The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread

[Luvemtall]

I for one , still believe in a monorail system. They are clean, low noise, smaller footprint, can use existing ROW . Use a trash to energy setup to provide the electric to power the system and you get rid of the landfills at the same time. It makes sense, so I know that it doesn’t stand a chance. Just my two cents, fwiw. 

[donNdonelson2]

1 hour ago, nashvylle said:

Does anyone how well the ridership is for the Music City Star (I think WeGo Star now)? 

Pre Covid, ridership was around 1200 to 1300 per day according to a Tennessean article from last year.

[Luvemtall]

19 minutes ago, donNdonelson2 said:

Pre Covid, ridership was around 1200 to 1300 per day according to a Tennessean article from last year.

I think if this ran on a continuous schedule, the ridership would be greater. Not everyone has the same work in morning, home in evening routine. I know it’s not possible, because of the sharing the tracks with fright. But it would be good to have service 24/7 for those with odd hours and weekend plans.

[PaulChinetti]

3 hours ago, Luvemtall said:

I for one , still believe in a monorail system. They are clean, low noise, smaller footprint, can use existing ROW . Use a trash to energy setup to provide the electric to power the system and you get rid of the landfills at the same time. It makes sense, so I know that it doesn’t stand a chance. Just my two cents, fwiw. 

A monorail from the airport to downtown would be so popular and also amazing.

Raise it up and right down the middle of the interstate. Elevated would be so cool looking.

[KJHburg]

Charlotte's airport is 5.7 air  miles west of uptown Charlotte vs Nashville's 6.6 miles southeast so I am not sure why the FAA limits your heights.  Our tallest building is 871 feet and it about 700+ feet of elevation above sea level.   The airport is roughly the same in elevation.  That building Bank of America Corp. Center  back in 1992 had to get FAA approval I remember but nothing since.  Is downtown Nashville much higher in elevation than the airport?  Our flight patterns at CLT are mainly north and south as we one shorter diagonal runaway but that is basically going to be closed in the future once we get our 4th parallel runway.  We routinely have 2 simultaneous landings and one is ready to take off at most times during the day.  The 4th parallel is 2 have landing or taking off and 2 more get ready to take off or land. 

CHARLOTTE/DOUGLAS INTL (faa.gov)     CLT airport info from FAA

NASHVILLE INTL (faa.gov)   same info for Nashville airport 

Edited October 5, 2021 by KJHburg

[smeagolsfree]

It is the angles of the runways. The end of the runway in Charlotte is at a 90 degree angle from your DT where as DT nashville is only at a 45 degree angle.

[LA_TN]

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Charlotte's airport is 5.7 air  miles west of uptown Charlotte vs Nashville's 6.6 miles southeast so I am not sure why the FAA limits your heights.  Our tallest building is 871 feet and it about 700+ feet of elevation above sea level.   The airport is roughly the same in elevation.  That building Bank of America Corp. Center  back in 1992 had to get FAA approval I remember but nothing since.  Is downtown Nashville much higher in elevation than the airport?  Our flight patterns at CLT are mainly north and south as we one shorter diagonal runaway but that is basically going to be closed in the future once we get our 4th parallel runway.  We routinely have 2 simultaneous landings and one is ready to take off at most times during the day.  The 4th parallel is 2 have landing or taking off and 2 more get ready to take off or land. 

CHARLOTTE/DOUGLAS INTL (faa.gov)     CLT airport info from FAA

NASHVILLE INTL (faa.gov)   same info for Nashville airport 

The difference is 1) a 7,500 ft runway vs a 11,000 runway that is capable of landing an A380 as well as most anything that flies, and 2) the distance from uptown/downtown to the flight path is much less in Nashville

Initial design, environmental studies, property acquisition, etc is underway to extend one of the 3 parallel runways to 12,000 ft so hopefully that will get the FAA to relax the height limits, eventually

Long range plans for BNA are to add a 4th runway, also. Today, BNA has 2 landing in parallel with one waiting for takeoff; however parallel landings are not the normal at BNA

[LA_TN]

3 hours ago, PaulChinetti said:

A monorail from the airport to downtown would be so popular and also amazing.

Raise it up and right down the middle of the interstate. Elevated would be so cool looking.

I'm not a huge fan of monorail due to the slow speeds; however, I agree a monorail line from the airport to downtown would be popular and the speed would be acceptable

If ya wanna get me excited, replace monorail with maglev!!

[rookzie]

On 10/4/2021 at 3:25 PM, PaulChinetti said:

I've always heard of all of these plans to use the CSX rails, are those rails even in places where people live and want to go?

Like if you could hand wave away all cargo traffic and make it commuter rails, would those rails actually be in good places for stations and such??

Hypothetically only.
If, say, CSX were to vacate all its RoW in mid-state ─ which, needless to say "aint gohn" happen even in a dream on smokes ─ then the answer is "Yes" and even "Certainly Yes".

The layout of the rail routes in Nashville Terminal (the CSX rail Sub [sub-division]), basically encompassing Metro Nashville, all enter and leave the core via 6 directions, 2 of which are splits ─ one at Brentwood (to Columbia and to Lewisburg); and at Madison [Amqui-Nesbitt Ln] to Springfield and to Gallatin).  These CSX lines do not include the two routes now owned by R.J. Corman ─ the Nashville & Eastern (NERR) to Lebanon (and ending in Monterey) and its subsidiary Nashville & Western (NWR). The NWR line was selected as the local preferred alternative for a commuter rail line to Clarksville, although that route includes a lot of long-abandoned roadbed which would have to be partially realigned.

All these CSX lines essentially are radial and parallel major arterials.  That said, they are suitable only for Regional (Commuter) Rail.  If one observes a regional map, it's easy to understand that these lines collectively could support ridership all leading into the inner core at the Gulch.  They parallel US-31, US-31A, US-41, US-70S (on the west), and finally US-70  to Dickson (veering along a stretch of SR-100 before joining US-70 at Pegram).  Each of these lines parallels a primary commuter transport traffic route, and they would connect Nashville's central core to:

Goodlettsville, Greenbrier, and Springfield;
Gallatin;
Lavergne and Murfreesboro (with a possible spur to BNA);
Franklin, Spring Hill and Columbia (via one branch of split route at Brentwood);
Bellevue, Pegram, Kingston Springs, and Dickson.

The route split at Brentwood to Franklin and Columbia would be the only route of that line worthy of serving as a commuter line to present-day activity centers, as the main route (to Chapel Hill, Lewisburg and on to Alabama) currently does not pass such centers.

Such a layout actually would accommodate an ideal set-up for the existing hub-and-spoke format of the greater county area and beyond, and it probably would serve Middle Tenn. better than it would most other metro areas which instead have a more defined and extensive street grid throughout.  Columbus OH and KCMO come to mind.   Again it would be only hypothetical at best.

Edited October 6, 2021 by rookzie

[smeagolsfree]

That was my entire argument, they are there but they will never be there because CSX will NEVER give them up. Thanks Rookzie!

[nashvylle]

14 hours ago, LA_TN said:

I'm not a huge fan of monorail due to the slow speeds; however, I agree a monorail line from the airport to downtown would be popular and the speed would be acceptable

If ya wanna get me excited, replace monorail with maglev!!

 

17 hours ago, PaulChinetti said:

A monorail from the airport to downtown would be so popular and also amazing.

Raise it up and right down the middle of the interstate. Elevated would be so cool looking.

I think a lot of locals might be on board with this, too. "Take the tourists off the roads. The roads should be for locals". 

[Bos2Nash]

20 hours ago, Luvemtall said:

I think if this ran on a continuous schedule, the ridership would be greater. Not everyone has the same work in morning, home in evening routine. I know it’s not possible, because of the sharing the tracks with fright. But it would be good to have service 24/7 for those with odd hours and weekend plans.

I believe they actually cut back their schedule because they would've had to improve the rail line with a positive train control (?) system and this was a bigger investment than they were capable of/wanted to make, so they actually reduced their frequency to avoid the investment.

[Luvemtall]

11 minutes ago, Bos2Nash said:

I believe they actually cut back their schedule because they would've had to improve the rail line with a positive train control (?) system and this was a bigger investment than they were capable of/wanted to make, so they actually reduced their frequency to avoid the investment.

That makes sense. It’s kinda like the chicken and egg question, what comes first the investment or the ridership? But in this case, you can’t get the ridership if you don’t make the investment. 

[grilled_cheese]

2 hours ago, nashvylle said:

 

I think a lot of locals might be on board with this, too. "Take the tourists off the roads. The roads should be for locals". 

LOL

Do you not remember the Whites Creek/Bellevue/Neelys Bend people who started violently shaking when they learned that money would be spent on other parts of town in the last transit proposal?  They will literally poop in their own mouths if something is proposed that 'only benufits toorists'.

[andywildman]

3 hours ago, grilled_cheese said:

LOL

Do you not remember the Whites Creek/Bellevue/Neelys Bend people who started violently shaking when they learned that money would be spent on other parts of town in the last transit proposal?  They will literally poop in their own mouths if something is proposed that 'only benufits toorists'.

It's for this reason that a successful push for public transportation in Nashville will have to contain two components: one that cleans up tourist congestion (whatever the feasible version of airport monorail and downtown subway is) and one that alleviates rush hour snarl (BRT or light rail down the Pikes).

[LA_TN]

WeGo and Uber combine for last mile

https://www.nashvillemta.org/Nashville-MTA-WeGo-Link.asp

WeGo Link is for any of our riders who find getting to and from their bus stop a little challenging; whether that's because of a stubbed toe, bad weather, time restrictions, long walking distances, or because of safety concerns.

All you need to do is request a ride, and we'll come pick you up.

WeGo Link is currently available along route 55 Murfreesboro Pike, and all trips must take place within a specific service zone

[smeagolsfree]

Well, all I can say I will believe it when I see it. The on demand services for the disabled run by Metro is a disaster as a friend of mine has a brother that uses this service all the time and has been left to fend for himself many times after being told the service has stopped or there will be an two hour wait and then after waiting the service has stopped and he has had to call his sister to drive across to town to pick him up.

Lets see how this service works. My guess is this will be a disaster especially if the demand outstrips the available resources of Metro. If you have 50 people calling from various parts of the services routes with only two vehicles being used to pick riders up, someone is going to be left waiting. I hope it works, but I have serious doubts based on past performance of other Metro services.

[grilled_cheese]

Rode the 56 to downtown and back the other night.  $4.  Sure as hell beats $50 round trip that rideshare would have cost these days.

But, it is still incredibly frustrating that they don't have CC/Debit swipe on the buses.  I would even take a hard CC/Debit-like card that I could refill online.  The flimsy little cards they offer are straight garbage.  I had a 30 ride card once and the printed balance on the back wears off so quickly.  Big dumb.

[smeagolsfree]

What’s even worse is Metro has not caught up with the 21st century as far as parking apps go. You still have to feed nickels, dimes, and quarters into machines. Who carries change any more.

[markhollin]

On ramp to I-440 open at intersection with Murphy Rd.

Sept 4, 2021:

Oct. 10, 2021:

[markhollin]

Tennessee could receive $7 billion for roads and bridges out of the $110 billion investment in roadwork across the country that is part of the $1.2 trillion nationwide infrastructure investment bill waiting to be passed  in congress.

More at The Tennessean here:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2021/10/14/biden-infrastructure-bill-could-bring-7-billion-tennessee-roadways/6041494001/?utm_source=tennessean-Daily Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_briefing&utm_term=hero&utm_content=1056TN-E-NLETTER65

[PaulChinetti]

Read the comments on the Tennesseean to see how much people care. This is going to take a miracle to pass. 
 

It would be nice to see some investment though. 

[nashville born]

27 minutes ago, markhollin said:

Tennessee could receive $7 billion for roads and bridges out of the $110 billion investment in roadwork across the country that is part of the $1.2 trillion nationwide infrastructure investment bill waiting to be passed  in congress.

More at The Tennessean here:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2021/10/14/biden-infrastructure-bill-could-bring-7-billion-tennessee-roadways/6041494001/?utm_source=tennessean-Daily Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_briefing&utm_term=hero&utm_content=1056TN-E-NLETTER65

Any of those dollars available for mass transit improvements/creation???

[KJHburg]

On 10/8/2021 at 4:18 PM, smeagolsfree said:

What’s even worse is Metro has not caught up with the 21st century as far as parking apps go. You still have to feed nickels, dimes, and quarters into machines. Who carries change any more.

this is true I noticed your old meters in downtown my last visit.  Savannah, Charlotte, Raleigh all take credit cards and have one station per block makes it easy.   This is a Charlotte based company that does just that across the country  Passport Parking App - Park. Pay. Be on Your Way. ©    Our meters are so honest that since parking is free downtown after 6 pm they will only allow you put in enough till 6 pm.    I bet if they went to more modern parking collection system the money would skyrocket since you dont have to worry about broken meters and so forth. 

[donNdonelson2]

59 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

this is true I noticed your old meters in downtown my last visit.  Savannah, Charlotte, Raleigh all take credit cards and have one station per block makes it easy.   This is a Charlotte based company that does just that across the country  Passport Parking App - Park. Pay. Be on Your Way. ©    Our meters are so honest that since parking is free downtown after 6 pm they will only allow you put in enough till 6 pm.    I bet if they went to more modern parking collection system the money would skyrocket since you dont have to worry about broken meters and so forth. 

Almost nobody pays for street parking downtown. On any given weekday you can walk past dozens and dozens of cars with the meters flashing, indicating “time expired.” There is almost no enforcement, why would anyone pay? (Of course, if I didn’t pay I would have a ticket and be towed within fifteen minutes!) 

Edited October 16, 2021 by donNdonelson2