Wednesday, November 7, 2007

News From the Other Side of the State

Probably a bit overshadowed by the transit tax ballot measure in Charlotte these last few days, Raleigh Durham poked its head above water again to discuss a possible new transit plan after the FTA mercilessly cut the initial one using our favorite cost effectiveness measure. The interesting thing about this is that the region is very polycentric and its travel patterns seem a bit abnormal to me for typical hub and spoke transit operations. However there should be a line that connects the two major cities. The article cites a possible commuter rail BRT combination, but we'll be watching for more information as it comes available.

In the Triangle, rising costs and low ridership forecasts forced TTA last year to shelve its quest to build a 28-mile track for trains that would run several times every hour, 18 hours a day, from Durham through Research Triangle Park to Raleigh.

But the advisory group has not ruled out making TTA's tracks the spine of a rail, bus and streetcar network that could stretch across the region and into neighboring counties.

2 comments:

M1EK said...

You know I'm a light rail guy, but there's no way it'll work in RTP - it's not just polycentric; RTP is like a huge version of the 183 corridor except it's not linear - nothing but office park sprawl; and there's nothing good in the downtowns of Durham and Raleigh either (not like Austin, in other words).

Pantograph Trolleypole said...

I'm kind of thinking the same thing. There are a lot of colleges but they don't seem to be in very efficient locations. And the triangle research park is so big that you can't serve it with a station.