What we're demonstrating is the ability to run passenger trains like this one:

This is Nashville's Music City Star. The engine is a refurbished AMTRAK passenger engine, costing about $200,000 used. The two gallery cars each seat 150+ passengers, and are available for about $20,000 each used. So this train has the passenger capacity of about six city buses.

The other interesting thing about this trainset is it's not clear which way it is travelling. It can run "backwards" with an engineer atop the back gallery car, controlling the engine remotely, or "forwards" with the engineer in the engine. The other crewperson is a conductor.

To generate support for this idea, we secured the cooperation of the P&L Railway and Miller Trailways for a one-day, invitation-only event. Early on Saturday officials gathered for a press conference at TARC:

Saturday's inspection of the P&L Railway between Louisville and Cecilia Kentucky was a resounding success. We now have momentum towards a commuter rail corridor in Louisville!

CART will have a lot more to say later, stay tuned!

We got a nice write-up in the Courier-Journal today, with many nice quotes from public officials. Train ride may spur look at line serving Louisville, Fort Knox

There's been a lot of confusion about Commuter Rail and Light Rail. They are both forms of passenger rail, but there the similarity ends. You can't call one the other!

Commuter Rail goes over longer distances than Light Rail. For example, compare the system maps of our proposal to the T2 Light Rail plan from 2002. The system we're proposing for Jefferson, Hardin, and Meade counties would travel from here to Elizabethtown via Fort Knox. It would not be a Louisville project, but a Kentucky project. Contrast that to the T2 light rail line we almost build a few years ago, that went from downtown to just outside I-265. That would have been purely urban and suburban.

The two PAL passenger coaches are visible behind the engines in this photo from the PAL website.

On the morning of November the 8th, 2008, Jefferson, Hardin, and Meade counties will play host to something not seen in a generation in these areas: passenger rail service along the Paducah and Louisville Railway.

For one round trip only, there will be a commuter "inspection train" operating from Louisville, through Shively, West Point, Fort Knox, Mulldraugh, North Radcliff, Vine Grove, and Cecilia.

The trip is to draw attention to the huge economic potential that the Paducah and Louisville tracks hold in terms of adding capacity to Highway 31-W aka "Wide Wide Dixie Highway", one of the regions most congested corridors.

About the Inspection Train

Seating on the inspection train is going to be extremely limited, because we can use just the two passenger cars you see above. Because of that, seats are invitation only, and reserved for elected officeholders, transportation professionals, members of the media, and a small staff of volunteers, most of them FRA certified.

Update: New photo-op location added at Southwest Government Center - more info below the fold.

LEO has the best article about the Music City Star tour.

Fox also covers us.

Members of the recent Nashville Tour will speak today at Metro Council Transportation & Public Works Committee today. It's at 5pm at City Hall.

Update: Ooops!

Looks like we dropped the ball on this one. Somehow we failed to confirm on Friday (gosh I wonder why) and so we didn't make the agenda. We'll try again in two weeks.

Photo courtesy Metro Jacksonville
 

Kentuckians Seek to Learn the Secrets of Success of the Nation's Least Expensive Commuter Rail System

On Friday, September 26th, local transportation professionals, public officials, press, and interested citizens journeyed from Louisville to Nashville to tour the Music City Star commuter rail system. This lucky group took a guided round-trip tour of the Music City Star rail system, toured the rail yards, talked with Music City Star personnel, and learned how Nashville managed to build the least expensive commuter rail system in the country at the bargain-basement cost of $1.3 million per mile.

Tour group and Nashville officials pose in front of train at Lebanon, TN

Music City Star in action - Photographer: Jonathan Guy

On September 26th, 2008 a group of represenetives from CART, KIRA, Louisville Metro Council, KIPDA, KYTC, and other interested folks went to Nashville, to tour the Music City Star commuter train, and hear about the system from the people that built it from a good idea into a working system.

Press Reports

• LEO
• Fox41
• C-J (briefly, 2nd from top)
• Excelent background article on the Music City Star.

CART Members Help Run Futuristic Transit System!

Historic inspection of system by Jefferson, Hardin, and Meade county officials to occur on November 8th. Thanks to the generous contributions of CART members and other concerned citizens, we now have enough money to run an inspection train and inspection bus along the Dixie Highway corridor. For three glorious hours, Louisville will have something resembling a commuter system along Dixie Highway, out to Fort Knox, and south to Elizabethtown.

This day will not have been possible without the generous contributions of the following entitites:

Photo courtesy Brian Wiggins
www.pbase.com/savethewave

If you're only now learning of this fundraising drive, but you still want to contribute, rest assured the CART General Fund has been greatly depleted from jump-starting this venture. By joining CART today, you'll ensure CART has the funds to seize future opportunities to promote public transportation.