BIKE: Rail Issues

[Dennis Abbott]

Just to throw an outsiders view into this....

I am moving to Austin in the next few weeks and I firmly believe that
rail(true mass transit) will eventually make it to Austin whether this
vote goes through or not.  And I don't think its very far off either. 
Look, most folks on this board are adherent to the theory of Peak Oil.
 This event is at hand within the next 4 years.  When the shit hits
the fan, rail of some fashion is going to be on the drawing board and
its going to have a much better light shown on it than ever before. 
It will be looked at as a saviour for this city and not simply
something to appease the hippies.  Road Warriors will be looking over
monrail, light rail and metro rail with sweat pouring down their
forehaeads as their property values will be tightly aligned with an
effective rail system.  yes Houston and Dallas are ahead of
"progressive" Austin by a couple of leaps but true leadership will
come into the equation when the energy crisis rears its head(seen the
price of oil today?).

In otherwords stop sweating the details, rail is coming in "Metro
Scale" form whether the Road Warriors like it or not.

Meanwhile I'm going to keep riding my bike everyday, earmark my
current single car as my last automobile and move within a couple of
miles of work.

You guys and gals live in Austin BECAUSE it has this potential.

If I were registered to vote in Austin I would vote for this
initiative just to spite those who would receveive the funds to
instead build roads.  Austin must stop misallocating its
resources($$$/land/political fortitude) at some point.
-- 
Dennis Abbott
902 Estes Dr
De Pere, WI 54115

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 11:44:51 -0500, Patrick Goetz
<pgoetz> wrote:
> Mike Dahmus wrote:
> >
> > And I want to remind all of you that, while these bike facilities are an
> > unquestionably good thing, it is very unlikely that Capital Metro will
> > build them unless the performance of the starter line is fairly good,
> > and by that I mean it has to be good enough to convince voters to
> > continue to build the system drawn in the long-range plan.
> 
> On that note, this appeared in the Statesman on Saturday:
> (http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/endorsements/2004/23rail_edit.html)
> 
> > •Accountability. By using existing railroad tracks and sales
> receipts, voters
> > would be able to gauge the benefit of commuter rail and Capital Metro's
> > management of it with very little risk.
> 
> It's not going to be me buying MD a steak dinner this time if he's right
> again.  OTOH, I do think there is some merit in just voting on principle
> to convince the pols that the greater Austin community does support the
> concept of rail.  And Cap Metro CEO Fred Gilliam has already announced
> that he'll hand every penny over to road building if ASG doesn't pass
> (see next referenced article).  I was wrong in a previous post:
> unfortunately, he can legally do this.  No matter what happens, a
> primary focus after the election for anyone who cares about Austin and
> consequently transportation in Austin should be getting rid of Gilliam
> and most of the Cap Metro board, including the absentee Aggie.
> 
> Now, a couple of quick items which have come up recently:
> 
> David Dobbs assured us that Fred "BRT" Gilliam is, in fact, a strong
> rail supporter.  Gilliam begs to differ:
> (http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/metro_state_14b735ee3665f0a9007a.html)
> 
> > What Capital Metro does not intend to do, at least in the foreseeable
> > future, is have lanes of city streets dedicated solely to bus
> traffic. When
> > that occurs, the system is called "bus rapid transit." Lacking those
> lanes,
> > Capital Metro calls its proposal rapid bus. But Gilliam made it clear
> he'd
> > like to reverse those two words in the long run.
> >
> > "My hope is that . . . eventually we will get to bus lanes," Gilliam
> said. "But
> > our plan is not designed around having to have them."
> 
> -----------------
> Moving on, in a WTF? move, Tom Delay (yes, that Tom Delay) helped
> organize a conference in Houston to explore alternative technologies for
> expanding the Houston rail system.  I'm quoting Delay here; note the
> promise to help Houston Metro in the future.
> (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2858748)
> 
> > DeLay, the keynote speaker at Wednesday's session, said transportation
> > projects need to be designed to meet the needs of the public, not the
> > desires of planners.
> >
> > "Unfortunately our transportation policy, and spending in particular,
> > is still governed by an outdated vision," DeLay told the audience of
> > about 100. "This past year, the city of Houston — after a long, hard
> > struggle — installed the same old mass-transit system that was
> > installed in Calgary, Canada, the year I was born: 1947.
> >
> > "It seems to me Houston can do better."
> >
> > The majority leader suggested Metro "needs an infusion of vision and
> > innovation" and commended its leaders for putting together the
> > technology forum.
> >
> > "I'm hoping this summit, and the information that comes out of it, will
> > keep the minds open at Metro," he said. "This is important work you are
> > doing, and I look forward to helping you do it in the future."
> >
> 
> Subscribers to Lyndon Henry's PTP bulletin will notice that Henry,
> perhaps the single most influential advocate for traditional 19th
> century rail in Austin, referred to this conference as the "'gadget
> transit' forum" and refers to Houston mayor Bill White as a "top rail
> foe" for making the following statement:
> 
> > Metro should consider abandoning light rail for another transit mode
> if it
> > could provide better service or cost less, Houston's mayor said Thursday
> > at the second day of a forum examining 11 alternative systems.
> >
> 
> And this despite the fact that Bill White was a strong supporter the
> referendum authorizing Houston's light rail system!  Calling
> technologies such as the highly economical mini-metro subway being built
> in Copenhagen (discussed on this list previously) and the wildy
> successful KL monorail "gadget" transit is perverse even by Henry's
> bizarrely twisted standards.  A commuter rail line running on a single
> track shared with freight, from mostly nowhere to mostly nowhere, a few
> times a day is a gadget, for heaven's sake.  Henry and his cadre of 19th
> century rail nuts appear to have every intention of surpassing Fox News
> in the politically motivated obfuscation department; from calling BRT
> advocate Fred Gilliam a rail supporter to calling subway, monorail, and
> elevated rail systems "gadget transit".  Of course astute readers will
> recall that this is the same group which refers to appeals to elementary
> Newtonian mechanics as "technobabble".  Do we really need to know
> anything else about their mental acuity and problem solving abilities?
> 
> A "gadget" technology is one, like Houston's disasterous LRT system,
> which can't do the job it was designed to do (see article posted below
> for the "last straw" of LRT in Houston).  This is why thinking folks in
> Houston, from right wing conservative demagogues to liberal do-gooders,
> are trying to identify a technology which will solve their
> transportation dilemma.  JUST FOR ENGAGING IN THE EXERCISE OF STUDYING
> ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES, Henry -- again, the single most influential
> public transportation consultant in the city of Austin and Karl
> Rove-like mastermind behind the failed 2002 Rapid Transit Project -- and
> his disciples refer to conference participants as "gadgeteers" and "rail
> foes".  I simply don't understand where these people (Henry & Co.) are
> coming from.  What on earth is their motive?  I don't think they're
> being payed off by the highway lobby, although they probably deserve to
> be in the same way Bush should be getting stipends from Osama Bin Laden
> for all he's done to further the cause of world Islamic terrorism.  They
> claim to favor public transit, but then do almost everything they can to
> stimy -- not just the deployment of -- but even the STUDY of affective
> pubic transit solutions!  What in the hell is going on here?  Are they
> just crazies who, like Nero in Rome, came to power in corrupt times?
> Inquiring minds would like to get to the bottom of this.  One thing is
> nearly certain, though: as long as Lee "Aggie" Walker, Fred "BRT"
> Gilliam, and Lyndon "techobabble" Henry are running things in Austin,
> we're not going to get a transit system which can change land use and
> provide a real alternative to the private motor vehicle.
> 
> Meanwhile, the poor folks in Houston are getting a real taste of just
> how effective LRT is in a crunch.  It should be noted that the Chicago
> El, a fully grade-separated Metro technology similar to what I've
> advocating; what Henry would call "gadget" technology (since it's not an
> at-grade 19th-century LRT choo-choo), has been successfully delivering
> baseball fans to and from Cubs games for almost 100 years.  Lyndon can
> try and spin this any way he likes; I lived 2 blocks from Wrigley field
> for several years and can assure list readers that most fans would NOT
> have a way of getting to games without the El.  Wrigley field, the
> oldest baseball park in the country, is surrounded by high density urban
> residential and commercial buildings with only city street road access.
>  The afternoon trains in the Summer are packed to capacity every game
> day.  Unlike the Houston LRT, the El is an effective special events
> transportation system and has been day after day, all Summer, every
> Summer, for decades.  I simply can't fathom how anyone could be so
> confused about what works and what doesn't, it really boggles the mind.
> 
>  http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2862181
> 
>  Oct. 23, 2004, 12:14AM
> 
> MetroRail pitches fans of Astros another defeat
> -----------------------------------------------
> 
> Many stranded downtown after the game when train got delayed
> 
> By LUCAS WALL
> Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
> 
> MetroRail struck out with numerous passengers stranded downtown
> Thursday night after watching the Astros lose to the St. Louis
> Cardinals, highlighting the continuing difficulty the transit authority
> has in handling special-event crowds.
> 
> Trains ran on schedule throughout the National League Championship
> Series Game 7 party on Main Street as thousands of fans cheered the
> Astros while viewing the contest on two large outdoor screens. Numerous
> police officers blocked pedestrians from crossing the tracks when a
> train approached.
> 
> A long wait
> 
> Service was suspended for safety reasons just as the contest ended
> about 10:15 p.m., however, and it took almost 40 minutes for a train to
> arrive at Preston Station to ferry the disappointed fans home. Some
> irate passengers complained there was no sight of an obstruction on the
> tracks and no communication from the Metropolitan Transit Authority
> about the reason for the wait.
> 
> Several said the continuing troubles with rail service during downtown
> events make them less likely to ride again.
> 
> "I don't appreciate how the city is like, 'Come downtown and use rail,'
> but you don't have enough respect for your patrons to let us know
> what's going on," a visibly upset Cassie Reid of Midtown told a
> MetroRail supervisor at Preston Station. "I could have walked home by
> this point."
> 
> Numerous delays
> 
> The supervisor had just arrived at the platform — more than 30 minutes
> into the delay — to inform the 100-plus waiting riders that rail
> service north of Jefferson Street had been suspended and there was a
> bus available on Fannin Street to ferry them to the Downtown Transit
> Center.
> 
> Only minutes after more than 50 people left the station and began
> walking the block to Fannin, a train finally pulled in. Only 50 or so
> people were left to board it, and the trip south was hampered by
> numerous delays. From the end of the game, it took almost an hour for
> the train to reach Midtown, only a mile away.
> 
> MetroRail service has stopped during prior downtown events this year
> after police failed to control people walking on the tracks. The worst
> problems happened at massive street parties during Super Bowl and Major
> League Baseball All-Star Game weeks.
> 
> Jeff Arndt, Metro's senior vice president for operations, said rail
> supervisors didn't expect the watch party would interfere with train
> service. But the decision was made a few minutes before the game ended
> that it was no longer safe to continue running, he said.
> 
> As the contest ended with an Astros defeat, a few angry fans threw beer
> bottles and a couple fights broke out. Nine arrests were made and three
> people suffered minor injuries from the bottles, said Houston Police
> Department spokesman John Cannon.
> 
> None of the incidents appeared to affect the rail line, but Arndt said
> "we will always err on the side of safety."
> 
> He said a MetroRail dispatcher followed procedure by programming an
> electronic message to notify riders of the shuttle bus on Fannin. The
> message, however, did not work.
> 
> Chronicle reporter S.K. Bardwell contributed to this story
> 
> 713-362-6832
> 
> traffic
> 
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