Top Comments: the Multi-Modal transit edition

A look at a growing trend (multi-modal public transit centers) after the jump ….

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Though the intrepid Bruce McF hasn’t posted a Sunday night transit diary in a few months, this essay is definitely inspired by him. I am neither a civil engineer, nor an urban planner, simply a rail enthusiast … who likes all public transit.

An emerging (and welcome) trend in public transportation is (and the wording varies from place-to-place) is that of the multi-modal transit center— where one facility combines rail, local buses, intercity buses, auto rentals, taxi stands, parking facilities, et al — rather than in separate venues.

One reason why this was not more prevalent in the past was the belief that rail and buses compete against each other. In some big cities, that may be the case — more often, they compete against the automobile, and tend to complement each other. Inter-connectivity (the “first and last mile” concept) can make the difference between a city/large town navigable for passengers .. or not. And if connections to an airport can be facilitated, the center becomes even more vital.  

Additionally, newspaper stories abound about millennials and older citizens who prefer public transit rather than buying automobiles. And finally, with real estate prices in certain cities rising, it is often more cost efficient to house various modes of transit in one (enlarged) space, freeing-up separate parcels of real estate.

I have been a longtime member of the National Rail Passengers Association (NARP) — an advocacy group for rail service nationwide, with regional meetings held during the year. (There are also smaller groups, such as one in NY State that carry the banner locally).

As someone who would love to take more long distance train trips than I have time for, I was quite envious when NARP sponsored a contest for two interns to be able to travel in their program Summer By Rail— and two young women from the same New Jersey town attending the Catholic University of America in Washington (yet who had never met previously) turned in a month-long series of reports on their travels — across the country (plus Québec & Ontario) without a private car.

 Caitlyn Boyle and Victoria Principato: Summer By Rail

They brought their bicycles on-board (which no longer need to be boxed-up, as in years past) and often were met by station masters and others who pointed out the inter-connectivity of their stations (with many having either bike share or rental stations). Light rail and feeder buses brought them where they wanted.

All-of-the-above is rather dry: to illustrate what the concept is, why not look at some examples?

Last year, while attending Netroots Nation in St. Louis — they used to have a grand old rail center, Union Station— after the decline of rail travel, it became a hotel, retail and exhibit space center. Sadly, for many years Amtrak was served by what was called an Amshack— but since 2008, it now has the Gateway Station. Grandeur it ain’t — the inside is small, plain, functional and only has fast food outlets. Yet it is clean and, most importantly: it has Amtrak, Greyhound Bus, a light rail (subway) stop, and a taxi stand on-site (plus a car rental agency nearby).

Gateway Station in central St. Louis, Missouri

Perhaps the most dramatic change in this concept has to do with Denver’s Union Station— which I first visited in 1984. It only had one Amtrak train in each direction (Chicago to the Bay Area) and its concourse looked dingy. There was a separate bus terminal across town and no connectivity. Yet I swore I’d take that California Zephyr train run west from Denver through the Rockies someday.

The baseball stadium is in walking distance

Thirty years later, I did take that train (I’m not lacking, just slow) — from Denver to Salt Lake City in late June, 2014 — with views you never see from a road.

And I saw firsthand just how transformed Union Station was. Although concourse renovations were a few weeks away from completion (and so there was a temporary ticket window in a trailer) nothing else was the same. The bus terminal had been moved underground beneath Union Station (local and intercity) so everyone is sheltered. There is now a new light rail/commuter rail system, with a Union Station stop which didn’t connect to the airport in 2014 — but does now.

  Much nicer than it was back in 1984

Our New England annual luncheon for NARP usually takes place in the spring … but this year, it was delayed until summer. And this was so that the luncheon could be held in Springfield, Massachusetts— just after the re-opening of that city’s long-shuttered Union Station, following forty-four years of non-use. Amtrak (which runs mostly south to Hartford, New Haven and connecting to New York City, plus one east-west trip connecting Chicago and Boston) used just the elevated rail tracks, and built an Amshack there.

In 1988, then-mayor Richard Neal (today a congressman for western Massachusetts) obtained the property for the city via eminent domain, yet years of proposals (with some being too ambitious) stalled. But finally in 2008: federal, state and local grants were obtained — and now the street-level station has (gradually) been re-opened.

     Street-level concourse before the grand opening

After our luncheon (at a nearby hotel) we were given a guided tour of the concourse by an employee of the principal engineering firm, noting:

→  Amtrak will close the Amshack and move ticketing/baggage to the concourse.

→  Intercity buses (Greyhound, Peter Pan) move their operations there soon.

→  That frees-up the present bus terminal (3 blocks away), set for redevelopment.

→  Local/regional buses already use it, and all bus bays have overhead shelter

→  Taxi stand already in operation, rental car agency set to move-in soon.

→  New six-story parking garage completed, with overhang shelter to station

→  All ticketing offices to be in the concourse, with the original flooring restored

→  And two floors of new office space being developed upstairs

Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) wrote a very proud Op-Ed piece on the results.

   Exterior of the building left (largely) intact

There are several other such projects in process, two of which I’ll note here.

In San Francisco, the old Transbay Terminal (located at First & Mission Streets) was damaged in the 1989 earthquake, and a new Transbay Transit Center is set to open its first phase soon. It will move bus services to the new five-story building (at Second & Mission Streets) and in phase two, the commuter rail known as Caltrain will be extended a mile from its current terminus (at Fourth & King Streets) to the new Transbay Center. Many redevelopment projects will follow.

Artist rendition of the Transbay Main Hall

And in Raleigh, North Carolina, the present Cabarrus Street station’s platform is not long enough to accommodate longer trains, and passengers boarding trains must cross other tracks (blocking freight service). Now, a 26,000-square-foot industrial building (vacant since 2005) is being redeveloped as Union Station— using the name of a previous station that was closed in 1950 — with elevated tracks for Amtrak and expected commuter rail, plus plans to move bus operations there over the course of time. And there will be new retail and apartment buildings nearby, as part of transit-oriented development.

Artist rendition of the (revived) Raleigh Union Station

Let’s close with a well-known song about rail travel — The Train Kept A-Rollin’ has been recorded by numerous artists, most prominently (in chronological order) by Johnny Burnette, the Yardbirds (my favorite version), Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith.

But it was written and recorded first in 1951 by Myron ‘Tiny’ Bradshaw  — who sang it in a slower, horn-laden, call-and-response style emblematic of R&B in the early 1950’s — later versions are much more frenetic and hard-rocking.

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Now, on to Top Comments:

From Krotor:

In the front-page story about Gary Cohn falling-out-of-favor because he criticized the Trumpster’s response to Charlottesville— I don't know if this meets your criteria for a comment because it's only an image in a comment by Snud rather than words. However, it is freakin' brilliant. I wish I were clever enough to have thought of it first, dammit. 

From elfling:

In the diary by Walter Einenkel about the rough treatment NFL star Michael Bennett received at the hands of Las Vegas police — both smileycreek & Yahzi combine to summarize the situation.

From BlackSheep1:

In last night’s Top Comments (hosted by gizmo59) about the scientific standard model of particles — in response to Meteor Blades’ plea not to pull threads out of the universe — gizmo concludes his reply with a paraphrase of Humphrey Bogart.

And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........

In the front-page story about the request by Oregon’s governor for federal aid to combat raging forest fires— and being turned down — ems97206 points out that if the intent was political: the fires are not taking place in blue regions.       

TOP PHOTOS September 6th, 2017 Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo.    Roger the Cat (NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)

And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:

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