[lafard]

To be honest, the only reason the streetcars are safe is because the capital costs for the yards etc are all hidden deeper in the budget documents than the mayor's attention span...

 

[allabootmatt]

Does anyone have confirmation that the Commission approved the staff-recommended capital budget, with its substantial spending items for new LRVs and the carhouse? If so I think we can all breathe much easier about the future of the network.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Even with the capital budget approved, there are still a huge number of unfunded items in the capital budget. The streetcars are likely only safe because the contract has been signed and work is underway.

 

[W. K. Lis]

From Planetizen:

DC Streetcars to Be a Shot in the Arm

It was nearly 50 years ago, when streetcars were seen on the roadways of downtown Washington, DC. Dan Tangherlini, the former transportation director for the District discusses why streetcars matter in the United States capital.

Tangherlini says that one advantage streetcars have over buses is that the tracks "give a sense of permanence, and that encourages long-term investment." Portland, Ore., which started operating North America's first modern streetcar system in 2001, can attest to that. A 2008 study by the city says that since streetcar plans were unveiled in 1997, "$3.5 billion has been invested within two blocks of the streetcar alignment." The study lists "grocery stores, restaurants, galleries, shops and banks" as amenities that have been built near the streetcar lines.

Tangherlini emphasizes that economic development isn't merely a by-product of streetcar lines but, at least in D.C., part of the point of building the streetcar. He says when DDOT was planning the streetcar routes, it first mapped out current and future development, things like office buildings, shops and housing. The city is intentionally using streetcars to connect established activity centers, like Union Station, with emerging ones, like H Street in Northeast, which isn’t connected to a Metrorail line but is trying to sustain new businesses and attract more visitors. Transportation isn't just for getting around, "it's for making places for people to go," says Tangherlini.

The website in turn links to a www.cityfix.com website that has the following:

The Case for Streetcars

Almost 50 years ago, streetcars in Washington, D.C. stopped running and most of their tracks were removed. Now they’re back and ready for a revival, with parts of the first two lines slated to open next spring. In this post, we talk to Dan Tangherlini, the former DDOT director under Mayor Anthony Williams, who committed to building one of the first two lines, about why streetcars matter for the nation’s capital.

LONG-TERM VISION

The streetcars were conceived in 1997, when Mayor Marion Barry’s Department of Public Works published “A Transportation Vision, Strategy, and Action Plan for the Nation’s Capital.†The plan called for circulator buses and streetcars to connect existing Metrobus and Metrorail lines and activity centers close to the city’s core. Planners think these additional connections are important since current rail lines connect neighborhoods to the city center but not necessarily to each other; this sometimes makes travel between neighborhoods and activity centers on different transit lines difficult, despite the 106 miles of Metrorail track and 319 Metrobus routes that exist today. Plus, as one presentation of the city’s transportation department puts it, overcrowding on Metrorail will be “unmanageable by 2013†and several Metrobus lines are already over capacity.

The first Circulator bus route began operation in 2005. The red buses, with their large windows, 10-minute headways, and easy-to-understand routes connecting bustling neighborhoods, became increasingly popular and today there are six routes near the city’s center. When the streetcar network is complete – sometime after 2016 – it will span 37 miles over eight lines (see map below) and will connect to the Circulator routes. The streetcars will run on above-ground, electric-powered rails; some streetcars will share lanes with traffic while others will run in lanes for streetcars only. Like the Circulator buses, the streetcars will have sleek red exteriors with large windows and doors at curb-height. And they too will connect activity centers both downtown and in city neighborhoods and have headways of 10-15 minutes.

WHY STREETCARS?

Metrobus lines already run on at least part of all of the proposed streetcar routes, for example, the “70s†line on Georgia Avenue, the “X†line on H Street and Benning Road, and the “A†line on Martin Luther King Avenue. So why install streetcars, which require track installation, overhead wires, and power substations? Why not upgrade the buses that already run on these corridors, instead, by replacing older buses with new ones, running more buses, decreasing headways, and in some cases, creating bus-only lanes? After all, buses don’t need expensive additional infrastructure like tracks and can be easily rerouted as the city grows and development patterns change.

I posed these questions to Dan Tangherlini, the former DDOT director under Mayor Anthony Williams who committed the city to building the H Street and Benning Road streetcar line in Northeast D.C., which will be one of the first two lines to open next spring. He has also served as the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) general manager and was the city administrator under former Mayor Adrian Fenty.

So why streetcars? Here’s what Tangherlini had to say:

Economic Development. Tangherlini says that one advantage streetcars have over buses is that the tracks “give a sense of permanence, and that encourages long-term investment.†Portland, Ore., which started operating North America’s first modern streetcar system in 2001, can attest to that. A 2008 study by the city says that since streetcar plans were unveiled in 1997, “$3.5 billion has been invested within two blocks of the streetcar alignment.†The study lists “grocery stores, restaurants, galleries, shops and banks†as amenities that have been built near the streetcar lines.

Of course, bus rapid transit (BRT) routes have also encouraged development in places like Curitiba, Brazil. But Tangherlini says BRT is most useful when you have stops separated by large distances, like on lines that bring commuters downtown from the suburbs. The goal of the streetcars, though, is to transport people between activity centers in the city.

Tangherlini emphasizes that economic development isn’t merely a by-product of streetcar lines but, at least in D.C., part of the point of building the streetcar. He says when DDOT was planning the streetcar routes, it first mapped out current and future development, things like office buildings, shops and housing. The city is intentionally using streetcars to connect established activity centers, like Union Station, with emerging ones, like H Street in Northeast, which isn’t connected to a Metrorail line but is trying to sustain new businesses and attract more visitors. Transportation isn’t just for getting around, “it’s for making places for people to go,†says Tangherlini.

Increased Capacity. The X1, X2, and X3 Metrobus lines, which run along H Street and Benning Road NE, are 34 percent over capacity, and many other bus routes have similar crowding issues (the District of Columbia Alternatives Analysis (DCAA) has a list of overcrowded routes). Tangherlini says adding streetcars can help alleviate overcrowding. He estimates that a typical Circulator bus holds 50-60 people, while the streetcars will hold around 100. More than 95 percent of Metrobuses hold between 26 and 78 people and less than 5% hold 100 passengers.

It’s Not A Zero-Sum Game. “With each new level of transit, the assumption is that the older ones will disappear; that’s not true,†says Tangherlini. He says at public meetings, bus riders were wary of the streetcars because they thought bus service would disappear. But all along the plan was to have the streetcars and buses form an integrated network, with streetcars at the network core and Circulator and Metrobus lines radiating out from there. That’s one reason that the Circulator buses and the streetcars are both painted bright red; they form a continuous network. Buses that already run on proposed streetcar corridors will keep running, too. And in some cases bus service on those corridors will even increase. Metro recently announced, for example, that they added another bus route, the X9, to H Street and Benning Road. The streetcar will simply be one more transit option along these corridors.

You Know Where It’s Going. “Rails have a good psychological effect,†says Tangherlini, “because you know where it’s going.†And, according to a 2003 WMATA survey of non-bus riders, this is a big deal: 30 percent of the survey respondents said that “better information about the services offered†was one of the most important improvements WMATA could make to its bus service. It’s likely that anyone who’s been on a bus that took an unexpected turn would agree.

 

[Jonny5]

There's no mistaking where this video was shot. It's also a reminder of just how incredibly long Queen Street East's commercial district runs.
[video=youtube;GH8vPgTHkgY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH8vPgTHkgY[/video]

 

[EnviroTO]

I can relate to timestamp 0:59 and 1:21

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

Do people really expect the same or better service with buses than with streetcars? There is a proposal to cutback on several bus routes, one of them is the 74 Mt. Pleasant bus. No service after 7:00 p.m., every day.

Boy, did that route ever go downhill.

It used to be the east leg of the St. Clair streetcar. It even had 24-hour service from the St. Clair streetcar.

When it was split into a separate Mt. Pleasant streetcar (east of Yonge Street) in 1975, the service ran from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m.. However after 1 a.m., there was night service which was provided by the St. Clair streetcar route.

That lasted until 1976, when it was replaced by the 76 Mt. Pleasant trolley bus. Eventually, all the trolley buses were replaced with what we have now, hybrid or diesel buses. People didn't like the change, they just ignored the buses and went elsewhere.

Now the TTC wants to cutback the 74 Mt. Pleasant to no service after 7 pm, every day.

From 24-hour service to no service after 7:00 pm. Shows what happens when you replace streetcars with buses. Exactly what happened to the buses routes in other North American cities when they replaced their streetcars with buses, ridership goes down.

Pitiful.

Ever wonder if the cause was the split of the route and not the change in vehicle on the route? I wonder how many riders were actually riding that portion of the route when it was part of the St. Clair streetcar or if it were a case of the streetcar running virtually empty there.

 

[drum118]

Ever wonder if the cause was the split of the route and not the change in vehicle on the route? I wonder how many riders were actually riding that portion of the route when it was part of the St. Clair streetcar or if it were a case of the streetcar running virtually empty there.

If one reads the history of St Clair from the days of Tolley Buses to Streetcars to Tolley Buses to buses, ridership was never that stronge in the first place for this section.

Not many riders travel west of Yonge on streetcars and one reason the Earlscourt route was removed.

PPl perfer to ride steel wheels than rubber wheels and that has been provened right acroos NA since the late 30's. One only has to look at the ridership of 1953 for streetcars service and look at what the numbers are today for buses that service those routes today. You are looking at 50 to 90% less riders on those routes.

 

[Hipster Duck]

PPl perfer to ride steel wheels than rubber wheels and that has been provened right acroos NA since the late 30's. One only has to look at the ridership of 1953 for streetcars service and look at what the numbers are today for buses that service those routes today. You are looking at 50 to 90% less riders on those routes.

I think that has more to do with the fact that those places lost both population and employment (eg. along Rogers Rd.) than the loss of streetcars.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Rail bias is a real thing, though - surface ridership would drop if downtown streetcars were replaced with buses, even if service stayed the same or got better. ESPECIALLY off-peak.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Rail bias is a factor, but it's not necessarily something that we should give in and reward the public with - kind of like if your teenage girl had Mercedes Benz convertible bias on her 16th birthday.

The high cost of building a streetcar line from scratch, and the marginal benefits it derives over an existing bus service (assuming that we're talking about mixed traffic, local service - not LRT) means that streetcars are not worth resurrecting if they've already been lost.

 

[GraphicMatt]

I'd agree in most cases, though I think there are still places downtown where expanding the surface rail network makes sense. Cherry Street, the Eastern Waterfront and (eventually) into the Port Lands would do a lot to encourage development of those neighbourhoods.

 

[gweed123]

I'd agree in most cases, though I think there are still places downtown where expanding the surface rail network makes sense. Cherry Street, the Eastern Waterfront and (eventually) into the Port Lands would do a lot to encourage development of those neighbourhoods.

But a lot of those routes are being developed with dedicated or partially dedicated lanes. They aren't running in complete mixed traffic. But yes, I do agree with you that a streetcar to those neighbourhoods will be much more of a catalyst for redevelopment than a bus route would be.

I don't think Toronto will ever see another streetcar route built that operates exclusively, or even has the majority of it running, in mixed traffic. The only type of streetcar construction we will ever be seeing in this city will be fully or partially dedicated lanes. Indeed, this is the only type of streetcar construction we've seen over the past 20+ years.

 

[spider]

PPl perfer to ride steel wheels than rubber wheels and that has been provened right acroos NA since the late 30's. One only has to look at the ridership of 1953 for streetcars service and look at what the numbers are today for buses that service those routes today. You are looking at 50 to 90% less riders on those routes.

Which 2011 Bus route that replaced a 1953 streetcar route has only 10% of the former's ridership?

 

[drum118]

These are peak loads for 1953 with the number of cars in bracket.

• The ridership for the lines that would not be removed at this time for peak time and (cars) were: Bathurst 6,100 (70); Bloor-9,000 (174); Carlton 4,200 (101); Dundas 4,200 (53); Harbord (east end) 3,900 (25); King 5,400 (88); Queen's-Kingston Rd. 7,900 (152); St. Clair 6,200 (70). This would require TTC to have a fleet of 733 plus 6% spare ratio of 45 cars for a total of 773 required after 1963. This would leave TTC 187 cars short for a full PCC fleet.
• The ridership and car for the lines been looked at been removed by 1963: Church 1,000 (5); Coxwell 1,600 (5); Dupont 2,000 (20); Harbord (west end) 2,700 (37); Lake Shore 1,700 (21); Parliament 2,200 (6); Queen (east of Woodbine) 1,900 (15); St. Clair (east of Yonge) 1,300 (9) York Township Lines 2,000 (11).