Rail on a Budget: Nashville's Music City Star

[Ocklawaha]

Riverside Gator, welcome aboard compatriot, glad to find you here.

I think I have a way we can do both, and still get out the door for less then 1/4 to 1/2 the projected cost of the BRT. I agree that light rail downtown is a vital part of ANY rail plan if it is going to work. If you would like, i'll post or send you some links and information on the "plan" as I see it.  

Ocklawaha

[thelakelander]

I think this sort of regional commuter rail puts the cart before the horse.  I think it would be best to start with local light rail and then tie into this the commuter rail system out into the hinterlands.

I think rail is so diverse, it should not come down to a traditional light rail (ex. Dallas' DART) or commuter rail (Nashville's Music City Star) option for Jacksonville.  Instead, I'd suggest studying the potential of a hybrid system, such as Austin's Capital MetroRail or New Jersey's Riverline.  Both of these systems have trains operating on freight railroad tracks.  They also provide service like light rail in denser areas of their communities and act more like commuter rail out in the hinterlands.  Incorporating such a system in Jacksonville would allow us to eliminate portions of the BRT plan, saving hundreds of millions of dollars, without having to spend more constructing a parallelling traditional commuter rail system, as proposed by JTA.

RiverLine route map

In Trenton and Camden, the RiverLine provides light rail like service with several stations located within blocks of each other.  However, in the rural areas between it acts more like traditional commuter rail with stations spaced far apart.

Austin MetroRail

Capital MetroRail (currently under construction) incorporates the same "no-frills" ideas to cutting down implementation costs, while putting a different type of rail vehicle and service on their existing tracks.  They call their hybrid commuter rail system "urban commuter rail".


This is a good way to get something up and running in a relatively short time frame if you live in a community facing a budget crisis that may not be willing to pay for the additional costs of dedicated right-of-way and electrifying lines across Jacksonville from the start.

[Dapperdan]

Why does it seem that every similar metro area to us has commuter rail and we still don't?

[thelakelander]

That's a good question for JTA.  However, not every metro our size has some form of rail or is planning on having it pretty soon.  Jacksonville along with Louisville and Richmond are the three largest metropolitan areas in the United States with no rail rolling on the tracks or no real rail transit improvement plan already in place.  So in our effort to become a global force, we along with two slowing growing cities that have seen better days lead the pack in the fight to become trendsetting powerhouses.

[Lunican]

I think another aspect of public transit that is usually overlooked is the safety record. Everyone is so intent on staying safe from terrorism, meanwhile they hop in their car and drive around, completely ignoring the fact that 45,000 people die each year in this country doing exactly that. Transit is over eighty times safer than riding in a car. The death rate for automobiles is .85 deaths per 100 million miles, while for transit it is .01.

How many people are killed in Jacksonville each year due to traffic accidents?

[big ben]

i think this sort of regional commuter rail puts the cart before the horse.  i think it would be best to start with local light rail and then tie into this the commuter rail system out into the hinterlands.

maybe.  it's hard to tell for me, since i don't know nashville.  i do know of people that commute an hour or more to the central part of a city for work.  if these people happen to live in a largely populated suburb or large, nearby non-burb, it might be beneficial (perhaps like st. augy). 

and if the tracks are existing and using used equipment would be significantly cheaper (factoring in added fuel costs for these monsters of transit), i'd see no problem with it.  i kinda wonder how they couldn't find similarly used light-rail trains, though.  do they wear out quicker?  surely someone with a name signed in large purple font would know.

[Ocklawaha]

Large purple font here Ben,

No they don't wear out quicker. I have photos of a 100+ year old snowplow equiped Interurban (LRT) car clearing the track in Maine, this past winter. The FTA (Federal Transit Administration) applies a 100 year life to the LRT plant and 30+ years to the cars themselves. Since rail equipment comes under different rules, once it's rebuilt it just keeps on running.

I have a large desk fan, that weighs about 10 pounds, that I found in an old church. I cleaned it up, removed 20 coats of paint, reattached a few wires and bingo, it runs like Moodys Goose and blows a hurricane. I share this story because that big motor is built the same way as a electric traction motor on a LRT. When I went to put the old plate on the bottom of the fan I noticed a big metal stamp... It says, "GENERAL ELECTRIC, NOV 1911."  

Ocklawaha