While the construction of the Rapid Access Monorail would get top priority, the plan also calls for linking in the suburbs using existing freight rail tracks and Diesel Electric Multiple Unit trains - hereafter DEMUs.

DEMU Technology

These were referred to as "Hybrid Light Rail" cars during the presentation, and although this is technically accurate, nobody else calls 'em that. There was an effort to tie into the strong "Light Rail" branding that still lingers on here in the wake of "T2" Light Rail.

DEMUs are hybrids because they have a small diesel engine and a battery, both of which can power the wheels. And they're light rail because they're lightweight and efficient.

Unfortunately, FRA safety regulations prohibit all reasonably efficient designs from operating concurrently on the same tracks as freight trains. We simply have to change the overly-restrictive FRA regulations. According to Wikipedia, FRA guidelines "greatly restrict the development of [DEMUs] within the U.S. as no other country requires the heavier and less efficient FRA compliant vehicles". FRA over-regulation has made passenger rail prohibitively expensive to operate in the USA, putting people into cars. Cars are 10-100x more deadly than rail. Its a case of over-zealous regulation that has hurt the public good, and somebody - maybe some senators - should put a stop to it. For more on this, I refer you to How the FRA is regulating Passenger Rail out of Existence.

Freight Rail Tracks?

Then there's the little problem that the public doesn't own the freight rail tracks - various railroads companies do. These companies are forced by law to optimize their profit. Human beings are a notoriously impatient, irreplaceable, and litigous cargo to be letting onto your tracks. Think about it: if you have two corn syrup tankers bust into eachother, what happens? $100,000 in damages, no big deal. If you have two passenger cars bump into eachother, people die, $1,000,000,000 of liability, easy. When Daniel Mongiardo says that he'll have to work closely with the railroads to make this happen, he's not joking.

There is wide variance among the railroads on how eager they are to allow passengers on their track. At one extreme, there's CSX, which notoriously squelches almost every intrusion onto its property. At the other end are the community minded smaller railroads, the Paducah and Louisville Railway and R.J. Corman Railroad Group. All of them are willing to 'play ball' with public private partnerships. For example, P&L would probably be persuaded into running passenger rail along Dixie Highway in exchange for getting the aging Muldraugh trestles rebuilt. And CSX might allow passenger rail along Frankfort Avenue if the government were wiling to foot the bill for restoring the double track.

There is another problem with freight rail tracks - the condition of the tracks is in many cases insuffiecent for moving loads at higher speeds. However, this is a problem that can be attacked incrementally over the years. Passenger rail performance would slowly ramp up as capital becomes available.

The Full System

The presentation did not feature a true system map for Greater Louisville. There was only a slide naming the lines,

• North Corridor
• Northeast Corridor
• East Corridor
• Southeast Corridor
  with West End Loop
• South Central Corridor
• Southwest Corridor
• Northwest Corridor
• plus, of course, the Rapid Access Monorail from Phase I

Note that these map almost 1-1 into the 8 "advanced transit corridors" TARC ruminates about. Additionally, this quixotic rail map of Old Louisville and Downtown was presented, but it doesn't show whether or not you'll be in a short walk of a rail station. But based on the existing tracks, they probably meant a system map something like this:

View The Mongiardo Transit Plan for Louisville in a larger map

So when you map this out, many questions arise. Please assume they are the fault of my own shoddy transcription of the plan from hearing the presentation.

Summary on Feasability

A number of obstacles need to be overcome in order to build this system:

1. FRA passenger rail regulation needs a reboot
2. Railroads have to be persuaded to support the plan (e.g. limits on liability)
3. Rewrite the way federal transit dollars are allocated to states - the current system shortchanges Kentucky
4. A source of local revenue is probably needed to operate such a large system

These are high hurdles and will require a lot of work to surmount.