Here’s a story by the Oregonian‘s intrepid reporter, Joseph Rose that has it all: deferred maintenance, delayed trains, $950 million in unfunded retirement benefits, transit cuts and fare increases, secret pay raises to transit agency executives, an angry transit union, and a plan to move transit riders on buses around rail work that “basically imploded.”
Worn pavement and light-rail switch near Portland’s Lloyd Center. Photo from Max FAQs.
The Antiplanner has repeatedly harped on the fact that rail transit infrastructure basically lasts only 30 years and then must be replaced, often at greater expense (even after adjusting for inflation) than the original construction cost. Part of the cost is dealing with the interruptions in service that are almost inevitable when replacing rails, wires, and other fixed hardware.
Portland’s first light-rail line is only 28 years old, but it is already wearing out. Moreover, the most worn-out part happens to be a segment that all of Portland’s light-rail lines use. Shutting down this segment means shutting down the entire system.
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TriMet, Portland’s transit agency, planned to have shuttle buses move passengers around the work, but the plan apparently didn’t work very well. To make matters worse, Portland temperatures rose above 90 degrees, leading TriMet to issue slow orders for all of its trains to avoid damage to wires or derailments due to kinks in the tracks. Funny; buses don’t have to slow down when the mercury rises.
TriMet claims that hardships created by the recent recession forced it to fall behind schedule in its trackwork. But this is just one more reason why transit agencies shouldn’t build rail lines: recessions can’t be predicted, and rails are a lot more sensitive to deferred maintenance than buses.
Speaking of buses, someone asked me for my response to APTA’s Art Guzzetti, who claimed a couple of months ago that my comparison of bus and rail was “fatally flawed” because my “methodology in determining capacity of buses vs. light-rail doesn’t include ‘dwell time,’ which is time riders spend paying fares, going up or down bus steps and so on.” I don’t know why he would think I failed to account for that.
Real-world observations of buses in San Antonio found that a single bus stop can handle 42 buses an hour. Portland uses a “skip stop” system in which there are four bus stops in every two blocks and all bus routes are assigned to one of the four stops. Using this system, Portland was able to schedule 160 buses per hour down a city street, only slightly below the capacity of 168 per hour if each stop can handle 42 per hour. All this is documented in a PowerPoint show on bus capacities by Portland State University professor Robert Bertini.
Moreover, my recent paper on rapid buses proposes that people pay to enter the bus stops (as they are supposed to do to enter light-rail stops), allowing them to quickly board buses without delays caused by fumbling for exact change. While this paper came out after Guzzetti made his comments, as a former transit agency executive, he should know that there is no reason why the subway turnstile system or light-rail’s honor system couldn’t be applied to buses with limited stops. Curitiba, Brazil, for example, uses a turnstile system with elevated bus platforms, allowing rapid entry to and exit from buses that should make it possible for a single bus stop to serve even more than 42 buses per hour.
Many idiots who live in Portland support the choo choo. It’ll be interesting to measure this support after they’re asked to shell out billions for the needed overhauls. Of course, Trimet will try to do it piecemeal to conceal the real costs.
This points up the bigger problem with most rail transit in the U.S. (NYC-area transit excluded, even though it consumes enormous subsidies from highway users).
There are not enough paying transit patrons to fund any “heavy” maintenance of track, switches, rails, and rail vehicles, so the money has to come from “someone else” (highway users that do not benefit from the rail lines are frequently targeted to pay for such repairs) and the work is usually just deferred until “someone else” comes up with the money through good luck or a tax increase or frantic rent-seeking – or until there is a crisis (or a series of well-publicized derailments or other types of breakdowns and crashes).
Why is it that anti-highway/pro rail groups love to talk about “fix it first” (which is what most state DOTs do anyway) when it comes to highways, but are invariably enthusiastic about any and all new rail lines and extensions, regardless of the maintenance backlog of existing lines?
Personally, rail does have an advantage that I am willing to pay extra for. I’ve never seen any discussion of this particular advantage on this site. I’m sure there is an “equalizer” design to make road-bound transit vehicles to give them this same characteristic, but I’ve never noticed anything here.
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The reason I pay extra for the rail is because I don’t get motion sickness on it while reading, unlike busses in traffic. The larger mass of the trains combined with standard radii and gentle slopes, slow accelleration/decelleration must be the reason. Where are the designs for busses that compensate for all the stopping/starting/turning of the busses making i more “train like”.
“recessions can’t be predicted”
You should have said that to Peter Schiff, who predicted the 2007-09 correction, when you met him.
“Personally, rail does have an advantage that I am willing to pay extra for.”
How much extra? The actual-cost extra?
The dwell time is astronomical after a concert in the Rose Quarter. They even had a transit person there to help out since there is only 1 machine, if memory serves. Anyway, the transit person gave-up and told everyone to just board the train.
This begs the question, if there is such a maintenance backlog how is TriMet going to afford to open, operate, and maintain the new Orange line to Milwaukie?
The premium I pay between driving and riding the subway is between $3-$5 per day.
There was a season I could find free parking near the office. But that was when I still paid retail for gas, so the savings were still only around $5-$7 per day.
“The premium I pay between driving and riding the subway is between $3-$5 per day.”
That doesn’t answer the question.
Question “How much extra?”
Answer “Greater than 3 but less than 5 dollars per day”
So not the actual cost then.
OFP2003 and I are waiting for the government to implement Antiplanner’s proposal to buy poor people cars. Then we won’t be taking public transit any more and unfairly burdening hardworking taxpayers like Frank. Sorry for being such lazy parasites, Frank!
The reason I pay extra for the rail is because I don’t get motion sickness on it while reading, unlike busses in traffic. The larger mass of the trains combined with standard radii and gentle slopes, slow accelleration/decelleration must be the reason.
I can understand that being the case it you are really prone to motion sickness, but most people don’t have that condition so I doubt it is a factor for them. Incidentally, have you ever ridden on a hybrid electric bus? I’ve found that they provide same smoothness of ride, especially when it comes to acceleration and deceleration, due to the regenerative braking.
“I can understand that being the case it you are really prone to motion sickness, but most people don’t have that condition so I doubt it is a factor for them.”
True, most don’t But nearly one in three suffer from motion sickness. That is a large number of people.
As mentioned on other posts, I suffer from motion sickness, particularly on articulated buses. I have to sit at the front and must be facing forward. Just typing this, I’m remembering my last hybrid electric articulated bus trip a month ago, and am feeling woozy remembering it. Trains are easier because they tend to go in straight lines and don’t careen around corners or slam on brakes or bounce up and down on some of the worst roads in the country.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to throw up.
“OFP2003 and I are waiting for the government to implement Antiplanner’s proposal to buy poor people cars.”
So the part of your brain that processes sarcasm is defective.
“Then we won’t be taking public transit any more and unfairly burdening hardworking taxpayers like Frank.”
I am a hard-working taxpayer, putting in 50-60 hours a week and getting paid with money from 100% voluntary transactions.
“Sorry for being such lazy parasites, Frank!”
It’s not your fault. It’s just your nature.
But if you want to do better, when you travel to St. Petersburg and get on the shiny new light rail, you can put a fifty in the farebox to pay the ACTUAL cost of your trip.
And the MAX Light Rail train derailed today, and it was on of the newest 3rd generation trains that left the track.
http://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/index.ssf/2014/08/no_injuries_in_ne_portland_max.html#incart_m-rpt-1
60 hours a week, wow! Thanks again Frank! Me, I just ride the Portland lightrail around all day. I get some sleep, maybe drink a little beer, smoke some weed…the usual. Maybe mug a few old ladies..yeah, life is good.
The Antiplanner has repeatedly harped on the fact that rail transit infrastructure basically lasts only 30 years and then must be replaced
But busses last forever! Yay!
Gillfoil undoubtedly buys junk food with his Oregon Trail Card and then eats it on the MAX while talking loudly on his Obama phone on his way to pimp some hos on 82nd.
Thanks for the link tombdragon. Love the pic of the empty lanes on I-84 while MAX riders pile up at the Hollywood station. Bet they’d wished they’d driven that day. The MAX was down for nearly four hours; during that time, they could’ve walked downtown and back. Twice.
This is what happens when “deferring millions of dollars dollars in rail maintenance” while building more new shiny lines. Maintenance ain’t sexy, though.
Frank, yes, that was me. I was the one wearing a hoodie and eating skittles.
Oh, yeah. I saw your pic in the yearbook.
Unfortunaly 2 people were hit and killed by Portland’s MAX Train today. I sounds as if it we just a tragic accident, but its not something that should have happened especially after all of the trouble MAX has had over the past several weeks.
http://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/index.ssf/2014/08/trimet_train_deaths_max_operat.html#incart_river
How is Trimet responsible for the actions of mentally retarded people?
And who said that Frank? I said it was a tragic accident, and that TriMet didn’t need the that after the week they had already had. TriMet MAX does kill quite a few people compared with other forms of transportation.