Misc. rapid transit projects thread

[stick n move]

So I didnt see a thread to post about light rail projects in other cities so figured Id make one.


Nashville Fails... hard

“NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE VOTERS REJECT LIGHT-RAIL PROPOSAL”

https://amp.tennessean.com/amp/557905001

What a gem here... wow

“When you break it down, light rail is a nineteenth century technology for a twenty-first century city,” Shultis said. “There are so many more effective and cost-effective alternatives that can actually solve the problem.”
https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/nashville-tennessee-voters-reject-light-rail-proposal


Some interesting things going on behind the scenes:

“Why are Koch-funded activists trying to derail a US city’s public transit?”
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/koch-activists-phoenix-ban-light-rail



And even with all that going on, some faith in humanity restored...

“Phoenix Voters 'Say Yes to the Future,' Rejecting Koch-Backed Effort to Ban Light Rail Expansion in Least Sustainable US City”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/28/phoenix-voters-say-yes-future-rejecting-koch-backed-effort-ban-light-rail-expansion?amp

 

[whittle]

I like the idea of this thread, though I'm unsure it belongs in this subforum.

On the note of the Nashville plan. In conversations with my dad who lives in Nashville (and is very pro-transit in spite of his libertarian leanings), we both came to the conclusion that the Nashville plan was not very good, at least from a political perspective (and on a related political context, the plan was the the pet project of the mayor who had to resign in scandal during the campaign and while her successor supported the plan he didn't try too hard to attach himself to it). To us the plan seemed to suffer from being very ambitious while not giving anyone a particularly good reason to get excited about the ambition. The plan cost more than one year's worth of the city budget and consisted mostly of at grade LRV and BRT, and it wasn't effectively communicated how median running service could provide noticeably better service than the existing transit options. The largest investment in the plan was a $1 billion ~1 mile twin bored tunnel through the central business district and it didn't seem clear as to what benefit such a short tunnel provided.

It seems to me that the manner Phoenix approached is much better. Focus first on incremental bus improvements all around and build one good LRV corridor. Once that's succeeded, then larger investment becomes more palatable.

 

[George_Apley]

I like the idea of this thread, though I'm unsure it belongs in this subforum.

Agree. This should be in "General Architecture and Urban Planning"

 

[datadyne007]

Agree. This should be in "General Architecture and Urban Planning"

Thank you. Thread has been relocated.

 

[stick n move]

Thanks for moving it.

What a fail for Nashville. Theres a reason why cities everywhere are building as much rail as they can and a reason why rail has been around for a few hundred years. It works. The “yea but technology will fix stuff” argument is the oldest trick in the book and voters fell for it. Thank god Phoenix could see thru the bs though...