CURITIBA'S BRT MELTDOWN!

Photos: Curitiba Brazil, LIGHT RAIL to the rescue

Photos: Curitiba Highly praised BRT

The Road to Curitiba

By ARTHUR LUBOW
Published: May 20, 2007

Today, Curitiba remains a pilgrimage destination for urbanists fascinated by its bus system, garbage-recycling program and network of parks. It is the answer to what might otherwise be a hypothetical question: How would cities look if urban planners, not politicians, took control?

Although the children who paint on Saturday mornings are no longer needed to protect the downtown shopping street from cars, the battle to keep Curitiba green is never-ending. Indeed, some say it is going badly these days. The rivers, once crystalline, reek of untreated sewage. The bus system that has won admirers throughout the world appears to be nearing capacity; what’s more, Curitiba, by some measures, has a higher per capita ownership of private cars than any city in Brazil — even exceeding BrasÃlia, a city that was designed for cars. Curitiba’s garbage-recycling rate has been declining over the last six or seven years, and the only landfill in the municipal region will be full by the end of 2008. Jorge Wilheim, the São Paulo architect who drafted Curitiba’s master plan in 1965, says: “When we made the plan, the population was 350,000. We thought in a few years it would reach 500,000. But it has grown much bigger.” The municipality of Curitiba today has 1.8 million people, and the population of the metropolitan region is 3.2 million. “I know the plan of Curitiba is very famous, and I am the first to enjoy it, but that was in ’65,” Wilheim continues. “The metropolitan region must have a new vision.”

It is often said of Curitiba that it doesn’t feel like Brazil. Depending on who’s speaking, that can be intended as a compliment or a criticism. Populated by European immigrants in the 19th century, Curitiba has a demographic makeup that is largely more fair-skinned and well educated than that of Brazil’s tropical north. It is also unusually affluent. Unlike São Paulo, with its startling extremes of wealth and poverty, much of Curitiba to an American eye looks familiarly middle class. Even the scruffy used-car lots have a seediness reminiscent of Los Angeles, not the Rio de Janeiro of “City of God.” The city, especially the large downtown, is very clean, thanks to municipal sanitation trucks and the freelance carrinheiros, or cart people, who pick up trash to sell at recycling centers.

Curitiba’s rapid-transit buses can move 36,000 passengers an hour, a cheap alternative to a subway system.

Despite its development as a city for public transportation, Curitiba is said to have more cars per capita than any other city in Brazil.

During my visit to Curitiba in March, the city was the host of an international biodiversity conference. While I hadn’t known of it when I scheduled my trip, the coincidence was about as remarkable as finding a design show to greet you in Milan or a wine festival under way in Bordeaux. Environmentalism is the heart of Curitiba’s self-identity, and the municipal government is always devising new schemes that showcase the brand. The rest of the world has caught on, if not yet caught up. Ecological awareness is architecturally trendy. This year’s winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize is Richard Rogers, a longtime proponent of mass transit, lower energy consumption and ecologically sensitive buildings. Commercially, real-estate developers from Beijing to Santa Monica are brandishing their LEED certificates (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) as they market condominiums and office suites to green-minded consumers. While it is unusually ambitious, the 25-year plan that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, proposed last month for New York is part of an international wave of recognition that cities must live more responsibly, especially when it comes to their effusions of climate-warming gases and their excretions of mountains of solid waste. Bloomberg’s most contentious idea — a “congestion tax” on cars entering traffic-clogged districts during peak hours — has been working for more than four years in London (and more than 30 years in Singapore) to increase the numbers of people using public transportation. Interestingly, Curitiba adopted an opposite approach, brandishing a carrot instead of a stick. The city planners suspected that public transportation would attract more users if it was more attractive. And that reasonable assumption turned out to be correct.

The efficient buses that zip across the Curitiba metropolitan region are the most conspicuously un-Brazilian feature of the city. Instead of descending into subway stations, Curitibanos file into ribbed glass tubes that are boarding platforms for the rapid-transit buses. (The glass tubes resemble the “fosteritos” that Norman Foster later designed for the metro in Bilbao, Spain.) Curitiba has five express-bus avenues, with a sixth in development, to allow you to traverse the city with speedy dispatch. In the early 1970s, most cities investing in public transportation were building subways or light-rail networks. Curitiba lacked the resources and the time to install a train system. Lerner says that compared with the Curitiba bus network, a light rail system would have required 20 times the financial investment; a subway would have cost 100 times as much. “We tried to understand, what is a subway?” he recalls. “It has to have speed, comfort, reliability and good frequency. But why does it have to be underground? Underground is very expensive. With dedicated lanes and not stopping on every corner, we could do it with buses.” Because widening the avenues would have required a lengthy and costly expropriation process, the planners came up with a “trinary” system that embraced three parallel thoroughfares: a large central avenue dedicated to two-way rapid-bus traffic (flanked by slow lanes for cars making short local trips) and, a block over on each side, an avenue for fast one-way automobile traffic.

When the bus system was inaugurated, it transported 54,000 passengers daily. That number has ballooned to 2.3 million, in large part because of innovations that permit passengers to board and exit rapidly. In 1992, Lerner and his team established the tubular boarding platforms with fare clerks and turnstiles, so that the mechanisms for paying and boarding are separated, as in a subway. To carry more people at a time, the city introduced flexible-hinged articulated buses that open their doors wide for rapid entry and egress; then, when the buses couldn’t cope with the demand, the Lerner team called for bi-articulated buses of 88 feet with two hinges (and a 270-passenger capacity), which Volvo manufactured at Curitiba’s request. Comparing the capacities of bus and subway systems, Lerner reels off numbers with a promoter’s panache. “A normal bus in a normal street conducts x passengers a day,” he told me. “With a dedicated lane, it can transport 2x a day. If you have an articulated bus in a dedicated lane, 2.7x passengers. If you add a boarding tube, you can achieve 3.4x passengers, and if you add double articulated buses, you can have four times as many passengers as a normal bus in a normal street.” He says that with an arrival frequency of 30 seconds, you can transport 36,000 passengers every hour — which is about the same load he would have achieved with a subway.

Unfortunately, the trends of bus usage are down. While the system has expanded to cover 13 of the cities in the metropolitan region, charging a flat fare that in practice subsidizes the trips of the mostly poorer workers who live in outlying areas, bus ridership within the Curitiba municipality has been declining. “We are losing bus passengers and gaining cars,” says Luis Fragomeni, a Curitiba urban planner. He observes that, like potential users of public transport everywhere, many Curitibanos view it as noisy, crowded and unsafe. Undermining the thinking behind the master plan, even those who live alongside the high-density rapid-bus corridors are buying cars. “The licensing of cars in Curitiba is 2.5 times higher than babies being born in Curitiba,” he says. “Trouble.” Because cars are status symbols, attempts to discourage people from buying them are probably futile. “We say, ‘Have your own car, but keep it in the garage and use it only on weekends,’ ” Fragomeni remarks. And the public-transport system must be upgraded continuously to remain an appealing alternative to private vehicles. “That competition is very hard,” says Paulo Schmidt, the president of URBS, the rapid-bus system. During peak hours, buses on the main routes are already arriving at almost 30-second intervals; any more buses, and they would back up. While acknowledging his iconoclasm in questioning the sufficiency of Curitiba’s trademark bus network, Schmidt nevertheless says a light-rail system is needed to complement it.

To read the complete 6 page article on how this "recycle city," is fighting for it's life, click:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/magazine/20Curitiba-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ei=5087&em&en=76ecdf33645cffa5&ex=1179892800

Passenger Rail Making Money? They said it couldn't be done!

Photo: Station - Gare De Lyon, France, on the outside not unlike Jacksonville Terminal

July 15, 2008

French Trains Turn $1.75B Profit, Leave American Rail in the Dust
by Ben Fried

The Guardian reports that SNCF, France's national rail company, is taking advantage of a boom in ridership to make aggressive plans for expansion. While SNCF positions itself to help ease the impact of high fuel prices on the French public, what are American leaders preparing to do? Drilling offshore and taking a few hits from the strategic petroleum reserve aren't going to cut it.
Over in France, all the new riders have SNCF chairman Guillaume Pepy thinking big:
The state-owned SNCF delivered a net €1.1bn (£875m) profit last year and first-half figures, due next week, are said to be sparkling. Pepy envisages up to 80m extra passenger trips this year or an increase of around 8%.

"This change will speed up because we are facing a twin energy and environment crisis," he says, pointing to surging fuel costs and growing personal worries about carbon footprints. "People want sustainable mobility and, in France, more trains and more SNCF."

The growing number of passengers is maxing out the current system, which Pepy sees as an opportunity, especially in a time of escalating fuel prices. He wants to double the size of SNCF's high-speed network by 2015, make rail stations into multi-modal hubs, and capture market share from energy-intensive air and road travel.

The new SNCF chairman sees rail stations, mainly in the regions, becoming new transport (and commercial) hubs not just for trains but for buses and trams -- "all those places where people don't want to bring their cars."

SNCF executives believe rail can take market leadership from air and road on journeys up to four hours long and point to the success of Eurostar (part owned by the group) in increasing traffic so far this year by around a fifth on the back of shorter journey times between London and Brussels/Paris. You can even get to Marseille from Paris in little more than three hours.
Contrast to the attitude among many politicians and opinion leaders here in the U.S. -- typified by this Wall Street Journal op-ed -- which views public management of rail systems skeptically, to put it mildly. Congress may be taking a long-overdue step toward investing more in Amtrak, but that is triage compared to the direction SNCF is heading in, as high-speed train service in
Europe widens its already considerable performance lead over American intercity rail.

MASS TRANSIT MIX - A HUGE LESSON FOR JACKSONVILLE

WHAT WOULD A STREETCAR AND SKYWAY DO FOR JTA BUSES?

Trends Blur Line Between Bus and Train
Elisa Crouch and Ken Leiser
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

MISSOURI - For years, many St. Louis transit riders fell into one of two camps.

After it opened in 1993, MetroLink appealed largely to middle-income riders who used light rail to get to college campuses along the tracks, to office buildings in downtown St. Louis, and to special events at Busch Stadium, the Trans World (now Edward Jones) Dome and the Kiel (now Scottrade) Center. Most had cars in the driveway.

Bus riders were generally working-class, and many of them had fewer options when it came to getting around. The bus was more a necessity than a choice.

But the latest research put together by the Metro transit agency shows some erosion in those class divisions.

Part of the reason is the way today's MetroLink is fed by the bus system.

MetroLink operates as more of a hub-and-spoke network these days, where buses feed the trains - and vice versa. That means many traditional bus riders use the trains for parts of their trips. There also are more bus transfer centers, including those at Hampton Avenue and Gravois Road, Broadway and Taylor Avenue, and Ballas Road and Highway 40.

Growth of the MetroLink system and new express bus service has extended the reach of transit as well, making it available to more people.

Another reason, of course, is that gas prices have shot up to nearly $4 a gallon. So the group of people who see transit as a necessity - or a bargain - has grown a bit.

Half of today's bus riders say they have a car, truck or motorcycle in their household, according to preliminary findings of this year's onboard customer survey. In 1993, about 70 percent of bus riders said they either didn't have a car available to them or didn't drive.

In this year's survey, 3 percent of bus riders reported household incomes of $100,000 or more. By way of comparison, 8 percent of MetroLink riders were part of that income bracket.

Most bus riders have Internet access (61 percent), own a cell phone (70 percent) and use text messaging (58 percent), according to the survey.

Thirty percent of bus riders have been riding less than two years. Those newer bus riders, according to the survey, tend to have slightly higher incomes than established riders.

"We've seen a lot of the kind of stereotypes of these rider groups kind of disappear as time has gone on," said J. Todd Hennessy, manager of market research at Metro.

"It's a more diverse system," said Jessica Mefford-Miller, the agency's director of research and development.

Tom Shrout of Citizens for Modern Transit said that he had heard the knock that MetroLink was at odds with the bus system, but that he had never subscribed to it. "The bus system was in free fall until MetroLink opened," he said. "The ridership on MetroLink helped stabilize the bus system."

Shrout says a transit system that appeals to more people stands to be more robust than one that does not. He points to development popping up along the Forest Park-to-Shrewsbury MetroLink line as evidence of that.

6,000 New Jobs Unloaded At Tri-Pack Terminal

JAXPORT welcomes first direct Asian container serviceMOL container chip arrives in Jacksonville six months ahead of schedule July 7, 2008 -- JAXPORT officials, Mayor John Peyton and members of the Jacksonville City Council gathered at Blount Island Marine Terminal on July 7 to greet the first Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) container vessel to call on Jacksonville.
The event marks the arrival of the first direct cargo service between Jacksonville and Asian markets. The MOL Vision arrived six months ahead of the scheduled opening of the new 158-acre TraPac Container Terminal at JAXPORT’s Dames Point property. The Vision traveled from Ningbo, China through the Panama Canal before reaching Jacksonville, its first U.S. port of call.
“This is truly a momentous occasion,” said JAXPORT Executive Director Rick Ferrin, who was at the dock to meet the MOL vessel. “The arrival of this ship marks the true beginning of all-water service from Asia to Jacksonville through the Panama Canal, which will be a major economic stimulus for our region.”
As the future base of MOL’s U.S. South Atlantic port activities, TraPac will offer state-of-the-art post-Panamax container handling systems with a yearly capacity of 800,000 containers.
MOL noted that increasing development in South Georgia and North Florida is quickly making Jacksonville one of North America’s rising stars of international trade. With nearly 50 major distribution centers within miles of JAXPORT and 17,000 acres of available building and expansion capacity, JAXPORT is fast becoming the premier South Atlantic port for shippers looking to take advantage of its strategic location.
The TraPac Container Terminal at Dames point will double JAXPORT’s container handling capacity. In addition the terminal is expected to create 6,000 new jobs and generate $1 billion in economic activity for the region

BECOMING PRO-ACTIVE, AMTRAKS MISSING MARKET PART ONE

INCREDIBLE MISSING AMTRAK MARKET

By Robert Mann

From Coast to Coast, Amtrak provides fast comfortable trains. After 30+ years of bare bones financial support from the US Government, Amtrak has finally secured a veto proof majority to give the system funds to get things up and running, repair the broken pieces and even look at limited expansion. Included in the expansion are plans to assist States and local transportation authorities to secure matching grants, and funding for new trains. Some rules provide for small starts while others allow entire groups of states to band together in massive corridor-like efforts.

To the railroad historian, one of the more mysterious facts of Amtrak, was it's replacement of the once rich Midwest-Florida market with just one train, "The Southwind". Even up until the time of Amtrak in 1971, the railroads had maintained a fairly rich selection of trains in this area. "The City of Miami" was one such train with a record for being sold out. And yes, the "City" was a sister of the famous "City of New Orleans" as they shared about 50% of their route miles. Another little known route was the (Montgomery) "Champion". A tiny connecting train that clicked off the miles over the old Atlantic Coast Line, nee Seaboard Coast Line, between Jacksonville - Waycross - Valdosta - Dothan - Montgomery. In Montgomery it met the flagship of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad's "Pan American" as it raced south from Louisville - Nashville - Birmingham - Montgomery and headed off for Mobile - Biloxi and New Orleans. Never to be confused with the flagship "East and West Coast Champion" trains of the New York - Tampa and Miami market fame, this tiny little train kept the rails polished. It was a nightmare era, a railroading holocaust, a time when through sleeping car first class trains, became coach only. When names that carried meaning, special dining and lounge cars, special services and extra fares, became nameless, numbered and inept endurance tests. The former through patron from Detroit to Miami, might find him or herself wandering across the Midwest on the Penn Central to get to a station in Louisville for a sprint to Atlanta on the Hummingbird. The 23 hour layover in the wrong part of town brought to you by the crash and burn of the industry.

Upon reaching Atlanta, the Dixie Flyer to Jacksonville had just been discontinued, so one would wander over to catch the Central of Georgia Railroad, "Nancy Hanks" to Savannah. The Nancy was at least well kept, even though stripped of her mail contract, she was down to a couple of express cars and a single coach. Finally hooking up with the Silver Meteor, Star, Palmetto, Champion or Everglades for Jacksonville and points south, the railroads assured the return trip would be via National Airlines.

As Amtrak entered into this unstable sinking business, it is said that government teams combed through every route, every ridership number, track capacity, on-time performance, market potential and some such. When the smoke cleared, they chose the "Southwind" route and twisted Penn Centrals arm into running the Louisville - Chicago segment for their new railroad, after all, as the slogan said, "We're making trains worth traveling again..." Sadly they conveniently left off the part about Louisville to Chicago at a gut rocking 15 miles per hour.

No one it seems turned the pages back just a few years prior to Amtrak's rough founding hours. No one noticed their had been a brisk Florida market at one time, not so long ago. In fact in the early 1960's it was possible to book a Pullman room direct on through trains from Jacksonville to New Orleans, Montgomery, Birmingham, Memphis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Cleveland etc. Other railroads, namely The Southern Railway (today's Norfolk Southern) and many other routes had just been cleansed of the passenger train menace just a few years shy of Amtrak. The boys in Washington never heard the words: St. Louis-San Francisco (Frisco), or Kansas City Southern, Central of Georgia, or Georgia Southern and Florida. In that oversight they missed entire families of trains and routes. One of the most promising was that of the old Southern Railway, in conjunction with connections north of Cincinnati, that operated an incredible pair of Midwest - Florida trains, apparently never to be considered again.

I'd like to reverse that trend, wake up the United Rail Alliance, and the National Association of Railroad Passengers, as well as Amtrak, FDOT, GDOT, JTA and the cities involved to push for the return of one or two of these three famous flagship trains. The Royal Palm, Royal Poinciana, and Ponce De Leon, gathered cars from throughout the northern Midwest. Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Toledo, Buffalo, Dayton, Indianapolis and herded them into Cincinnati Union Terminal. Usually taking all or parts of 3 connector trains and forming one great streamliner at a time, the process was repeated 3 times daily Southbound and likewise, broken into 3 connecting trains, 3 times daily Northbound. South of Cincinnati, all the way through Lexington, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Macon, Valdosta, Jacksonville and all the way to Miami, one great train could cover the schedule. Jacksonville Terminal comes into play if you consider that the train could be broken up again here for both coasts of Florida. One train doing the work of 6, by breaking into, or consolidation from sections en-route. 3 trains doing the work of 18, reaching all across the Midwest, and considering bi-directional operation. That could grow to 3 northbound and 3 southbound trains daily each breaking up or consolidating, equals 6 trains doing the work of 54! Talk about bang for the buck, and this is a route no one has looked back at.

Ponce De Leon, Royal Poinciana or Royal Palm, pick the name you like the best and lets turn up the heat on the "NEW" Amtrak. It's way past time to return the glory to Jacksonville Terminal.

Amtrak took over nearly all rail passenger service in 1971
Illnois Central is part of Canadian National Today
Kansas City Southern remains independent and freight only
St Louis - San Francisco (Frisco lines) is part of Burlington Northern Santa Fe
Georgia Railroad is part of CSX today and freight only
Southern Railway merged with Norfolk and Western to form Norfolk Southern
Atlantic Coast Line is the original parent road of todays CSX
A tale of two cities, by Charles Dickens
Georgia Southern and Florida is part of Norfolk Southern and freight only
Louisville and Nashville was owned by Atlantic Coast Line and is part of CSX today
Pullman was a hotel company on rails broken up by the government in an anti-trust case
National Association of Railroad Passengers is a citizen lobby group which recently proposed a major reshaping of Amtrak route miles, yet completely missed the Southeast.
United Rail Alliance, is a pro passenger train group based in Jacksonville.

BICYCLE SKYWAY FOR THE RIVERWALKS?

Photos of the Shweeb System test track, Imagine Berkman, Baptist, Hyatt, Landing, Cummer, Atena, Prudential, MOSH, Maritime Museum, Shipyards, Strand, Peninsular, Ruths Chris, Brewing Company, Marina, Friendship Fountain... IMAGINE - JACKSONVILLE - IMAGINE!

July 23, 2008 The Shweeb is a monorail for human-powered vehicles. It consists of two 200 metre long overhead rail circuits that vary in height between two and four meters above the ground. Under the tracks hang high performance pedal powered vehicles. Between one and five vehicles can be loaded onto each track enabling teams to race each other or race against the clock. Conceived in Tokyo by designer Geoffrey Barnett, the adventure park ride he built in New Zealand is partially a proof-of-concept for an ingenious, high efficiency, no emission urban transport system.

The Shweeb Race thru Space adventure park ride is part of the Agroventures all weather adventure centre within the grounds of the world famous Agrodome near Rotorua in New Zealand. Given the levels of adrenalin involved in that lot, the human-powered Shweeb surprisingly holds its own. As the bikes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle run on low-resistance tracks and the pods are far more aerodynamically efficient than a bicycle, with less frontal area (the rider is recumbent), most riders can see speeds of 45 kmh and on a longer circuit with a much longer straight, much higher speeds can be expected. Whatsmore, in corners, the pods swing out as much as 60 degrees on tight turns, but unlike a bike or motorcycle, there is no danger of losing traction and crashing. Those who have tried it report exceptional fun.

Recently, fully-faired recumbent bicycles have attained speeds of over 90kph (56mph) on pavement . However, recumbent bicycles are unstable, highly-susceptible to side-winds topple and their low profile makes them a dangerous prposition to use in traffic due to their low visibility.

Barnett has spent six years developing how to efficiently transfer pedal power to drive wheels enclosed within a monorail track while allowing the vehicle to swing freely underneath. The hard wheels on the steel rail mean that there is very little rolling resistance.

Barnett describes his high efficiency, no emission urban transport system thus: “Here’s How It Works . You get up in the morning; descend to the second level of your apartment building where there’s a Shweeb port and empty Shweebs waiting for you. You cruise over the top of the traffic jams. You don’t pay parking. You’ve produced no pollution. You arrive at work fit, healthy and ready to go.

“You don’t own the Shweeb. You use it like a shopping cart. Empty vehicles are restocked to wherever they are needed.

“Shock absorbers between the vehicles ensure that vehicle come together smoothly. When a fit rider comes up behind a slower rider, the impact is cushioned and they act as a single unit. The rider at the rear is sitting in the slipstream of the leading rider and is able to put all their power into pushing the lead vehicle. Two Shweebs acting together will always travel faster than either rider separately. Even if the lead rider were to stop pedalling, the energy required to maintain a vehicle’s momentum on a flat track is minimal.

“Stations are off line. Anyone wanted to get off just merges off the main rail and the platoon continues at top speed.

“The urban Shweebrail network is inexpensive, has a tiny footprint, and each Shweebway requires only a square metre of airspace…It’s safe, silent and sustainable.”

JTA? Want to blow away the competition? Want to be the envy of every system in the nation? Want green? Want attraction? Want community relations? Lets Move!

IS BUS RAPID TRANSIT "JUST LIKE RAIL" ?

MARYLAND TRANSIT PLANNERS BUST BRT MYTH MAKERS
Light Rail Trumps Bus Rapid Transit
Thursday, July 24, 2008;

The June 29 Commuter page [Metro section] featured a status report on Maryland's Purple Line transit project, in which I listed some of the arguments for and against the system, which could be light rail or bus rapid transit.

Dear Dr. Gridlock:
Your report on the Purple Line was very disappointing. Almost everything you said was true, but what you left out was all important for public understanding.

One erroneous statement is that bus rapid transit is just like light rail but on rubber tires. Light rail runs on domestic, low-cost electricity. Bus rapid transit runs on high-cost foreign oil. That is bad and costly.

Buses last only 12 years, while light rail cars last 40 years. In ice and snow, light rail has guidance and braking. Buses do not, unless the roadway is cleared and salted, polluting streams.
On open right-of-way, light rail absorbs water, but busways need extensive water runoff provisions to prevent damage. Light rail cars are larger than buses for comfort, efficiency and safety.

Bus size is limited by highway laws and clearances. The light rail ride is smoother and faster. Rails have no potholes, and electricity provides more power for acceleration.

If we want clean air, less foreign oil, lower long-term costs and more transit use, we must think about those differences.

Critics who say the Purple Line will not relieve congestion are wrong. It's true that one rail transit line will not solve the metro area's traffic problems overall, but it sure will help the local area.

Consider: Estimates suggest the line will have 3,000 riders per peak hour one-way at key points, such as 16th Street and Piney Branch Road. It would take four traffic lanes on streets with traffic signals to move 3,000 people per hour in vehicles with 1.15 people each. Four more lanes of capacity each way will help traffic greatly.

Vienna
Makes sense to me. Like Tennyson, a transportation consultant and former deputy secretary of transportation for Pennsylvania, I hope the Maryland Transit Administration will favor light rail over bus when it issues its findings later this year.

It's difficult to see the decision going any other way. Supporters in and out of Maryland government have been touting the latest ridership figures, which suggest the line would record 68,000 daily trips between Bethesda and New Carrollton. That's for a high-end investment in light rail estimated by planners at up to $1.75 billion for the 16-mile route.

Why No Cross-Town Buses?
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
Why isn't there bus service directly from Maryland to Virginia?

I live in Gaithersburg and work in Tysons Corner, so my public transportation options involve a trip through the District.

Am I the only one of the thousands of people who cross the American Legion Bridge each day who would rather take a bus?

Jon Freilich
Gaithersburg

This is an excellent idea. When he was Montgomery County executive, Douglas M. Duncan felt the same way. Trouble was, not enough commuters did. The SmartMover took commuters from points along the Interstate 270 corridor to Tysons, via the American Legion Bridge. But it failed for lack of ridership, given the high operating costs.

There were plenty of reasons for the failure. Buses got stuck in traffic, schedules became unreliable and once riders got off at the bus station in Tysons, it was difficult to walk to work across those wide, heavily traveled boulevards.

This noble experiment is not an idea that Maryland and Virginia can afford to dismiss. Not today, with construction of new lanes underway on the western side of the Beltway, with the Metrorail project at Tysons and with the planned rebuilding of Tysons itself.

Taking drivers off the road by giving them a new bus option will look smarter and smarter.


HOV - Bus Rapid Transit Highway Enforcement
Over the past two months, enforcement of the rules for High Occupancy Vehicle lanes has been one of the top five topics in the mailbag. There's a lot of anger out there.

I travel the Interstate 66 HOV lanes and notice that although police cars monitor many of the entrances and exits between the Capital Beltway and the District, HOV violators who travel to and from outside the Beltway have relative impunity.

Occasionally, I'll see someone stopped. While that driver is being ticketed, several others go by.
Why is there no way of reporting violators? I know that many people don't understand hybrid rules and that some cars have toddlers tucked where you can't see them. But I think a compilation of reported violators could be used to supply an aggravating factor if they are ever ticketed.

Also, there are predictable times when I-66 comes to a virtual crawl: accident, snow or, most predictably, sunshine (at very specific locations). State police could sit at those spots and stop violators much like shooting fish in a barrel.

Although I very much support enforcement -- especially those conducted on the HOV ramps, where it's safest -- police and commuters understand that enforcement itself creates congestion.
If I want the mailbag to bulge with irate letters, I should urge police to set up an HOV enforcement zone near an accident scene during a snowstorm.

Maura McMahon

JACKSONVILLE STREETCARS GOING TO BE BUILT IN BIRMINGHAM!

Photo: Tram in Milan, Italy, next stop... "Sweet Home Alabama..."

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Transit authority soliciting streetcar proposals

Birmingham Business Journal

by Jimmy DeButts StaffBlogger Comments:

Who would have thunk it Jacksonville?They ran over us with their football team back in the World Football LeagueDays, then threw themselves onto the alter to snatch the Jaguars from us beforeJacksonville, was announced. Suddenly out of the Mass Transit Shadows of the bigCities, Birmingham, Alabama, comes rolling out with "our" streetcar idea.

Jacksonville? Oh we'd like to do rail... someday. If we don'tmove soon, I suspect their numbers will change in such a positive way that theyjust might get the football team too. Birmingham, the mountain metropolis,good luck - perhaps you can show us the way?

The Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority is seeking proposals for the design and construction of its planned $33 million streetcar system.Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford has promoted a 2.5 mile streetcar line that will run through downtown. The proposed route would begin at the intermodal facility on Morris Avenue and wind through the city, passing cultural hotspots, such as the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.The city has indicated the streetcar line will begin construction in early November.

Plans also call for a trip to Milan, Italy, in September to purchase the vintage-looking streetcars that will be run by electricity.Interested parties must attend a May 19 pre-proposal conference to qualify as bidders. Proposals will be accepted by the transit authority until June 30.

A excercise in Technorati susposedly a better way

Technorati Profile

Whiz Bang Wowzier Monorail Skyway

RADICAL SKYWAY SALVATION SHOW

Photo courtesy of 

Kim Pedersen

The Monorail Society

(Perhaps we should do a story on Kim's highly successful monorail)

How to shock the Skyway back to life? Okay, maybe not this radical, but we need to get to work. Is the Skyway Doomed to the trash heap of Transit has-been's? How to save it, what do we need and how to find that "whiz-bang-wowzier!" of an attraction to this much maligned little train.

First a bit of history. Yes I was the first and LOUDEST critic of the Skyway in the City. I teamed up with then editor of the Jacksonville Journal and we blasted it with both barrels a pre-Skyway editorial. In fact I told George, it would be a "turkey", a really big turkey. That it didn't go anywhere anyone wanted to go, it wouldn't have the speed or capacity, would never get past 2ND rate and die in infamy. 27 years ago he published the editorial "Mann prefers Trolleys to People Mover". When that paper hit the stands, the war was on.

Today, I look back and EVERYTHING I said has happened just as I thought it would. Scary really, I get no satisfaction from it's monumental failure. Now the City has been headlined all around the world in two news articles ABC and CBS, one of which was titled, "What if they built a rapid transit system and nobody came..."

TAKING IT DOWN?

Now for the dollars and sense of the darn thing as it sits. We can't go back and tear it down. The basics, repair shop, technical mechanics, operating and signaling system, fleet and basic core are done. This SHOULD cut way back on the cost of any future expansion. Moreover we have already built it twice, the first time as a "people mover" and then retro-built the whole project as a true "monorail."

PICKING UP THE PIECES:

Several unfinished pieces of the Skyway need to be addressed for any chance of success.

1. Parking downtown, the devil in the details. The City makes money on Parking enforcement, yet the City shouldn't be in this business at all. To have a truly modern urban core, on street parking should be time limited but free.

2. Cheap parking garages, The Skyway was planned to reach INTO the parking garages around the downtown and bring in the customers to the core. Somehow we lost track, demanded new office and hotels build massive downtown garages, glutted the market and drove the price down.
tn one miss-step we caused the parking market to crash, potential transit riders to by-pass transit, and drove the small retailers from the core. Had parking been rolled into JTA, some control and common sense might have come from a master plan.
savior of the historic building complex, and write the book on how to re-spin an image.

3. UN-Connections, The Skyway was to empty the downtown streets of buses. Now really this probably wasn't a very likely goal, but at least some of the buses COULD have and SHOULD have turned back after a quick Skyway connection. Somehow the planners at JTA never got that message and the little empty trains kept right on rolling along with those 1/4 full buses right below them.

4. Transfers, we never bothered to institute a system of transfers or day passes. A transfer is simply a form issued by one bus route good on another (punched out) on the form itself. This allows the passenger to pay one fare and ride two buses, or move from bus to Skyway. A simple one day bus/Skyway pass for say $3.00 available in vending machines all over town should do the job. A multi-Mode pass good for JTA BUS - SKYWAY - RIVER TAXI - EXPRESS BUS - (perhaps even Greyhound and Trailways to local stations) would cost $5.00. Not only do the passes and transfers wipe out the need for fare collection, they relieve the drivers of being cashiers, or tending a vending unit. SAFETY. Moreover, transfers collected all us to track which routes connect with which, so better plan the future expansions.

UN MENTIONABLE TRANSIT

We have been so burned by the Skyway experience that today's City Hall laughs it off with bad nerves. Don't bring it up. Don't talk about it. Leave it alone. Not on my watch...etc. No one is willing to step up to the plate and make a diamond from this lump of coal.

Almost everyone agrees that our city should "finish what it started" with the Skyway. So do I. However those who are calling for it to reach out as a regional mass transit system, don't understand it's mode or purpose. A small monorail like the Skyway was NEVER intended to be more then a very short haul passenger shuttle. A downtown "dolly trolley" in the air.
Union Terminal as a "whiz-bang-wowzier" venue, fizzled and died. Too small and in the middle of the moonscape of LaVilla. Nobody is going there unless there is some scheduled event, and being far too small for many events, locked in by roads and rails, it's time to return this place to it's "God intended purpose....TRANSPORTATION".

1. Leave the line to Union Terminal and build a transportation center around it. I would encourage the City to not only reopen the old tunnels to the railroad concourses but extend them across and under the station concourse, under Bay Street and bring the passengers up in the new Skyway - Bus Terminal. Link it all underground - AMTRAK - SKYWAY - JTA BUS - TRAIN STATION - BUS STATION - GREYHOUND/TRAILWAYS, with a simple cut and cover underground walk system.

Pursue development like BAY STREET STATION with the Skyway being incorporated INSIDE part of the buildings, a balcony or landing.

Relieve any future downtown business of parking fees, space requirements and the parking Nazi's. For every XXX new offices, condos or restaurant seats open in the core, build XXXX new parking garage facilities at the end of the SKYWAY routes. Downtown garages already build could be sold with a land swap that includes, building a SKYWAY friendly, or streetcar friendly garage on the edges of town in exchange for removal of the former downtown garage, and returning said property to the tax rolls as new development. Even paying JTA a parking credit for each space required but un-built, money that could be funneled into a series of downtown parking shuttle improvements.

2. The line to Rosa Parks is missing a few pedestrian elements that would make it sing, a Skywalk to First Baptist Church and to City Hall. Rosa Parks itself falls short of FCCJ on a very busy street. A short extension to the North Gate of FccJ with covered walks, or a skywalk over highways would be light years ahead of the current arrangement.

3. Slowly improve the Bay Street EAST extension, pushing it toward Newnan Street and a multi-modal link, then to Berkman Towers, on to the Shipyards project and finally to the stadiums and Randolph entertainment district. With two major bridges coming into the Randolph area, It would make sense to route all buses, streetcars, water taxis, shuttles and automobile garage efforts in this same area. Care should be given to making the parking facilities much more then just another garage. These end-of-the-line garages must have spaces that will not be displaced by stadium crowds, they need to fill or empty as fast as the best of the airport garages, complete with their own ramps and entries and exits from the Freeways. Retail, restaurants and clubs rented out around the ground floor of these anchor garages might attract hotels and more development.

4. Riverside/Brooklyn have current plans for a station, but like much of today's Skyway, it's too little - too late. We need to get bold and go with the system plan for a single beam, double track monorail system here. We had a booming office district around Everbank-Bluecross-DuPont of the type that could be rolled into a special transit tax district. The Skyway on Riverside and the streetcar on Park would go a long way toward touching off a development race. The option of using the old Francis Lytle PS4 school as a transit center would not only draw the development inland from the riverfront, it would pull historic 5-points into the downtown transit core, JTA would earn public good will as the chance to write the book on how to re-spin an agency's image.

5. Southside, last but certainly not least of the extensions is on the Southbank. Again this Skyway was never intended as regional rapid transit, but as a downtown distributor it must reach all of downtown. Currently it does neither! Since the early 1920's the subject of getting over the Florida East Coast Railroad tracks has been the major bone of contention for locals and businessmen. Nearly 100 years later, and we still haven't addressed this problem even though we have a Skyway, perched at the King Street Station, and for an effort of less then a mile, it could enter the new Hilton Complex and garage, sail OVER the FEC RR and come gliding into a station South and West of the railroad at the corner of the Florida East Coast railroad and Atlantic Avenue. Bus transfer platforms and a commuter rail platform, with room for streetcar, would make this compact stop, one with a lot of bang for our buck. It also would poise the system to jump on Jackson Square as that development comes on-line.

THE NIMBYS (Not In My Back Yard) Certainly this family has deep roots in Jacksonville. We will hear the "nobody rides it..." argument over and over, harder to deal with is the "you never finished it in the first place" argument. The former is easily shot down mention of the later, frankly finishing it without a careful rebuilding of shuttles, streetcars, buses and commuter rail feeding into the system would be futile. But these improvements don't have to happen overnight, or even in the same time-window as the Skyway compliments, they do however have to be done. Meanwhile we should institute immediate extension of each Skyway line with a branded ELECTRIC shuttle bus system. FARE FREE. Different then our "PCT Dolly Trolleys" these electrics are real transit buses in a 30 foot body. They use the newest cool running AC motors, high tech batterys and Induction charging plates hidden in the street pavement. While the little Skyway extension buses pause at the Skyway station, stadiums or Riverside, for 5 minutes, they get a recharge... no wires, no contacts, no visible mechanical toys. As we extend the Skyway station by station, we simply redeploy the new electrics in other downtown, town center, Beaches shuttle work.

So what is missing? We need a resolve, courage to stand up and do the right thing here, creative financing and leadership can make up for foot dragging on every ones favorite political football.It's time to pick up the ball and score big, we need a whiz-bang wowzier.

BRT STILL GROWLING DOWN THE ROAD ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

A LINE BY LINE CRITIQUE OF AN ARTICLE ON

BUS RAPID TRANSIT

IN THE CITY OF JACKSONVILLE AS PUBLISHED IN

THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION

JTA's fast bus program still in the planning stage

The Federal Transit Administration will provide some funding.
JacBy LARRY HANNAN, The Times-Union

and commentary by "The Jacksonville Transit Blogger"

Richard Ervin believes the bus system in Jacksonville could run better than it does now.

This is true, and almost any citizen of the city that has ever used our transit system would agree.

While waiting for a ride at the Florida Community College at Jacksonville Station, Ervin said people can't always rely on the buses operating on time.

Rely on a system that is held captive to the wild fluctuations in Florida's traffic and eternal construction zones. We all know someone who is getting up at 4 o:clock AM in order to make a simple bus trip to a 8 - 5 office job.

There are often delays in traffic, and they can't always be relied upon to get to work on time, he said.

In response to complaints from people like Ervin, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority is starting an effort to improve the public bus system in downtown and suburbs . The effort involves putting more buses downtown, with new bus routes that would be more efficient than the existing routes.

Remember the promises that the Skyway would replace the bus downtown? Thou shalt NOT build BRT under thy Skyway! While the hearings would have one believe that the new rapid bus will become the "be all" and "save all" of Jacksonville Transportation, I couldn't disagree more on the point of the plan itself. Running new highways for buses and the sudden flood of buses predicted is due to fail for many of the same reasons the Skyway has lapsed into premature rigermortis. High start-up costs, soaring diesel fuel pricing, and lack of training. For over 100 years Jacksonville has had some form of "bus" that ambles along the roads every 40 minutes, with 5-10 passengers aboard. Just because we brand it, and run some new buses every 5 minutes doesn't mean all of those passengers will suddenly show up and fill our seats. They must be trained and that will start with the CURRENT system cutting the headway's from 40 minutes, to 20, then to 10, then to 5. At that point passenger loads and demand will drive the construction of betterment's such as BRT. With few exceptions, Jacksonville is getting the cart before the horse.

JTA will hold two public hearings at Jacksonville City Hall on Thursday to discuss this effort. The agency is billing the new effort as Bus Rapid Transit.

The agency isn't billing this as Bus Rapid Transit, the Federal Government is. BRT is a planned system of building dedicated busways which try very hard to look just like Light Rail Transit. Rather then train tracks, there are mini-Freeways. Mr. Ervin, is right, the system could operate better then it currently does. But a bus system needn't cost a Billion dollars with nothing more to show for it then a few new buses and a few miles of mini-freeway.

Transportation officials will discuss their plans to improve the bus system at these hearings and seek comments.

Another dog and pony show in order to fulfill the requirements of federal funding applications. This is NOT some suddenly benevolent JTA program reaching out to touch your heart and mind for the good of the City and our fellow citizens.

JTA does not yet have specific routes, costs or a timetable to institute Bus Rapid Transit. The plan calls for a restructured bus route system focused on key downtown streets, dedicated bus lanes during peak hours of operation and traffic signal priority.

This describes the Light-Rail-Lite model of Bus Rapid Transit. Certainly this makes more economical sense then the massive Quickway or "Mini-Freeway" model. The worst part of our own local plan is the relocation of the downtown routes North-South or East-West all onto just 2 to 4 streets. Oddly the new "superbus" would roll along right underneath our seldom used Skyway.

Traffic signal priority would be achieved by having devices on the buses that keep the traffic lights green when a bus is approaching that light. This would be done when a bus is running behind schedule, said JTA spokesman Mike Miller.

In other words, any driver that rolls up to a stoplight, is not likely to stop his bus. The idea seems great for bus riders and many of the public will think how quickly it will move the traffic, but they'd be wrong. If the lights are on a timed system, and a great deal of Jacksonville IS, then some yahoo in a bus would throw off the sequence for the rest of the day.

JTA is preparing to institute Bus Rapid Transit in conjunction with the Federal Transit Administration, which will kick in some money for the new system.

Under the Federal "New Starts" and other programs "BRT" is labeled as a system or product just as streetcars or subways are. By jumping through every hoop, the City can indeed obtain funding to lock us into a BRT system on some of the trunk lines.

The current bus system has 48 routes that are centered in downtown Jacksonville. Most of the routes connect at the FCCJ Station.

Apparently our newspaper doesn't know the FCCJ station has a name, "ROSA PARKS TRANSIT CENTER"

JTA is planning to build a new regional transportation center along Bay and Forsyth streets that will become the hub of the new public bus system.

Building this new Transportation Center next to the current Jacksonville Terminal, which is being used as a much-too-small convention center, borders on madness. The City of Jacksonville needs to address it's convention shortcomings and get the facility empty so buses from JTA, Greyhound, Trailways, and trains from AMTRAK could all mix with the Skyway. There is even a partial tunnel system that could tie it all together.

After looking at the downtown area, JTA plans to focus on improving bus service in other parts of the city in future phases of the project, Miller said.

We can hope that the system adjusts it's efforts to direct this new money toward Commuter Rail, rather then BRT. The trouble here is that 3 out of 4 of the proposed busways follow right alongside the railroads. Only Arlington has a stand-alone shot at success. Meanwhile just adjust the other 3 trunk lines a few degrees and the badly duplicate system suddenly becomes a balanced ballet of buses-trains-and monorail. For example the North route planned for I-95, where nobody lives, could swing slightly Northwest and open a whole new Transit dependent neighborhood to faster, safer, better service. Rather then I-95 Gateway as a route, we end up with even more BRT using Moncrief, Norwood and Lem Turner, tying into rail Shands or Union Terminal.

The agency sees Bus Rapid Transit as part of a future regional transportation system that includes the existing Skyway, commuter rail and possibly boats that can transport people throughout Southwest Florida.

Someone was asleep at the wheel here, we live in "NorthEAST Florida". Also note that in spite of the claims to be deep n a streetcar or Light Rail Study, the reporter completely missed that point. But then again, he might believe he's in Naples.It's all good though, someone give him the phone so he can ask JTA, I'm sure there is a plan... Somewhere.

Bus Rapid Transit has been criticized by rail proponents who want to see JTA focus on building a commuter rail system. JTA officials claim the solution to Jacksonville transportation problems include both rail and buses.

In this JTA is correct. It WILL require layers of mass transit, overlaid into a tapestry of layers. Not just downtown, but in Town Center, Beaches, Regency, Orange Park and other locales. But it is impossible to make a fine garment if every stitch follows the same path.

CHANGING DOWNTOWN TO UPTOWN

Getting On the Right Track
We can learn from New Orleans, Little Rock and other cities and develop the right transit system for our city without the obstacles and negative side effects being incorporated into the massive BRT fiasco.

By Robert Mann, Based on a original report

By Jason Leach Mar. 19, 2007

A recent piece in the Toronto Star discusses the ongoing battle in Toronto over dedicated streetcar lanes and their impact on neighbourhoods.

Recent issues of Folio, The Florida Times-Union and Metro Blogs/Forums have seen many writers and bloggers come forward with plans for heritage trolleys, modern streetcars or light rail on Jacksonville's main east west corridor – Water Street, Newnan, Beaver or Duval from the Transportation Center to the Stadiums or Phillip Randolph.

I believe that the plans we've presented for JACKSONVILLE TRACTION COMPANY, INC. are affordable, efficient and most of all, will have a great impact on surrounding neighbourhoods. Here's why:

1. Cost.
A 'rapid streetcar' using heritage trolleys or a mix of heritage and modern streetcar vehicles is much cheaper to build than a full LRT system. JTA studied an LRT system, which, of course, is much cheaper than a subway.

The rapid streetcar concept takes the same features of light rail – speed, attractiveness, permanent tracks which draw large private investment and dedicated lanes – but uses slightly smaller vehicles and doesn't require massive relocation of underground services due to the lighter vehicles.

2. Dedicated lanes, but not walls, curbs and obstacles.
A streetcar plan such as the one proposed to run both ways Water Street would see streetcars in their own lane, but would still allow cars to make left turns at most streets and cross the tracks easily and safely. The raised curbs that are a feature of some streetcar lines are rather clumsy obstacles for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.

In Portland or most European cities with streetcars it is common to see street parking on the "other side" of the tracks against the curb as well as pedestrians crossing the tracks with their groceries or cyclists crossing the tracks as necessary.

Obviously the train has the right of way, but we aren't talking about a bullet train speeding along killing people. Streetcars are designed to fit perfectly in the urban environment, not act as obstacles.

Streetcars blend into the cityscape. Feel like jaywalking, crossing the tracks on your bike or dropping someone off? Make sure no train is coming and go for it. In fact Jacksonville Traction's own unique heritage is very similar to that of New Orleans. Streetcars operate in center medians and the track is sodded over. The addition of plantings, trees and shrubs once gained us fame as "The most beautiful streetcar line in the world."

More photos here:http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t103.html
Note – the above photos from Portland show a streetcar that uses the same lanes as cars. Regardless, a double solid yellow line and signage would allow the same design to be used with a system using dedicated lanes. So traffic lane or historic style median, No curbs required.

3. Neighbourhood/retail impact
Let's be brutally honest here. Downtown is a shell of what it used to be and what it could be. In Jacksonville, some shopkeepers feel that the senseless demolition of historic buildings, parking meters with a Gestapo-like control, and endless moonscapes of blank walls, or empty lots packed with the homeless have resulted in bad news for business in the area that always seemed to bustle with activity.

In Jacksonville, six and eight-lane freeways, sprawl, parking meters, broken or inconsistent sidewalks, one way streets and timed lights have killed once-booming retail streets. We have parking coming out of our backsides, but few customers and many less shops, restaurants, hotel rooms or clubs than there should be.

Streetcars-in-lane might slow down the vehicle traffic on Water. Parking would be retained as-is on the edge of the business core and folks could easily turn onto and off of side streets to find curbside parking.

More importantly, people and businesses would begin to show up in large numbers as a result of the streetcar line. The line shown in Portland in the photos above has seen $1.5 billion in private investment within a five minute walk of the tracks since opening.

Another or central corridor down Duval Street has many underused lots and buildings and plans for a massive courthouse complex. A streetcar along with a more pedestrian-friendly environment (think trees and benches along the entire corridor) would revitalize the uptown neighbourhoods that have been ignored for too long. In effect pulling the City both along the river and moving it inland.

LRT which JTA once studied, spaces stops apart quite far. A rapid streetcar would take a medium approach, having stops spaced out further than a typical bus route, but not as great a distance as with LRT.

4. Transportation options
Even though walking or cycling aren't directly mentioned as a benefit of a streetcar, they are natural byproducts of this project. Right now people have one realistic option for traversing our Streets – their car. Streetcars still allow for vehicle lanes, but having lights controlled for the streetcars instead of autos would make it quicker to get from downtown to Union Station-Transportation Center to the core or stadiums in the streetcar. Streetcars can discharge or pick up passengers in the median, since they have doors on both sides. The operator simply makes certain there is no oncoming car or traffic and can open doors left or right, thus there is no need to eat up curb space such as JTA'S proposed downtown transit mall.

Furthermore, balancing the transportation modes on our city streets will automatically result in more cyclists and pedestrians. Cyclists would feel safer to ride their bikes on a normal city street whereas right now downtown streets are not much different than I-95. More shops, condos, restaurants, clubs and hotels and streetcar users means more people getting on and off trains, running errands, going out for coffee or just walking the dog.

Jacksonville would start to look like a proper, urban downtown once again. Public art, benches, trees, flowers, patios and sidewalk displays would turn an empty, concrete canyon into a wonderful blend for local residents and visitors.

BUS OR AUTO - THIS IS NOT THE ANSWER

"ALL ABOARD JACKSONVILLE," THE CALL OF THE TRANSIT CONDUCTOR

Top Photo: Streetcar Conductor, Bottom Photo: Commuter Rail Conductor

Same job, Same Uniform, Different Address

Among weary commuters, conductor keeps smiling

Originally published July 10, 2008

By Adam Behsusi News-Post Staff

Conductor Russell M. Bly checks tickets as passengers board the train for Frederick in Rockville, Maryland.

If you choose to doze off on Russell M. Bly's train, let him know and he'll come wake you when you arrive at your stop.

The long-time conductor's enthusiasm and care for passengers may seem misplaced on a train full of bleary-eyed commuters making the daily haul between Frederick and Washington's Union Station.

But that's the way Bly likes it, and he's not ashamed to admit he can turn the grind of the daily commute into a pleasant experience for most of his passengers, making even the most stone-faced crack a smile.

"If somebody sees me coming, they're glad to see me," he said.

A third-generation railroad man and the third to carry his grandfather's name, Bly has been working the rails for 40 years in freight and passenger service.

He started his career at NASA repairing computers but got laid off the night astronauts landed on the moon. The loss of his job made him eligible for the draft.

After a stint in the Navy, which included five tours in Vietnam, a cruise of the world on a nuclear warship, exotic ports of call throughout Asia, the retrieval of two astronauts from capsules that landed in the ocean, and afternoon tea and crumpets with the Queen of England during a stop in Australia, Bly decided to return home to Mount Airy and take a job with the railroad.

He married during his second tour in Vietnam. Regrets were few when he came back and began a career with the B&O Railroad, hauling freight.

"There wasn't anything better out there that I already didn't have," he said.

Four decades later and Bly seems to have never lost any of his youthful bounce.

On a recent ride from Washington to Frederick, the 60-year-old conductor exchanged conversation with his regular passengers, asking about their grandchildren or what local fishing hole yielded the most bites.

"Most of them have my cell phone," he said.

Sometimes he'll get a call to hold the train for a minute as a late passenger pulls up to the station. If they're ahead of schedule he'll do it but said it doesn't always happen.

What makes Bly even more of a fixture during the morning and afternoon commute is his unique "all aboard" call he bellows at each stop.

The end, an adamant "yeehaw!", makes the call his own. Giggles grew louder from a group of children riding the train Tuesday afternoon with each call and stop.

"When I came out here on passenger service, nobody did it," Bly said.

Riding his grandfather's train to Virginia gave Bly the inspiration to revive the ear-piercing yell.
Radios, intercoms and other technology have eliminated the call from a bygone era, he said. Surely a wake-up call for drowsy commuters in the morning, Bly said he is the only MARC conductor to holler out a final boarding notice.

"My wife doesn't even know him and she loves him," said a suit-and-tie clad passenger boarding in Washington.

Having worked MARC trains for 15 years, including the first one to leave from Frederick eight years ago, Bly said he's seen changes and his share of danger.

He earned a nickname, The Bouncing Ball, when he fell from a train moving 55 mph. He was spotted as he bounced to the level of the train car windows.

Despite a bruised lung, Bly showed up to work the next day to save a $5,000 bonus promised for the crews having gone so long without an accident. Reporting the injury would have eliminated the reward, he said.

In the next few years, Bly said he plans to retire and spend more time with his nine grandchildren. For now, he said he will continue working the line and trying to make passengers smile at the end of a long day.

"I can't tell you how generous they are to me," he said.

BLOGGER COMMENT:

This is a program who's time has come again. Jacksonville, JTA, Buses, Skyway and future Streetcars need to seriously consider the quality's of the old style Conductor. Understand if you will, that the Conductor NEVER operates the train, bus, monorail, or streetcar, but in a transportation world he can move mountains. He is the absolute authority on his vehicle, even to the point of having Federal, and State Law authority. It is he, and he alone, that says when the vehicle moves, or when it stops. He decides who rides and who doesn't. He or she receives the orders from on high and passes them down to the train engineer or streetcar motorman.

But he or she is much, much, more then some stoic authority figure, the Conductor is the friend to the vehicle, and it's passengers. A friendly face, a helping hand. Never too busy to see to a passengers comfort or convenience. He spends his days split between doing many transportation chores and making sure that everyone who steps off his grand conveyance will yearn to come back. To engage him or her in conversation, he is pastor, confident, day labor, friend, authority, tour guide, helping hand, and most of all, family, to all who know him. A program of roving REAL Conductorson Jacksonville's growing Transportation System, married to the City Ambassador program, and the Jacksonville Historical Society, would provide dozens, perhaps hundreds of volunteers to add a touch of Victorian era service, to a 21St century transit network. Add to that an apprentice program for youth - (always under the guidance of adult operators), and we create an entire generation that respect their fellow man, cherish their city's roots, and will never have to be asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up..." You see, handled properly, such a program could qualify and licence them in time for High School graduation. What greater gift could we give our youth, and our transit riding community?

THE STATE OF JACKSONVILLE BUS RAPID TRANSIT

Miami-Dade South Busway BRT system

For 30 years, I have played the attack dog for lame transit schemes that have rolled out of city hall in Jacksonville. The latest of these attacks have been directed at JTA's BRT system. Perhaps it's time to explain my stand on BUS RAPID TRANSIT and how it would and wouldn't work in Jacksonville.

First understand, no one can quite explain what Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT, really is. To make it elementary, let's just say it is a cafe or smorgasbord of bus transit toys, laid out to pick and choose from. Depending on the extent of investment and the number of additions and betterment's, a regular bus provider can become a magic BRT magnet.

BRT comes in two forms, the very expensive, first proposed for Jacksonville, rivals Light Rail in Costs, with few extra benefits and at least an equal number of faults. This system is known as "QUICKWAY". Usually it involves completely grade separated bus ways, without a single cross street, pedestrian cross walk, or railroad crossing. In effect a freeway for buses. Stations are grand affairs, some with shopping and other services built in. Buses run fast and frequent. Other features might include railroad like signals for traffic control, real time digital information signs, ground level boarding, GPS bus locating service. In short, it's a great concept for a medium to high density route with very frequent "headways" (times between buses). A decent example of the QUICKWAY system is the Miami-Dade Kendall Busway, where a perfectly good railroad was torn out, graded flat and paved over.

The second form of BRT is what JTA claims, it is now pursuing. Known as LIGHT-RAIL-LITE-BRT, It would include only some of the above. In fact the buses might operate in an HOV or commuter lane in the local freeway or arterial road. There might be a few pull-offs, some digital signs, traffic light priority, even que jumping bus lanes, for the ever long lines at the traffic signals. In short it is a discount way to still build a system of BRT without the hundreds of Millions involved in building bus only freeways or "Quickways." Los Angeles, is chock full of examples of the LIGHT-RAIL-LITE-BRT model.

Your JACKSONVILLE TRANSIT BLOGGER is neither for nor against either type of system. As they would apply to a City with few other options, South Florida for example, BRT often makes the most sense. However, whenever highway lobbyist push for replacement of existing railways for a two or three lane quickway, my hair stands on end.

Why scrap a perfectly good railroad for a new concept, that even in it's most expensive form is still being sold as "Like rail only cheaper."

Facts are facts and frankly, while select rail projects, Light Rail and Modern or Heritage Streetcars can be found that cost $30 - $50 Million a mile, this in and of itself shouldn't qualify BRT as superior.

BRT doesn't have a track record in this country of attracting developers, the reasons stated by Mr. Mike Miller of JTA, in the BRT meetings. "If a route turns out that it doesn't work, we can just move it..." THAT is EXACTLY why nobody is going to plunk down $200 Million dollars on a new downtown high rise, because it's close to a BRT line. Here today, gone tomorrow.

A few other reasons why BRT in Quickway form is useless in most of Jacksonville. It will cost more then a simple Light Rail System. Starting with Heritage vehicles, streetcar lines have been recently built for as low as $3 Million dollars a mile, with many deluxe projects coming in at $10 or $15 Million a mile. Streetcars are not oil dependent, electric current, a simple 600 volt DC system can be provided by tidal action in the river, by wave action at the beach, by wind generators at the jetties, by any form of fuel, including solar power. The entire system in Edmonton, Canada, is wind powered in a branded marketing campaign called "RIDE THE WIND..."

So rail doesn't pollute, or at least doesn't need to. Rail can be placed in the street, curb, sidewalk, on private land, down an old unused freight branchline, up a Greenway, in a median, on a bridge or some combination of all of the above.

But it's not the end of the world for BRT advocates in Jacksonville. We citizens deserve the best of the best in Transit, and the World is our shopping mart. BRT in a semi-Quickway to the beaches could even be designed for someday conversion to Light Rail. The new Matthews Bridge could share BRT and SKYWAY or LRT as it brings mass transit into Arlington.

A properly laid out core of rail trunk lines could replace the current BRT plans for Southwest Jacksonville, (commuter trains), Southbank and Southeast Jacksonville, (commuter trains - Skyway - Streetcars) , North Jacksonville is a natural for an easy combo of Commuter Rail (The old "S" line-Greenway, Rapid Streetcars Gateway Mall - Downtown) . Note that we didn't wipe out the BRT plans for Arlington, nor did we take them out of the other areas. We just move them to the ends of the rail lines. For example, step off the train at Airport Station and a BRT bus meets you across the platform to whisk you to the Airport or River City Marketplace. Step off in Yukon, and the NAS bus takes you to work on the base. At Union Station other Light-Rail-Lite-BRT systems take you west to US 90 or I-10, Normandy.

I don't see the future of JTA as a ONE SIZE FITS ALL transit system. It won't work and never has. By layering non-competitive-complimentary layers over the city, we offer Choice, Speed, Comfort and Safety.

Now don't get me started on Comfort, do a blog search for the "SILVER EAGLE MODEL 15 Coach" Add bathroom and Starbucks bar and we'd have to beat the passengers off the longer run s. Let's work together to built our broken stepchild JTA system into a World Leader. Mr. Mayor? Mr. Blaylock? Pick up the phone.

JACKSONVILLE DEVELOPERS POLITICIANS GET 920% RETURN ON INVESTMENT!

WHAT IS IT ABOUT HERITAGE STREETCARS THAT MAKE DEVELOPERS AND POLITICIANS WANT TO DANCE?

COULD HAVE BEEN

WOULD HAVE BEEN

SHOULD HAVE BEEN

READ IT AND WEEP JACKSONVILLE

Augusta Trolley Study is Mostly Praised

By Sylvia Cooper, staff writer
The Augusta Chronicle

The Downtown Development Authority's plan to spend $37,000 in special-purpose sales-tax money for a trolley study received mostly positive reviews from Augusta commissioners Monday.

"I think if we do something like this it will put us on the cutting edge," said Mayor Pro Tem Betty Beard. "This would be a tremendous beginning."

Commissioner Calvin Holland said it is what he calls "thinking outside the box."

But Commissioner Jerry Brigham had questions about long-term costs.

"We know the city of Atlanta has the MARTA tax to underwrite public transit," he said. "Augusta doesn't have a MARTA tax. How are we going to fund the long-term costs of operations? That's the real question."

The Augusta transit system already loses about $4 million a year, and that loss is covered by transfers from the general fund that come mainly from property taxes.

The authority's executive director, Margaret Woodard, said a trolley could help revitalize downtown Augusta by promoting economic development on its route.

"Twenty to 30 times what you invest in a trolley is going to come back in re-development," she said. "Little Rock's return on investment was 920 percent. Developers want to develop along the line for two reasons. No. 1, it shows a real commitment by the city to invest in some type of transportation that's energy-efficient, and No. 2, they don't have to build parking as much as they would."

The 4.5-mile light rail track would run on Broad Street, along part of the Augusta Canal and up 15Th Street to the Medical College of Georgia complex, with the expectation that people would ride it downtown for lunch.

Commissioner Don Grantham proposed a 60- to 90-day trial of that concept using a bus, but transit planner Uriah Lewis said that had been tried before and didn't work due to traffic in the area around Harper Street.

Fifty percent of the money to build the track, estimated to cost between $50 million and $175 million, could be paid for with money from the federal Small Starts programs and the private sector, Ms. Woodard said.

In addition, it could possibly be powered by the Augusta Canal, making it the first such trolley system in the country, she said.

BLOGGER COMMENTS:
Shame on Jacksonville, for backwoods thinking, small town planning, and good old boy transit deals. We created the TPC and took the home of the PGA TOUR and yet Augusta still wows the international golf community with the "Masters" and those stupid green jackets.

For 30 years, since the days of Jake Godbold, I have been pounding the bricks with these development numbers, often in a friendless one man war to shake some sense into our city.
When I started this, San Diego was the first City in 40 years to construct (then under construction on an old rail line) a new Streetcar or LRT line. Portland, Oregon was "Talking about it but nothing looked promising..." I presented Jacksonville Downtown Development Authority with a plan to use some of our old and original streetcars, REBUILT. Oddly enough about 4.5 miles to the inch in length. To revive the dead, to bring back something of a specter, to the streets of Jacksonville. Unique to our city. Once the greatest Traction system in Florida, I reasoned it would be as big an East Coast attraction as San Francisco's cable cars are out west. Well, sadly I was wrong. Jacksonville quietly asked me to shut up and go away, and we never built the first HERITAGE TROLLEY SYSTEM. We ignored it even as one or two other towns and Cities tried it. We cut up 5 perfectly good Jacksonville Trolleys during the next 30 years. Today, 68+ Cities have this concept. The amazing thing is even the newest ones are still bringing in returns of 30 - *920% on every dollar invested. You'd think some Jacksonville developers, hotels or the Landing would call me, you'd think the politicians would want me as their best friend, you'd think I'd be leading a think tank over at JTA... You'd be wrong. This is Jacksonville, a place where our own streetcars once wore a jacket of Augusta green.

Amazing.

*(Little Rock, Arkansas has a similar length line, and has hit a 920% return on investment)