More Monday morning rail news:
— Buffalo’s effort to extend its 6.4-mile light rail system by 7 miles from downtown to the Universty of Buffalo’s north campus could be sidelined in favor of bus rapid transit. The Buffalo News reports that the Federal Transit Administration has directed the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority to revisit the possibility of bus rapid transit, which would have a much lower price tag than the estimated $1 billion to extend Metro Rail. While the local agency says rail remains a viable option, it also says the cost of the project in a post COVID-19 competition for funding could be an obstacle.
— San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System has introduced a new element to its efforts to fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus, a disinfectant “chemical fog.” City News Service reports a device sprays a fine mist of chloride dioxide, which kills viruses on contact, and can disinfect seat fabrics and hard-to-reach locations, freeing workers to spend more time sanitizing high-touch areas. MTS has also begun checking the temperature of approxmitely 500 bus and trolley operators before each shift, as well as administrative workers. Employees with temperatures of 100 or higher will be required to go home.
— A railroad museum in Jackson, Miss., has closed, done in by a lack of visitors. WBBJ-TV reports the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Depot and Museum has shut down. Jackson Mayor Scott Conger told the station that the city had been performing cost-benefit analyses of different departments and attractions, “and looking at our railroad [depot] we saw an average attendance of less than 10 a week, and a cost of roughly $109,000 a year.” The closure was in the works before the COVID-19 pandemic, the mayor said. He indicated items from the museum will be moved to the Casey Jones Railroad Museum, also in Jackson.
Ugh, bus rapid transit. My disdain for buses in lieu of trolleys and LRT knows no bounds.
The first 2/3rds of my last comment were again cut-off. I give up,
My earlier comment was cut off.NFTA’s zig-zag alignment may make sense for Amherst & Tonawanda, but the benefits of it are just not compelling enough for the project to make it thru the FTA’s competitive grant process. It will inevitably lose out to all the other transit projects, from all across the country, that are not zig-zag alignments!
Dumb mistake. DPM would’ve relieved someone’s constipation on something like this. It’s that h—hole in Tennessee. Not the one in Mississippi.
The route chosen by NFTA was never intended to be just a simple-minded straight line to the UB suburban campus as some would have you think. There are significant traffic generators within easy reach and it would be foolish to ignore them. Doesn’t have much to do with “consultants and engineers”, but a lot to do with common sense and ridership potential.
Buffalo’s LRT extension is a beautiful example of consultant planners & engineers making LRT as expensive as possible. The LRT extension would replace that 3.3 mile bus ride with 7+ miles of zig-zagging track and 5 new stations between the campuses. The travel time between campuses would double (or possibly triple.)
Scott Conger is the mayor of Jackson TN where both museums are located. The NC&StL did not enter MS.
The Casey Jones museum is in Jackson, Tennessee. Not Mississippi.By the way did the NC&StL go to Mississippi?
I can imagine how effective BRT will be for Buffalo. A two seat ride guarantees less patronage than a single seat ride.Everything in the US is going third-world. USA!USA!USA! We’re #1 in Corona Virus and drones!
Got a bit disoriented. NC+StL I thought I knew you, but Mississippi? An interesting factoid is that preserved items at Nashville’s Union Station Hotel show that NC+StL used the same graphic livery as L+N which eventually absorbed it entirely.