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The New York Times did a big piece on the rising tide of popularity for streetcars:"Downtowns Across the U.S. see Streetcars in Their Future"

I was up in the 'burbs of Chicago this weekend, and I spent a lot of time on Metra, the commuter rail system there.

Metra Car
Photograph John Kenna
railroadpix.com

Why does this matter? It was "worn out" Metra cars that the Music City Star bought for $1 each to get Nashville's commuter rail system up and running, and I think Louisville would be lucky to get the same deal today, should it decide to do something similar along the P&L tracks.

Photo through Wacky Archives. Check them all out!

Don't you wish Louisville had more watermelon-shaped bus shelters?

Yeah, I do too.

David Hawpe pines for more interesting bus shelters in his column in today's Courier-Journal.  But, really, what he wants is more comfortable bus stops; he especially dislikes the "shelters" in the Bardstown Road corridor which are pretty useless, whether it's raining (no sides), windy (ditto), snowing (ditto) or sunny:

The time to contribute money to transit is now. We can take a major step towards improved regional transportation around Louisville. Through the tireless efforts of Metro Council, KIRA, and CART, we are very close to operating two exciting demonstrations:

1. An "inspection train" on the Paducah & Louisville track, going from downtown Louisville out to Elizabethtown KY, a model of what a commuter rail line could look like on that corridor.
2. A city-to-city bus ride back to Louisville aboard a Miller Transportation's bus, a model for a better way of connecting Kentucky's cities.

Click Read More for how to contribute!

Marcus Green has a long piece detailing the state of public transit in Louisville. It covers the service cuts, the fuel crunch, the T2 light rail plan, the proposed line along the Paducah & Louisville, CART, and much more.

Also at the C-J online is a reader forum where users can ask questions of Barry Barker, executive director of TARC.

Furthermore, TARC has settled on a price for diesel for the next year: $3.97/gallon. Sounds good to me!

Lastly, it appears the family of a man who died protecting a stranger has decided to sue TARC for failure to maintain control of the bus situation. This man sounds like a hero.

If you attended the CART Annual meeting on Wednesday, July 23, you heard the discussion of an exciting proposal to demonstrate that commuter rail is a real possibility in Louisville. 

CART is partnering with KIRA, the Kentucky and Indiana Rail Advocates, to sponsor an “inspection train” down Dixie Highway toward Fort Knox, using the Paducah & Louisville Railway.  It will be a trip for various city officials to see the railway and imagine what the corridor could become. A similar inspection train led to the creation of the Music City Star on the Nashville & Eastern railroad. 

Dear Senator McConnell,
The appropriations committee has passed the FY 09 spending bill for Transportation and HUD. Thanks to you there were over $9 million in earmarks for public transit in Kentucky:

We all know that public transit has been in the news.  More than ever, we have a climate that will support public transit if we can build a base and momentum.  Thanks to you long time, committed advocates, CART has successfully raised awareness of the need for increased funding for transit. Now is the time for all of you to take you energies and recruit others.

CART, along with the Metropolitan Housing Coalition, Kentuckyians for the Commonwealth, AARP, the Center for Accessible Living, and other friends, is developing education and advocacy tools for you to use.  We want to have people and organizations show their commitment to increased public transit by signing onto some basic principles.  If you are interested in this phase, let us know.

This does redirect our energy from the petition for the August 16 deadline to add a transit funding initiative to the 2008 ballot.  But we know that educating the public and growing the base of supporters is the most important way to use our time.

So how do you get goods to market with zero oil? Right now, you don't. In the future though, it could be done even in the US, if we use this plan for electrifying our national railroad system.

The system is elegant in its construction plan. In the great plains there isn't a lot of electricity to support electrified rail, but there are huge rights of way already ceded to the railroad companies, and they can ship out giant cranes along the rail, and use it to erect massive windmills to power the freight. With the savings in truck traffic on our highway, and thus road wear, we may find that this project pays for itself.

The Oil Drum: Multiple Birds – One Silver BB: A synergistic set of solutions to multiple issues focused on Electrified Railroads