BIKE: Commuter Rail In General

[Mike Dahmus]

alan_drake wrote:

>Most of the MetroRail opened in stages during 1984-85. A 1.5-mile extension westward from Okeechobee to Palmetto opened on 30 May 2003. (Sorry I thought it was this year).
>
>Tri-Rail started service in 1989, with extensions and improvements since then.  Staged, as with TRE, after the urban rail opened.
>
>IMHO, a four to five year delta is "in the same period".  And also, IMHO, Dade County voters were FAR more influenced by the success or failure of MetroRail in deciding whether to expand MetroRail than they were by Tri-Rail.  They are moving towards a significant expansion now, 20 years after it opened.
>  
>
Alan, I lived in South Florida all this time. Two problems:

1. Tri-Rail was offered to the whole area, not just Miami. Transfers to 
MetroRail form only a small part of overall ridership. Many people were 
envisioned to commute from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, or FLL to West Palm 
Beach, or Boca to FLL, etc.

2. Voters never voted on this directly. The "momentum" was indirectly 
exposed through the activities of public officials, who never proposed 
additional rail service until quite recently.

>In Southern California, there are some respectable commuter lines.  Do any of them have weak or nonexistent urban rail connections ?
>  
>
I'm not familiar with the lines in SoCal. I'd guess that if they have 
weak or nonexistent urban rail connections, AND if they don't have any 
attractors within walking distance (key point here!), that they aren't 
doing well at attracting choice commuters. Note: If the Red Line fails 
at attracting new customers to transit, it will be regarded as a 
failure, even if it captures 100% of existing bus riders in the corridor 
(it probably will; Capital Metro is already making noise about ending 
the express bus routes in this corridor if commuter rail passes).

>I do agree with your general premise that a good urban rail system should be a first priority, with commuter feeding into it.  But, if the Red Line fails how long before a good urban rail system passes a vote ?
>
A long time. Even longer, though, if the Red Line passes and meets my 
expectations. Especially since right now there's pretty much only one 
guy talking about commuter rail not precluding light rail on the 
original 2000 alignment, and so far, his best efforts have failed to 
remotely convince me.

- MD