Bardstown Road

Many more photos below the fold...

Minding the gap:

Soup's on at 8pm, but the ride won't start until all are there, which probably won't be until 10:30-11.

There is a consensus in the transportation activism community that Amtrak will be back in Louisville. We know how to do it - we did it a decade ago, and gained vital experience doing it. Generally the groupthink is that we'll restore service to Indy and Chicago, because that's what we had last time.

David Hodson turns that idea on its head:

The TARC board has granted a stay of execution on some of the routes slated for cancellation. The best coverage of the cuts is at the KIPDA transportation blog.

TARC's cut will not be sufficient to reach financial balance. Thus the Metro Transit Trust Fund (MTTF) will dip down to $7.5 million dollars from its healthy level of $10 million dollars. The MTTF serves as a way to keep service on the streets in an emergency, and also as buffer cash for reimbursement projects ("if you build it we will pay...someday" as oppposed to "we will pay you then you build it").

While everyone awknolwedges this is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation, I have to give credit for them having the guts to deficit spend. There's a strong argument that government shouldn't cut jobs during a recession, and we've had plenty of state and local job cuts already, just as the feds are pouring money into creating new jobs.

This is no game and there is an element of risk for the livelyhood of 60,000 TARC riders. So far TARC has not had the roller-coaster ride of severe service cuts experienced at many other transit agencies. (c.f. today's front page New York Times article on the MTA cuts). That's a possibility that Possibility City has avoided.

CART remains committed to creating a better federal funding structure for transit in the new authorization in 2010.

[Editorial - not the official position of CART]

Remove Bus Stops on Broadway to Win

Buses can't get anywhere if they're always starting or stopping. TARC's #23 on Broadway has so many bus stops, that it is hopelessly slow. Stops average every tenth of a mile.  Around 3rd street, there are even two stops on the same block! Buses run standing-room only in this part of town, and all the stops are used constantly.

View #23 TARC Stops in a larger map

LA Metro: Promoting Mass Transit from EMBARQ Network on Vimeo.

Funny joke below the fold.

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.

[editor's note: CART does not endorse candidates. Nevertheless, we view discussion of the proposal put forward yesterday as well within the scope of our organization]

Thursday, Dr Daniel Mongiardo gave a presentation to the CART membership calling for a massive investment in public transportation both state-wide and locally. This article deals with the first phase of the local plan, specifically, the construction of rapid access monorail (RAM) serving Louisville.

RAM cars are about the size of a van, with a seated capacity of 12 people, or a standing capacity of about 30 people. From a user's perspective, riding RAM is about like an elevator - you step in, after some seconds the doors close, and you're on your way. Peak speed is in excess of 50mph. The RAM sits atop a lean rail on a concrete pylon. The pylon is fairly compact, maybe a large telephone pole.