DOC Streetcar

Dallas and Oak Cliff have decided to get together on plans for a streetcar. Previously, Oak Cliff and Fort Worth were going to go in together to seek TIGER stimulus funding for new streetcar projects. However Dallas has plans for a streetcar as well, so bringing the ideas together is smart, considering it will lower the overall costs of a system that would likely run just blocks away from the other if allowed to plan separately.

I'm going to take a wild guess and venture to say that they won't get funding for the project. Given the whole country is foaming at the mouth for only $1.5 billion dollars in funds, it would be hard to expect projects like these to get funding over those more established. The low funding with so much interest makes that extra $2 billion from cash for clunkers look silly as well, considering there are transit projects that could help guide new growth that reduces VMT versus paying for people's new cars so they can drive more.

Governor Good Hair

Does this mean that we can give Governor Perry a hard time for all his contacts within the toll road community? I'm not sure he really wants to start this fight.

Grape Flavors

Governor O'Malley will choose LRT for both the Red and Purple lines tomorrow which has been an awaited decision for a long time. I hope that the Red line will not be another stand alone line like the green line and the existing LRT line. Not being able to share equipment and operating a single line with shops etc for each line in the system seems wasteful to me. Honestly both of these lines should be Metro subway lines, unfortunately these days all we do is look at the cost first and long term benefits and value last. Such is life I guess.

One More Clunker

Perhaps the streetcars of San Francisco were getting a bit upset with the lack of funding coming their way and the silly cash for clunkers program, so they decided to tag team an SUV. In all seriousness, I hope everyone is ok.

Track Trauma

I've discussed the operator side of suicides on the track before. The Mercury News goes into greater detail with Caltrain engineers.

Alternate Universe

An article on NBC 11 ponders what would have happened if the Bay Area never would have constructed BART. It's an interesting thought, especially considering the alternative they paint in the article.

We'd certainly have an electrified Caltrain running to downtown San Francisco at a faster speed than the current Baby Bullets -- and perhaps running on the Bay Bridge or in a new tunnel under San Francisco Bay to Oakland and beyond. We'd also have real commuter rail from the East Bay to Silicon Valley, the region's most vital employment center -- not the paltry ACE and Capitol Corridor services people have to make do with.

We'd have light rail, a modern version of the Key System, crisscrossing the East Bay. And we'd certainly have faster service in San Francisco, the city most dependent on public transit.

While its a pretty picture do we really think that alternatives to BART would have gotten traction without the existence of BART or a core program? In San Francisco, the construction of BART was also the time that the Muni Metro Market street tunnel was constructed. I often wish that we had built a center cities metro and connected the edges with commuter rail to places like Walnut Creek and Pleasanton. It perhaps could have lowered the cost and increased productivity of the system. But as usual hindsight is 20/20. We won't really know either way.

One thing the article points out that really hits me and should hit everyone in San Francisco.

Isn't it ridiculous that transit commuters take less time to go from Walnut Creek to downtown San Francisco than it does to cross the city?

Yes, yes it is.

Sunday Night Notes

Karlsruhe, notorious for their introduction of tram trains, is looking at nickel cadmium batteries for short segments of the line where there is a switch from Mainline to Tram operations.
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Fort Collins had a street railway until 1951, some of the tracks were dug up under the pavement recently.
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All about priorities:

Luoni said the key is spending priorities, not lack of funds. The money the federal government spent in one year on the Iraq war could have funded 200 light rail transit systems.

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We might be seeing solar ferry service in Hong Kong. At some point the bay area was supposed to have a more robust ferry system, but I haven't heard or seen anything about it lately.
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Gavin seems to not really care. Please go away soon.
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The New York Times editorial on HSR is pretty good. We need a transportation bill, not a stall. And they don't call it the highway bill!

Despite his support of the idea of high-speed rail, President Obama has put off dealing with the national transportation bill for another 18 months. That is a delayed opportunity to move forward on an important new national transportation plan to expand public transit in much the way the Federal-Aid Highway Act did for roads more than 50 years ago.

Until Mr. Obama and members of Congress can enact a comprehensive new transit agenda, both have an obligation to make a down payment on high-speed-rail corridors across the nation.

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Tough times for TOD and Mixed Use projects in Atlanta

Joe Metro

Favorite Lyrics:

Northbound, now we start to pick up more college kids
They try to study on the ride
To make up for the fact that they probably kicked it hard last night
And I ponder if it's time to save up and get a car
And pay for the gas that we're takin' from the war
I'd miss all the colorful faces, the places, and spaces I've embraced with

H/T Reader AMBrown

Magical Matching Funds

It looks like Senator Murry pulled a Pelosi in setting the terms of her own matching funds which again shows how the New Starts system is broken. People will continue to write in these rule changes for specific projects if the system continues to not work for them.

Murray's provision requires the FTA to count money from tolls and state gas taxes as part of the expected 40 to 50 percent of the light rail line paid for from "nonfederal" sources.

The historical precedent for this was set by Nancy Pelosi when she decided that the Third Street line could be the match for the Central Subway and wrote it into law. Supposedly Houston has a similar deal writing in the Main Street Line as a match for the future network as well, but it hasn't really been mentioned much.

Included language allowing Houston METRO to get credit for state and local funds already spent on the design and construction of the existing Main Street light rail. This means METRO will be credited an additional $324 million for future FTA-approved transit projects.

The point is that if lawmakers are going to continue to toss these things in, it probably means they are ready for a cleaner transportation bill that allows regions to spend money on what they need, instead of what there is money for specifically.

More Notes

Not sure if you all enjoy the shorter link posts but they can be easier when I'm short on time.

A really cool look at how the Bell Red corridor could develop over time with LRT.
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An off topic but related issue, how Berkeley is paying for the city's solar panels is pretty innovative.

the city itself just issues a bond to pay for the upfront costs of installing the panels, and the homeowner then repays the government over the course of 20 years via a small line item on the property-tax bill. (This way, if the home is sold, the costs of the panels get passed on to the new owner getting the benefits.)

Not sure how this relates to transit but there must be something we can learn from this, especially since better access increases property taxes.
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Germany is looking at speed limits on the autobahn. It's good for the environment, even if it is fun to drive so fast.
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El Paso is looking to redevelop a strip mall infested street with BRT. No definition of BRT included.