Metro Nashville population has crossed 2,000,000 people and growing. Time for some regional Transit! (Nashville-Davidson: sales)

[oobanks]

Nashville Metro area population in now over 2,046,828 / CSA 2,118,233 and if you add the Nashville / Clarksville region together it around 2,446,537, almost 2 1/2 Million residence in the Middle TN, southern KY region. Not to mention the area has now gotten back to its pre pandemic growth levels of almost 100 people a day. It is seriously time for a Transit make over. Any ideas??? To be honest I think the core county, of Rutherford and Murfreesboro needs a full blown bus transit remake that serves the entire county. Murfreesboro, Smyrna, La Vergne, etc. that connects seamlessly with connections to Nashville MTA/ Wego off of Murfreesboro Pike / I-24 area, etc. As far as the other core counties of Williamson, Sumner, Wilson, and Maury goes, a more regional approach with RTA buses will be the better approach with more park and ride lots scattered through the counties. I don't see any real local transit being accepted in those counties in the near future. As far as Nashville-Davidson, more frequent Wego star time tables need to be increased through out the day to Lebanon, as well as maybe changing that commuter rail line to a more rapid rail / commuter rail hybrid type of train. Also building a North South light rail line connecting to Rutherford County would be a great start. Any thoughts because we are on the rapid growth road again!

https://fox17.com/news/local/back-to...tate-jobs-news

https://www.1029thebuzz.com/2023/07/...y-moving-here/

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashvill...-pandemic.html

[jkc2j]

I’d personally would love to see a more regional system with main stations running along the major interstates on 24, 40 and 65 to and from the surrounding counties.

Proposed on a different forum something similar to Vancouver’s skytrain that can run grade separated similar to monorail that doesn’t require acquiring ROW on major roads. This can be in conjunction to new bus lines within Davidson County that run more frequent and later at night.

[GWoodle]

Yes need some type of regional transit system. Start with a Regional Transit Agency that can connect the counties in the MSA + Clarksville.

Could go back 20 years to the start of the Star. Something on I-24 from Clarkesville to Murfreesboro. Something on I-40 from Dickson to Lebanon. Something on I-65 to Franklin. You could start today & double the number of Regional Bus to be more than Rush Hour. Initial idea was to do commuter rail via the CSX track. Need new downtown station to go with new Broadway bridge. Soon most of Kane downtown yard will be gone.

Passenger traffic at BNA has doubled, back to pre-Covid levels. Need connections into BNA. Would like to see transit built with new Donelson Pike entrance.

Anything along these lines will have to be priority of the new Mayor we elect this year & new Governor elected in 2026.

[jabogitlu]

Didn't the citizens of Nashville-Davidson vote down a major light-rail transit initiative just a few years ago?

Acquiring ROW along major roads is actually the cheaper and easier option (based on what I've seen here in Seattle), but it does significantly reduce station walksheds, especially if coupled with large park-and-ride garages instead of actual housing units.

Starting up a new light-rail system is a difficult, expensive, highly political, and very fragile process even in a blue region like the Puget Sound. I pay something like $500/year to register my car, and most of that is for the transit taxing district, which is how we come up with local funds for the train. (Only about $30 is a true "registration" fee.) Throughout the process of building out the main "spine" of our system, we basically spent all the political capital we had with our two suburban counties who joined Seattle/King County in the funding mechanism, so this was pretty much a one-time, moonshot style project that will likely never be replicated locally.

I think the biggest hurdle to overcome for the Nashville region will be to successfully figure out how to 1) create a transit authority with the bonding/financing authority to build a system, and 2) sell the citizenry on whatever funding mechanism could even remotely be supported. I can't see anyone even in Davidson County supporting an income tax, and your sales tax is tapped out.... are folks ready for significant new assessments on their real estate or vehicles?

It sounds great, but so far I don't see any realistic proposals in this thread, other than beefing up true BRT along your freeways and arterials.

We are in a modern-era historic period of transit funding, but that funding stream exists only because at one point recently we've had Democrat-majority federal government at all levels. Republicans don't fund transit, period. I'm not trying to be political; that's just the reality. So, depending on national politics, you'll also have to figure out how to do this heavy lift without injections of federal transportation funds.

[jjbradleynyc]

Yeah, they unfortunately overwhelmingly voted to not approve rail, back in early 2018:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...sit/564991002/

Such a shame! Had they voted for it, construction would already be well underway and many lines almost completed.

But, there is a renewed push to get it back on the ballot again, very soon--

https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news...voted-it-down/

Hoping Nashville can vote for it this time around. If the city does not get rail, it will fall further and further behind, eventually.

[kewlwhip]

Regional transit may be too ambitious.
I could see a feasible line going from Airport to Downtown and through Midtown.
Maybe that would be a good place to start.