[PRCo] Re: [PRCo]

[John Swindler]

Planning is more profitable then action.



>From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>Subject: [PRCo] Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:00:39 -0500
>
>One of you asked about the Lancaster trolley pipe dreams ... here is
>an add on to the craziness!   If one line is crazy, and too expensive
>to fund, then let's add something dumb too it.   Let's connect the
>ball stadium on Prince Street with Long's Park.   Well, what's
>significant about Long's Park?   It's right next to the most
>significant traffic draw in the county ... the Park City Mall ... the
>mall has five anchor stores and over 100 smaller stores.   That is
>where downtown went in the 1970s.
>
>Why would I call this crazy?   Is Fred smoking something?   It's
>crazy ecause the trolley would end in a park and now at the shopping
>mall.   A six lane expressway separates the park from the mall
>parking lot!   Is it likely to believe anyone is going to use a
>trolley from downtown and then walk a half mile through a pedestrial
>tunnel (potentially filled with muggers) and across a circumferential
>road that people fly around at 50 mph and then across a parking lot
>to go shopping?   Hell no, they'll drive from town, or they'll take
>the bus that goes into the other side of the mall and pulls up right
>to the door of the shopping center.
>
>It will be analogues  to serving South Hills Village Mall from the
>Drake car stop at the bottom of the hill, the way it was before the
>line was extended up the hill.
>
>By the way, the loop past the Central Market (shown in the next
>copied from the newspaper) means the cars will have to go up a short
>grade on Vine Street of perhaps 4 to 5 percent for a half block, then
>make a left turn onto Queen Street and go up about a 6 percent grade
>to King Street for about a block, then circle around the Civil War
>Monument.   There are two traffic lanes around it now.   I can just
>see the confusion if we try to snake an articulated car around it in
>one of those lanes.
>
>In my opinion, Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray and New Orleans Mayor Ray
>Nagin have a lot in common in the intelligence department.
>City desires streetcar line to Long's Park
>Tracks eyed downtown and beyond. Grants sought.
>
>By BERNARD HARRIS
>Lancaster New Era
>
>Published: Jan 23, 2007 10:24 AM EST
>
>LANCASTER - Call it back to Lancaster’s future.
>
>Lancaster City officials are looking to their 19th century past to
>address transportation needs for the 21st century.
>
>Within the next three to four months, the city will apply for federal
>and state funds to construct a seven-mile streetcar line that would
>include a downtown loop and a leg northwest to Long’s Park.
>
>Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray believes the proposed $22.5 million
>streetcar line will help relieve downtown traffic congestion, fuel
>existing development in the city center and play an integral role in
>the redevelopment of the open industrial land vacated by Armstrong
>World Industries.
>
>“It has definite advantages, if we can figure out the funding,” Gray
>said.
>
>“It has the ability to shrink the city and make the city more
>walkable, so people won’t need a car to get around,” the mayor said.
>
>Streetcar plans were recently put on the fast track. Planners learned
>last month that Lancaster has a good chance of receiving as much as
>80 percent of the funding from a Federal Transit Administration
>program, but the city must act fast.
>
>Gary Landrio, vice president of rail operations of Warren, Pa.-based
>Stone Consulting, said Thursday the city will have its best chance of
>funding if it applies by March.
>
>Under an $18,000 contract with the city, Landrio is preparing
>Lancaster’s application for the federal “Very Small Starts” program.
>The streamlined program is designed for small- to medium-sized cities
>to develop rail systems, he said.
>
>Landrio is also developing program applications for Kenosha, Wis.,
>and Savannah, Ga.
>
>Gray said the city is seeking the remaining funds for the system,
>about $5.6 million, from the state and local private sources.
>
>Jack Howell, president of the city revitalization group The Lancaster
>Campaign, said a request for the streetcar funds has already been
>inserted in Gov. Ed Rendell’s capital budget.
>
>A ridership survey by a steering committee of the Lancaster
>Alliance’s Economic Development Action Group will soon begin to
>determine if people would actually ride the streetcars. Data from the
>survey will be used for the grant application.
>
>The proposal being submitted to the Federal Transit Administration is
>significantly larger than a downtown “circulator” route studied last
>year by the Red Rose Transit Authority.
>
>That line — now with the spur to Long’s Park — would run north-south
>along Queen and Prince streets, from the city Amtrak station to
>Southern Market Center, at South Queen and Vine streets.
>
>The Long’s Park leg of the line — originally conceived as a later
>phase — was added to qualify the project for the federal funding.
>
>The federal transit program requires the per-track-mile cost to be
>less than $3 million, Landrio said.
>
>The start-up cost of the downtown circulator streetcar line —
>projected at $14 million in the earlier study — would exceed the per-
>mile limit.
>
>By enlarging the project and pushing the line to Long’s Park, the per-
>mile cost for the entire line drops significantly. That is because
>much of the land where the western leg of the line would be
>constructed is open.
>
>Armstrong World Industries sold the 46 acres of land last year to the
>Economic Development Company of Lancaster County, which will
>redevelop it for Franklin & Marshall College and Lancaster General
>Hospital.
>
>The proposed streetcar line would run from the north edge of Clipper
>Magazine Stadium, northwest along the existing railroad tracks, and
>curve to the southwest after passing behind the R.R. Donnelley
>facility. The terminus would be along Harrisburg Avenue at Long’s Park.
>
>Gray said he would like to see the western line start downtown and
>travel the length of the city’s northwest linear park — a former
>railroad bed — before reaching the railroad tracks to the west of the
>stadium.
>
>The exact route, along with other details, such as stops and the cost
>to ride the streetcars, will be determined as the plans are further
>developed, Landrio said.
>
>The ridership survey will attempt to determine whether people would
>actually ride the streetcars.
>
>Although streetcars may ultimately carry travelers between the
>downtown convention center that is now under construction and the
>train station, Howell is adamant that the streetcar line is not
>intended for them. It will be built for use by local residents, he said.
>
>Most people surveyed will not be familiar with local streetcars. It
>has been more than a half-century since streetcars traveled through
>Lancaster.
>
>The aged electric cars were replaced by buses, and the tracks were
>ripped up.
>
>Reintroduced streetcars would be somewhat different, Howell said.
>Although the technology is basically the same, the modern versions
>are heated, air-conditioned, quieter and faster.
>
>They would travel in the driving lanes but at nearly the posted 25
>mph speed limit of traffic.0
>
><p><LI> CONTACT US: bharris at LNPnews.com or 481-6022
>
>
>
>
>

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