This fall, come hear about proposals for bus rapid transit in Connecticut and learn about BRT success stories throughout the nation. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Regional Plan Association, Capitol Region Council of Governments, Transit for Connecticut and the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy at Central Connecticut State University are hosting a Bus Rapid Transit Symposium on October 15, 2009 from 9am-12pm at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, CT. Many thanks to State Senator Don DeFronzo for sponsoring the event.
The symposium’s keynote speaker will be Joseph A. Calabrese, Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA). The RTA oversees the HealthLine, the recently opened and acclaimed BRT system that runs along 6.8 miles of Euclid Avenue from downtown to East Cleveland. The system connects the city’s cultural, educational, medical and business centers, as well as local businesses in between. The HealthLine has generated over $4 billion in investment, is helping to revitalize Cleveland and Northeast Ohio and already exceeds projected ridership levels.
The symposium will also feature presentations on bus rapid transit projects in the tri-state region and a panel of BRT experts, ConnDOT representatives and elected officials. To register, send an e-mail to TSTC’s Ryan Lynch at rlynch[at]tstc.org.
More details will be forthcoming.
And for relatively little more, a streetcar line on Euclid Avenue would have had lower operating costs and even better TOD. I wouldn’t hold out Cleveland as an example to follow. Just think, they spent a bundle on 60 foot buses with only 39 seats and the complications of doors on both sides. Standees at 11 in the morning on a weekday. The buses look nice and the ride isn’t too bad (yes I actually rode the Cleveland BRT last year and was appalled at how little they got for the money they spent).
I rode Cleveland’s Healthline BRT back in November and came away impressed. I blogged about my experience:
http://maryland18.blogspot.com/2008/12/riding-north-americas-newest-transit.html
Delegate Al Carr
Maryland’s 18th Legislative District
BRT is a disaster everywhere it is implemented. I’d still waiting to find out about the tainted concrete on Euclid Avenue, and that $4 Billion figure is completely bogus. Don’t count on any real journamalism from the Plain Dealer, tho.
While these Buses are nice to ride on, please keep some things in mind:
1. These lines were were started in Cleveland as a way to bring in more revenue, amazingly RTA has had to increase fares due to loss of revenue supplied through tax, as well as decrease service to many many other lines of service who include the vast majority of the working class citizens of Cleveland. Furthermore, today, RTA had to send out notices to an estimated 80 Full time workers to go to part time or take a lay off, which will mean after the ones take a pt position there will be a need to lay off current part time workers.
2. Ask people who have to cross the Euclid Corridor project as motorists, or even travel on the Corridor itself how dangerous it feels. We avoid it now at all costs!
3. Should you choose to adopt these lines of service, please, make sure your designers of the stop stations live in the locale. The ‘Shelters’ design in Cleveland, had no accounting of the weather here. While nice to look at, there is a 1″ gap around 95% of each window, allowing the cold air and snow that blows sideways here right through. You freeze to death waiting on these new ‘Superior’ lines.
4. Consider the fact that if you follows Cleveland way that you will need to hire more Police, who make more money and ultimately lay-off more drivers, because fares are not collected on the lines, they are collected at the non-supervised sites. Police then get on at various stops, and force everyone to pull out the proof of payment receipts or cards, and God forbid you lost yours due to dropping it accidentally, for then you face and will recieve a ticket for almost $200. this includes the fact that these offices basically have to arrest you, adding more to the cost.
Overall, again, these buses are nice to ride. They are roomier, not noticably that much faster, but roomier than regular buses. Oh yeah, this is really the only advantage I have seen so far. Before investing make sure you look heavily into RTA’s website about the problems they are now facing, where if the money spent on this project had been spent to begin with, servicing people who actually need transportation, RTA would at least have been able to cover their proverbial behinds alot better during the recession that was well known to occur in America well before this project started contruction, so that at least they could have lasted through closer of a point of where America would be equipped to assist in these areas financially.