to Portland’s well-developed light-rail system. The urban renewal bonds, supported with tax increment financing, will retire revenue bonds Portland issued to contribute its $ 30 million share of the $ 350 million project, which was financed primarily with $ 257.5 million from the federal government. When the city’s share was due in 2000, it determined that the ultimate financing source would be tax-increment debt, said debt manager Eric Johansen, and that year the city formed the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area to do so. For tax increment financing to work, though, the assessed values in the area needed to climb enough to support the debt service. So Portland issued limited tax revenue bonds, which carry a pledge of the city’s full faith and credit but do not authorize a tax levy, to carry it through to the interim period. “Forecasts were that ‘04-’05 was first time incremental value would support the bonds,” Johansen said. “Sure enough, we’re at that point now.” The city originally sold limited tax revenue bonds in 2000, with a four-year maturity, with the intention of supplanting them this year with urban renewal debt. “Those bonds actually had a two-year call,” Johansen said. “When rates fell upon hitting the call date, we went ahead and refinanced them.” They mature Dec. 15. The area’s incremental assessed value growth has averaged 44.9% annually for the past three years, according to the report from Moody’s Investors Service, which assigned an underlying A3 rating to the bonds. The promise of the new rail line, which provides easy access to central Portland and the 44-mile MAX rail system, appears to have helped. “This new rail service, coupled with growing demand for the project area’s well-located housing and services, has spurred considerable new development in recent years,” according to Moody’s. Moody’s was the only agency asked to supply an underlying rating, Johansen said. Triple-A rated Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. will insure the bonds. The debt is structured with 20-year level debt service. The transaction is expected Tuesday, Johansen said, and it will be negotiated, with Banc of America Securities running the books. Preston Gates & Ellis is bond counsel. |
Aging PATCO line is getting multimillion-dollar makeoverPhiladelphia Inquirer Nov. 29, 2004 At 35 years old, the PATCO High-Speed Line is so quick and so reliable, its passengers will grouse about four-minute delays. But as the 14.2-mile Camden County-to-Center City rail line approaches middle age, its future is getting more complicated and costly. Ridership is down almost 20 percent from a decade ago. Its train cars need updating. And its ticketing system still requires pocketfuls of change. “PATCO was state-of-the-art when it was built” in 1969, general manager Robert Box said. “We’re trying to get it back to that point.” So millions of dollars are being spent - and millions more will be needed - to get the Speed Line back with the times and riders back on board. There’s $13 million budgeted for a revamp of the ticketing system. There’s $100 million to brighten and renovate the stations, including better lighting and colorful mosaics. A $350,000 “transit village” study will look at how to attract stores, restaurants and banks to the land around park-and-ride stations in New Jersey. And there are wishful plans to extend PATCO to Gloucester County and to the Naval Business Center in Philadelphia as well to improve connections with the SEPTA system. PATCO has one profound advantage over struggling SEPTA and most other regional rail lines: It is not dependent on tax dollars. Instead, the Delaware River Port Authority, which runs the line, makes up PATCO’s operating losses with tolls collected on the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross and Commodore Barry Bridges. Bill Schlueter, for one, is grateful. “It’s better than SEPTA,” said Schlueter, 31, of Lindenwold, who takes both rail systems to his job at a comic-book store in Port Richmond. “The cars are nicer. It’s very quick.” PATCO has long had a no-frills image as a round-the-clock train that runs like a subway. Even the line’s now-rued automated ticketing system was revolutionary in 1969. “It has a very high reputation because it was designed with modern devices but not overdone,” transportation expert Vukan R. Vuchic said. Just 10 years ago, PATCO carried 11 million riders a year. But all kinds of things have been working against it. Jobs moved from the cities to the suburbs. For several years, gasoline prices stayed flat or dropped. In 1999, after 16 years with no increases, PATCO fares went up, growing by more than 50 percent over three years. “That really cut into the ridership,” said Donald Nigro, president of the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers and a daily PATCO rider. Other passengers got fed up with delays caused by work replacing railroad ties. (Note - That plus an apparent inability to understand that people want a reliably scheduled service, not something that operates “when it’s convenient for us”.) Ridership hit a low of 8.9 million in 2003. This year, it is just over nine million. The port authority is staking much of its hopes on a new debit-card ticketing system, which is being billed as “E-ZPass for PATCO.” In two years, passengers will be able to load value onto a card, then pass it through a reader that will subtract money each time. The current fare system - which forces many to struggle with change machines or wait in line - is inflexible, fails often, and is the chief source of commuter complaints, said Box, PATCO’s general manager. The new system is designed to be compatible with other rail lines with the same technology, such as PATH in North Jersey and, perhaps someday, SEPTA. And its higher gates should deter fare cheats. But a lingering question is how to get ridership back up. One way may be to turn suburban stations into destinations as well as departure points - a focus of the “transit village” study. That would please Collingswood Mayor James Maley, who said PATCO should be bringing people to his town’s revived commercial strip but has not. Restructuring fares might help. Jeffrey L. Nash, the port authority’s vice chairman, said some fare cuts, particularly ones targeted for sports or cultural events, might increase ridership among non-commuters. Higher fares do not seem to be near. Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey said he would block any attempt to increase fares during his watch. Also, as part of a state deal to keep 1,100 Towers Perrin employees in South Jersey - including many PATCO riders - the port authority is spending up to $3.5 million to build a 100-foot-long pedestrian tunnel connecting the Woodcrest Station with the consulting firm’s new Cherry Hill offices. Bill Vigrass, a transportation consultant and former PATCO official, said one way to boost ridership was to make the trains “go somewhere else.” Studies on doing that, in which Vigrass is involved, are in the very early stages. Port authority officials said public hearings had found support for new lines to take commuters into fast-growing Gloucester County or to the growing business center at the former Navy Base in South Philadelphia. Extending PATCO’s reach and making more direct connections to SEPTA could easily top $1 billion - and there is no telling where the money would come from. PATCO at the same time needs to refurbish or replace its 121 cars, many of which date to the line’s opening. It will cost $1.2 million to renovate a car or $2 million to replace it, putting the ultimate price tag between $145.2 million and $242 million. With the port authority’s capital budget running low, that means federal help will be needed. Bearing that in mind, authority officials have said they would need to hire a second lobbyist in 2005 to press their case in Washington. Nash, the authority’s vice chairman, acknowledged that solutions may be elusive - shifting riders’ jobs back to the city, for example - or expensive. But he said something had to be done. “Our job is to make sure that we provide the best transit system that we can,” he said. “We think we can take people out of their cars and put back them in the system.” |
Corruption, Waste Plague M.T.A. ProjectsNew York Observer November 29, 2004 A couple of months ago, the tranquillity of a summer evening at Shea Stadium was jolted when fans were asked to pay attention to the scoreboard for a message from our Mayor: “Hit a home run for clean air; take mass transit or car pool,” read the script. What Mayor Bloomberg didn’t tip us off to was the planned post — Election Day tax hike attendant to that message: You will pay more to get to work. The fare increase (a tax hike by another name) is playing out as the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, appointed by Governor George Pataki and Mr. Bloomberg, holds hearings on a proposal to raise subway, bus and commuter rail fares. Board members are about to soak the workers of New York City with a regressive tax at a higher rate for city residents than for residents of Long Island and Westchester, who ride the M.T.A.’s commuter lines. As Messrs. Pataki and Bloomberg do this, the city and state governments are in court suing seven states for polluting New York’s air. The trustees of the city and state pension funds are writing to financial firms asking how they are prepared to help reduce greenhouse gases and tailpipe emissions through their investment policies. The immediate result of the fare hike will be an increase in air pollution as more people decide to get back into their cars. The borough most affected? Manhattan, where one million cars and trucks dump their poison into your lungs every workday. Does the word “asthma” (especially among young black children) resonate any longer in our celebrity-addled city? Mr. Pataki’s tax hike is an abandonment of his pro-environment campaign rhetoric and will eviscerate the most dramatic mass-transit/clean-air success of the modern era: the MetroCard discounts and free bus-to-subway transfer. Mr. Pataki once supported a bill to reduce the express-bus fare from $4 to $3 — and ridership soared 30 percent. The M.T.A. man who opposed that express-bus fare reduction was Marc Shaw, who is now Mr. Bloomberg’s point man on transit. The pending fare hike is a foul ball when you consider that the Mayor hasn’t even stepped up to the plate in a major pollution battle, cowering in the face of opposition to putting tolls on the four East River crossings (which would bring in an estimate $700 million a year in revenues). His one feeble attempt at creating a bus lane, on Church Street, is an abysmal failure. In addition, Mr. Bloomberg is in no position to fight with the M.T.A. — he wants the agency to take a dive on selling air rights over his football playpen, which will also exacerbate pollution. Ponder what else the two transit experts have in store: billions to whisk Long Islanders into Grand Central (as Mr. Bloomberg refuses to fight for us in restoring the $500-million-a-year commuter tax), a rail link from downtown to Kennedy airport, a Second Avenue subway, plus a new PATH station to replace the restored station downtown and an extension of the I.R.T. No. 7 line, the Mayor’s train to the Olympics. State Comptroller Alan Hevesi gave us the only reason we need to oppose every one of these boondoggles: the mobbed-up rehab of M.T.A. headquarters at 2 Broadway wound up costing $450 million — three times the estimate. The corruption and waste don’t stop there. In the case against go-back-to-jail Guy Velella, his bag man bragged about how he paid a $150,000 bribe to an M.T.A. boss “at the top” for a firm to paint the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. (The company went belly up.) The agency is spending $100 million for a signal system on the above-ground, two-track, 17-mile Staten Island Railway. M.T.A. bosses also spent millions for a new barbed-wire security fence for the same railway (though there was nothing wrong with the old one) to “keep people off the tracks,” even though there are open stairwells at every station. The tab at the Whitehall ferry terminal, under the leadership of our businessman Mayor, is $123 million, or $30 million over budget. One subcontractor is on his way to jail. Some $240 million has been spent planning the Second Avenue subway, and Mr. Pataki wants $400 million to build a platform the length of five subway cars and to install three new exits at the South Ferry terminus of the Nos. 1 and 9 lines. The M.T.A. has become an organized-crime bastion, a modern-day Tweed ring. But at least William Marcy Tweed left a stunning courthouse, which is still standing 140 years later. Thanks to Mr. Pataki and Mr. Bloomberg, we’ll have a tax hike, dirtier air and congested roads as well as a nice rail link to downtown, where there may or may not be jobs 10 years from now, and a train to a stadium that may or may not be built as millions of us yearn to breathe free. |
I-595 mass transit coming; Sick of slow going along Interstate 595? Broward transit planners have proposed new express bus or light-rail service along the highway.Miami Herald Nov. 29, 2004 Broward County commuters weary of congestion on Interstate 595 may someday find a faster way downtown. The county’s transportation board has selected a route for east-west light rail or express bus service along the highway. The service, part of the board’s Year 2025 Transit Plan, would begin at Sawgrass Mills mall in Sunrise, head east to downtown Fort Lauderdale, and end at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The board will choose a technology, either light-rail or streetcar-type buses, early next year. Board members will then assemble an application for a grant from the Federal Transit Administration to help pay for the project. A light-rail project could cost more than $920 million, or roughly $35,000 for each of the 26,000 expected daily riders, said Roger Del Rio, acting staff director for the transportation board. It’s an ambitious proposal for a community that has not yet taken to mass transit, even as highway traffic continues to get worse. But officials are betting that if they provide fast, easy-to-use transit options, commuters will choose convenience over congestion. ‘’It’s difficult to get people out of their cars,’’ Del Rio said. ``We’re targeting drivers fed up with the time it takes to go from West Broward to downtown and back.’’ Simply put, riders will get on board if the county offers them transit that’s reasonably fast, frequent and convenient, said Broward County Transit spokeswoman Phyllis Berry. A new rush-hour, limited-stop bus route geared to commuters along U.S. 441 may show the idea is gaining traction. Started in January, the route, dubbed The Limited, now carries 31,000 riders a day, up from 7,000 at the outset. The bus, which takes riders from Coconut Creek Parkway to the Golden Glades interchange in 50 minutes, travels in U.S. 441’s faster middle lanes, moving to the curbside lanes only to make stops. Based on a similar limited-stop model, the proposed east-west transit line would run on the south side of I-595, possibly in a dedicated bus lane or in a lane with regular traffic. The transportation board may also speak with municipalities along I-595 to secure air rights for an elevated light-rail line, said state Department of Transportation project manager Scott Seeburger. FDOT is studying 21 sites for potential stops, he said. Of those, 10 or 12 will eventually be selected. Each stop will have a park-and-ride lot, and some will link to other bus routes. Plans also call for two reversible lanes to be added to the I-595 median, between the eastbound and westbound lanes. The reversible lanes would add two lanes eastbound in the morning, changing to westbound in the evening. The new transit alignment stems from county leaders’ gradual, deliberate shift from expanding roadways to improving mass transit. The transportation board, officially known as the Broward County Metropolitan Transit Organization, is a group of city and county commissioners that sets priorities for highway and transit projects. Fuel prices and road congestion are drawing more ‘’choice’’ riders — passengers who own cars but use the bus out of choice rather than necessity — who make up a growing chunk of BCT’s 122,000 daily riders. ‘’We are definitely beginning to see more people use transit as a matter of choice, no matter what their circumstances are,’’ Berry said. ``I think we’re going to see more of this.’’ Seeburger said the largest barrier to getting people on the bus is making the system a reality. Compared to getting the money to build it, getting people to ride won’t be hard. ‘’With so much congestion, people can’t move too fast,’’ Seeburger said. ``If they only use an automobile, they’ll be stuck in traffic. Transit increases people’s mobility.’’ |
Garrandale wins :1m Bombardier ordersDerby Evening Telegraph November 29, 2004 Derby engineers Garrandale Group has built its first rail vehicles. The Alfreton Road firm won the contract from city train builder Bombardier to develop new jigs on which 200 light rail vehicles will be built for export to Taiwan. But as Bombardier’s Litchurch Lane plant is working flat out to complete orders for its Electrostar train, Garrendale was asked to build the first three test vehicle bodyshells. Garrandale was keen to take up the challenge that will enable Bombardier to meet the tight deadline for the order. The work on the project is worth more than £1m to Garrandale. The light rail vehicle project is helping to fill the gap between the current Electrostar/Turbostar trains and the start of the vehicles for the London Underground at Litchurch Lane. Garrandale director Chris Moore a said: “The turn around has been incredibly quick for a project of this size. We have had to work in parallel with the Bombardier designers to deliver on time.” The Garrandale Group has been building jigs and fixtures for Litchurch Lane for 20 years. But this is the first time that vacuum clamping has been incorporated in the designs. Chris added that the new system will give a significant step improvement in the speed of operation for a jig of this type and continues the drive by Garrandale and Bombardier towards the further evolution of efficient and increased accuracy vehicle build systems. The three bodyshells built by Garrandale have now been delivered on time and the jigs are being transferred to the main production facility at Bombardier. Chris said: “This is a very exciting project for us. We have a very close working relationship with Bombardier and we are very proud that they have confidence in us not just to develop the new jigs but also to build the first vehicles.” In addition to the new jigs and bodyshells, the fabrication division of Garrandale has recently confirmed an order for the supply of all the suspension wheel arches for the vehicles. Chris said: “This is a complex, critical and accurate component that has required considerable development in conjunction with Bombardier designers. “The Garrandale Group hopes to continue its work with Bombardier and remain at the cutting edge of innovative rail technology and engineering solutions.” The director of technical services at Bombardier Martin Bright said “The working relationship between the two companies has developed over the past 20 years and Garrandale have continued to provide a high quality service with innovative solutions to the continuing challenges faced in the ever changing rail industry.” |
Covering RAV budget overrun tragic and hypocritical; RAV scope changes transfer $70 million to regional taxpayers and transit usersCanada NewsWire November 29, 2004 CUPE BC President Barry O’Neill is predicting Campbell’s Liberals will pony up an additional $65 million for the controversial Richmond-Airport-Vancouver (RAV) rapid transit line before the decisive December 1st TransLink board meeting vote. In addition, staff are proposing a $70 million transfer of costs to regional taxpayers and transit users. CUPE BC has launched a public campaign urging taxpayers to tell TransLink directors to vote down the project over its exorbitant cost, intolerable secrecy and excessive public risk in covering cost overruns. “All along TransLink directors have reported heavy political pressure from Campbell’s Liberals to make the RAV P3 line a reality — regardless of its costs, merit or public support,” says O’Neill. “Now the Liberals are only too happy to seal this rotten deal with the millions they ripped away from students, the sick, health care workers, the elderly and poor, among others, across the province.” “Continued Liberal support for the RAV line in light of its massive budget overrun, major scope changes, and cost overruns that will be borne by generations of taxpayers is both tragic and hypocritical,” says O’Neill. “How can the same purse be endlessly deep for the RAV line, but empty for the education, health care and social support needs of British Columbians?” The best and final offer bid was awarded to SNC-Lavalin/Serco, which came in 25 per cent, or $343 million, over the expenditure limit set by the TransLink board. So-called “scope changes” and “financing initiatives” were made to absorb just over two thirds of the cost overruns leaving a $106 million funding gap that TransLink staff have asked the province to help cover. SNC-Lavalin/Serco announced today that they had shaved $42 million from the costs of the project but said TransLink directors and the public would not know how they had “saved” the millions until the bid was officially accepted. “Would you buy a car from a salesman that strips your car of unknown parts in order to reduce the price?” says O’Neill. “To sell such a deal is deceitful. To buy into it with billions of taxpayer dollars is worse than negligent.” Initial scope changes negotiated by RAVCO include the elimination of a station in Richmond, significant reduction in the length of the line, no direct connection between the Waterfront Station and cruiseship terminal — items that will reduce ridership in a deal that has taxpayers guaranteeing profits from set ridership levels. Other scope changes are a transfer of costs from SNC-Lavalin/Serco to TransLink and include the building of bus loops, replacing trolley overheads disrupted by construction, supplying ticket machines and paying for insurance, and a police unit. The cost of these transfers to regional taxpayers and transit users will be $70 million dollars, according to the November 26th TransLink Board report by CEO Pat Jacobsen and VP Sherri Plewes. (see page 21) CUPE BC has consistently opposed the project as part of the BC Liberals privatization agenda which includes selling off public assets and entering into P3s at any cost. “It is unconscionable that the Liberals would throw more millions after this RAV fiasco. Just imagine what $65 million in provincial funds could do for women who no longer have shelters to go to, seniors who are struggling with cuts to pharmacare, parents of special needs children, and students that are being pushed out of higher education due to spiraling post secondary costs,” says O’Neill. The province has already committed $300 million to the RAV line. “TransLink directors have one last chance on Wednesday to right this wrong and vote no to the RAV P3,” says O’Neill. |
‘16th Street Mall’ stands as reminder for city planners Officials say they learned important lessons from the failed urban improvement. Hearing Dec. 7Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska) November 30, 2004 Large, tree-lined sidewalks. Outdoor restaurants and pedestrian-friendly retailing. An active mass transit system. Sounds like the dreams of Destination Midtown or Omaha By Design, which aspire to transform Omaha into a “First Choice City.” A redesigned 16th Street held that promise 20 years ago. When the plans were unveiled, then-city planner Greg Peterson boldly predicted: “This is the next great visual impact we can have downtown.” Contrast that to how Joseph DeRozza, manager of the Farnam 1600 Building, now describes the street that once was Omaha’s commercial center: “Rusted, wrecked and ruined.” “It reminds you that some good ideas in their time don’t turn out so great,” said Marty Shukert, Omaha’s planning director when nearly $ 3 million was spent creating “the 16th Street Mall.” City planners say they learned important lessons from the mistakes on 16th Street and aren’t about to repeat them in the effort to regenerate commercial activity along Farnam and Harney Streets in midtown or in moving away from traditional strip malls in new suburban areas. Omaha By Design’s proposals will go before the Omaha City Council Dec. 7 for a public hearing on whether to add them to the city’s master plan. The effort on 16th Street began in the early 1980s with great fanfare. Between Dodge and Howard Streets, 16th Street was narrowed from four to two lanes, with the extra space used to create a pedestrian mall with brick walkways and planters. The Brandeis building was to be transformed into the Galleria Mall shopping center, connected by a skyway over 16th Street to the then-new ParkFair shopping center. It was hoped that the new shopping areas combined with a rebuilt street would create a little bit of Paris in downtown Omaha. Peterson recalls that the city was desperate to do something on 16th Street. What happened was quite different from what was expected. Initially, the Brandeis building and ParkFair had more than 30 shops between them. But occupancy dwindled over time, and both were converted to mostly office space. As retailing withered, so did plans to put offices and boutiques in the then-vacant old First National Building, the Security Building, the City National Building and the Regis Hotel. Those buildings now house hundreds of apartments. “It’s not the fault of the 16th Street Mall that retail left downtown,” said Jonathan Barnett, the Philadelphia-based consultant for Omaha By Design. Barnett and others agree that the change resulted from the westward expansion of housing, retailing and offices. Another concept behind the 16th Street renovation was to create a transit mall, where people would get on and off buses, similar to ones in Portland, Minneapolis and Des Moines. But bus ridership dropped, yet buses continued to roar down the street puffing fumes. A city information kiosk disappeared. The fountain between Douglas and Dodge Streets stopped working. And a citybuilt newsstand was shuttered in 1996. Among the unintended consequences was the elaborate bus shelters turning into homes to the homeless and gathering points for transients. In the 1970s and 1980s, city planners tended to look at each project in isolation, disconnected from anything else in the area, said City Planning Director Bob Peters. That is one of the problems with 16th Street, which sits as an island unrelated to the nearby Old Market, the Gene Leahy Mall and the city and county government buildings. Both Omaha By Design and Destination Midtown are geared to tying neighborhoods and projects together. Meanwhile, Peters said, “16th Street looks tired.” The exception is the north end of 16th Street with its new First National Tower, park and fountains. Brenda Dooley, president of First National Buildings, said the company kept the brick sidewalks but changed the design to create open spaces. Benches are arranged to let people sit in the sun or shade. During the summer, jazz bands play in the plaza on Tuesdays and Fridays. A hot-dog vendor serves office workers at the corner of 16th and Dodge Streets. “We learned the lessons of what works and what doesn’t,” Dooley said. “As we designed it, we looked to create a friendly space for people.” Two blocks to the south, DeRozza compared the different sections of 16th Street. “They are paradise,” he said, “and we are paradise lost.” DeRozza wants to affiliate 16th Street with the Old Market, even rename the stretch from Leavenworth to Dodge “Market Street.” “We need to rename the street,” he said, “to take the stigma away.” Hearing Dec. 7 The City Council will hold a 2 p.m. public hearing in the legislative chamber of the City-County Building, 1819 Farnam St., on adding Omaha By Design’s proposals to the city’s master plan. |
Stepped-up airport patdowns go too far for someHoustonChronicle Nov. 30, 2004 NEW YORK - Rhonda Gaynier, a New York real-estate lawyer, was flying home from Tampa, Fla., and passing through airport security when she was asked to step aside for additional screening. What happened next shocked her: Using an open hand, a security agent touched her on her shoulders, under her arms, around her waist, across her bra strap, and between her breasts, Gaynier said — all in front of other passengers. “I was almost in tears,” she said. “I’ve never been so humiliated in my life. It’s one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had to endure.” The patdown before that mid-October flight was the result of a new government directive that airport screeners carry out more frequent, and more thorough, searches for explosives. But women across the nation say the patdowns go too far. Some are so angry that they have stopped flying altogether. The new policy was implemented by the Transportation Security Administration on Sept. 22, after 90 people were killed in two plane crashes in Russia believed to have been caused by Chechen women who carried explosives on board. Sommer Gentry, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student who commutes twice a month from her home in Baltimore, said she now takes Amtrak, rather than submit herself to the intrusive airport search. Gentry said she has had several upsetting encounters with the screeners, and calls the way she was touched “humiliating and deeply offensive.” “I will go to great lengths to avoid flying now, because patdowns make me feel dirty and ashamed,” she said. “It just gets worse every time. Now I’m afraid.” The new TSA rules say screeners can select passengers for patdowns based on “visual observations,” even if they do not set off metal detectors. Amy Von Walter, a TSA spokeswoman, said screeners are looking for “irregularities in a person’s natural shape or contour.” Von Walter said other passengers are selected at random by computer, their boarding passes marked with “SSSS,” as in Gaynier’s case. In addition, other travelers may get marked “SSSS” because of “passenger behavior,” such as paying in cash or frequently buying one-way tickets, according to a TSA official speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The rules stress that passengers can ask to be checked in private and by a screener of their same gender — Gentry and Gaynier say their patdowns were conducted by women — and that screeners must only use the backs of their hands when touching sensitive places. But legal groups who are monitoring the women’s complaints say those rules are not always followed. “What these women are complaining about is being groped,” said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s technology and liberty project, which is tracking the complaints and hopes to meet with the TSA soon. Von Walter said the TSA had received about 250 complaints since the new procedures went into effect in September. She said each is being investigated, and “we will take appropriate action as necessary.” She did not provide a gender breakdown for the complaints. She defended the new measures as addressing “a specific threat.” She said they are similar to searches conducted by other countries on high alert for terrorism. The patdowns could be made obsolete by new machines being tested at six airports nationwide that suck in air around passengers and quickly detect explosive material. But that project is two years behind schedule, said Florida Rep. John Mica, a Republican who chairs the House aviation subcommittee. “My biggest fear is suicide bombers on an aircraft,” he said. “We just don’t have too many other options than to pat people down to try and detect the explosives.” Another congressman, Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey, has told the TSA he is concerned the searches are humiliating and are being disproportionately applied to women. An unofficial Web site where TSA screeners post news and comments brims with remarks from screeners who say the patdowns are a necessary, if uncomfortable, fact of life in an age of terrorism. “We don’t enjoy” the patdowns, “but sadly, past experience shows that terrorists have used every category to attack, wound and kill thousands,” A.J. Castilla, a screener at Boston’s Logan International Airport, said. Gaynier, 46, has filed a complaint with the TSA and is exploring legal action against it. She said she has heard from women around the country who object to the searches, many of whom say they are afraid or embarrassed to complain. “Post-9/11, we have all come to accept a certain level of inconvenience and intrusion,” she said. “I will tolerate that. But you want to touch my body, you better have a damn good reason, and they don’t.” |
Ban looms for subway shutterbugsNew York Daily News Nov 30, 2004 Transit officials are moving ahead with a planned ban on taking pictures, filming and videotaping in the subway system - saying it’s a necessary security measure in the post-9/11 world. The proposed rule was published without fanfare last week in the State Register. The 45-day comment period in which people can voice their opinions by writing, E-mailing or calling the Transit Authority ends Jan. 10. When the plan was first outlined, in May, it was roundly blasted as excessive by subway riders, transit advocates, civil libertarians and even Mayor Bloomberg. Authorities considered a less expansive ban that would cover only sensitive locations, such as dispatchers’ towers and equipment rooms, and would allow tourists and subway buffs to continue taking photos in trains and stations. But it was ultimately rejected. “In this time of heightened security, we don’t want individuals documenting anything that could be used to harm riders,” TA spokesman Charles Seaton said yesterday. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board must approve the proposal. Violators would face fines of $25. Train buff David-Paul Gerber, 36, of Brooklyn railed against the possible crackdown. “Photographers are not terrorists,” Gerber said. “We are hobbyists. This tramples on the constitutional rights and freedoms of every New Yorker and every American.” |
Shanghai to extend Maglev rail; Some hope to see the Maglev line extended all the way to HangzhouCNN November 30, 2004 China’s biggest city, Shanghai, plans to extend the world’s only commercially operating high-speed magnetic levitation line as part of preparations for hosting the 2010 World Expo, city officials said. The extension will add eight kilometers to the current 30-kilometer Maglev link between Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport and the city’s eastern edge, chief expo planner Wu Zhiqiang was quoted as saying in Tuesday’s official Shanghai Daily newspaper. The terminus will be in the heart of the expo site along the shore of the Huangpu river just south of the city center, Wu said. The $1.2 billion Maglev uses a powerful magnetic field to suspend trains a whisper above the rails. Built with German technology, the trains reach a top speed of 430 kilometers per hour during the eight-minute trip. While lending cachet to Shanghai’s ambitions of becoming a regional business, tourism and technology hub, the Maglev has been a commercial failure since opening this year. Riders complain they have to travel far from downtown to board the train and that its tickets are too expensive. Operators Shanghai Maglev Transport Development Co. have slashed the ticket prices by one-third to CNY50 from CNY75, boosting passenger numbers slightly. Wu said Shanghai still hoped to see the Maglev line extended to the city of Hangzhou, 200 kilometers to the southwest in Zhejiang province. |
Underground won’t be out of boundsIndian Express November 30, 2004 Delhi Metro is using the latest technology to make your cellphones work in the underground stretch — Kashmere Gate to Vishwavidyalaya — which opens next month. It will ensure uninterrupted and, perhaps, even better quality reception, promise Metro officials. The system known as the Leaky Co-axial Cable (LCX) system is already in use in the metros in Singapore, Hongkong and Hanover, Germany. This is the first time that the system will be used extensively in India. The Kolkata metro has started using it in some areas. When we call up a number from our mobile, radio waves travel from the set to the cellular company’s base station which is equipped with a receiver and an antenna. From the base station, the signals are carried in microwave form to the company’s central or master site. The master site then routes these signals to the number dialled by us via the base station under whose coverage area that particular set/subscriber is at that time. However, these signals get easily disrupted or weakened when they are obstructed by concrete structures and in basement areas as they operate on the line-of-sight principle. In the LCX system, a cable with slots cut out on its outer skin or armoury is laid along the underground tunnel. The radio waves travelling in it radiate or ‘leak’ out from these holes. The leaking or radiating waves travel in parallel across the tunnel and are of equal strength. The continuity of the signals and their strength is maintained by establishing base stations or amplifiers at each metro station. These send and receive signals from the Master site in turn. ‘‘LCX ensures an underground signal strength which could even give competition to that on the surface,’’ says Prashant Rao, Chief Communications Engineer, DMRC. The four GSM operators in the capital are Airtel, Hutch, Idea and Trump MTNL while the CDMA operators are Reliance, TATA Indicom and MTNL. DMRC’s intra-communication link is Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) and it has successfully been extended in the 4-km long underground stretch. All the operators will be laying down one cable each in the tunnel and all the cables of one kind of operator will be combined. DMRC will be providing space to the operators for base stations and amplifiers and for laying cables along the tunnel’s length for a certain amount. |
TTC to try cameras as security measureThe Toronto Star November 30, 2004 Digital cameras will be riding some Toronto buses within six months to see whether they deter crime, a senior TTC official says. Deputy general manager Lynn Hilborn said yesterday the idea was born as means to protect driver safety - every year nearly 400 bus and streetcar drivers are assaulted. But it has taken on extra urgency with Sunday’s shooting of an 11-year-old girl and a 24-year-old man on the 35C Jane St. bus. TTC chair Howard Moscoe is already on board - he says he asked for surveillance on buses last year. “That was something I proposed a year ago and was rejected by management,” he said. “Perhaps they’ll listen now.” The scheme is in its infancy, with a union-management task force meeting Wednesday to talk about buying cameras that would: Snap and store photos every minute or so; Have only the police able to access the pictures; Be used only to record and report Criminal Code offences. “We’re all coming to an agreement that cameras of some nature are going to be helpful to not just the operators but for public safety,” said Hilborn. “It’s now a matter of examining what others have and getting on with the pilot.” Moscoe said he asked a year ago for all buses, streetcars and subways to be outfitted with cameras. He said the idea was shot down as too expensive for the cash-strapped transit system, but says it ought to go forward anyway. “The truth of the matter is it’s not very costly. It costs less than $900 a camera. I still believe they should have been installed and should be installed,” said Moscoe. At $900, it would cost about $2 million to buy cameras for the TTC’s fleet of about 1,500 buses, 232 subway cars, 196 streetcars, 16 Scarborough RTs (rail transit) and 160 WheelTrans vehicles, but would get considerably more expensive if it was determined to have more than one camera per vehicle. Moscoe, a councillor who also sits on the city’s taxi licensing board, said the idea only makes sense since crimes against cabbies are down 40 per cent since the city mandated that security measures, including cameras, be used in cabs in 2001. About 80 per cent of cabbies use cameras (the rest use a combination of emergency lights and a global positioning system, although Moscoe is moving to have 100 per cent compliance with cameras in a city council meeting today). There were 293 Criminal Code offences committed against cabbies in 2002, down from 478 in 2000, the last year city security measures were voluntary. “That’s pretty significant reduction,” said Moscoe. “The cameras themselves are a deterrent.” The taxi’s camera is activated when any door is opened or upon activation of the meter. Photographs are taken every five seconds for the first minute; then once every minute for the next five minutes and then once every five minutes for the next 20 minutes. The system resets when a door is opened. The images are stored in a black box hidden in the cab for a minimum of 72 hours. Toronto police are the only group with access to download the images. “You don’t have to be worried about Big Brother watching them,” said Moscoe. There are about 400 cameras in the TTC system, most of them monitoring TTC ticket booths and on subway platforms in “designated waiting areas.” Moscoe wants to go further, and put cameras on every subway platform and on the rails so subway operators can have a look as far as 1,000 metres ahead. Cameras aboard buses are common throughout the United States and Europe, spurred by security concerns following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Agencies using the cameras report reduced instances of crime, graffiti, fraudulent accident claims while bus drivers can concentrate on driving, expressing relief over having the camera act as a second set of eyes to keeping a watch on passengers. The TTC employs 54 uniformed special transit constables and 10 plainclothes investigators - all with the same powers as police officers - to respond to calls and aid Toronto Police Services. Bus drivers and streetcar operators have two radios to call for help in case of a health emergency, mechanical failure or fare dispute with a passenger. For more serious incidents, a red silent-alarm button is pressed which allows the dispatch centre to listen in on the bus and signals a mayday that police, ambulance and other emergency workers are needed. TTC Chief Special Constable Terry Andrews said drivers are trained to respond to emergencies. “We strongly discourage physical involvement,” said Andrews. “They are not expected to play the role of a law enforcement officer. We feel their role is one of a safety partner. Should something happen, we expect them to report it immediately (and to) open vehicle doors, allowing everybody to flee to a safe location, secure witnesses if at all possible and note physical descriptions. They have their hands full.” |
New train lines still in disputeThe Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) November 30, 2004 Debates between the government and ruling parties over whether to finance Shinkansen bullet train construction projects along three lines in fiscal 2005 have gathered momentum. The Construction and Transport Ministry and ruling parties have insisted that construction begin on the three routes. But the Finance Ministry has opposed starting the projects next fiscal year, citing the heavy financial burden the projects will create. Japan Railway firms, which are required to finance some of the work, also have voiced opposition to the projects. Coordinating the projects will be a tough job ahead of compiling the next budget toward the end of the year. The plans concern sections of line from Shin-Aomori Station in Aomori Prefecture to Shin-Hakodate Station in Hokkaido on the Hokkaido Shinkansen line, Toyama to Mattou in Ishikawa Prefecture on the Hokuriku Shinkansen line and Takeo-Onsen in Saga Prefecture to Isahaya in Nagasaki Prefecture on the Kyushu Shinkansen line. Discussion among the government and ruling parties has focused on whether the three sections meet conditions the parties and government agreed should be assessed as viable before work can start. Securing stable financial resources, determining if investments will affect such factors as travel time, and predicting possible profits are some of the conditions. At a government and ruling parties’ working group meeting Friday on the new lines, the Construction and Transport Ministry said the three sections could generate a total of about 2.22 trillion yen for local communities over 50 years of operation. The ministry spoke of another possible scenario in which the three sections could provide a total profit of about 17 billion yen a year to the three JR firms that will own the sections. Based on these scenarios, ruling party lawmakers, who have promoted the projects, are confident that the outlook for the projects is good. But opinions are sharply divided between the Construction and Transport Ministry and the Finance Ministry over the most important problem — how to fund the projects. The Construction and Transport Ministry and the ruling parties say the government could borrow 300 billion yen from financial institutions to cover the costs, using about 320 billion yen in profits from selling existing Shinkansen facilities to JR firms as security. The ministry and parties have focused on this option because interest rates have remained low and the faster the work is completed the more revenue the government will gain through taxes on the firms. But the government will not gain the profits from transferring existing Shinkansen facilities to JR firms until 2013, when it will receive it over a five-year period. Using such precarious financial resources as security for a loan is dangerous. Even if interest rates stay low, interest on the loan will increase it by about 30 billion yen. The Finance Ministry, however, strongly refuted the need to hurry construction over concerns about interest rates, saying such loans were the easiest way to finance the project and if the government decided to take that option, it may continue to do so in the future to finance other projects and get further in debt. The total cost for the three sections is estimated at about 1.16 trillion yen. Even after including the contributions of the central and local governments, funding will fall about 210 billion yen short of the estimated cost. According to trial calculations by the Construction and Transport Ministry, the opening of the Hokkaido Shinkansen could increase the number of passengers who use the Tohoku Shinkansen line from Morioka to Shin-Aomori. The start of operations could generate 61 billion yen in profits for the East Japan Railway Co. The ministry has, therefore, urged JR firms to shoulder part of the construction costs for the three sections. LDP General Council Chairman Fumio Kyuma, who is among the proponents of the projects, said at the working group meeting, “Funding new Shinkansen lines with tax money generates profit for JR firms, so it’s fair to ask them to return some of the money to society.” But JR firms are still against sharing the burden. West Japan Railway Co. President Takeshi Kakiuchi said, “The framework for funding the construction of new Shinkansen lines already has been set out in the law, including how much the central and local governments should cover.” The problem has become a three-way battle among the ruling parties and the Construction and Transport Ministry, the Finance Ministry and JR firms, and the concerned parties are not close to reaching a settlement. |
Light Rail Report 2004; Mass Transit’s annual overviewMass Transit December 2004 Light rail continued to make headway throughout 2004. Some services were completely new while others were extensions or restorations of previous rail services. The Hiawatha line at Minneapolis is in the first category, as is the service along Main Street in Houston. (Mass Transit, May 2004). The Overbrook line at Pittsburgh has been reopened after an 11-year shutdown, and streetcars have returned to the streets of Little Rock and the full length of Canal Street in New Orleans after multi-decade absences. [SIDEBAR] Light Rail At a glance Track miles: 1,148.7 Routes under construction: 160 Total vehicles: 1,809 Cars delivered in 2003: 152 Annual passenger miles: 1,431,672,500 Fare revenue: $226,067,549 Operating expenses: $778,274,542 Statistics provided by the Federal Transit Administration and APTA A new approach to initiating light rail has also appeared — a sort of “back door” method in which streetcars are introduced, then extended until they eventually qualify as light rail. Following the example currently in progress in Memphis, Charlotte has opened a streetcar operation this year with light rail to follow in 2006. HIAWATHA AT MINNEAPOLIS Just a week past half a century since the last streetcar ran in Minneapolis, urban rail transit returned to the city. On June 26, the inaugural section of the Hiawatha line was opened to the public. Eventually, the line will connect downtown with the region’s airport and, beyond that, the enormous Mall of America shopping and recreationmall. The initial eight-mile section serves the central business district, the University of Minnesota, Minnehaha Park, the Metrodome (home of the Twins and the Vikings), the Veterans Administration Medical Center and Fort Snelling. The latter is both an active military installation and a historic site. There are also a number of residential areas along the line. The open section has 12 stations with large park and ride facilities at Fort Snelling and at 28th Avenue. The remaining four-mile section features five stations and was scheduled to open Dec. 4. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport will have two stations and a tunnel beneath the airport’s runways. One airport station will serve the subway. The final terminal will serve the Mall of America. To introduce the line to the public, rides were free throughout the weekend of June 26 and Hiawatha boasted 88,000 boardings. Cars were crowded and waits of up to three hours were reported. June 28 marked the first day of regular service. After two full months in operation, ridership was double planners’ predictions, with total boardings of 476,800 for August when 236,700 had been expected. Average ridership on weekdays was 16,700, trouncing the expected 9,500 boardings. Saturdays boasted some 15,000 riders compared to the 4,300 expected and Sundays averaged 9,800, though only 2,100 were expected. Some weekend riders were simply coming out to “test drive” the service; however, the two highest ridership days were those with Vikings football games: 22,100 on Aug. 14 and 24,700 on Aug. 27. Not surprisingly, September’s ridership percentages dropped, but numbers were still 180 percent above predictions. A major portion of the line is on former railroad right of way paralleling Hiawatha Blvd. There are a number of grade crossings, equipped with crossing gates, though some additional work coordinating the crossings with nearby traffic lights is still required. The downtown section is in-street. The Hiawatha line was built by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. After evaluating proposals by several potential operators, the responsibility was given to Metro which runs the bus system in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Metro’s proposal was the most favorable from a financial standpoint and is backed by its excellent bus service. The choice has proven itself to be an excellent one. Construction cost is $715.3 million, with the federal government providing $334.3 million and the remainder split among state and local agencies. One interesting revenue source is Metro Airports Commission, which provided $87 million, as airport authorities are frequently reluctant to contribute significantly to public transit projects given the importance of parking facility income. Bombardier provided 24 light rail vehicles, representing the corporation’s re-entry into the light rail field. In the United States and Canada, the company had concentrated in other areas following delivery of 26 LRVs to TriMet at Portland in the mid-’80s. Initial construction of the Hiawatha cars took place at the company’s plant in Mexico, with final assembly in New York State. The cars are 70 percent low floor and 94 feet long. There are seats for 66 passengers and standing room for 120, with four luggage racks and four bike racks per car. Empty weight is 97,000 pounds. PITTSBURGH REOPENS OVERBROOK On June 2, 2004, the Port Authority of Allegheny County re-opened the 5.5-mile Overbrook line following a complete reconstruction effort that provides a much more direct route between Castle Shannon and South Hills Junction. Library service — previously Route 42L via Mt. Lebanon — has been redesignated 47L. Depending on direction and time of day, the run from Library to the Gateway terminal in downtown is now between 45 and 50 minutes, a savings of seven to 10 minutes from the previous routing. Plans also call for re-routing 42S service from South Hills Village to the rebuilt line, beginning as early as the spring of 2005. Route 42 will continue to serve Castle Shannon and Mt. Lebanon, reducing complaints of no available seating by inbound riders boarding at Mt. Lebanon. The Overbrook line has a lengthy history. Built in the 19th century, the line was originally a narrow gauge coal hauler. After several years of joint use, it was taken over in 1912 by Pittsburgh Railways and converted entirely to 5 foot 2.5-inch gauge to handle interurban cars connecting downtown with the cities of Charleroi and Washington. The line provided a shortcut between South Hills Junction and Castle Shannon, resulting in significant time-savings. Roadway running through Mt. Lebanon and Beechview was bypassed, and there were fewer residents along the shortcut. The interurban service was substantially cut back to terminals at Library and Drake in 1953, but the shortened lines still carried significant numbers of commuters. Service to Drake was eventually suspended, replaced with a new terminal at South Hills Village. Track remains in place and is used to test new equipment. A large section of the Overbrook line was single track with passing sidings clinging to a hillside, and several trestles and bridges. PAT suspended use in 1993 because of trestle deterioration and the need for a complete track rebuild. There were also problems with the right of way. One passing siding was nicknamed “sliding siding,” as it occasionally shifted position on the steep hillside. Another unusual right of way feature resulted from the 1977 opening of the South Busway. In order to bypass a crowded highway, a portion of the Overbrook line was paved to allow use by buses. The South Busway continued to use this portion after rail service was suspended. The reconstruction of Overbrook included the placement of completely new double track with 115 pounds/yard welded rail, catenary overhead and additional bridges. A new alignment at South Hills Junction eliminates the previous requirement that Overbrook passengers use a separate platform. There are eight new, high platform stations, replacing 22 stops. (In Pittsburgh “stations” are high platform and can accommodate all doors of two-car trains. LRVs have a single, low-level front door for entry and exit at intermediate “stops.”) LRVs had never been used on Overbrook. All service was provided by PCCs, so high-platform stations had never been an issue. On the section shared with the South Busway, a new right of way for the rebuilt rail line was carved out of the hillside above the shared one to separate the two services. Overbrook was also the major portion of a project which also included upgrading of the entire light rail control system and improvements to the Library line. Upon retirement of most of the PCC fleet, the Library line had been modified sufficiently to allow the operation of single LRVs. The present project included upgrading the power supply to permit use of two- car trains. Three stations are now high platform, with parking facilities added. Existing stops remain, along with single-wire overhead and lighter, non-welded rail. Plans call for creation of a route 47S, using Overbrook to provide riders from South Hills Village with a quicker ride downtown. Route 42 will then terminate most runs at Mt. Lebanon. Some passengers will continue to Castle Shannon for a connection with Route 47 cars from Library and South Hills Village. From an order for 28 new LRVs from the Spanish firm Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles S.A. (CAF), 16 are now on the property, with 12 in service on 47L. In their outward appearance there is some resemblance to the existing fleet of 55 LRVs obtained in 1985-86, but there are significant mechanical and electrical differences. While both designs are articulated and high-floor, each CAF car has four motors providing a total of 580 hp. Vehicles from the older fleet have mono-motor trucks. Forty of these cars are to receive a mid-life rebuild by CAF that will include new trucks, couplers and controls, like those on the new CAF cars, to allow operation in trains. The new systems are being provided by Bombardier and produced at the former Adtranz plant near Pittsburgh. Bodies for the new cars are being produced in Spain and completed at the CAF plant at Elmira, New York. The cars from the existing fleet will also be rebuilt there. LIGHT RAIL “THROUGH THE BACK DOOR” IN CHARLOTTE “Welcome back, Trolleys!” Five years ago this writer observed signs proclaiming that message posted on every light pole for over a mile along Charlotte’s South Boulevard. And there were indeed trolleys — the first since 1938 — but service was more of a “fun” ride on a one-mile line than a real transit service. A local group had formed Charlotte Trolley (CT), acquiring four old street cars, establishing a museum and actively championing the return of regular trolley service. The effort was successful. Car 85, built in Charlotte in 1928, was also the last car to run when service ceased in 1938. Recovered and restored by Charlotte Trolley, it now provides service on the new 2.1-mile line through uptown Charlotte. A double track right of way, once Southern Railway’s main line through downtown Charlotte, was acquired by the city. Restored and run by CT volunteers, former Duke Power Co. Car 85 was providing service over a short section on weekends and the occasional evening. The car had been built in Charlotte in 1928 and was the last to run in the city. There was no overhead, but a push-pull generator provided power. Unfortunately, after use of the railroad had been discontinued, a section of line had been removed to accommodate a highway and a convention center, effectively blocking the right of way, so Car 85 could not reach uptown (the local term for the city center) from the museum on South Boulevard. Trolley advocates, including a major developer, effectively made the case that service should reach uptown. The city agreed to provide $19.7 million to fund a replacement bridge, a glass tunnel through the convention center, and a new, 2.1 mile, single-track line meeting LRT standards. On June 25, Car 85 began service from the museum through uptown. It was soon joined by a replica of a classic open car leased from Gomaco. The first of an order of three new, double truck Birney replicas, also from Gomaco, has since arrived, and the remaining two will be delivered before this article appears in print. The new service is provided by Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) with paid employees. It runs seven days a week on 30-minute headways. Initially runs began in mid-morning, but are now starting at 7 a.m. to better accommodate commuters. In anticipation of the service, $400 million in residence and business development has sprung up on South Boulevard. New apartments and condos have appeared, along with attractive restaurants and shops. A former car barn is being restored to house the trolleys and provide a new site for the Charlotte Trolley museum. But this is only the start. CATS is managed by the city government, and a plan has been developed to provide a rapid transit system for the city and surrounding Mecklenburg County. By 2025 that system should include two light rail lines, a streetcar line, a commuter rail service, two bus rapid transit services and improvements intended to speed up other bus routes. These plans are closely coordinated with development plans approved for the same corridors, bringing to mind similar, closely integrated planning techniques found in a number of Canadian cities. The first light rail service will use the same right of way now used by the trolleys. Provision has already been made for the installation of a second track. Right of way parallel to an existing Norfolk Southern freight line will extend the light rail line to just outside of Pineville, 10 miles southwest of uptown. The Pineville city government did not want light rail vehicles running down the main street, so the terminal will be located on a main highway at the edge of town. Parking for commuters will be provided. Plans call for revenue service to begin in 2006, although there may be some delay. Initial service will run through uptown to a terminal on the northeast edge of Charlotte, with a subsequent extension to serve communities northeast of Charlotte. Current plans call for trolley service to continue to operate, sharing track with light rail from a terminal on South Boulevard through uptown — its present route. CATS has ordered 16 Siemens S70 cars for the light rail service, with an option for an additional 25. The cars will be quite similar to an order for 11 now being filled for San Diego and 18 slightly heavier and longer S70s delivered to Houston. The S70 is a new, articulated design differing significantly from previous Siemens products. Bodies are built by SuperSteel in Schenectady, New York, and completed at the Siemens plant in Sacramento. The car is 70 percent low floor with an empty weight of approximately 90,000 pounds. Weight varies somewhat with each order, but it is considerably below that of recent Siemens low floor SD660 orders for Portland. LIGHT RAIL IS ON A ROLL IN LITTLE ROCK For the first time in decades, electric streetcars are traveling the city streets of Little Rock and North Little Rock. After years of planning and months of testing, Central Arkansas Transit Authority’s (CATA) River Rail Electric Streetcar system officially opened to the public on Nov. 1. CATA ran the cars from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m for just two days before their official public unveiling and carried more than 3,200 people, creating “standing room only” conditions with many people waiting at platforms. For the first time in 57 years in Little Rock and 65 years in North Little Rock, electric streetcars are again traversing the city streets. River Rail features three replica vintage trolleys from Gomaco Trolley Company operating on 2.5 miles of new track. An overhead catenary wire powers the cars, linking popular destinations in the River Cities, including the 18,000-seat Alltel Arena, the 220,000-square-foot Statehouse Convention Center, the River Market, numerous apartments and hotels, two city halls, restaurants, museums and dozens of office, public and cultural buildings. The streetcar route uses the Main Street Bridge to connect the two cities, making a total of 11 stops on Markham and Second Streets between Spring and Commerce in Little Rock, and Main Street, Seventh Street and Maple Street in North Little Rock. “It’s been a long time coming,” says Keith Jones, CATA executive director and general manager, of the $19.6 million project that was completed with New Starts Federal funding, STP transfers and contributions from the High Priority Project section of TEA-21. “We’ve completed Phase I of our system and look forward to extending the rails to the Clinton Presidential Library and the Heifer Project Headquarters starting next year.” |
LRT GroundbreakingRail Transit Online December 2004 District of Columbia elected officials officiated at a groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 13 for the Anacostia Light Rail Demonstration Project, a six-station, 2.7-mi. (4.34 km) line that will serve the Anacostia area in southeast Washington. “It’s a great day for the neighborhood,” said D.C. Department of Transportation Director Dan Tangherlini.� “After a 42-year hiatus, we return streetcars to the city, and we will begin the process of reconnecting our neighborhoods.”� The route will use an existing CSX right-of-way along the east side of the Anacostia River between Bolling Air Force Base and Pennsylvania Avenue.� In addition to trackwork and stations, the project, estimated to cost between $30 million and $40 million, will include a maintenance facility, two substations and three light rail vehicles similar to those now running in Portland and Tacoma. Service is scheduled to begin in the fall of 200 |