rightrailcoalition.org's suggestion on replacing the canceled Red Line, thoughts?

[bus man]

Originally Posted by Infinite_heights77

Streetcars are historically beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, and full of charm that add a level of cultural enhancement to urban areas.

Yes, they are. But as an investment in day-to-day transportation, I'd rather our money go for something more effective. The Red Line would have been a big step forward; not as good as the Metro Subway but better than the Light Rail. But since it's not to be, I'd rather invest in things like bus lanes and signal preemption and other such strategies to improve the bus system to make it more useful for daily travel . . . even at the cost of a little less charm for Charm City.

[Mutiny77]

BRT should be part of the equation. Cleveland's HealthLine is an oft-studied model that just may work for Baltimore.

[picardlx]

Thanks for Cleveland link. Almost makes me want to fly there just to check out the line.

[pwduvall]

Originally Posted by picardlx

Thanks for Cleveland link. Almost makes me want to fly there just to check out the line.

I think BRT is OK for lines with a high ridership especially where some of the route won't have to run in traffic.

I crunched some numbers a few years ago and came up with a handy comparison between the cost to run buses and streetcars. The result was that streetcars start to become cheaper when city buses need to run less than five minutes apart during busy periods in order to comfortably accommodate the ridership. Streetcars also work better when some of the route is not conflicting with auto traffic.

Some - but not many - of the Baltimore bus corridors approach the level of ridership needed to justify streetcars. And some of those corridors don't have any extra lane capacity whatsoever. I think a streetcar makes sense for North Avenue and perhaps a few other transit corridors. Overall, I like the idea of streetcars but getting the bus system to run better is the only practical solution for most for the city transit needs.

[Joke Insurance]

I just found this out about the suggestion for a replacement of the canceled Red Line:

The whole point of Right Rail was to kill the Red Line to keep it out of Canton. With the project dead I'm surprised their website's still up. They certainly aren't in the conversation anymore pressing this plan or others.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/baltimore/c...acing/ddc43jz/

[Infinite_heights77]

The Red Line would have been a big step forward; not as good as the Metro Subway but better than the Light Rail.

*Agreed!!!!

Originally Posted by bus man

Yes, they are. But as an investment in day-to-day transportation, I'd rather our money go for something more effective. The Red Line would have been a big step forward; not as good as the Metro Subway but better than the Light Rail. But since it's not to be, I'd rather invest in things like bus lanes and signal preemption and other such strategies to improve the bus system to make it more useful for daily travel . . . even at the cost of a little less charm for Charm City.