heykey4

Article about Main Street Station in today's Times-Dispatch. Talks about why ridership is what it is compared to Staples Mill Station and what could be done. http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-co...09-28-0153.html

It certainly is frustrating, but it seems it's a typical scenario in Richmond. But it just seems it was sort of odd to go on and on about this building....and have no money to build it. Maybe the press generated by it was supposed to entice someone to front the money. If that was the case, it didn't work. Who know? We could wake up next week and read that construction will start first of the year. Then again, we could also wake up and read they cured the world's energy situation.

It would seem that as far as light rail for Metro Richmond is concerned, we're a victim of the times. There's no money, state or federal, to put towards it....for now. However, I wonder about a demand for such an endeavor. If it were something that would make money, no doubt private industry would have tried it already (well, in this century anyway. they did in the late 19th/early 20th). However, if it's more like a "if you build it, they will come" attitude...then it'll take forever. As much as I would enjoy boarding a train in Mechanicsville bound for Chester, I don't know how the majority of Metro Richmonders feel about such a project. Certainly there's a demand in pockets of the area, but is there an overall demand? I suspect if there were, then this topic would be at the forefront of the politicians' minds.

Have you noted the amount of remodeling their doing to shopping centers in Mechanicsville? They painted the Wal-Mart a brown/tan combination, updated the Food Lion, KFC, Pizza Hut, Kohl's, and are now updating the shopping center that has Tractor Supply.

Went to the company's website that is going to build this development. Here's their PDF flyer about The Outlet Shoppes at Richmond.

Burt, I took a look at that spur and a couple of things stuck me (none of which included a train). In an ideal future, RIC could run their own electric train on that spur to a station built on the old C&O mainline for Amtrak to pick up without having the Amtrak trains deviate off the mainline track. Or just run a shuttle service from the air terminal to this new rail station on the mainline. This, of course, is if money and interest were no object.

fair enough, look forward to reading your ideas.

A long shot probably, but what if a deal could be struck with Amtrak to put a stop at RIC to take people to Williamsburg? A station similar to Ashland's where you may not need crew working the depot, but the train stops if there are passengers. I don't know right off hand where such a station could go, but the train runs through there on its way to Newport News.

Over the fourth of July I took the train to NYC....leaving Staples Mill though. That station was packed with passengers boarding the Newport News-Boston Northeast Regional. I'd estimate 75 - 100 people. This train was 10 mins late coming in but we got to NYC on time.

Regardless of whether republicans or democrats are for or against it (I vote republican and would welcome an efficient, dependable mass transit system in the Richmond area); for some reason the leaders are not 100% for it. Sure we've heard them talk it up and all, but if they really had a desire to implement it, there would be more serious talk. Sure it is a huge expense to get going and I really don't know the demand for it around here. It may be one of those things that the demand will not appear until the train does. I don't know. I also wonder if it would be prudent to try to link the southside of Hampton Roads with Richmond metro. Amtrak goes to Newport News then you catch a bus to VA Beach, but a line running from Richmond - Petersburg - Norfolk - Virginia Beach may be handy. I think the high speed rail folks may be looking at that, but it seems that if VDOT is working to turn 460 into an expressway from Petersburg to Chesapeake, they could factor in the need for a rail line...unless CSX or Norfolk Southern permit use of their tracks. But my knowledge on either plan (high speed rail or the 460 expressway) is sketchy at best.

It seems like Richmond will be years and years away from any kind of mass transit involving rail. I think it's due to the area having a very car dependent culture. Plus no government shows an interest in any of the jurisdictions. As far as I know. Could the high speed line coming through encourage use of rail locally? Or will it forever be a topic for discussion in the academic sense?

I agree, this sounds pretty cool.

I like those river boats they have connecting various points along the Potomac. How interesting if there was such a service that could leave Rocketts for Petersburg/Hopewell or occasionally to Hampton Roads.

That I've seen done quite often. The military practices touch and go with several large aircraft at various times throughout the year. I've watched one morning as one of those huge cargo planes kept circling around doing touch and go, it's crazy when that thing comes in over Williamsburg Road.

This is random... Today around 4:30 - 4:45 an employee of mine and I were outside and we saw a Southwest Airliner decending on RIC (we work right at Creighton Rd & I-295 so planes are pretty low at this point). In fact I even asked the guy if the tail of that plane read Southwest and he said it looked like it did to him and wondered if they were making an emergency landing. I didn't see anything in the news, so I don't know. But the plane we saw looked almost exactly like this. (note this is not the exact plane I saw, but what the plane I saw looked like). Maybe I've confused it with something else, but I'm pretty sure it was a Southwest jet. Would the news report emergency landings? or does it depend on the nature of that landing?

I've heard talk of a Sonic going in on US 1 @ Sliding Hill Road just north of Virginia Center Commons. Near where the Arby's is under construction. Does anyone know Sonic's plans in the Richmond market? I talked to someone a while back at the Sonic in Chester and was told that one was to be built along Hull Street (and it was) then on Midlothian, Broad St., and Ashland. I'm going to assume right now that US 1/Sliding Hill Road Sonic is the one meant for Ashland. Sure would like one in Mechanicsville. It would do fantastic business.

It would be very cool to have a ballpark in Manchester opening up to the Richmond skyline. I don't know where along the river, or how much land would be needed, but it would be nice. Would the spot where the old Southern States silos site be an option? It doesn't appear like enough land though, but I'm not a good judge of space.

That's it. Thanks for the info.

It appears something is under construction on Mechanicsville Turnpike at the Oak Hill Shopping Center (where Food Lion & Big Lots is located near I-64 & US 360). A pad site of some kind, but I haven't seen any signs indicated what it'll be. A few years back, Advance Auto Parts built a pad site there in addition to one further up 360 in Mechanicsville. And an Auto Zone is just east of Laburnum on 360, so perhaps a fast food place? Maybe?

I thought the General Assembly passed laws a few years ago to prevent here what happened in Vermont. Besides, I don't think the city can take state property. I just have this imagery of someone from the city going to the state saying "we're taking this land under eminent domain" and the state just laughing that person out of the office. I may be wrong, but I really don't think a locality can seize state property.

Thanks! I really appreciate that.

Does anyone know why there are two Norfolk Southern Passenger cars parked across 14th street from Vistas on the James? They're def. old passenger cars that look like they're from the Norfolk & Western Days. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lch4/2237144705/ <---there's a link to a photo of one of the two.

An interesting thing I heard this week in regards to construction in general was from the meeting of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors. They're financial guys were encouraging the board to go ahead and speed up the county's planned building projects because they're latest building projects are costing something like 60-65% of what they budgeted due to lower building supply costs. I know where I work that caught our attention because we're in the process of planning an expansion of our physical facility and if we can build for $6 or $7million what would have cost $10million, well that's a lot easier to digest. Maybe that'll extend to other projects like Centennial Tower, unless the funding problem is getting money at all.

yeah, but come on man...almost five years now we've been debating this. Washington DC landed the Expos in the fall of 2004, they began playing in 2005 and in 2008 will be playing in their brand new stadium. So that's 3 1/2 years and a MLB franchise. Why is it we couldn't get a AAA ball park built in 4 1/2 years (and that's using the timeline of the initial idea to put the ballpark in Shockoe Bottom, which was fall of 2003). Gwinnett County, GA negotiated with the Braves in three months and will have a stadium up in one year. Now obviously things must be planned out to get things right. We have a notorious habit of having a "good enough" mentality when we need to focus on excellence, but it really took way too long to get this done. Way too long. And the Braves had enough of being patronized by our local bad habits. I for one don't blame Doug Wilder in the sense that it's his fault or he didn't do enough. The governments, the business community, and whoever else was actually involved just took too long to get this done. It was talked to death and we'll learn nothing from this. Just like that downtown master plan, we'll just talk it to death, have constant meetings and solicit input from everyone and their third cousin. At some point, plans need to be implemented.

Yes, that is true...please forgive me for straying so far off topic from Richmond Sports........but perhaps these are reasons things didn't progress as swift as they should have for a new stadium... The public perception does not match current reality to a point. I have family members who grew up in the city, even worked for the city years and years ago and they find it hard to believe it when I tell them about places like Rocketts Landing and the development in the Fan and elsewhere. I have to actually show them. It's not that they don't want to believe it, but that it had gotten so bad that it seemed there was no getting out of the hole dug by decay and blight and no way things could be like the way they were when the city was a hub of activity and commerce and a decent place to live.