Blog Postings from this week...

Image by phxwebguy via FlickrFrom the California High Speed Rail Blog:

No Policy Change in the Stimulus?

Once again Obama seems to talk a lot about roads but never mentions transit. Maybe the change President is not going to be one.

Shake, Rattle & Roll

Talks about what will happen when a earthquake hits the high speed rail line. Also good information about the destruction to all transportation infrastructure which is something we need to keep in mind when our "big one" hits.

From The Overhead Wire:

Likely Unlikely Ally

It is nice to see the steel industry is supporting the call for new rail. While some may say that is natural because rails are made of steel, just consider the amount of steel that goes into the foundations of highways.

From the Light Rail AZ Blog:

Metro light rail - Growing pains in early days

The Phoenix light rail system seems to be doing pretty good despite the usual teething problems that you find on any new system.

From the Jacksonville Transit Blog:

THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO FLORIDA

Apparently the mayor of Jacksonville wants to steal money appropriated by the VOTERS for transit and spend it instead on highways.

From the Intermodality Blog: .

Rapid streetcar

Rapid Streetcar is slotted between regular streetcars and full blown light rail. Instead of BRT, rapid streetcar makes much more sense as shown in the article.

From the Cap'n Transit Blog:

Don't Give Rail Infrastructure to Buses

Some common sense from the other side of the country.

BRT Scheme in Provo/Orem moves forward...

Image via WikipediaHere is the latest article on the BRT project in Orem/Provo area.

Parkway may get rapid bus line

According to the article the current 830 line attracts 3000 riders per day but the BRT is supposed to carry 13,000 to 15,000 riders. I just don't see that happening.

Anyone who rides the 830 route will know that most of the riders are heading to local stops along the way especially 700 East and 1230 North, and 550 West. There is also a large amount of travel from BYU to the Mt. Timp Transit Center.

Unfortunately current policy at the Federal Transit Administration supports high ridership numbers for BRT and low ridership numbers for light rail which always makes BRT look better.

My worry is that the BRT will not meet ridership potential and that will give cause for all the anti-transit types in the Orem/Provo are to say "see, you got BRT and it failed so you don't need no light rail". If you look at the Busways in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh you will find that they are carrying below to substantially below what they were projected. The Harbor Freeway Bus way in Los Angeles is lucky to get 5,000 riders while a few miles away sits the Blue Line that carries 78,000 passengers per day.

Another problem I see with the proposal is the idea of running buses every 5 minutes. Once you get buses running that frequently you start getting problems with buses bunching together and schedule problems.

Further you have long term capacity restrictions with BRT. The much touted Orange Line in Los Angeles has hit capacity at 20,000. Metro cannot add more buses and unlike rail you cannot simply add another car to the consist.

What will help this line is Front Runner South allowing people to transfer to and from Front Runner to head for such destinations as UVSU and BYU.

Of course little progress can be expected out of the Utah Valley area so long as their planning is through MAG which is a rural based organization. The needs of Utah County are very different from the needs of the rest of the MAG area but so long as those rural interest have the say, good planning will be stymied.

5600 West Corridor

Rapid Bus
Originally uploaded by skew-t

Developers discovering late-blooming 5600 West area

Here is an article from today's Salt Lake Tribune about development of 5600 West. Having worked at 2100 South and 5600 West from 1998 to 2000, I can attest to the changes that have taken place along the 5600 West Corridor.

However, part of the article details UTA's plans for the corridor and once again they just do not make sense.

First they propose putting in a BRT line. Next they plan to convert the line to full Light Rail configuration within the next 25 years.

This is a case of over engineering a solution to the problem. First of all there isn't even any transit service in this corridor except for a couple of "fast buses" during the peak hours and the 47 connection between 4700 South and 4100 South.

Considering the questionable success of current BRT projects, a much better solution would be to just implement a regular bus route for now from the airport to connect up with South Jordan TRAX line once it opens. This would service a larger market than a BRT line in the corridor.

Then instead of upgrading the BRT route to a full light rail service which would be overkill in the corridor, go back to the original plan and implement a streetcar or a semi-rapid streetcar.

The line could start at Daybreak on the TRAX line, travel with the South Jordan TRAX line where it would connect up with the former Rio Grande/ Union Pacific branch line to Magna. It could travel next to the branch line all the way to 5600 West when it would enter 5600 West travel through the airport Industrial park then hook up with the Airport TRAX line to the airport terminal.

This would allow a relatively fast trip connecting two important TRAX lines. In addition it would cost less to build than a full blown TRAX line which is not needed in this corridor.

Rapid Streetcar for Davis County?

Strasbourg Tram
Originally uploaded by Jasperdo

Light rail preferred option in S. Davis

In today's Deseret News there is an article about transit options in Davis county and it looks like the preferred option is going to be a rapid streetcar which is not as expensive as light rail but faster and longer than the streetcar lines I have talked about for the Salt Lake area.

This idea makes good sense for the area. There is not a lot of room to build out a full blown TRAX line in the region, the line will already have commuter rail for longer trips so that leaves the rapid streetcar. This system will greatly increase the number of transit riders.

The picture is of a tram in Strasbourg. The line goes through the downtown area and goes through this central downtown plaza that has no auto traffic then connects a block with other streetcar lines.