Name Him Acela?

Joe Biden got a new puppy. It was suggested he be named Amtrak because Joe isn't going to be taking the train anymore. How about Acela? Ideas?

Streetcar Weekend

Quite a few streetcar articles over the weekend if you want to read about these 19th century monstrosities with horrid visual pollution and gentrification causing awfulness.

Lexington
Hartford
Waco
Patrick Condon in the Globe and Mail

Illegal in Tulsa

During a planning session in Tulsa, many people played the usual game of looking at maps and discussing what they thought the future should look like. The problem? Most of what they wanted is illegal, meaning the zoning won't allow it.

"What we got out of that (the citywide workshops) is a pretty different view of Tulsa than the forecast we've seen for Tulsa," Fregonese said. "In fact, what was put on the maps is in many cases illegal; in fact, most of it is illegal, most of it is not permitted, let alone not planned for and not anticipated and not desired."

As Ryan mentions, in order to optimize these changes people want, we need to make the institutional changes to the zoning codes and planning that backs up our infrastructure spending.

Overlay the Past

Kevin at Fortworthology sent me this map of the streetcar lines of 1925 overlaid with the current plan. It's interesting to see what was lost in cities around the country who have done this exercise. Also note the street grids that exist around the former lines. Compared to the networks that the streetcar built, auto culture looks so messy. I'm sure there is some sort of analogy for that.

If you've seen one of these overlays somewhere, shoot a link in the comments and I'll append them to this post.

Stadler Doesn't Look So Bad Now

Caught this article on Portland Transport. Colorado Railcar just seemed like trouble when they came out with a vehicle for transit agencies to run without engines and passenger cars. I don't know what it was but when I first started hearing about them, the organization just seemed shady. Gut feeling I guess. A lot of people had talked about the Colorado Railcar being used in Austin. I'm glad they didn't go that direction.

Really? Waco?

I'll believe a Waco streetcar when I see it.

Friday Night Linkfest: Streetcars & Secretaries

Streetcar projects are still having problems getting past the FTA Cost Effectiveness measure. Can we rewrite this thing already?
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Sources say former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk is one of two supposed finalists for the Transportation Secretary job along with Steve Heminger from the Bay Area MTC. The article says nothing about what Kirk has done on transportation issues and only that he was an early supporter and friend to Obama. Who wants cronies! Anyone have any more info on this person? I will note that he was in Office when light rail started running in Dallas.

Heminger on the other hand took any mention of electric transit out of the report for the recent Revenue Policy Study. It was put back, but he's also famous around the Bay Area by progressive transport nerds for his stance on promoting HOT lanes as the only way short term to cut congestion and pollution.
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Rep Peter Defazio is certain that an Obama administration will fund the East Side Streetcar project in Portland. This could bode well for other projects.
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This is heartening, but I'd really like to hear more about it than this.

While details have not been finalized, the bill is expected to include tens of billions of dollars for highway, mass transit, airport, and intercity passenger and freight rail improvements.

Bush's transportation philosophy "seemed to be, 'This is what the federal government should be responsible for and nothing else.' And the 'nothing else' category was public transportation," said William Millar, executive director of the American Public Transportation Association, whose members include transit agencies.

Obama, on the other hand, has described himself as a strong advocate of mass transit.

While Bush proposed what some lawmakers described as "starvation budgets" for Amtrak, Obama has pledged support for the passenger rail carrier and for developing a national network of high-speed passenger trains.

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The BRT - Light Rail saga continues on the Purple Line. A bad frame was used at a recent meeting. David Alpert fixes it.

It's too bad Gonzalez is thinking about the project using this analogy. A Lamborghini and a VW both get you from point A to point B, and except in a drag race, in pretty much the same amount of time. Not so with the bus versus light rail option. The light rail is faster, carries more people, and would use its own right of way for big chunks of the route, avoiding a lot of traffic. A better analogy would be, if the County builds a new school, should they buy big yellow buses or little golf carts to transport kids to school? Even if they're much slower and hold fewer students, they cost less, so why not?

Every Once in a While

Snow in New Orleans. Photo from the Times Picayune

Find Out What You're Asking For

KC Light Rail has a link to the stimulus lists for cities around the country by the US Conference of Mayors. Take a look and let us know if your city "gets it". Shouldn't their be some sort of region wide coordinated approach? It's always fun to look at lists though right?

For San Francisco, here's the link. Definitely needed things including a new control room and midlife overhauls for buses and the Bredas. I wonder if they have pong on their current control room computers.

And the city that sees this as an opportunity to do big things, Salt Lake City. Asking $403 million for five different light rail projects.

Another quirky thing, Austin asks for $80 million to update the current commuter rail line ($220 in rail asks). Does this mean electrification? Double tracking? Is that possible? What does urban rail vehicle purchases mean. Soooo confused!

If you find something interesting, let us know in the comments.

Forgetting Something?

It would be a nicer Transbay Terminal and more like Grand Central if when it opened it actually connected to some rail lines. Platforms deep under the are nice, but shouldn't they have reason to hold passengers? Perhaps a new subway line? Caltrain Extension? HSR? Here's a Fantasy Map I've shown before. The biggest white dot is the Transbay Terminal site.