Other People's Rail: Amtrak, commuter rail, rapid transit news & views outside New England

Another unchangeable feature of that walk is that it involves a substantial amount of hill climbing. You have to be pretty fit and into walking/hiking to see that walk as anything other than problematic at best. I mean, I'll do it next time I'm in L.A. and catch a game there, but I think there is only a small percentage dedicated enough to a car free approach that would try it.
 
Teban54 said:
Even the most convenient and enjoyable walk will still take a substantial amount of time and physical effort, though, given the sheer distance. That 15-min walk (just guesstimating optimistically) can be the deal breaker for someone deciding between transit and driving.
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I'm not saying this instead of the gondola, just that it seems absurd to be building the gondola without also doing or having done much more basic pedestrian improvements.

We're talking $500m for a gondola with a peak hour capacity of 5,000 people. So, $1m per 10 people of peak hour capacity, in a certain sense.

If you spend something like $10m on pedestrian improvements and you get 100 more people to walk back after the game ends, it's effectively equal value per passenger to the gondola or better. That's why I'm a bit surprised to not see some spending on the pedestrian experience as a thing to do first or at the same time.

HenryAlan said:
Another unchangeable feature of that walk is that it involves a substantial amount of hill climbing. You have to be pretty fit and into walking/hiking to see that walk as anything other than problematic at best. I mean, I'll do it next time I'm in L.A. and catch a game there, but I think there is only a small percentage dedicated enough to a car free approach that would try it.
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If it's one of the quickest ways and it's safe and clear, plenty of people will do it - the guaranteed time of the walk can beat waiting in a slow line for a while if you're able-bodied. I also note that for leaving (typically much worse for traffic/peak demand than arriving), it's primarily downhill, which is far easier.

You could arrive by Gondola and walk back to depart because it's too busy after the show. These things are complimentary - walking can be a form of overflow capacity for the gondola/shuttles.

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I've been to a bunch of shows at Red Rocks (CO). Which is effectively up a mountain from most of the parking. Post-show rideshare/passenger pickup is an entire mile down a mountain from the venue (and the furthest car parking lot isn't much closer), and you are primarily expected to walk. There are shuttles but they're mostly used by those that actually need assistance, most walk. And that's at 6500ft where a big chunk of the audience for the biggest shows has just flown in and is not at all acclimated.
 
millerm277 said:
I also note that for leaving (typically much worse for traffic/peak demand than arriving), it's primarily downhill, which is far easier.
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Especially this. For arriving to games/concerts the demand is going to be more level. Some people want to show up very early to gift shop or get food or enjoy the pre-show/supporting acts or whatever. Other people only want to come for the main event, most are somewhere in between. For leaving, a few people will leave when they think it's 'basically over' (Dodgers are down 8 runs after the 8th inning for example) but most will stay to at least the bottom of the 9th before leaving all together. For someone able-bodied, a 30 minute downhill walk on a warm California night is absolutely not a terrible proposition.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:

Brightline West's cost jumps another $5.5B to a whopping $21.5B. For only a 218-mile route.
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That is nearly $100 million per mile, over mostly open land without any utilities or obstacles. As far as I'm aware, their plan is to go over the mountains, rather than any tunneling. And with only four stations and a maintenance facility, how can it possibly be as expensive as that?
 

Feds release Brightline safety funding to address ‘unnecessary danger’​

The Trump administration on Monday announced it is committing $42 million to address safety concerns along the Brightline route, as officials respond to the train’s record as the deadliest major passenger railroad in the nation. U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the agency is releasing funding for four grants that had first been announced under the Biden administration but were lacking finalized agreements. At a July congressional committee meeting, one day after the Miami Herald and WLRN published an investigation revealing that more than 180 people have been struck and killed by Brightline trains, Duffy addressed the issue after U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Miami Democrat, called the high fatality rate a “crisis.” There have been “way too many deaths,” Duffy said at the time, adding that “we have to try to get that number to zero.”
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The four grants that have now been “obligated,” meaning the government has committed to disbursing the money, include $25 million in federal funds that were originally announced in August 2022. Those funds will pay for critical safety measures like 33 miles of protective fencing and landscaping at trespassing hotspots, warning markings at rail crossings and 168 crisis-support signs meant to address people who are suicidal.
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The grant funding announced Monday includes more than $15 million to add gate arms and delineators at 21 Brightline crossings in Broward County, an award that was first publicized in June 2023. The funding is intended to address a spike in deaths within the county’s “quiet zone” — where trains are not required to sound their horns except in emergency situations — that prompted a rare federal review. Another grant, for $1.6 million, will help Brightline use an A.I. monitoring system to track trespassing activity. It was first announced in September 2023. Cameras at the front of Brightline trains will collect data “which will be used to develop and train an A.I. model to identify unsafe behaviors around the corridor,” the company said at the time. “This information will empower Brightline to more accurately identify areas for additional community outreach, law enforcement presence, or engineering projects.”
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Why can’t MN use M8s there? I’m sure there are very good reason they use push-pull logos, but I’ve never been on that line.
 
wicked said:
Why can’t MN use M8s there? I’m sure there are very good reason they use push-pull logos, but I’ve never been on that line.
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The Chargers they've bought are for thru runs to Grand Central from diesel territory. If they didn't have them, everything from Wassaic, Poughkeepsie, Danbury, and Waterbury would be a shuttle train with forced transfer. Given that they've had dual-modes for directs from those territories for 69 years, it's not a feature they want to get rid of.

Now...the convoluted battery Chargers they're buying for Penn Station Access...that's the one that makes absolutely no sense over another supplemental order of M8's, because no Danbury or Waterbury runs are planned to get Penn directs and push-pulls needlessly taking up any rotation slot on PSA trains (regardless of whether M8's are going to take up a majority of those slots) are only going to serve to slow down the daily slate of PSA schedules.
 
wicked said:
Why can’t MN use M8s there? I’m sure there are very good reason they use push-pull logos, but I’ve never been on that line.
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In short, MTA Metro-North has some significant unelectrified tails on several of its lines, in this particular case the Hudson line. These, unlike the prior generation of dual locos, can run on third rail in electric territory. The majority of Metro north trains turn at the end of the electric territory- besides the M8s on New Haven, the M3s and M7s are EMUs. (The M3s being replaced by M9As).
 
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