Streetcar
March 8, 2010
Updated: Portland Streetcar Awarded $23M in TIGER Funds
Update: 3/9/10
In the comments to this post I was asked if the grant was for the entire Innovation Quadrant program, or if it applied to the Moody component only.
I learned last week that in fact the grant amount awarded is only for Moody. We'll need to keep looking for funding for the Sustainability Center and OMSI pieces of this puzzle.
Original Post: 2/17/10
The "Innovation Quadrant" TIGER grant application was successful and will receive $23,203,988 (I want those last eight dollars!) in funding.
This will go a long way toward "closing the Loop" and connecting the service to OMSI back across the Willamette to South Waterfront and back up to PSU.
Sadly, it appears that no other Oregon projects were funded. I was rooting for the Metro proposal that would have funded a large chunk of the desired bike network in N/NE Portland.
The full list of recipients is here (PDF). The Oregon award is on page 51 of the PDF.
On a further Streetcar note, Tuscon received $63M for their project, and that will mean jobs at Oregon Ironworks, building their seven vehicles.
Posted by Chris Smith at 12:07 AM | Comments (38) | Permalink
February 16, 2010
Getting Transit into the Jobs Bill
This from Transportation for America:
We just got word from our team on Capitol Hill - despite the massive blizzard bearing down on the East Coast this week, the Senate is pushing forward on an $85 billion jobs bill.But the draft being circulated has not a single dollar to address the crisis in transit funding, which threatens severe cuts to essential service and the loss of thousands of jobs.
Tell your senators: Public transportation investments create jobs!
Posted by Chris Smith at 12:50 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink
February 1, 2010
First Eastside Streetcar Rails Go Down Today
I just learned that the first segment of rail for the Streetcar Loop project will be laid on NE Grand today!
Posted by Chris Smith at 10:18 AM | Comments (22) | Permalink
January 22, 2010
Streetcar System Plan Wins Award
The American Council of Engineering Companies of Oregon has awarded an excellence award to the Portland Streetcar System Concept Plan.
Congratulations to the staff, consultant team and to the System Advisory Committee!
Posted by Chris Smith at 12:01 AM | Comments (8) | Permalink
January 20, 2010
Intellectual Freedom at Work
I can't help but note the irony, and admire the freedom of discourse, that Randall O'Toole will appear at Powell's on Friday to promote his book that criticizes urban transit lines.
From the publisher's comments:
As a result, the automobile which is accessible to almost every family in the nation and provides unparalleled access to better housing, low-cost consumer goods, a choice-driven affordable life, and freedom -- is being deliberately forced off the transportation grid by the expensive "solution" of little-used high-speed trains and urban transit lines.
Of course, the eponymous owner of this venue is Michael Powell, chair of the board of Portland Streetcar, Inc.
Posted by Chris Smith at 6:32 AM | Comments (8) | Permalink
January 19, 2010
Serendipitous Transit Center
A silver lining in every cloud...
Due to the sewer and street reconstruction on NW 23rd the #15 bus has been re-routed down NW 21st.
While annoying, this has temporarily created something that I've always though NW needed: a transit center.
Four transit lines pass next to Good Samaritan Hospital but don't actually meet in one point, but now, for six months, they do.
At the SW corner of 21st and Lovejoy the inbound Streetcar, #15 and #77 all stop at one platform, and just a few feet away on the NW corner, the inbound #17 stops.
Temporary transit nirvana.
Posted by Chris Smith at 12:29 AM | Comments (9) | Permalink
January 13, 2010
The Death of TSUB?
For a couple of decades, if you wanted to get Federal funding for a transit project, TSUB was your bane of your existance. "Transit System User Benefit" was a complicated computer model that scored your project, essentially rating you on how far and how fast you moved people. It was all about mobility and not about access at all.
Under the Bush administration, the FTA applied TSUB to the the "Small Starts" program that Congress created to fund streetcars, even though the legislation suggested other criteria were more important. It was not until the Obama administration essentially decided to ignore it that the Streetcar Loop project got funded.
But hopefully those days are over now, based on an announcement from USDOT today focusing on livability:
In a dramatic change from existing policy, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today proposed that new funding guidelines for major transit projects be based on livability issues such as economic development opportunities and environmental benefits, in addition to cost and time saved, which are currently the primary criteria.In remarks at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting, the Secretary announced the Obama Administration's plans to change how projects are selected to receive federal financial assistance in the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) New Starts and Small Starts programs. As part of this initiative, the FTA will immediately rescind budget restrictions issued by the Bush Administration in March of 2005 that focused primarily on how much a project shortened commute times in comparison to its cost.
"Our new policy for selecting major transit projects will work to promote livability rather than hinder it," said Secretary LaHood. "We want to base our decisions on how much transit helps the environment, how much it improves development opportunities and how it makes our communities better places to live."
The change will apply to how the Federal Transit Administration evaluates major transit projects going forward. In making funding decisions, the FTA will now evaluate the environmental, community and economic development benefits provided by transit projects, as well as the congestion relief benefits from such projects.
"This new approach will help us do a much better job of aligning our priorities and values with our transit investments" said FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff. "No longer will we ignore the many benefits that accrue to our environment and our communities when we build or expand rail and bus rapid transit systems."
FTA will soon initiate a separate rulemaking process, inviting public comment on ways to appropriately measure all the benefits that result from such investments
Congressman Blumenauer heralded this as "Another great day for streetcars!"
Posted by Chris Smith at 11:41 AM | Comments (11) | Permalink
January 10, 2010
Another Look at Portland's Transit Stats
Promoted from the Open Thread:
Jarrett at http://www.humantransit.org has another interesting and provocative post on Portland.
Hat tip to EngineerScotty.
Posted by Chris Smith at 7:01 PM | Comments (20) | Permalink
December 18, 2009
Almost Official: Barbur's Next
From Metro:
On Wednesday, Dec. 17, the High Capacity Transit Subcommittee agreed to recommend the Barbur Boulevard corridor as the next regional priority to advance to high capacity transit project development. Project development will determine the HCT option, light rail, bus rapid transit or rapid streetcar, in the vicinity of Barbur Boulevard that will offer the best transit solution. Transit in the corridor needs to meet future travel demand while promoting, encouraging and leveraging other transportation and land use investments. The subcommittee's recommendation will be taken up by the Transportation Policy Alternatives Committee on Jan. 8.
Posted by Chris Smith at 12:13 PM | Comments (96) | Permalink
December 16, 2009
The Social Life of Transit
This evening on my streetcar ride home, a young woman attending the pastry program at the Culinary Institute boarded and shared her day's class work with everyone around her, giving the whole train a sugar high.
Has that ever happened on your car commute?
Posted by Chris Smith at 12:26 AM | Comments (32) | Permalink
