Seattle car tabs get a makeover: icons for monorail taxSeattle Times November 20, 2004 By the end of next year, most cars owned in Seattle will display monorail stickers on the back. But you’ll have to tailgate to see them — they’re 1 by 1.5 inches. An estimated 375,000 license tabs sold to city residents will include monorail icons, beginning with February 2006 tabs that go on sale next month. The icons will show that a vehicle owner has paid the citywide car- tab tax for the $1.75 billion Green Line. “We thought it would be kind of a fun way of celebrating the project and everyone who is contributing to making it a reality,” said Natasha Jones, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Monorail Project (SMP). There is no opt-out provision, said Brad Benfield, spokesman for the state Department of Licensing. So drivers will get the monorail sticker, regardless of whether they voted for or against the project. “It sounds like an in-your-face,” said Alan Deright, a Capitol Hill resident who voted for the losing “Monorail Recall” Initiative 83 this month. “It’s the scarlet letter.” Pro-monorail activist Peter Sherwin first made the suggestion three years ago, thinking the icons would create peer pressure to pay the tax. If a police officer pulls over a car owned by a city resident without the tab, that might raise questions about compliance, Sherwin said. He suggests “a carrot, as well as a stick” — for example, discounted parking at Woodland Park Zoo, or preferred parking elsewhere, for cars with monorail tabs. There are no proposals yet from the city or SMP. Jones said the tabs aren’t meant to bring in tips on tax evaders. “We’re not looking for people to snitch on their neighbors,” she said. That would be tricky anyway, since new cars are exempt from the tax for one year, while newcomers to Seattle might go months before the next renewal date. The SMP estimates 8 to 10 percent of its tax base is lost to evasion when Seattle residents register their cars elsewhere. New state rules and tighter enforcement are expected to cut the loss to a 3-to-5-percent range next year. |
CHANGES TO DESIGN EQUAL SAVINGS ON T-REXRocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado) November 20, 2004 A penny saved is a half-penny earned for the T-REX project. The T-REX contractor, Southeast Corridor Constructors, saved $2.8 million by redesigning and realigning highway lanes and light-rail tracks through the Interstate 225 interchange on Interstate 25. Half of that savings is returned to taxpayers through a reduction in the fixed-price contract with SECC. The contractor keeps the other half, part of an incentive clause in a contracting process called design-build. Design-build is fairly new to Colorado. T-REX is the largest public project done to date with this method. Invesco Field at Mile High was another such project. Under design-build, a contractor gets conceptual design drawings for a project done only to the 30 percent level of detail. The contractor then fleshes that out to final design while construction is under way. During this period, engineers examine every aspect of the evolving project to find ways that achieve goals but at less cost. More traditional public works projects are typically done with what’s called the “design-bid-build” method. Agencies perform 100 percent of design work themselves. The final design is put out for competitive bids, and a contractor is hired to build what the agency drew up — down to the final nail. Many in the contracting field say design-build is the most efficient way to bring in large projects on time and on budget because it allows for continuing innovation during construction without being locked in by earlier designs. So far, T-REX and its contractor have agreed on nine changes, saving $5.4 million — or $2.7 million that goes back to the taxpayers by way of a reduction in SECC’s contract amount. SECC’s contract is $1.2 billion out of T-REX’s total cost. The largest single savings was the change to the interchange at I-25 and I-225 — unofficially dubbed the Full House because its highway numbers make up the poker hand of the same name and because, as one of the busiest traffic locations in the Rocky Mountain region, it is full of traffic. “I always cite this interchange as an example of the innovation of design-build,” said Larry Warner, an engineer from the Colorado Department of Transportation who is project manager on the $1.73 billion T-REX job. Here’s how the savings at the Full House interchange came about. From 1999 to 2001, CDOT and RTD, the joint partners in the highway-light rail transit expansion, produced the conceptual 30 percent design for the project. It called for light rail trains over the interchange on high flyover bridges, even higher than the new ramp that carries southbound I-25 to northbound I-225. During the bidding process in 2001, both SECC and the team competing against it suggested that the rail flyovers be eliminated by putting the tracks into tunnels under the highway. RTD was happy with the change because it would be safer for passengers and less expensive for the agency when maintenance had to be done. “If we had gone traditional design-bid-build, we probably would have continued on with our conceptual design and had those light rail trains on elevated structures,” Warner said. More savings came later. After SECC was hired and began to refine the design, it had to come up with a schedule for rebuilding I-25’s mainline through the Full House. The schedule had to allow for all traffic to continue to flow around the work zones. The contractor found that by moving the I-25 alignment a little bit to the east, it opened up extra space to build the new lanes. That in turn allowed for a more efficient staging of the work and less traffic disruption. But by coincidence, that shift also enabled designers to shorten the lengths of the interchange’s three tunnels. That significantly lowered the cost of building them. Finally, the same shift in the highway alignment also let the contractor change the design for the northbound I-25 on-ramp from Belleview Avenue and the off-ramp to I-225. Designers had to eliminate the dangerous traffic situation that existed: Drivers entering from Belleview had to weave through drivers trying to take the I-225 exit. The original solution was to put the I-225 exit ramp on a lengthy bridge over the Belleview ramp. With the shifted highway alignment, it is the Belleview on-ramp that will go over top of the I-225 exit ramp on a shorter bridge. Shorter bridges equal less cost and more savings. Among the other changes that lowered the cost of the project was changing the highway lighting poles from short masts spaced every 30 feet along the two sides of the roadway to higher masts in the concrete median barrier, spaced 150 feet apart. Also, changes to the grade of the light rail bed allowed the reduction in some of the expensive retaining walls and grading work. Karen Morales, SECC spokeswoman, said from the beginning of the project, members of the construction team were assigned to task forces with designers in the drafting rooms. Typically, those who design projects are separate from the people who build them. “But designers and builders worked together on task forces looking for innovations,” she said. “The builders were able to look out in the field as well as on paper for innovations that would save money and time.” |
City to start work on $2B wish list; More than 40 transportation infrastructure projects ready for approvalCALGARY SUN November 20, 2004 Calgary’s transportation wish list will soon become reality as the city starts construction on more than 40 road and LRT projects worth in excess of $2 billion. The long list of road and transit improvements, affecting every quadrant in the city, will be built between 2005 and 2009, using $1 billion promised by the province, as well as more than $1 billion in city funds. “These are projects that should be built, and can be built, in the next five years,” said Mayor Dave Bronconnier. “It’s a significant amount of money — this is nearly five times the amount of infrastructure spending as during the same time frame in the 1990s.” The list, which includes both previously approved and catch-up projects, was compiled by city administrators for council’s approval, and will be presented to the transportation committee for the first time next week. The catch-up portion of the list, worth $932.4 million, consists of the projects considered most essential, for which funding was not available until now. But Bronconnier says even if this wish list comes true, it doesn’t solve every transportation problem in Calgary, and most of the spending is to get the city back on track to where it should be in the year 2010. “It means better mobility and getting around easier,” said Bronconnier. Here are some highlights from the city’s proposed catch-up list. LRT projects: Purchase 33 LRT cars, $114 million Advance N.E. LRT Extension to 2007 $10 million N.W. LRT extension to Crowfoot Centre, $154 million 70 buses, $28 million 75 community shuttles, $6 million 36 Articulated buses, $27.2 million 7 Ave. C-Train platforms-four cars, $60 million South LRT platforms, expand to four cars, $16 million |
Tunnel visionThe Times (London) November 20, 2004 SUBTERRANEAN RAILWAY: How the London Underground was Built and How it Changed the City Forever. BY CHRISTIAN WOLMAR. Atlantic. TIMES BOOKSHOP £17.99; 384pp. ISBN 1 843 54022 3. £14.39 (p&p £2.25) 0870 1608080 Few Londoners have a good word for the Underground. Every day something seems to go wrong -faulty signals (even on the new section of the Jubilee Line), an “incident” (ie, suicide) on the line, engineering works. So rare is a day without a hold-up that the management now boasts of “good service” when it means simply normal service. Most Londoners see the Tube as a badly run, strike-prone bureaucracy that requires a multimillion-pound injection every year. How strange, therefore, to be reminded that before the Second World War the Underground was seen as an engineering marvel and London Transport regarded as a model of efficient management. Like Lord Reith’s BBC, LT -the creation largely of Herbert Morrison -embodied the virtues of public service, paternalist employment policies and pioneering design (its posters and famous schematic map had a huge impact). The Underground was envied and copied around the world. London Transport came just in time to hold the Underground together before the onslaught of the private car. Until then, as Christian Wolmar shows in his masterful account of the Tube’s origins, London saw no need to plan or co ordinate lines built as profit-making enterprises by railway companies that spent more time doing each other down than working out the needs of passengers or the capital’s development. The pioneer was the Metropolitan, and its cut-and-cover line from Paddington to Farringdon was, from the start, an astonishing success. It was opened in 1863, and within a year 11.8 million people used the line -more than four times London’s population. It enabled thousands to get to work more quickly, linked the new mainline termini and became a vital artery beneath the surface gridlock. The Met saw the potential of allowing through trains from other companies on its tracks, and by 1865 a staggering 352 departed from Farringdon every weekday. Underground mania hit London: 259 different projects for 300 miles were submitted to Parliament. But two things plagued development: the use of steam and the titanic feud between the Metropolitan and the rival, poorer District. Steam in tunnels made journeys dirty and unpleasant but the little engines were as reliable as the signals: in 44 years of steam operation there wasn’t one fatality. Only when electric traction became possible, in the 1900s, could the deep tunnel tubes be built, the heart of today’s system. Wolmar tells how a dodgy American, Charles Yerkes, raised the cash and built three Tube lines in ten years. A century later, after 50 years of underinvestment, London has asked another American, Bob Kiley, to sort out Yerkes’s neglected legacy. Users, in their millions, hope that he can. |
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. |
Regulator silenced over rail successesMail on Sunday (London) November 21, 2004 THE Government is putting pressure on the Strategic Rail Authority to keep quiet about the success of South Eastern Trains the only rail franchise in state hands since Connex lost the licence a year ago. Though Ministers have been careful not to put anything in writing, they are keen to head off a rebellion from Labour MPs who want to keep South Eastern effectively nationalised. Subtle messages have been sent to the SRA, which will be abolished next year, to stop praising the performance of South Eastern. It has provided a superior service to other large franchises in the South East over the past 12 months. Insiders at the beleaguered SRA say the warnings have come in ‘telephone calls and the usual nods and winks’. South Eastern has been run by the SRA after it sacked the previous franchise holder, Connex South East, for financial incompetence. The improvement in South Eastern, which operates across Kent into four London stations has been so dramatic that it has attracted the attention of Labour MPs and unions who want it to remain in public hands. One hundred Labour MPs have called for the franchising process to be halted and for South Eastern to remain state-owned as a model of good practice and a benchmark to measure the performance of privately run franchises. The Government was also forced to ignore a vote at the Labour Party conference in favour of nationalising the railways. But having a successful, state-owned enterprise has put the Government in the awkward position of having to dismiss its one achievement this year on the railways. The latest punctuality performance figures show that South Eastern has outperformed its nearest rivals, Southern and South West Trains. Passenger complaints have fallen from 23,800 in the last year Connex was in charge to 16,700 in the past 12 months. A spokesman for the Department of Transport would not explain why it had put pressure on the SRA to tone down praise for South Eastern. ‘The performance of other train franchises in the South East has also improved,’ he said. ‘The improvements have more to do with the work done by Network Rail than South Eastern or SRA.’ The spokesman insisted that there was no question of delaying the franchising process. ‘We do not intend to keep the SRA in charge,’ he said. ‘We are moving as fast as we can to select a new franchise owner.’ A clue to the success of South Eastern is the man put in by the SRA to run the organisation Michael Holden, a veteran of British Rail, who has been working largely with ex-Connex staff. |
BUS TUNNEL TO OPEN, BUT WATERFRONT BOOM LAGSThe Boston Globe November 22, 2004 The MBTA’s biggest expansion in decades a $601 million tunnel for electric buses from South Station through the South Boston waterfront is set to open in about three weeks. And for all the delays and cost overruns and engineering problems the project encountered, planners have a bigger worry: that the city’s newest transit route might feel at first a bit like a bus to nowhere. The second phase of the Silver Line, complementing the first-phase bus service along Washington Street from Roxbury to downtown, is designed to make the trip easier to the federal courthouse, the new convention center, and, eventually, Logan Airport. It was also supposed to coincide with a furious building boom on the waterfront. But dozens of acres of development sites are still parking lots. The T has cut its ridership projections from 45,000 per weekday to 14,000 by 2006. “We’ve gone from people being worried about the Silver Line being here to the Silver Line being here and the development build out yet to occur,” said Michael H. Mulhern, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. “The development is inevitable, but it will be a few years downstream.” For now, however, passengers boarding buses at South Station will be whisked under the Fort Point Channel to the new Courthouse Station, which is the length of two football fields, has a projection system for “paperless” advertising, and is adorned with stain less steel wall panels. But when they walk upstairs to the street, they will emerge to a sea of parking lots. That’s because the 25-acre waterfront property owned by Frank McCourt has yet to be sold to a developer, while the owners of the 16-acre Fan Pier site, next to the federal courthouse, also have not completed a sale. One stop down, riders can alight at a gleaming, three-level World Trade Center Station. But that is also surrounded by construction sites and a parking lot. The convention center, which is only just beginning to book big shows, is a 700-foot walk away. There are some buildings up and running that will be served by the Silver Line, including the Seaport Hotel, the World Trade Center exhibition hall and office buildings, and the Manulife headquarters at the corner of D and Congress streets, where the electric buses run directly underneath. About 1,800 employees will eventually work in the Manulife building; the company predicts that 78 percent of them will use transit. By next summer, the Silver Line will become a new way to get from Logan Airport to South Station, connecting all terminals via the Ted Williams Tunnel. Some Silver Line buses will also serve the Marine Industrial Park and residential South Boston. This is not the first time that a transit line has opened in advance of new development or expects relatively small ridership early on, said Jose Gomez-Ibanez, a transportation specialist at the Harvard Design School. Light rail projects in Miami and Los Angeles have been initially lightly used. “There are a bunch of planners who believe transit is a stimulus to development,” he said. “I’m more of a fan of extending transit to denser communities that have lousy transit access now. Or you wait until [the development] is really there.” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo countered: “If you build it, they will come.” Officials at the T, who are excited about their first major expansion since the extension of the Red Line to Alewife in 1984, argue that the Silver Line will swiftly become a critical part of Boston’s landscape. “We now have the infrastructure to support development, and that’s the first question a developer asks,” said Mulhern. “The city wants 60 percent of the people getting to and from that area to use transit. And the waterfront is a prime piece of real estate from a social and cultural point of view. The physical barrier of the Central Artery is gone and now people will be able to get there.” He also predicted that the T’s key hub will eventually shift from Park Street to South Station, where Silver Line passengers can transfer to the Red Line, commuter rail, or intercity rail. Silver Line Phase II, originally known as the South Boston Piers Transitway, was pushed by the late US Representative J. Joseph Moakley, who helped secure federal funding. The original cost estimate was about $400 million, which increased to just over $600 million. Engineers encountered several challenges in building the line, including a boulder that was in the way of the tube crossing the Fort Point Channel; concerns about building stability where the tunnel runs under historic Russia Wharf; delicate coordination with the Big Dig northbound tunnel, which is at one point only a few feet beneath the Silver Line busway; and now-plugged leaks in several sections of the tunnel walls that were disclosed last week. T officials also ran into some controversy about the location of the stations the Courthouse Station, about a 500-foot walk from the federal courthouse, and the World Trade Center Station, which is not at the new convention center’s front door. |
$100 MILLION FOR EAST SIDE ACCESS PROJECT AND $2.5 MILLION FOR SECOND AVENUE SUBWAY; Funding included in the FY05 Omnibus Appropriations billStates News Service November 22, 2004 Second Ave Subway will alleviate crowds on East Side IRT — the most crowded subway line in America East Side Access will help tens of thousands of Nassau, Suffolk and Queens commuters save up to three hours off their daily commutes US Senators Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton today announced that Congress will pass the FY2005 Omnibus Appropriations bill which included $100 million for the East Side Access Project and $2.5 million for the Second Avenue subway. The funding was included in the Transportation, Treasury, and Appropriations portion of the bill. The bill now heads to the President for his signature. “The Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access slices the time and frustration of daily commutes for millions of Long Islanders and New York City residents, and relieving congestion in the area is key to the region’s economic development.”Senator Schumer said. “The Second Avenue Subway will relieve the problem of overwhelming overcrowding, and improve the quality of life and the economy in New York City. East Side Access will have an impact on the daily lives of Queens and Long Island commuters and serve to further fuel New York’s economic engine. As New York City and the surrounding areas continue to grow, we need to make sure we are making the right investments to meet our ever-increasing infrastructure needs,” Senator Clinton said. The East Side Access Project, a joint federal-state effort, is a rail link from the Long Island Railroad via the 63rd Street Tunnel to Grand Central Station that will help tens of thousands of Nassau, Suffolk and Queens commuters save up to three hours off their daily commutes. The project will also free up much needed capacity in Penn Station, take thousands of cars off congested New York roads and help remove 800 tons of pollutants from the air. In addition, East Side Access will significantly reduce the bottleneck on the City’s subways and buses between Penn Station and Grand Central Station, particularly the 1,2,3,7,9, A, C, and E subway lines, as well as the shuttle trains between Grand Central and Time Square. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has concluded that the Lexington Avenue (4/5/6) subway line is at capacity and that no additional trains can run on that line. With only one subway line serving the East Side, the Lexington Avenue line is the most overcrowded subway in the country, carrying 600,000 people each day. “New York’s Lexington Avenue line is severely overcrowded. The Second Avenue subway line would provide desperately needed relief and is a key step in New York City’s economic growth,” said Schumer. “The East Side Access funds represent an important commitment by Congress to help meets transportation needs that existed before the terrorist attacks and have been ever since. These funds will help Long Island and New York City needed resources to speed transportation and spur economic growth.” “As New York City continues to grow, it is important that we provide the necessary funding for our public transportation infrastructure. It is true when they say “if you build it, they will come” — New York’s future depends on an integrated and efficient public transportation system,” Senator Clinton said. |
Disregard that misleading transportation statistic; JAMES HOWARD GIBBONS writes that light rail and other forms of mass transit benefit all Houstonians, especially those who don’t ride itThe Houston Chronicle November 22, 2004 BEFORE the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s referendum in November 2003, Reps. Tom DeLay and John Culberson said they would honor and respect the will of the people. The referendum, which authorized the expansion of Metro’s light rail system, narrowly passed, but the two Republicans have adopted a curious way of showing their respect. DeLay, when the subject turns to mass transit, is going around saying that it doesn’t make sense to spend 23 percent of Houston’s transportation dollars to serve 5 percent of the people. (Sometimes he arbitrarily drops it to 3 percent.) Culberson, who advertises himself as his own man, says much the same thing. Newton and Leibniz invented calculus simultaneously, each independent of the other, so DeLay and Culberson could have concocted this meaningless and misleading pseudo-statistic, each on his own. In all likelihood, they collaborated. The truth is that no one, certainly not Metro, is proposing to spend almost a quarter of every transportation dollar to benefit 5 percent of the people. Consider the following points: The Houston region has spent tens of billions of dollars on its highway and thoroughfare system. It will spend tens of billions more to maintain, replace and expand that system. Even if multiplied exponentially, which it won’t be, Metro’s rail transit system will never consume anywhere near 23 percent of all the money this area has spent on roads. Perhaps Delay and Culberson only mean that Metro’s request for federal transit dollars would approach a quarter of all federal dollars sent to Houston for ground transportation in the next few years. But if Houston doesn’t start getting its share of federal transit dollars, those dollars will go to Dallas and other cities. If Houston gets no light rail money, not a single lane-mile will be added to Houston’s highways. The phony statistic implies that 77 percent of new federal dollars will benefit 95 percent of the people. Not true. The new federal highway dollars each year will be spent on expanding or replacing a few lanes and interchanges that each day serve only a tiny fraction of all commuters. They are available for all to use, of course, but so is mass transit. Finally, mass transit benefits all Houstonians. It might be said that transit benefits most those who don’t use it. Eliminating 5 percent of all trips from roads and highways can mean the difference between traffic that moves and gridlock. And Metro’s multimodal system in the next decade will carry more than 5 percent of travelers during rush hour, when it matters most. When he met this fall with the Chronicle’s editorial board, Culberson said that it would do no good for him or any other area congressman to communicate support for Metro’s light rail expansion plan to federal transit officials. Such naivet, in a legislator of Culberson’s experience and years is startling and dismaying. How could he not realize that capital maneuvers make all the difference in the world? Supporters of DeLay, the House majority leader, cite his power and influence as reasons to keep him in Washington. There is little reason to keep in Washington a representative who believes his voice and support make no difference in the corridors of power. In a recent speech, DeLay suggested that expanding Metro’s light rail system was shortsighted and disregarding of the future. He said Houston was installing the same transit system that was installed in Calgary, Canada, the year he was born. He has a point. The first freeway was built in Pasadena, Calif., years before DeLay was born. Isn’t it time we thought about phasing out that elderly and obsolescent technology? If DeLay and Culberson, in spite of the latter’s self-professed powerlessness, could bring home enough money to build a system of grade-separated maglev trains whizzing Houstonians around town at nearly 200 mph, I and every transit rider would be grateful. In lieu of that, a little support and influence exerted on behalf of Metro’s light rail plan would be appreciated. Meanwhile, DeLay and Culberson should take care to be more specific in their statements about which share of transportation funding benefits which portion of the people. This would avoid a world of confusion and misinformation and bolster the respect voters have for their representatives’ acumen. Culberson, who fancies himself a Jeffersonian, is probably familiar with this sentiment Thomas Jefferson put in a letter to James Monroe: “A wise man, if nature has not formed him honest, will yet act as if he were honest: because he will find it the most advantageous & wise part in the long run.” |
Official Says Deferral Strategy Fails AmtrakNew York Times November 22, 2004 WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 — Amtrak’s strategy of scraping by on limited budgets by deferring crucial capital investments “is no longer workable,” according to the inspector general of the Transportation Department, who said in a new report that Congress should either give the railroad more money or tell it to cut back operations. In the report, the inspector general, Kenneth M. Mead, said that the railroad was struggling with unsustainable operating losses, declining on- time performance and the possibility of a major failure of aging equipment that would interrupt operations, although “no one knows where or when such a failure may occur.” The railroad itself has cited worn-out movable bridges in Connecticut and wiring in New York City that dates from before the middle of the 20th century, among other weak spots. Mr. Mead said that when Amtrak’s current president, David L. Gunn, took over in 2002, he focused on maintaining and rebuilding the existing system. “This may have appeared reasonable for a short period of time with the expectation that reauthorization would validate Amtrak’s strategy and was just around the corner,” Mr. Mead said. But Congress still has not provided the financing that this strategy would require, he said. “The existing system is not sustainable at current funding levels,” the report said. “The total funding Amtrak receives from all sources is not sufficient to maintain the current system in a state of good repair.” Amtrak agreed with many of the report’s findings. Mr. Gunn said in a letter to Mr. Mead on Oct. 4 that “deferred capital investment has reached critical levels and continued deferral brings Amtrak closer to a major failure somewhere in the system.” His letter added, “We are playing Russian roulette,” a phrase that Mr. Mead also used. Congress has consistently given Amtrak less than the railroad has said it needs for maintenance and capital investment. This year Amtrak sought $1.5 billion, but the Bush administration proposed $900 million, which the House approved. Over the weekend, though, House and Senate negotiators agreed to a $1.2 billion subsidy. At that level, Amtrak will not be able to undertake the capital investments it had planned. The railroad delayed capital investments last year, too. For that year, it asked for $1.8 billion but got about $1.2 billion. A spokesman for the railroad, William Schulz, said Amtrak would have no comment on the report beyond Mr. Gunn’s letter. Mr. Gunn rejected an idea proposed by Mr. Mead that Amtrak prepare budgets that called for a federal subsidy of $1.2 billion. Mr. Gunn said the railroad management had a responsibility “to inform the board and others of the minimum federal funding required for a safe, reliable operation.” The inspector general’s report said that Amtrak had made progress “in controlling the growth in expenses,” and noted that ridership had increased to record levels, reaching 24 million in 2003. But this was partly due to promotions, and ticket revenue was down, the report said. The railroad has not been able to increase revenues enough to reduce cash losses, Mr. Mead said, and despite a decline in total operating expenses, “it is clear that Amtrak cannot save its way to financial health.” And service is declining, the report said. On-time performance was 71.8 percent through June of this year, down from 74.1 percent for 2003, the report said. It said that in 2003 the performance of the Acela Express, Amtrak’s premium service between Boston, New York and Washington, was 70.7 percent, which it called “dismal.” That was down 8.6 percentage points from the previous year. Service on the Acela through June 2004 was slightly better, 74.7 percent, the report said, with average delays of 54 minutes. The goal was 94 percent on-time service. Ridership between Washington and Boston declined, partly because of the decreased reliability of trains, the report said. |
More LRT Parking ArrivesWCCO-TV Minneapolis November 22, 2004 Metro Transit has adding three more park-and-ride lots along the Hiawatha light rail line in Minneapolis, starting Monday morning. Two lots, with about 240 spots, have opened at Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue, near the Lake Street-Midtown Station. Also, 400 park-and-ride spots have been added to the Fort Snelling Station, near the Highway 62 and Hiawatha Avenue. That brings the number of available parking spots at Fort Snelling to 950. A 600-car park-and-ride lot will open on 28th Avenue in Bloomington on December Fourth, when light rail service is extended to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America. |
It’s Time for East River TollsNew York Observer November 22, 2004 At a time when the city desperately needs money for transit, over a billion dollars in uncollected tolls and taxes is being withheld from the treasury by small minds in Albany and on the City Council. As this page has often pointed out, the city has been losing $500 million a year ever since, in a cheap political stunt for upstate votes that had the blessing of Governor George Pataki, the commuter tax of 0.45 percent was repealed in 1999. Now the nonpartisan Independent Budget Office has released a study indicating another untapped resource: the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro bridges, all of which are owned by the city and none of which currently asks motorists for a penny to traverse their spans. The I.B.O. says that a $4 toll on the four bridges would bring in about $500 million a year; meanwhile, the Regional Plan Association forecasts an annual return of about $710 million. Added to a projected $500 million from a commuter tax, that’s $1.2 billion a year which could be invested in the city’s mass-transit infrastructure and in the M.T.A., which happens to be looking at a $12 billion deficit — and several fare increases and service cuts — over the next few years. There’s no rhyme or reason why the four East River bridges should be free while motorists must pay $4 at the Triborough Bridge, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and other river crossings. With EZ Pass technology, tolls can be imposed without delaying traffic. The resistance, of course, comes from car-owning residents of Brooklyn and Queens and their elected officials in the City Council and State Legislature. But there’s plenty of decent, safe public transportation into Manhattan from all the boroughs. And the city is already spending a bundle — $300 million — to repair the Manhattan and Queensboro bridges; it’s eminently fair to ask car owners to pay a toll for the privilege of using them. Of course, if fairness were more than a platitude in Albany, the commuter tax would have been reinstated by now. The commuter tax was hardly prohibitive: Those making $100,000 were paying only $450. That percentage was in fact too low, considering how much time commuters — who pay zero income tax to the city — spend in the city under the protection of our police, fire and emergency-medical services. Commuters owe their jobs and high incomes to the city. It is only right that they be asked to pay a fair share for city services. Indeed, a more equitable commuter tax would be 1 percent, from which the city would realize $1 billion. That means the total take from new tolls and a reinstated commuter tax could be as high as $1.8 billion. The three people who could make this happen — Governor George Pataki, State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — are opposed to new tolls, and have hardly been champions of the commuter tax. Taxes kill jobs, the Governor says. He’s dead wrong. Some taxes do — but not this one. And he has yet to explain why so many jobs were created nationwide after President Bill Clinton raised taxes in 1993, and why so many jobs have been lost since President George W. Bush began hacking away at taxes in 2001. Mr. Silver’s failure to support East River tolls is particularly disturbing, as he is allegedly the protector of the city’s interests in Albany. With friends like these … |
Plans announced for three new DLR stations in the areaUK Newsquest Regional Press — This is Local London November 22, 2004 A DERELICT train station at Stratford Market will be reused under plans to build three new Docklands Light Rail (DLR) stations in the area. The new stations will be built at Stratford Market Abbey Lane and Stratford International when DLR takes over part of the North London Silverlink line in 2009. Government chiefs are in support of converting the overhead North London Line between Canning Town and Stratford to a dedicated DLR service. About £90 million will be spent on upgrading the tracks and power supplies constructing the new stations and buying new trains. Old station buildings at Stratford Market will be reused under the plans but local councillors are worried about the problem of fitting new DLR platforms in the confined space. It has been proposed that the station should be further south with access from Bridge Road and Burford Road. Concerns have also been raised about the short connection between Stratford International station and the current Stratford DLR station. The council says the plan does not meet the requirement for a “physical link” between stations and is in negotiation with Union Railways to provide a travelator between them instead. The current DLR platforms at Stratford station would have to be expanded under the plans by ten to 15 metres to improve accessibility. The new service will run between Stratford International and Woolwich Arsenal calling at London City Airport and between Stratford International and Beckton. The planned international station would link DLR and the wider Docklands area to trains from Paris Brussels and high-speed domestic commuter services from Kent. The North London Silverlink line currently runs two trains an hour but DLR would improve this to every ten minutes. Journey times between Stratford and Woolwich Arsenal would be between 20 and 25 minutes. New connections to DLR on the converted line would include the Jubilee Central District and the Hammersmith and City Underground lines. The council’s regeneration forum heard a presentation on the expansion plans from DLR expert Richard Di Cani at the Town Hall East Ham. He said the new train route would provide capacity for future growth and be an important part of the rail network serving the proposed Olympic sites in 2012. Even if London does not host the 2012 Olympics Mr Di Cani said the line would help regenerate the area. Cllr Conor McAuley chairing the forum welcomed the plan that “would open up the Lower Lea Valley open up sites and enhance development opportunities in the area”. |
Ground above tunnel subsided after quakeThe Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) November 22, 2004 In the wake of the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake, the ground above a railway tunnel in Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture, subsided, causing cracks in the ground and leaving houses tilted above it, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Saturday. Hokuetsu Express Corp., which operates the Hokuhoku Line, denied that there were any defects in the tunnel’s construction. Residents, however, plan to demand an investigation by the railway company, saying it was suspicious that only the land in areas above the tunnel had subsided. Almost all serious subsidence of land was found in the areas of Miyukicho, Kawaji, Kitashinden and Tatenokoshi in Tokamachi, located above the 1.7-kilometer Tokamachi Tunnel, which is about 500 meters south of Tokamachi Station on the Hokuhoku Line. The tunnel runs beneath flat land where there are homes and farms. The ground subsided as much as 10 centimeters along the length of the tunnel, and at least 19 houses out of 33 located above it have tilted, with cracks opening in the foundations of some of the houses. The concrete tunnel is about 7 meters high, about 6 meters wide and a maximum of 10 meters deep. The tunnel was built by digging a deep trench, putting in the tunnel structure and then replacing the soil above it. The construction project began in March 1973 and took about two years to complete. About 30 houses that previously stood on the land were dismantled and later rebuilt after the tunnel was completed. The house owned by Kumiko Hikima, 35, of Miyukicho, tilted about 10 centimeters on its east side. The house was built four years ago directly over the tunnel. She hopes to have her house surveyed soon. “I’d be concerned that my house would tilt again even if it were rebuilt. I want the railway operator to dispel our worries,” a member of the municipal assembly, Masuo Takanami, 47, said. Hokuetsu Express plans to hold a meeting soon with the residents to explain the situation. Although Hokuetsu Express General Affairs Section Chief Kazuyuki Fukami admits that the ground subsided, he denied that there were any defects in the tunnel’s construction and said there were no plans to compensate the residents or to carry out a fact-finding survey. “Generally speaking, the ground in a filled-in pit is looser than that of the surrounding area, and tends to collapse in an earthquake. They need to check whether the correct soil was used to fill in the pit,” said former Tokyo University Earthquake Research Institute Director General Motohiko Hakuno. Amount of donations decided The Niigata prefectural government and the Japanese Red Cross Society will pay families of those who were killed in the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake 200,000 yen each from donations received, while owners of houses that were destroyed will receive 2 million yen each. Those seriously injured in the quake will receive 100,000 yen each and those whose houses were severely damaged will receive 1 million yen. Owners of houses that suffered major damage will be given 250,000 yen, and owners of houses slightly damaged will be paid 50,000 yen. All owners of houses in Yamakoshimura, Niigata Prefecture, that suffered severe damage but have yet to be surveyed will be paid 50,000 yen, they said. The donations will be transferred to an account established by the municipalities this month. The distribution of the donations was decided by a council organized by the prefectural government and the Red Cross. |
Light rail in Santa Monica gains steam; Construction on the first half of rail line between Los Angeles and Santa Monica likely to begin soon; $500M for second half still needs to be raisedSanta Monica Daily Press November 23, 2004 The money is in place and construction likely will begin early next year on the first half of an estimated $1 billion light rail line that eventually will connect downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica, transportation officials said Monday. The first phase of the project will connect downtown Los Angeles to the intersection of Venice and Robertson boulevards in Culver City, via USC and 10 other stops. That part alone is expected to cost $490 million and be open to the public by 2010. It will cost another $500 million to extend the rail line from Culver City to Santa Monica, officials said. That money hasn’t been raised yet. “It’s been hard work to get it this far, and it’s very exciting,” said Santa Monica City Councilwoman Pam O’Connor, also a board member for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is in charge of the project. “Concurrent with (the first half) we need to work on phase two. The real benefit of the line comes from when the total length of the line to Santa Monica is complete.” Richard Thorpe, MTA’s chief project management officer, projected there will be 45,000 daily riders on the rail line by 2020. Fares will be equal to what ‘s charged on other modes of public transportation. If the line were open today, the fare would be $1.25, Thorpe said. A special meeting of the Santa Monica City Council was held midday Monday at the conclusion of a bus tour of the proposed 9.6-mile line. Transportation officials and elected leaders munched on deli sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies while Thorpe presented the plans, which go before the MTA board of directors in January. Thorpe said work will commence on the project soon after plans are approved. “We’re getting ready to finalize (federal and state environmental review documents),” Thorpe told council members and a group of some 25 transportation officials from around Los Angeles. “The real key we’re shooting for is that January board meeting. This is only phase one of the Expo Line,” he added. “We need everybody’s support. We need community support, but especially local elected officials.” It’s unclear when work would begin on the second half of the project. O’ Connor said officials are looking into various methods of raising the estimated $500 million and construction will begin once the funds have been identified. At the earliest, the second half of the rail line will be completed a few years after the first half. Funding for the first part of the project came from a mix of local, state and federal sources, Thorpe said. More than $305 million came from local sales tax and lease revenues, as well as direct contributions from cities. Sacramento contributed another $49 million to the rail project and $135 million was obtained through federal funds for congestion and air quality. While MTA officials consider how to raise money for the second half of the project, what route the rail line would take in Santa Monica is still undecided. City Councilman Mike Feinstein said Monday two stops were currently being considered. One is downtown at Fourth Street, possibly where the Sears building is currently located. The other is off of Cloverfield Boulevard near Interstate 10. Feinstein said those stops wouldn’t be accessible to enough of Santa Monica’s workers and asked rail supporters to consider a stop at Bundy Drive and Centinela Avenue on the eastside of Santa Monica, and another at 14th Street and Olympic Boulevard. He said City Hall was exploring covering I-10 at 14th Street, which would allow them to build a parking lot accessible to commuters. A city park could then be built on top of that lot, he suggested. No matter where the stops are placed, officials agreed the Westside is badly in need of more public transportation. The cities of Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles and Culver generate 10 percent of the county’s sales tax revenue, but historically the region has benefited from just .01 percent of transportation dollars, according to an October update to a study commissioned by the five cities. Even a small investment in transportation will have an enormous impact, said Steve Cunningham, transportation director for Culver City. “We’re choking,” Cunningham added. “It’s time to change that.” |
Federal funds flow to Sound; Washington set to receive hundreds of millions from $388 billion billTacoma News Tribune November 23rd, 2004 WASHINGTON — Tucked in a $388 billion spending bill approved by Congress are hundreds of millions of dollars for Washington state projects and programs ranging from Tacoma’s “Train to the Mountain” tourism initiative to seismic monitoring at Mount St. Helens. The bill, approved by Congress over the weekend, includes $235 million in federal funding for roads, highways and mass transit on top of the $600 million the state will receive in formula funding from the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration. “By investing in our transportation infrastructure, we are creating good- paying construction jobs today and paving the way for future economic growth,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle), the top Democrat on the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee. The omnibus measure, approved by wide margins in the House and the Senate, wraps nine appropriations bills into one. The bill provides $80 million for Sound Transit’s Central Link light-rail line that will run 14 miles from downtown Seattle to SeaTac. So far, Congress has appropriated about $230 million of the $500 million in promised federal funding for the line. Tacoma’s “Train to the Mountain” proposal will receive more than $4.4 million in funding: $700,000 for the National Park Service to study the idea and $3.75 million for track upgrades and signal improvements. The infrastructure upgrades also will help provide better access to the Port of Tacoma. The money keeps alive an idea discussed by civic and business leaders for 15 years about running a tourist train from downtown Tacoma to Mount Rainier. The bill also earmarks $1.5 million for the so-called Cross-Base Highway, which would cut across McChord Air Force Base and provide another east-west link between Interstate 5 and Highway 7, parallel to Highway 512. Other winners include the Tacoma Housing Authority, which gets $1.8 million for transportation improvements to its Salishan revitalization project, and Pierce Transit, which gets $1 million for maintenance and operations. Under the measure, King County Metro will receive $5 million to acquire 213 hybrid clean air buses; the Washington Ferry System will receive $5 million in funding for infrastructure improvements, and the state Department of Transportation will receive $3.5 million to expand a traffic sensor network that provides real-time information on traffic congestion. The bill provides $1 million to promote short-haul/short-line rail shipping between the ports of Tacoma, Seattle and Quincy. With a dome building eruption underway at Mount St. Helens, the U.S. Geological Survey will receive an additional $1.5 million to increase seismic monitoring of the volcano. At Mount Rainier National Park, $1 million will be provided to start purchasing land along the Carbon River as part of the largest expansion of the park’s boundaries in more than 70 years. Eventually, about 800 acres will be added. In addition, the effort to remove two dams on the Elwha River will receive $13.4 million. Of that, $1.5 million will be spent on research of the so- called southern resident killer whale pod that resides in Puget Sound; and $2 million was provided to acquire 250 acres on Maury Island for salmon habit preservation. On the law enforcement front, the Washington State Meth Initiative will receive $2 million in federal funding for law enforcement, treatment and prevention programs and Pierce County will receive $1 million to upgrade its law enforcement communications network. |
Report rates L service by line, finds it unequal; Minority, blue-collar neighborhoods said to get poorest serviceChicago Sun-Times November 23, 2004 Chicago’s seven L lines vary widely in on-time performance and conditions, a transit watchdog group said Monday. Overall, Chicago Transit Authority trains are on schedule 91 percent of the time, but some neighborhoods seem more equal than others, said the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group. “There are certain areas of the city that have more frequent and more reliable train service than the rest of the city, but everyone pays the same fare,” said Jacqueline Leavy, executive director of the nonprofit group. She said neighborhoods with people of color and blue-collar workers seem to have the poorest service. Defects found Among the survey’s negative findings: • Overall, published train schedules had little relation to reality. • The Yellow Line had the worst on-time service, only 76.7 percent. • The Purple Line had below-adequate hours of service. Both the Red Line and Purple lines had problems with conditions such as broken phones, posting of schedules and maps, and working heaters and escalators. • Green Line trains arrived on schedule 86 percent of the time. Factors in rankings The rail lines were ranked on a number of factors, including available hours of service, trains spaced at regular intervals instead of bunched, on-time performance, and comfort. After the top-rated Brown Line — which won a “fare card rating’’ of $1.47 (compared with the $1.75 L fare), the lines were ranked in descending order: Red, Orange, Blue, Yellow, Purple and Green, which received a “fare card rating’’ of only 23 cents. It used to take 24 minutes for Brian Johnson to travel the Red Line from Morse to the Loop. But now it takes about 45 minutes, said Johnson, president of the Chicago Chapter of the National Guild for the Blind, who spoke at the news conference outside Mayor Daley’s City Hall office. The Red Line caters to a diverse mix of people and neighborhoods from 95th Street to Howard “and provides the same level of service along the way,” said CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney. The Brown Line ranked No. 1 overall, with the best on-time rate — 97.6 percent — and limited “bunching” of trains. Leavy said she wasn’t surprised that the CTA failed to wrest more money from Springfield because officials failed to make their case or explain how money is spent. “We tried to tell them that that was not the way to do it,” Leavy said. Lawmakers “are really weary of being threatened.” The group conducted the survey between January and March. Two-person teams visited six or eight stations on each line six times. Even though the samples were limited, Leavy maintained the survey is accurate, based on similar studies in New York City. |
Congress OKs Gold Line Eastside fundsPasadena Star-News November 23, 2004 Tuesday, November 23, 2004 — Congress has approved the first large lump sum payment for the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension, a $60 million installment for the light rail system that is in its first stages of construction. The six-mile project will run from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to Atlantic and Pomona boulevards in East L.A. The extension will connect with the Gold Line’s first segment, which opened in 2003 and runs from L.A. to Pasadena. In a rare Saturday session, the House and Senate adopted a $388 billion spending package for the 2005 fiscal year, with funding for numerous federal government departments, including transportation. President Bush is expected to sign the bill later this month, said Raffi Hamparian of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “This means Congress regards the Eastside project as a priority rail transportation project, because of its cost effectiveness and the ability it’s going to have to move tens of thousands of people every day,” said Hamparian, MTA’s government relations manager for federal affairs. MTA is the operator of the Pasadena Gold Line, and is the agency building the East Los Angeles extension. The $898.8 million project is scheduled for completion in 2009. MTA broke ground on the Eastside Extension in July, a month after Congress awarded the project $490.7 million in matching funds. Despite that “full funding grant agreement” with the federal government, payment of the money each year is always in question. “Basically, a full funding grant agreement is a hunting license. You have to go (before Congress) for an appropriation hearing every year,” explained Rick Thorpe, who as MTA’s head of construction is overseeing the Eastside Extension. “There’s no guarantee that you’re going to get what’s in the full funding grant agreement,” Thorpe said. “Every year, it’s a selling job. We tell them: ‘This is what we got last year, (and) this is what we need next year.’ Last month, MTA opened a community relations office at 1505 E. First St. in Boyle Heights, while the Eastside Extension is being built. Crews have been demolishing some buildings, removing some trees and relocating utilities along the construction route. Workers also have begun preparing for tunneling to build a 1.8-mile underground segment. In early December, crews will start installing support columns for the underground station at First and Boyle streets, Thorpe said. |
DART plans for Love Field tunnel hit brick wall; Federal agency says no, criticizes request for $160 millionDallas Morning News November 23, 2004 The Federal Transit Administration on Tuesday formally rejected DART’s plans to build a $160 million light-rail tunnel and station under Love Field Airport. Federal officials said the decision, which was expected, came down exclusively to cost and dashes the region’s hopes of having a single-rail line connect directly to North Texas’ two major airports and downtown Dallas. “It was a good idea. We just couldn’t make the cost-effectiveness numbers work out,” said Gary Thomas, president and executive director of Dallas Area Rapid Transit. Transit agency officials spent Tuesday afternoon crafting a resolution, reinforcing a desire to somehow serve Love Field. And although they still must determine what type of transit service to provide, the agency was reminded that it also faces a challenging task in obtaining the $700 million it is seeking to build lines from Pleasant Grove to Farmers Branch. DART sought an unprecedented preliminary federal review of the Love Field tunnel to determine whether including the airport would jeopardize the agency’s chances of obtaining the $700 million from Washington, D.C. Without the full amount, DART’s rail construction schedule could be delayed months or years. In its letter to DART, the FTA not only rejected the airport plan, but it also used strong wording concerning the agency’s funding request. Federal officials said that DART’s request for $700 million was an “unprecedented amount” and that the project’s cost-effectiveness, even without the Love Field tunnel, “is of concern.” With the tunnel, the cost effectiveness reached $25.61 per passenger, slightly above the $25 cutoff point. Without the tunnel, the cost effectiveness is $21.59 per passenger. “We have pretty strong admonishments here to get our costs down,” said DART board Vice President Mark Enoch of Rowlett. But one local congressional leader said she remained optimistic about DART’s funding request. “I feel pretty good about them getting their request fulfilled in spite of how tight money is in Washington,” said U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D- Dallas. “But we haven’t approved anything yet, either.” With the preferred option no longer available, city and transit agency officials must determine how best to serve the estimated 1,200 passengers a day who would get on or off trains at the airport. DART has several options. One would be a $70 million, ground-level rail spur between the airport and the closest station on the main rail line. Another option that the city of Dallas previously supported would operate direct train service from several downtown stations that ends at Love Field. Whatever the final decision, rail service to Love Field must be done well, said Pat White, co-chairwoman of the Love Field Citizens Action Committee, a group of concerned residents that monitors expansion and other issues at Love Field. Ms. White is also a member of the Dallas Love Field Master Plan Advisory Committee. “We feel strongly there should be rail service,” Ms. White said. Debate about Love Field service will not delay the northwest and southeast rail line construction, DART officials said Tuesday. Some form of transit service should be available to Love Field passengers when the northwest line opens in late 2010. However, DART planners were reluctant to commit to having a rail spur open by late 2010. The Regional Transportation Council, which funnels some state and federal funding for many local projects, had pledged $60 million for the Love Field tunnel. However, the money might not be carried over if DART builds a downtown-to-Love Field direct line, said Michael Morris, director of transportation for North Central Texas Council of Governments. Such an option would create long waits for passengers transferring to the airport from northern suburbs. A short rail shuttle line from the airport to the nearest main line station would work better, Mr. Morris said. |
Plans for corridor accelerateDeseret Morning News (Salt Lake City) November 23, 2004 WEST VALLEY CITY — The proposed Mountain View Corridor highway will feature a carpool lane and three general-purpose travel lanes in each direction, for the bulk of its length, if it materializes as now planned. And a transit system — either light-rail mass transit, a streetcar network or a bus rapid transit lane — will parallel the road. Those are among the details released recently by the Utah Department of Transportation, which continues to study eight alternative concepts for the north-south corridor as part of its Environmental Impact Statement process. The EIS is scheduled for completion next fall. The project team also released planned interchange locations for both proposed highway routes — one that follows 5800 West and an alternative that aligns with 7200 West before veering over to the 5800 West corridor. Sections of the road, in both scenarios, may be constructed below surface level to enhance safety and ease traffic flow. Complete details for each concept are available on the Internet at: www.udot.utah.gov/mountainview. “These concepts will be studied more over the next several months, but we want people to be aware of the direction we’re headed so they can comment and draw attention to any factors that we may have missed,” said UDOT project manager Teri Newell. “The goal is to put together an improved regional transportation system plan that will contribute to the quality of life for residents in the MVC area.” The boundaries of the study area stretch from I-80 on the north, 8400 West to the west, the Bangerter Highway and I-15 on the east, and Utah Lake to the south. Envision Utah and a stakeholders committee — which includes local government leaders, local property owners and conservation groups — have helped the UDOT project team identify the “growth choices” and goals for the corridor. “An improved regional transit system with both roadway and public transit components can ultimately help increase the travel effectiveness, meet communities’ growth goals and save residents time, money and stress,” Newell said. In both road alternatives, the highway would have one high-occupancy vehicle lane and two general-purpose lanes in each direction from the start of the road at I-80 to U-201. From U-201 south into Utah County, the road would have one carpool lane and three general-purpose lanes in each direction. Major intersections would be located at: California Avenue, U-201, 3500 South, 4700 South, 5400 South, 7800 South, 9000 South, Old Bingham Highway, 11400 South, 12600 South and 13400 South. Plans for the roadway through Utah County, and for various connector roads, are less concrete at this point. The transit alignment would follow 5600 South and could be located either in the center of that existing street or on the sides. Major intersections for the transit route, where stations or stops would be located, include: California Avenue, U-201, 3500 South, 4700 South, 5400 South, 7800 South, 9000 South, two stops near Old Bingham Highway, 11400 South and a final stop at 12600 South. The proposal also calls for a pedestrian/bike trail to parallel the highway for its entire length. “Unfortunately, it is impossible to follow every suggestion and implement every idea,” Newell said. “We ask for understanding as we work toward the most balanced final recommendation.” |
Rail line on faster track; $6M in federal aid moves plan forwardHerald News (Passaic County, NJ) November 23, 2004 A proposed rail line connecting Passaic and Bergen counties moved closer to reality with Monday’s announcement of $6 million in federal funding. The funding will be used for several purposes, including buying diesel-powered rail cars for the route that will connect Hawthorne and Hackensack with several stops in Paterson, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, said in a written statement. NJ Transit has committed $10 million to the project. The $16 million budget is a substantial portion of a project that could cost $50 million to $150 million and take two to three years to complete, said Ed Farmer, a Pascrell spokesman. The money will fund additional planning and environmental remediation along the route and help negotiate an agreement with New York, Susquehanna & Western, the freight line that owns the tracks that commuter trains would utilize, Farmer said. In preliminary discussions, NYS&W has been receptive to sharing the line, he said. The line would include nine stops in Passaic County and three in Bergen, Farmer said. It would connect to the Xanadu entertainment complex at the Meadowlands Sports Complex site and the Secaucus Transfer Station. A later project phase could extend the line to Pompton Lakes. Pascrell, who has sought funding for the rail line as a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said the route would connect residents to places of employment and reduce the number of cars on the road. “I think that this will be a boost in terms of commerce, but also in terms of quality of life,” he said in a telephone interview. Many of North Jersey’s major roads were built in the 1930s and 1940s and are no longer adequate, Pascrell said. Spending millions to upgrade roads cannot be the only solution to the region’s transportation problems, he said. “We’ve got to get people onto mass transit, onto buses and trains, and this is a step in that direction,” he said. The project could receive an additional $10 million in federal funding in the next few months if President Bush signs a $275 billion transportation bill passed by both houses of Congress in April. Pascrell said he expects the additional funding, but the project would continue without it. Hawthorne Mayor Fred Criscitelli, a longtime advocate of the rail line, was pleased to learn of the federal funding. “Some of the highways are just too compact and now it’s only going to get worse,” he said. “We’re moving in the right direction.” He said some funding could go toward acquiring land that would be used for train stations. |
Prop. A backers celebrate victory with supporters; Voters renewed half-cent sales taxThe San Diego Union-Tribune November 24, 2004 Celebrating victory in an election where it took every bit of effort to produce a win, backers of the TransNet sales tax renewal yesterday thanked everyone who helped make it possible. “We made it happen together,” said Solana Beach Mayor Joe Kellejian yesterday in a final campaign news conference for Proposition A. The half-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax measure for transportation projects eked out a win so narrow — just 3,400 votes out of more than 1,015,000 cast — that supporters waited until literally every ballot was counted to claim victory. As a tax measure, Proposition A needed a two-thirds majority — 66.66 percent — and ended up with 67 percent. The San Diego Association of Governments, the countywide planning agency that drafted the measure, celebrated the results with campaign supporters at the Sabre Springs site of a future bus rapid transit station that will be built under the current TransNet program. To voters, Poway Mayor Mickey Cafagna said: “Your voices have been heard loud and clear. “We have to perform. We have to deliver,” said Cafagna, chairman of the SANDAG board of directors. Cafagna attributed the victory to a “superb campaign effort,” conducted primarily by the San Diego County business community because SANDAG is barred from spending public money on overt political campaigns. The Yes-on-A Committee spent at least $2.5 million, about a 100-to-1 advantage over opponents of the measure. Proposition A was among seven so-called “self-help” transportation sales tax measures in California to win voter approval Nov. 2; three others failed. It will generate an estimated $14 billion for highways, public transit and local street and road projects for 40 years, beginning in 2008. In March, SANDAG made two late changes in its first draft of the measure in response to an ultimatum from Dianne Jacob, chairwoman of the county Board of Supervisors whose district encompasses the East County. It increased the amount of money earmarked for local streets and roads to nearly $4.5 billion from the original $1.7 billion, and it tacked on an extra 10 years to boost proceeds from the tax. The SANDAG board, however, refused to make further cuts to public transit to increase spending on highways, and Jacob and Supervisors Bill Horn and Pam Slater-Price wound up opposing the measure. Kellejian said the election results showed so little margin for error that the changes made at Jacob’s behest may have helped it pass. “There isn’t one thing that you could point to that you would have been able to leave out” and still win, Kellejian said in response to a question. The TransNet II project list includes a widening of Interstate 5 from Carmel Valley to Camp Pendleton, up to eight bus rapid transit routes — which aim to make bus service more attractive for long-distance commutes — an extension of the San Diego Trolley from Old Town to University City and a major expansion of high-occupancy vehicle lanes. |
Refusing to Be Turkeys in Traffic, Rail Riders Roll By Holiday Crunch; Planes, trains and automobiles will get a heavy workout today, with roads expected to set a post-9/11 record.Los Angeles Times November 24, 2004 The annual Thanksgiving travel rush officially begins today, with airports girding for crowds and highway experts predicting that road travel in the region will exceed pre-9/11 levels for the first time. But some have found a different way to visit relatives for the holiday, skipping the inevitable hassles of travel by air and asphalt: They’re taking the train. “It’s convenient, more pleasant, and it’s safe,” said Amanda Johnson, who was boarding an Amtrak passenger train in Santa Ana on Tuesday with her mother for a trip to Santa Barbara, where they will spend the holiday with relatives. Johnson, 22, and her mother, Mary Fritzsche, could have driven, but they were repelled by the prospect of clogged freeways and sky-high gas prices. One-way tickets for the pair cost only $35, she said — the cost of about one fill-up for an SUV. “And, it takes about the same time [by rail] as it does to drive there,” Fritzsche said. Today is expected to be the busiest day of the year in Amtrak’s busiest week. Sarah Swain, an Amtrak spokeswoman in Oakland, said the rail line expected to serve nearly 600,000 passengers from Tuesday to Sunday afternoon. That’s up about 5,000 riders from the same period in 2003. But in the Southland, the car is still king. The Automobile Club of Southern California predicts that the number of road travelers in the region this weekend will push past pre-Sept. 11 figures for the first time. “This year has unleashed a pent-up demand for travel that was first reduced by 9/11, and then by economic concerns and the war in Iraq,” said Carol Thorp, an auto club spokeswoman. Travelers will pay a price to satisfy that demand: Gas in Orange County is $2.30 a gallon for regular, compared with $1.70 last year, said Marie Montgomery, another auto club spokeswoman. “We’re going to have a busy holiday season this year, even though … gas is expensive,” said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Bill Kirby. “Be prepared for a lot of traffic — and to wait in traffic.” Kirby added that CHP officers will be out in force over the holiday. The route to Las Vegas will be especially congested, according to the state Department of Transportation. A repaving project on Interstate 15 near its junction with Interstate 215 in Devore will be put on hold from today to Sunday, giving drivers access to all northbound and southbound lanes. Still, Caltrans spokeswoman Rose Melgoza warned that Interstate 15 will probably be congested this weekend, particularly on Sunday afternoon, when Southern California travelers return from Las Vegas. Air travelers also can expect crowds. Airlines at Los Angeles International Airport are expecting 1.8 million travelers, 11% more than last year, from Nov. 19 through Monday. Despite the increase, the figure is still below the record-breaking level of 2 million passengers seen during Thanksgiving 2000 before the Sept. 11 attacks, said an LAX spokesman. Airport officials at LAX, Ontario and John Wayne in Orange County recommend that passengers departing in the peak periods be at their airlines’ ticketing lobbies two hours before a domestic flight and three hours before an international flight. No such delays were evident at the Santa Ana train station Tuesday, where Naomi Paredes rushed for the right track to begin her trip to Utah for a family reunion. “I haven’t done this before, and I’m excited,” said Paredes, an 18-year-old Tustin resident eager to visit her grandmother’s in St. George for Thanksgiving. Her father, Mason, said his daughter wanted to get a jump on things and left two days early. He didn’t want her driving by herself, and because the train was cheaper than flying, the choice was easy. “I have to work Friday,” he said. “But I’m leaving right after work and will drive up that night. It’s good because she gets to rest and see everything, especially the snow on the mountains.” |
Invasive, offensive searches at airports are uncalled forAustin American-Statesman November 24, 2004 Airline passengers scheduled to fly on this busy holiday weekend should be ready for long lines, some delays and offensively intrusive strip searches by airport security. New rules allow the federal Transportation Security Administration screeners to choose passengers for body searches and to pat down breasts, buttocks and genital areas. These random searches for explosives are infuriating, humiliating and mostly unnecessary. Passengers all over the country have been complaining about inappropriate pat-downs by screeners, public humiliation and personal embarrassment. Women have had their breasts examined, their buttocks touched and their skirts raised in the public screening areas of airports. TSA officials say they have heard from several hundred complainants, but the truth is that most passengers either are fearful of complaining or don’t bother because they feel it would be useless. Everyone who flies has seen ridiculous examples of passengers chosen for personal searches — cane-toting grandmothers, teenagers with body piercings and more. Federal officials are testing equipment that might make body searches unnecessary. One system involves trace detection portals that blow puffs of air that can be instantly analyzed for traces of explosives. Another is an X-ray system that can see through clothes. But until the technology is available, the TSA needs to refine its techniques and change the attitudes of its screeners. Full-body examinations should be conducted only when special circumstances warrant them, not by random selection or because a screener feels like it. Most Americans have accepted removing their shoes and belts and searches of carry-on bags before boarding. After the terror attacks of Sept. 11, some inconvenience was expected, even applauded, for the sake of safety. But public patting of breasts and genitals of passengers selected randomly or possibly for retaliation or other reasons by screeners is not acceptable and should not stand. Air passengers should know they have some rights when it comes to secondary searches. A pat-down search of breast, buttocks and genital areas can only be with the back of the hand and those being searched can demand the search be done by someone of the same sex. Also, passengers can request that these secondary searches be done in private and that another screener witness the search. If a search is deemed inappropriate, a passenger can insist on talking to a screening supervisor. The TSA has turned air travel into an ordeal, and increasingly into a humiliating one, for very little increase in safety. TSA’s procedures need to change, but it may take a pat-down of a senator’s wife to get that accomplished. |
Light rail will beat Santa to the Mall of AmericaMetropolitan Council November 24, 2004 Hiawatha light rail will open its airport and Mall of America stations four weeks early — on Dec. 4 — just in time for holiday shopping and travel. The first train to carry passengers on the last leg will depart from the Bloomington Central Station at 11:05 a.m. on Dec. 4. The line’s extension spans four miles with two stations at the airport and three in Bloomington. Metro Transit invites the public to ride the new rails on Saturday, Dec. 4. The first train will depart from Bloomington Central Station following a 10 a.m. ceremony. Metro Transit and Minnesota Valley Transit Authority passengers will be treated to free rides throughout the metro region on this opening weekend. On Saturday, LRT riders will be greeted with entertainment, food and family fun to warm the chill of winter. Update on art on the Hiawatha Line Travelers won’t want to miss this opportunity to see how easy it is to take the train to the airport. They will be able to check out the Lindbergh Terminal Station 70 feet beneath the airport and experience the rush of riding through the tunnel at top speed. Passengers can tour this three- level station and learn about the evolution of flight and how twin tunnels were bored without interrupting flights above ground. The Hiawatha Line has provided more than two million rides since the ribbon was cut for the first leg on June 26. From left: Metropolitan Council Chair Peter Bell, U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo, Gov Tim Pawlenty, U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, and Federal Transit Administration Administrator Jennifer Dorn (foreground). Forward thinkers will want to visit the Bloomington Central Station to preview a $600 million, 43-acre development with condos, a resort and commercial space planned by McGough Construction and the City of Bloomington. Visitors may tour a furnished condo model and see why this will be a great location to live, work, shop and play. Commuters from Bloomington and Dakota County will want to check out the 600-car park-and-ride lot at the 28th Avenue Station, just three blocks east of the Mall of America. They can see how convenient it will be to park free and ride the train downtown in 30 minutes or less. Shoppers can exercise their credit cards at both ends of the light-rail line. Holiday sales will be in full swing at the Mall of America and in downtown Minneapolis. Shoppers can get off at the Nicollet Mall and enjoy the TCF Holidazzle Parade or ride to the Warehouse District for hot chocolate. Four stations will host celebrations sure to dazzle the entire family. Here’s a schedule of what passengers will find when they get off the train. |
Bus Stopped; How an attempt to make the 38 Geary bus work became another senseless San Francisco social causeSF Weekly (California) November 24, 2004 About a year ago, Jay Primus boarded the 38 Geary bus on the west side of Market Street and rode it through the Tenderloin District, jostling, swerving, and spending as much time stopped as moving, until he finally arrived at Van Ness Avenue, a mile up the street. There, Primus disembarked, turned left, walked a block to O’Farrell Street, and boarded the 38 eastbound to Market again. In all, Primus repeated this round trip 40 times, armed with a clipboard and a stopwatch. “We all know the Geary bus is kind of screwed up, but I needed to find out exactly what was wrong,” says Primus, who until recently worked as an intern at the San Francisco Municipal Railway, which operates the city’s bus system. “Every time the bus stopped, I was writing down why, and how long. That includes loading passengers, waiting behind a double-parked vehicle, waiting to pull out from a double-parked vehicle. You start from zero and then write down 38 seconds. It resulted in a really big spreadsheet with all that data.” Primus, 28, had previously worked in the software world, designing user interfaces, which, he says, involved “trying to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, [with] empathy. It informs everything we do, whether it’s writing for other people, or designing a good map, or a project like the 38 Geary. “It’s identifying needs, identifying goals, or really good analysis, like trying to fix something like this.” Ah, how pleasant it is to hear the youthful twitter of a private-sector engineer entering government for the first time. He looks around himself and sees a candy store of problems, which, with the deft application of engineering, design, and management principles, can actually be fixed. Just like that. If he’s bright, enthusiastic, and idealistic enough, he’ll scurry from cubicle to cubicle with an evangelist’s grin, reigniting a spark that went dark eons ago in his fellow engineers, planners, managers, and overseers. Inevitably, however, the engineer — whether he be a designer of sewage systems, public health care systems, or city transport networks — will run into a bug so confounding it can’t be repaired. Some things don’t work properly, he will discover, because people don’t particularly want them to. Three years ago in this space I imagined a coming citywide conflict over plans for an overhauled, vastly more efficient system of bus, trolley, and subway transit designed to make San Francisco’s public transportation system a reasonable option to automobile use. Once the dust settled, I predicted, a much larger proportion of San Franciscans might find it easier to ride the bus than drive, and this change would benefit all of us, whether or not we ever dropped a dime in a Muni toll box. Traffic for those still driving would ease. The city would become less polluted. People wouldn’t get run over by cars nearly as often. According to internal documents I obtained at that time, Muni planners wanted to install bus-only lanes along major transit thoroughfares such as Geary, Van Ness, Potrero, and Mission. Ultimately, this high-speed transit grid might speed someone from the Richmond District to Richmond, Calif., in minutes, rather than the hours it now takes. But before this could even begin to happen, I predicted at the time, a war would need to play out, with transit planners on one side, and people who didn’t want to lose parking spaces to bus lanes, and who didn’t want to see automobile traffic slow down in deference to buses, and who didn’t want to lose their favorite bus stops on the other. That battle has now begun. About 400 people have signed a petition opposing a Muni plan to make bus travel along Geary and O’Farrell streets swifter, more reliable, and more comfortable because the plan involves removing five bus stops from the Tenderloin. For Tenderloin residents who’ve gotten used to having bus stops on every block, the Muni plan is another example of fat cats in government neglecting a poor neighborhood. For transit planners, public transit advocates, and representatives for the elderly and disabled, who use public transit in large numbers, this change is actually a first step toward making transit work better citywide. Like many firms that took care in picking over the spoils of San Francisco’s multimedia implosion, Muni obtained an uber-intern. Jay Primus was not only a design specialist, he was also armed with the optimistic sense of possibility that characterized many who came to San Francisco for the 1990s dot-com revolution. Soon after starting work a year ago, Primus volunteered to study what was wrong with the 38 Geary line, a crucial, 54,000-rider-a-day transit artery that is one of the city’s least reliable, least comfortable, and slowest. The dysfunction of the 38 Geary line, transit planners and advocates believe, helps encourage thousands of residents of the Richmond and Western Addition districts to clog downtown with their cars during the morning and evening commutes, stalling traffic, exacerbating street-level pollution, and making life far more dangerous for residents of the Tenderloin and South of Market areas. After Primus completed his bus-riding sojourn and built his database of delay, he suggested some changes; they were so good that Muni brass told him to write an implementation plan. The result was a low-cost proposal to increase the reliability and speed of the 38 Geary. This would be a precursor to a bus rapid-transit line from downtown to the ocean, part of a citywide plan drafted in 2001 to move San Franciscans along the city’s main corridors at the speed of BART. “The way we see it is it’s part of a bus rapid-transit network that was approved by voters last year,” says Andrew Sullivan, executive director of the transit advocacy group Rescue Muni. “We see this as an interim step toward bus rapid transit.” The elder advocate group Senior Action Network, whose constituents represent an outsize portion of transit riders, was excited about the plan. “There are seniors throughout the Richmond District,” the senior group’s Bob Planthold says. Some Tenderloin residents, who benefit from having a bus stop, figuratively speaking, at their front doors, opposed the plan. “Tenderloin’s 30,000 residents once again are seeing our neighborhood treated as a place that people go through, not a real neighborhood with real people and real needs,” says Michael Nulty, who circulated an anti-bus-stop-removal petition that garnered 400 signatures, mostly from outside the neighborhood. “They came up with a plan, forced it on us.” Progressive supervisors, led by Chris Daly, jumped aboard, characterizing the 38 Geary revamp as an affront to the low-income and disproportionately disabled residents of the Tenderloin. Thus another questionable San Francisco social cause was born. But it’s not a social cause in the peace versus war, poverty versus plenty, right versus wrong variety. Rather, it’s a dubious social cause in the San Francisco mold, in which the passionate few who benefit from the way things are battle against the dispassionate many who would benefit if things were changed to work better. In San Francisco, proposed changes in the status quo require proof of perfection, while the requirements of stasis are nil. In the end, both supporters and opponents of the 38 Geary changes invoke the ideas of sympathy for the elderly, the infirm, children, and mothers. “It’s whether these people have to walk another block, wait a little longer. With no supermarket, no core service, families with children with groceries in their arms are going to have to be walking all that time,” says Tenderloin neighborhood activist Richard Allman, advocating to keep all the Tenderloin stops, even if the bus is so slow few with workaday schedules can use it. “What about parents with babies and strollers? That is a burdened constituency that needs to know the bus is going to arrive on time,” says Planthold, speaking for fewer Tenderloin stops and a faster bus ride. The truth is, removing a quarter of the bus stops in the Tenderloin, where bus stops are now on every block, will inconvenience a quarter of the residents, while greater reliability will improve things for the rest of them, as well as making the bus swifter and more reliable along the rest of the line. If the changes work, and people choose to ride the bus rather than drive downtown from the west side, then tens of thousands of pedestrians, drivers, and residents will benefit. And if those good effects create momentum for improving efficiency on other bus lines, commuters, bicyclists, motorists, and residents who may or may not be in motion will be blessed by a city not clogged by smelly, dangerous, noisy traffic. This, at least, is what Primus had in mind when he began riding the bus back and forth between Market and Van Ness a year ago. “It’s been frustrating,” says Primus, now a transit consultant with the transportation design firm Nelson/Nygaard. “I worked at Muni over a year, and it was an interesting process to see how these civil servants really work to make things better for everyone, and then encounter a lot of opposition. The plan has been described as yet another example of people in the Tenderloin being trod upon and getting the short end of the stick, when really it’s to make things better.” It’s precious, listening to engineers talk about how they’d like to make San Francisco work better for everyone. Precious, but usually futile. |
People in Brighton and Hove are leaving their cars at home and catching the bus to work. The council’s ambitious approach to public transport is beginning to work wonders. It’s been an exciting journey, says Mark GouldThe Guardian (London) — Final Edition November 24, 2004 ‘We’ve just missed Lord Olivier. But don’t worry, Dame Flora Robson will be along in four minutes 40 seconds.” It’s slightly surreal situations like this that are making the people of Brighton and Hove a lot happier about public transport and gaining the local authority’s approach to transport a lot of admirers in bus-friendly cities from Edinburgh to Hong Kong. Over 120 city buses are named after famous Brightonians and a clever information system at 120 bus stops means that passengers know exactly when thespians like Lord Olivier and Dame Flora, former world champion boxer Chris Eubank or even the artist Aubrey Beardsley are due in. The council is streets ahead of the rest of the UK in attracting people on to the buses and out of their cars. In 2000, its local transport plan set a tough 10-year target of a 5% year-on-year increase in passengers and it’s well on the way to meeting it. Last year there were 34,265,000 bus journeys in the area — a 5% increase on 2002-03 and on target to meet the 2010 goal. When you consider that a bus can carry the same number of passengers as 22 cars, cutting pollution and improving fuel efficiency are vital. An air quality survey in August this year revealed levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution from car exhausts were higher than government limits. So the council asked as many people and interest groups as possible how they wanted transport improved. And by transport they mean buses provided by Brighton and Hove Bus Company, as there is no other major mass transit system in the area. Carolyn Dwyer, the council’s director of sustainable transport, says they took advice from over 300 groups representing residents, education and business. Armed with a massive pool of data, the transport strategy was developed with the key themes of reducing congestion, improving air quality and providing choice. “We went to hundreds of meetings where people told us that they didn’t use buses because it was difficult to get on and off with a child and a buggy or that they were stuck in traffic when they were on them.” They commissioned transport researchers from the University of London to devise some novel solutions. And the academics came free because the council allowed them to use all the survey data for other work. They came up with plans for a major revamp of the 120 bus stops in Brighton and Hove so that people in wheelchairs or with children can get on easily. The bus company played its part and bought 18 new, low-emission, easy-access buses at a cost of £3m. These buses need special, longer bus stops — the buses themselves “kneel down” when they park so there is no gap between the pavement and the bus. Bus stops are all linked into the Real Time Information system jointly run by the council and the bus company. Solar-powered information boards at bus stops provide bus timings. Buses are fitted with GPS satellite navigation systems so control rooms can track progress and display arrival times on the information boards. Dwyer says this eases congestion. “We also have cameras in the city centre that can identify gridlocks, or places where red traffic lights are causing delays for buses, and switch them so that the bus gets priority.” Brighton is due to see some major building work including an Olympic ice rink; a towering leisure and residential centre designed by Frank Gehry of Guggenheim Museum Bilbao fame, and a massive marina development. To link these projects with the pubs and clubs in the west of the city the next step is a fast transit super-bus with a limited number of stops. The number 7 bus that serves the pub and club district now runs round the clock and has been christened the “24/7” service. Dwyer says this has been well received by the police and customers. “The police were happy that it gets people off the streets quickly and customers feel safer as they know they can stay in the pub or club until the exact time they have to leave to catch the bus.” Buses are also being used to help people take exercise and get out into the countryside. The “Take the Bus for a Walk” deal with the National Trust provides a map and a series of walks on Devil’s Dyke or the Sussex Downs that start and finish at a bus stop. Gill Mitchell, chair of the council’s environment committee, who endorsed Brighton’s bid for this award, says a council best-value survey revealed 80% satisfaction for the service and 74% satisfaction with bus service information. “We are happy with the results. Our target is for 80% of the population to be living within easy reach of a daytime service every 10 minutes.” The Guardian Public Services Award for transport was sponsored by Mouchel Parkman Runner-up Blackpool council introduced a bus service to deprived areas of the city in 2002; the service has now been extended. The Lifestyle Line provides links between employment and leisure. East Riding of Yorkshire council has introduced Flexibus, targeting rural villages, Medibus, taking people to hospital, and Mibus, using community transport to bring villagers into towns for shopping. |
Commuter line might compete with monorailLas Vegas Review-Journal (Nevada) November 25, 2004 Whenever the troubled Las Vegas Monorail gets up and running again, it might find its monopoly on rapid transit service near the Strip won’t last indefinitely. Plans for a light rail or high-speed bus commuter line could encroach on the monorail’s resort corridor turf. The monorail has been closed since September due to breakdowns. Such a commuter line is expected to run behind the west side of the Strip along Frank Sinatra Drive and possibly Industrial Road as soon as 2012. The monorail runs behind the Strip’s east side. ‘That’s where the core of our employment and retail and entertainment offerings are,’ Jacob Snow, general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission, said this week. But Snow believes the monorail and commuter lines would serve different rider groups: the former carrying tourists and the latter hauling resort workers from park-and-ride lots to their jobs. ‘We don’t think it’ll be competition to the monorail,’ Snow said. ‘The two of them would be complimentary.’ That’s probably so, monorail spokesman Todd Walker said Tuesday. ‘There’s a need to move people in the resort corridor. All transportation options will benefit,’ Walker said. ‘There might be a slight overlap, but there’s enough room.’ Plans are still in the works for the commuter line, tentatively called CAT Rail, which initially would ply a 33-mile route from around the Nevada State College in Henderson along existing Union Pacific Railroad tracks to Sinatra. There, the line would then follow Sinatra north to Industrial, then to a new transit center planned at Main Street and Bonneville Avenue. >From there, the line would run northeasterly along Fifth Street, Centennial Parkway and Pecos Road to a North Las Vegas terminal. The line could cost between $300 million and $900 million to build, depending on whether it’s a bus or rail-based line. So far, the project has just $1 million in federal seed money. If financing is obtained, construction is unlikely to start before 2009, with an opening no sooner than 2012. Strip stops have not been set, but could include Bellagio, Caesar’s Palace, Fashion Show mall, the Forum Shops and Mandalay Bay, among other properties. ‘If you’re going to work at the Bellagio, that’s where you go, off of Frank Sinatra. All the employee parking is there,’ said Snow, adding that he envisions a commuter line as an eventual replacement for those lots. ‘You look at that land and it’s so expensive, some valued at $10 million an acre or more. To continue to use that land for employee parking is very inefficient,’ Snow said. ‘We do have a number of areas along the route identified for park-and-ride lots.’ Snow also believes plans for Project CityCenter — MGM Mirage’s 66-acre hotel, casino, residential and retail mega-development between Monte Carlo and Bellagio — will create additional ridership demand and prompt the need for new transit alternatives along the traffic-choked Strip. ‘We’re really optimistic about being able to work with the developers there. We really are concerned with that kind of density,’ Snow said. ‘If we don’t have that kind of transit, we’ll have a real serious mobility problem.’ A citizens advisory group known as the Regional Fixed Guideway Steering Committee is now considering modes, stations and amenities. It plans to host public hearings in January. EYEING MONORAIL ALTERNATIVES A proposed CAT Rail rapid transit line could run behind the west side of the Strip, near the Las Vegas Monorail’s route. |
Knappster: Sibling warfare tearing apart longtime Nevada Beverage Co.Las Vegas Mercury November 25, 2004 A monorail Thanksgiving thought Welcome, all of you out-of-towners here for the long holiday weekend. As you might notice, our fabulous Las Vegas Monorail still is not available for your use. You can, however, ride the other monorail, the one that is owned and operated by the Mandalay properties on the west side of the Strip. It works just fine and always has. The Mandalay monorail, by the way, was funded entirely by a private company and it still generates tax revenue for the public coffers. The Las Vegas Monorail, on the other hand, was exempted from paying any taxes, a deal that was worked out in a backroom and wasn’t made public until reporters found out about it. Hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving here. If you have a minute, stop off at Paradise Road and take a look at our town’s biggest, shiniest and most expensive turkey. |
Bids to run individual rail lines encouragedWestern Morning News (Plymouth) November 25, 2004 This week the Government announced the details of its Community Rail Development Strategy — an initiative designed to increase passengers on rural branch lines while at the same time driving down costs. Fears that the strategy would turn out to be “Beeching II” — a repeat of when British Railways Board chairman Dr Richard Beeching oversaw the closure of 2,000 little-used stations — have been largely unfounded. However the strategy, devised by the Strategic Rail Authority, stops short of an all-out commitment to fund the rural rail routes ad infinitum. It is unclear quite what practical role the “community” will play in the strategy, although local councils, businesses and enthusiasts are all expected to play a role. For its part, the SRA has ruled out making Cornwall’s four branch lines — Liskeard-Looe, St Ives-St Erth, Truro-Falmouth and Par-Newquay — into so-called “microfranchises” in the immediate future. That move would put them into the hands of local companies and remove them from the Greater Western Franchise, which includes all branch lines in the county as well as high-speed links to the capital, which will be granted to one train operator sometime next year and come into force in 2006. The SRA is encouraging forward-thinking firms interested in the individual lines to develop business plans and marketing strategies. Among those interested in taking over one of the rural routes is the Bodmin and Wenford Railway, a successful steam attraction in North Cornwall, which is keeping close eye on developments regarding the scenic Liskeard-Looe line. Manager Roger Webster said the board had already expressed an interest in being involved with the line “if the conditions were right”. “At the end of the day we are running a successful steam railway and this is first and foremost in our minds,” he said. “We are quite aware that running Liskeard-Looe would be completely different, running trains 363 days a year. But we have proved ourselves to be a successful and professional railway. There is no reason why we couldn’t run a regular service.” Mr Webster said they had already had an offer of rolling stock to use on the line and could find ways of cutting costs without losing jobs. He also said they could bring a more creative touch to services on the seven-and-a-half-mile stretch of railway which runs down the valley of the East Looe River. Key working relationships, he explained, would have to be established with Cornwall County Council, Caradon District Council and the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership. “We have got to be realistic that we cannot run the line at a loss and whoever takes it over will require some subsidy,” Mr Webster concluded. “But I believe we could offer an improved service, maintain the track and employ staff on proper wages.” Bodmin and Wenford are not the only ones keen to operate a “microfranchise” on a branch line in Cornwall. The Sterling Service Rail Link is hoping to achieve the same aim on the beautiful St Ives Bay Line. It has already produced a draft business plan and marketing strategy, and is discussing potential working relationships with train operators bidding for the Greater Western franchise. A spokesman for the Strategic Rail Authority said it was pleased with groups’ reaction to the new initiative, saying everyone had a “common goal”. On the issue of “microfranchises”, he said: “We know people feel that way and we are not knocking them back. We are not ruling it out, we are just saying not yet.” |
Chinese bid for UK rail franchises: Hong Kong firm, with 99% punctuality record, wants to run British trains: Barcelona group to take over TBIThe Guardian (London) — Final Edition November 25, 2004 A Chinese state-controlled rail operator has made a surprise entry into Britain’s rail industry, with ambitious plans to bid for franchises covering mainline rail services throughout London and the home counties. Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTR) has struck a deal with the inter-city firm GNER to table a joint bid for a new franchise covering all of Kent. With a punctuality record of 99%, MTR claims to be the world’s most reliable train company. It is listed on the Hong Kong stock market but 77% of its shares are held by Hong Kong’s government. MTR’s operations director, Phil Gaffney, said if it were successful in Kent, it could bid for franchises covering Thameslink, Silverlink and South West Trains. Mr Gaffney said MTR’s plans would include parachuting Hong Kong executives into roles at British train operations. He said the firm would commit itself to a substantial improvement in performance. “We’ve had to work very hard to get an international reputation,” said Mr Gaffney. “There’s no way we’re going to have that reputation destroyed.” The so-called Integrated Kent rail franchise will comprise all services operated by South Eastern Trains, plus high-speed services on the channel tunnel rail link which opens in 2007. GNER and MTR face competition for the franchise from three other shortlisted bidders: FirstGroup, Denmark’s DSB and a joint venture between Go-Ahead and France’s Keolis. GNER’s chief executive, Christopher Garnett, said its expertise in long-distance services would complement MTR’s knowledge of intensive commuter operations. He said: “Kent’s commuters have suffered for too long.” South Eastern Trains has been operated by the government since the network’s French operator, Connex, was sacked for poor financial controls by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) a year ago. Unions say its performance has improved under public ownership. Some 117 MPs have signed an early day motion calling for the refranchising of the service to be halted. More than 3,500 members of the public have sent postcards to the transport secretary, Alistair Darling, calling for it to remain in government hands. It emerged yesterday that the timetable for the potentially unpopular refranchising has slipped until the autumn — after a likely general election in the spring. Keith Norman, acting general secretary of the train drivers’ union Aslef, said any private bids were unwelcome: “To hand the running of this vital public service back to the private sector will be seen as a victory for bankers and big business over the interests of passengers and the public.” The SRA said it would need to approve MTR’s tie-up with GNER. But a spokesman said: “We always welcome possible new entrants to the UK market.” MTR could face a culture shock. In Hong Kong, there is little overcrowding because nearly everybody stands — there are 48 seats in carriages for 300 people. While South Eastern Trains spent £500,000 cleaning graffiti off its trains last year, MTR said vandalism in China was virtually unknown. Mr Gaffney said in Asian cultures, “people value property, in particular other people’s property, too much to destroy it”. If it is successful, MTR will sit alongside other foreign players, the Netherlands’ Ned Railways — which runs services in Merseyside and is soon to take on trains covering much of northern England — and the French firm Keolis, which is co-operator of Southern Trains. Roger Ford, technical editor of Modern Railways magazine, said it was foolish to expect overseas operators to work magic: “MTR is a very good operation in Hong Kong. But they have a brand new system which was built by the Brits. They have brand new trains and a brand new track which has been steadily upgraded and improved. Compare that with Kent and what do they know?” |
Questions raised over two monorail bidders; Documents reveal involvement in court actionsSEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER November 26, 2004 One company on a team bidding to build Seattle’s new monorail system is being sued over fraud allegations, and employees of another company were convicted last year of rigging bids on a power-plant project on a Russian island in the Pacific, according to documents submitted to the Seattle Monorail Project. But a monorail official said both companies — the giant construction firm Washington Group International and the Japanese trading company Mitsui — were qualified to bid on Seattle’s $1.6 billion monorail system because they have the finances and technical know-how to build the 14-mile system. “We’ve received adequate assurances … that the corporations take these things very seriously,” said Ross Macfarlane, the monorail project’s legal affairs director. The issues are “not situations that would be repeated or that we’d be exposed to.” A spokesman for WGI defended the company’s practices and said it will fight the fraud allegations. Representatives from Mitsui were unavailable for comment. But the two companies’ histories concerned Tim Wulf, a frequent monorail critic and co-chairman of the now-idled Monorail Recall Committee. He said the two companies shouldn’t be allowed to build the system. “We must have contractors we can trust,” Wulf said. The allegations and convictions were revealed in a review of documents submitted as part of the 27-member Cascadia Monorail Co. team’s proposal to design, build and operate the new system between West Seattle and Crown Hill. Most details of the bid have been withheld during negotiations, but documents released showed: Boise, Idaho-based WGI is the subject of a long-standing lawsuit filed in Tulsa, Okla., alleging fraud and filing of false claims in the $25 million Tar Creek Superfund cleanup project in that state, which WGI-owned Morrison Knudsen conducted between 1996 and 2001. The suit says the company increased its contract payments by submitting false invoices for a variety of charges, including improperly dumped soil, unauthorized work, and false sampling and laboratory charges. The suit was brought on behalf of the federal government by former employees of Morrison Knudsen and subcontractors who said they were upset over the conduct of the work and became whistle-blowers. It alleges that Morrison Knudsen wrongly maximized profits by using false trucking invoices and laboratory tests in the project. Four people, two of them involved in a subcontracting firm, pleaded guilty and were sentenced in a scheme to provide bogus truck certificates for the work. The suit says two former Morrison Knudsen employees on the job were fired in retaliation for investigating alleged improprieties at the job. WGI is also being accused of fraud and false claims in a suit involving $332.2 million in overseas contracts financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development and performed by Morrison Knudsen, which has since been renamed WGI. The suit, filed by the federal government in federal court in Boise, said Morrison Knudsen and another company brought in an unqualified company to complete work on telecommunication and wastewater facilities in several Egyptian cities starting in the early 1990s and extending through one contract awarded in 2001. The suit says Morrison Knudsen and another firm didn’t disclose their venture with an unqualified Egyptian firm on two contracts. It also says Morrison Knudsen won two other contracts but concealed the presence of two unqualified, inexperienced partners. The government is asking for forfeiture of the $332.2 million and up to $2.6 million in civil penalties plus damages and unspecified costs. No trial dates have been set for either case. WGI spokesman Rod Hunt denied the charges in the two suits, but would not speak in detail. “We work for the government all over the place, and we operate some of the Department of Energy’s largest sites and have for years, and there’s never been a problem with any of these things,” Hunt said. He said given the number of projects WGI completes “on time and on budget … these kinds of things don’t even compute in the big picture of what we’ve done.” He said the allegations about the contracts in Egypt stemmed from management of the work and “has nothing to do with our gaining any more money or trying to get more money out of it in any way.” He said the Oklahoma case came about because “disgruntled former employees got it started and made some claims some things happened that we maintain didn’t happen. In both cases, we will tell our story and be successful in court if we have to do that.” Two employees of Mitsui USA’s parent company, the large Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co. Ltd., were convicted in 2003 of interfering in the bidding process for a power plant funded by the Japanese government. In papers filed with the monorail, Mitsui said neither the company nor any of its affiliates were charged in that case, but the Japanese government barred Mitsui from bidding on other government projects for a month. The two men, received suspended sentences for their role in using a Japanese politician’s influence to force Mitsui competitors out of the bidding to build the plant. A Japanese foreign ministry official also got a suspended term for his role in rigging the bids. The related trial of a second ministry official was still under way this month. Macfarlane, the monorail’s legal-affairs director, said his agency learned of the issues last year when companies submitted information to qualify to bid on the monorail. He said WGI was allowed to bid as part of the team because it strongly disputed the criticisms about its Superfund work and because the court case had yet to be resolved. Mitsui was approved as a member of the Cascadia team, he said, because even as a team member, it will not have primary responsibility for completing the work. He said using only large companies with “spotless corporate history is a standard of perfection that’s impossible to achieve.” He said his agency will take steps to monitor each step of the work and make sure reports are filled out correctly “by knowledgeable and accountable people” before the work is approved. The charges of bid rigging in Japan “are something obviously we’d take very seriously … but we have not found circumstances that would suggest it was happening here.” |
Washington: Streetcars coming back? Anacostia LRT demo project breaks groundLight Rail Now! NewsLog 26 November 2004 Over four decades after streetcars were ripped off the thoroughfares of Washington, DC, maybe they’re making a comeback? The District of Columbia Department of Transportation (DDOT) has just announced that, in cooperation with Metro (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority), it’s planning to build and operate a six-station, 2.7-mile (4.4-km) “passenger rail demonstration project”, apparently using streetcar-type light rail transit (LRT) technology, to serve the Anacostia area in Southeast Washington. (Also see our previous story, Washington, DC: LRT Plans a Comeback.) The rail transit service, known as the Anacostia Light Rail Demonstration project, will use existing CSX railroad right-of-way (the Shepard Branch industrial spur). The service will extend along the east side of the Anacostia River between Bolling Air Force Base and Pennsylvania Avenue, near the John Phillip Sousa Memorial Bridge. [Washington Times, 14 November 2004; District Department of Transportation, 10 November 2004] The project includes the construction of six stops, a maintenance facility, and two power substations, plus the acquisition of three light rail vehicles (LRVs). Service is expected to begin in the fall of 2006. “The newest form of transportation to come to the nation’s capital is moving forward” enthused Washington’s WTOP Radio on 13 November, reporting that the “D.C. Light Rail System Breaks Ground”. The Metro Board has already approved spending about US$16 million dollars for land, site preparations, and the rail cars, reports WTOP. The Washington Times reports that total cost of the project is projected at $55 million (about $20 million per mile). [Washington Times, 14 November 2004; WTOP Radio, 13 Nov. 2004] According to the Washington Times, the “streetcar system … will make it easier for Southeast residents to travel and may stimulate the community’s economy.” Describing light rail as a “powerful economic development tool”, DDOT Director Dan Tangherlini pointed to the light rail line in Portland, Oregon, as a “role model” for what could be done in DC. [Washington Times, 14 November 2004; WTOP Radio, 13 Nov. 2004] |
T-REX PROJECT REACHES MILESTONE; WORK 75% DONE; PARTS OF I-25, I-225 WILL OPEN IN 2005Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado) November 26, 2004 T-REX is 75 percent done and on schedule for its 2006 completion despite more than $60 million in extras added on to Colorado’s biggest public works project since Denver International Airport. Major portions of Interstates 25 and 225 will be completed and open for traffic over the next year, and the transit line from University Boulevard to Broadway will see test trains running by next month. “We’re saying we’re 75 percent complete, but we don’t do a split between highway and light rail,” said Larry Warner, T-REX’s project director for the Colorado Department of Transportation. “But the highway is probably a little ahead of the rail.” Next year, motorists will see the opening of eight through-lanes from the Narrows segment of south Denver to I-225, the completion of new bridges at Colorado Boulevard and Hampden Avenue, the opening of two lanes through the I-225 interchange’s flyover ramp and southbound tunnel, and the opening of six through-lanes on I-225 to Parker Road. The park-n-ride garage at Arapahoe Station will be completed and all of the stations’ surface parking lots will be done except at Colorado Center and County Line Road. The project remains on budget, too, but that doesn’t mean the price tag has stayed the same. T-REX’s original $1.67 billion cost is on target. But over the last four years, CDOT, the Regional Transportation District, and third parties such as Denver, Greenwood Village and private property owners have come up with the money to add $60.1 million worth of extras to the project. That raises the total to just short of $1.73 billion. The new items include $15 million for the replacement of bridges at Colorado Boulevard and Hampden Avenue, which were left out of the original plans because of cost but added after CDOT came up with additional funding. RTD also landed a federal grant to add an $11.5 million electronic data system that will tell transit riders exactly when the next train or bus will arrive at any station. The system also will monitor the number of available parking spaces at park-n-ride lots and display that information to arriving motorists. Denver paid T-REX $2.92 million to add a concrete plaza over the Louisiana-Pearl light-rail station, which is at highway level, and Greenwood Village came up with $7.4 million for several upgrades, including better looking bridges and rail stations and a new design for the Arapahoe Station to lure development. Some of the add-ons were much smaller. The University of Denver paid $7,588 to have T-REX paint the school’s colors on the parking garage at the University light-rail station. And the Parliament Apartments, atop a hill at the I-225 interchange, paid $3,652 to lower the noise wall so it doesn’t obscure the brick sign and flagpoles advertising the complex. The enviable on-time and on-budget record for T-REX is largely the result of a decision by CDOT and RTD to use a relatively new process to |