RTA: What's good, bad, and improvable (Cleveland, Shaker Heights: condo, school, college)

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by WRnative

I never said the multimodal transportation center on Lake Erie would be a failure.

What I did say is that dropping Laketran passengers off at that center, where they would have to transfer to another bus/trolley/Waterfront Line, etc., to get to their final destination, could slow down their trip/commute to downtown given the direct loops already supplied by Laketran.

Perhaps all or some Laketran buses could make a stop at the intermodal center, giving Laketran passengers transportation options not currently available to them. This still would slow the trips of passengers already well served by the current Laketran loops.

Candidly, I would rather see Laketran bus service directly to Windermere/Louis Stokes, where passengers could transfer directly to the Healthline or the Red Line. Currently, Laketran passengers only can get to Windermere by taking buses to Shoregate and then taking a 39 RTA bus providing bus service to Windermere, very time consuming and indirect for Laketran passengers not living near Shoregate.

Going to a lakefront intermodal center to gain access to the Healthline for a trip University Circle or the Cleveland Clinic would be much more time consuming, as passengers would have to backtrack if coming from Lake County.

Laketran Dial-a-Ride services to University Circle technically are only for medical services, and Laketran requests the name and phone number of the doctor at the time the Dial-a-Ride reservation is made. Dial-a-Ride reservations also must be booked at least a couple days in advance.

My memory is that Laketran currently does not provide scheduled bus service to University Circle except for a transfer to an RTA 39 bus. So currently Laketran passengers would have to backtrack using the Healthline or Red Line if the Shoregate/RTA 39 option was more inconvenient or slower, which it would be for passengers using Laketran park 'n ride buses to get downtown.

Right now the busy Greyhound station sits at the edge of downtown in no-man's land. If Ohio can elect Cordray and get rid of some of these troglodyte republicans from the Statehouse, maybe local support for Amtrak will result in improved regional rail service and some daytime passenger trains, for a change -- not t mention a better-accessed 2-track passenger train platform gives us some hope for commuter train service in the future.... I think a combined multimodal station placed underground with the the extension of the mall over the tracks and the Shoreway too the Lakefront is an ideal move.

[Kamms]

Originally Posted by WRnative

Kamms is never wrong, at least by his own admission, if not in his own mind.

Whatever your thinking, or excuse, you strongly inferred if not directly stated, that Lake County wasn't willing to pay for bus service to Cleveland. This was wrong.

If your point was that Lake County wasn't willing to pay for RTA bus service from Lake County to Cleveland because it already was paying for Laketran to provide such service and obviously wouldn't want to pay for a duplicate service, why didn't you just say so???

In any event, you can't deny that your post left a inaccurate impression -- that Lake County wasn't willing to pay for bus service to Cleveland -- and despite your IMO pitiful defense of your statement, I have no apology for correcting the record.

Inaccurate impression? Only to you cuz you have to read into posts, in this case mine, cuz you got an agenda.
Thanks for “correcting the record” though and creating enough nonsense to prove me wrong.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by Kamms

Inaccurate impression? Only to you cuz you have to read into posts, in this case mine, cuz you got an agenda.
Thanks for “correcting the record” though and creating enough nonsense to prove me wrong.

Any objective reader will easily understand the incomplete if not inaccurate nature of your original statement, and that the subsequent nonsense in this thread was created by your CYA obfuscation.

Your explanation of why you didn't mention Laketran, when stating that Lake County wouldn't pay for RTA bus service between Lake County and Cleveland, is Trumpian obfuscation at its best, as is the accompanying expressions of victimization when someone challenges the statement.

BTW, after reading your original comment, I thought you knew little about the bus and van services Laketran provided between Lake County and Cleveland. However, as I've written about it before, it probably escaped your mind until I elaborated about the Laketran services once again. It's no crime to say, "I forgot."

[Kamms]

Originally Posted by WRnative

Any objective reader will easily understand the incomplete if not inaccurate nature of your original statement, and that the subsequent nonsense in this thread was created by your CYA obfuscation.

Your explanation of why you didn't mention Laketran, when stating that Lake County wouldn't pay for RTA bus service between Lake County and Cleveland, is Trumpian obfuscation at its best, as is the accompanying expressions of victimization when someone challenges the statement.

BTW, after reading your original comment, I thought you knew little about the bus and van services Laketran provided between Lake County and Cleveland. However, as I've written about it before, it probably escaped your mind until I elaborated about the Laketran services once again. It's no crime to say, "I forgot."

Gee thanks for putting me in my place.

[bjimmy24]

Never ridden LakeTran, but it seems from their website that one problem is that it's really only good for people who are leaving work around 5. Does the last bus actually return at 6 pm?

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by TheProf

Yep, apparently outgoing RTA GM, Joe Calabrese, foolishly conceded to Van Aken District developers to build a parking garage blocking the potential ROW with no provision for Blue Line track extension... Only in Cleveland.

The tracks are not currently blocked by a building for an extension towards the Warrensville/Chagrin intersection. Is an additional parking garage planned?

[j_ws]

Originally Posted by TheProf

Yep, apparently outgoing RTA GM, Joe Calabrese, foolishly conceded to Van Aken District developers to build a parking garage blocking the potential ROW with no provision for Blue Line track extension... Only in Cleveland.

As far as I understand it, that garage is marked as a future phase. I haven't been over there recently so I'm not sure if that changed.

It's interesting that RTA actually has a Blue Line extension included in the 2010-2025 strategic plan (Re: imagine RTA - Strategic Plan 2010 - 2020 | Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority)

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by j_ws

As far as I understand it, that garage is marked as a future phase. I haven't been over there recently so I'm not sure if that changed.

It's interesting that RTA actually has a Blue Line extension included in the 2010-2025 strategic plan (Re: imagine RTA - Strategic Plan 2010 - 2020 | Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority)

You're right, that ROW-blocking garage was, indeed, originally mentioned as a future plan. However when I was over by the VAD site a few weeks ago admiring the development's progress, including the now-online apts, I saw ground excavation right at the Chagrin-Warrensville intersection, directly in the Blue Line's path... I sure hope sanity returns and this 'future plan' is not executed. I still blame Calabrese who, apparently when asked by Shaker Heights whether they wanted to leave the land open for potential future Blue Line expansion, he flatly said "no" and Shaker, then, went to the developer who responded by projecting addition parking for the ROW. Thankfully Calabrese is gone as RTA GM,... I'm just X-ing my fingers that the new GM isn't just as bad... or worse.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Never ridden LakeTran, but it seems from their website that one problem is that it's really only good for people who are leaving work around 5. Does the last bus actually return at 6 pm?

That's true. Laketran's service to Cleveland and Cuyahoga County is very commuter oriented, while its Dial-a-Ride service to University Circle is entirely oriented towards medical institutions there and has greater scheduling frequency throughout the day than its downtown, commuter buses.

My memory is that Laketran runs special buses to pro sports venues on occasion, but I haven't researched that.

[j_ws]

Originally Posted by TheProf

You're right, that ROW-blocking garage was, indeed, originally mentioned as a future plan. However when I was over by the VAD site a few weeks ago admiring the development's progress, including the now-online apts, I saw ground excavation right at the Chagrin-Warrensville intersection, directly in the Blue Line's path... I sure hope sanity returns and this 'future plan' is not executed. I still blame Calabrese who, apparently when asked by Shaker Heights whether they wanted to leave the land open for potential future Blue Line expansion, he flatly said "no" and Shaker, then, went to the developer who responded by projecting addition parking for the ROW. Thankfully Calabrese is gone as RTA GM,... I'm just X-ing my fingers that the new GM isn't just as bad... or worse.

Maybe we'll get lucky and it's just some aggressive prep work for surface parking.