Euclid Avenue vs. High Street: Why the Streetcar Would Work

I was recently in Cleveland for two days for a Transportation Research Board workshop to view its new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line first-hand. I came away very impressed with what Cleveland has done, and I couldn’t help thinking about the similarities to what Columbus is trying to do with the streetcar.
Route
The $200 Million Euclid [...]

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Change in Transit Ridership (2007-2008)

I received a link to this map in an e-mail. It appears to show the year-over-year change in transit ridership for cities all over the country. There are no details about how it is calculated, where the data comes from, or even a link to a home page for the site, but it’s [...]

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Media vs. Reality on Streetcar Status

This was posted in the comments on ColumbusUnderground.com here:
Not that I’ll ever say there’s any way to capture reality 100%, but the article in the Dispatch is a bit misleading. Some things we discussed with the reporter yesterday that were not necessarily reflected:
1. Streetcars are a piece of a broader regional system that we need [...]

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Columbus Streetcar proposal is being revised

The Dispatch
For now, streetcar proposal is off-line
Thursday, July 10, 2008
BY ROBERT VITALE
Faced with a City Council that’s nervous about the cost, Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s administration is retooling its plan for streetcars in Columbus.
He’s not giving up on the idea, though. Spokesman Dan Williamson said changes in the works are “ not in terms [...]

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Even Form Letters Mean Something

In this case, I got a form letter back from Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH 15th) in response to a letter of thanks that I sent her for voting Yea on H.R. 6003: The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. It may not be a deeply personal letter, but at least it lets her [...]

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I Guess Transit Qualifies as “Pork-Barrel Spending”

How about a little presidential politics on this holiday weekend?
McCain’s agenda on Amtrak
By Derrick Z. Jackson
July 1, 2008
Train travel is finally becoming a third rail of politics. The first one to fry over it might be John McCain.
For years, McCain, in the comfort of cheap gasoline for autos and airplanes, made Amtrak a personal whipping [...]

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It’s All About Having Options

Was anyone else expecting Columbus to be mentioned along with the other cities that have neglected mass transit through the years?

HERE’S another video from NBC’s Today Show about the rails being packed for 4th of July travel.

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Congress + Solutions = WTF?

That was my initial reaction when I stumbled upon these quotes from Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md)…
We are in desperate need of significant transit improvements. We’ve got to have the facilities and we don’t today, and then we need the fare-box and economic policies that reward people for taking public transportation. Some try to say that [...]

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Columbus Streetcar Project Featured in The Alive

Rail road
The Alive
By John Ross
May 22, 2008
Modern streetcars are similar in spirit — though not in appearance or functionality — to the trolleys that lined Columbus streets before being ripped up starting in 1933.
Of the 15 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, only Columbus, San Antonio and Indianapolis lack some system of rail-based transit, [...]

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Rail Mode Definitions

I’ve noticed some confusion on Columbus Underground and other web forums about the differences between streetcars and light rail, light rail and heavy rail, and heavy rail and commuter rail. In an effort to get more of us on the same track, I have summarized some common characteristics of each rail mode and provided some [...]

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