51,000 rides in less than a month for streetcar (Atlanta, Dunwoody: 2014, price)

[sedimenjerry]

Why not? You can access the businesses on one side of the road and walk to the other road without using the road, just like the streetcar along Edgewood and Auburn Ave. The stretch from Woodruff Park to Ebenezer Babtist is about a mile long. It's 2 miles there and back driving, walking or on the streetcar. But the ride back doesn't offer anything new, you're in the same walking area. You wouldn't ride the loop all the way around to get from Woodruff Park to say, John Calhoun Park. You'd just get off on Edgewood and walk a block north to Auburn Ave. The footprint of a 2.7 mile loop is much smaller than the footprint of a 2.7 mile straight track. It's silly to advertise it as a 2.7 mile long route.

[Mutiny77]

And I get that, but people are implying that it's a boldface lie to say it's a 2.7 mi-long (looped) route and it's not; it's simply factual.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

And I get that, but people are implying that it's a boldface lie to say it's a 2.7 mi-long (looped) route and it's not; it's simply factual.

That's because it's rather misleading to call it 2.7 miles. That tends to imply that it serves 2.7 miles worth of unique city area, when the reality is that it's doubled up within the same service area. Just because the tracks are a block apart, doesn't greatly increase the served area in a way that, to me, justifies calling it more than 1.3 miles worth of point to point service.

Originally Posted by Ant131531

They just need to connect it to the beltline as soon as possible.

To get back on track (HA HA) yes, this sorely needs to happen if streetcars and light rail are going to have any real success in ATLANTA. Hopefully, with the recent allowance of P3s for the Beltline and that ridiculous million dollar federal grant office, we'll see some real work done on the expansions.

[sedimenjerry]

Exactly, it's factual, but misleading.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

Actually it does. You can argue that those 2.7 miles are constrained to a relatively confined area, but they are actually 2.7 miles of looped track.

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

And I get that, but people are implying that it's a boldface lie to say it's a 2.7 mi-long (looped) route and it's not; it's simply factual.

So instead of a 48 mile system, MARTA is a 96 mile system? It IS a boldface lie to call it a 2.7 mile system. I measured it, the MOST we could possibly call it is a 1.6 or so mile system. The "loop" from Woodruff park to Centennial Olympic park is 0.7, then from there to the King Center is 0.8, then just to be generous I added the .1 mile between the blocks. That's 1.6.

[Sammy215267]

Sorry if i had the mileage wrong. My apologies. I do understand it is a starter up line for expansions in the future ...i still do think that $100,000,000 Million still is a bit much for a short line. And of course the storage yard and cars in the $100,000,000 Million. But back to transit projects over time improving. I've seen it tons of times.
Example:

I remember being younger hearing and reading about NJTransit was building the "RiverLine" It goes from Camden - Trenton 34 Miles and is a diesel light rail (shares tracks with freight rail). Downtown Camden got new tracks and signals built for the street also. It cost NJ Transit $1 Billion dollars to build it. The cost went up over time. After the line opened in March 2004.. June they introduced 15min headways and more later trips on the line ridership had increased to 3,000....now 10 years later ridership is 9,00k+ weekdays , 6k Saturdays, and 4k Sundays. There is plans of expansion for another 20 miles. This was also a very political project so many people was against it. It annually carries 2,000,000 passengers a year (2013 Figures). Thats a story of build it and people will ride it. Fare is $1.50 one way its only increased over 40 cents since its opening. I guess alot of people also told NJTransit "$1 Billion for a light rail line was alot"

In general i do think Light Rail is expensive to built.

[toll_booth]

We're arguing about the length of the Atlanta streetcar route? Oh wow...

[Sammy215267]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

we're arguing about the length of the atlanta streetcar route? Oh wow...

lol i hope not

[JMatl]

There were 2.7 miles of track laid. There were 2.7 miles of streetscape improvements. There were 2.7 miles of utilities and streets ripped up. The route is 2.7 miles.

I guess it bears repeating that this is the starter line. When the system is expanded, it won't even matter how long this particular segment is.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by Sammy215267

$100,000,000 Million still is a bit much for a short line. And of course the storage yard and cars in the $100,000,000 Million. But back to transit projects over time improving. I've seen it tons of times.
Example:

I remember being younger hearing and reading about NJTransit was building the "RiverLine" It goes from Camden - Trenton 34 Miles and is a diesel light rail (shares tracks with freight rail). Downtown Camden got new tracks and signals built for the street also. It cost NJ Transit $1 Billion dollars to build it. The cost went up over time. After the line opened in March 2004.. June they introduced 15min headways and more later trips on the line ridership had increased to 3,000....now 10 years later ridership is 9,00k+ weekdays , 6k Saturdays, and 4k Sundays. There is plans of expansion for another 20 miles. This was also a very political project so many people was against it. It annually carries 2,000,000 passengers a year (2013 Figures). Thats a story of build it and people will ride it. Fare is $1.50 one way its only increased over 40 cents since its opening. I guess alot of people also told NJTransit "$1 Billion for a light rail line was alot"

In general i do think Light Rail is expensive to built.

I imagine that this is how the streetcar will be once phase 1 is fully built. Thanks for the story!

$100,000,000 Million

Though, just fyi, the whole thing was $100 Million, not $100 Trillion. Oh what a system we could have for that price! I know that's not what you mean, but the format 's bugging the engineer in me.

Originally Posted by JMatl

There were 2.7 miles of track laid. There were 2.7 miles of streetscape improvements. There were 2.7 miles of utilities and streets ripped up. The route is 2.7 miles.

I guess it bears repeating that this is the starter line. When the system is expanded, it won't even matter how long this particular segment is.

Yes it's all that.... and it's in an effective service line of 1.3 - 1.6 miles. The 2.7 miles of work was done in the same general area. One block does not a new line make.