San Antonio Light-Rail... Possibility?...Give SA Light Rail...Light Rail Trolley (Center: to buy, school district)

[royal744]

FAST, the thing is, you have to start somewhere and you have to start with a starter system. If a city tries to build an entire system at one time, it will probably fail because there usually isn't enough money available at any one time to do that. Master Plan a large system, and then build the first part(s) near the center of it. Once people see how well it works, they will clamor for more. Many of the communities around Dallas scorned the initial stages of the light rail system there, saying they didn't want to be part of it. They are now regretting this short-sighted decision big time. Have you ridden the Dallas system? It is nothing short of sensational! There are small urban communities growing around the stops. Think big. Start small. Build it and they will come. Believe it. San Antonio needs it. What we don't need is massive highways that are overcrowded the day they open.

[royal744]

Someone should contact Bill Barker, a transportation planning consultant who lives in San Antonio and who is currently, in addition to consulting, doing director work for Solar San Antonio. Bill is local - lives in San Antonio, smart as a whip, and a member of the Audubon Society and Solar SA as well as many other organizations.

[alexjon]

Considerations:

1) What are the densest parts of town?

2) What are the most visited places for locals, including employers?

Connect 1 and 2 and you get your starter line ideas.

In other words, Fred Road to the medical center with a spur to downtown. BRT covers that, however... so what else do we have?

A) Crosstown starter: Hits the AT&T center, UTSA downtown, downtown itself (with connections to the rest of the town, etc.)

B) Kelly to Airport: Population centers are hit, employers are hit, and it gives the benefit of allowing visitors to get to and from the main attraction of the city from the airport without having to diddle about town with cabs or rental cars.

After a couple of weeks mulling it over, I have an idea that builds off the west-side multimodal station idea.

First off, we build the station with a N-S/E-W track configuration in the center of the station with 2 local platforms and 2 express platforms.

Secondly, we build the lines from there. It can easily act as a hub. The first step would be a test line from the west side to Ellis Alley/Amtrak. From there, we add in the starter line and spurs/loops within town to offer expansion options.

First stops would be, from W-E with E-W lines listed after the slash and spurs in the bracket:
*Westside Multimodal Platform A / Westside Multimodal Platform B [North to Fred Road]
*Market Square/Milam Park
*Plaza De Armas S/Plaza De Armas N
*Drury Inn/Commerce/N. St. Mary's
*River Crossing S / River Crossing N (Rivercenter) [Spur South to Kelly USA / North to Broadway]
*Water Place / Water Place (SAWS building stops)
*Ellis Alley [Continue eastbound to AT&T Center]

7 stops crossing downtown, a good test of local service and how people perceive the train.

There are a million things to think about in this entire thing... we do know that a few people (around here anyway) think it's a good thing.

All we need to figure out is how to go about getting this done. The money is there...

[tgannaway89]

A route to UTSA Downtown would also reach H-E-B Corporate. A route to the airport would reach Clear Channel Corporate and Alamo Quarry Market.

[tgannaway89]

Originally Posted by alexjon

Considerations:

1) What are the densest parts of town?

2) What are the most visited places for locals, including employers?

Connect 1 and 2 and you get your starter line ideas.

In other words, Fred Road to the medical center with a spur to downtown. BRT covers that, however... so what else do we have?

A) Crosstown starter: Hits the AT&T center, UTSA downtown, downtown itself (with connections to the rest of the town, etc.)

B) Kelly to Airport: Population centers are hit, employers are hit, and it gives the benefit of allowing visitors to get to and from the main attraction of the city from the airport without having to diddle about town with cabs or rental cars.

After a couple of weeks mulling it over, I have an idea that builds off the west-side multimodal station idea.

First off, we build the station with a N-S/E-W track configuration in the center of the station with 2 local platforms and 2 express platforms.

Secondly, we build the lines from there. It can easily act as a hub. The first step would be a test line from the west side to Ellis Alley/Amtrak. From there, we add in the starter line and spurs/loops within town to offer expansion options.

First stops would be, from W-E with E-W lines listed after the slash and spurs in the bracket:
*Westside Multimodal Platform A / Westside Multimodal Platform B [North to Fred Road]
*Market Square/Milam Park
*Plaza De Armas S/Plaza De Armas N
*Drury Inn/Commerce/N. St. Mary's
*River Crossing S / River Crossing N (Rivercenter) [Spur South to Kelly USA / North to Broadway]
*Water Place / Water Place (SAWS building stops)
*Ellis Alley [Continue eastbound to AT&T Center]

7 stops crossing downtown, a good test of local service and how people perceive the train.

There are a million things to think about in this entire thing... we do know that a few people (around here anyway) think it's a good thing.

All we need to figure out is how to go about getting this done. The money is there...

Do you know how many miles this would be? Just curious.

[alexjon]

Originally Posted by tgannaway89

Do you know how many miles this would be? Just curious.

Test line ~3mi loop
WS to Med Ctr ~9mi
Expansion to UTSA/The Rim: ~6mi
Westside to 151: ~8mi
Commerce/36th to Kelly: ~3mi
Ellis Alley to AT&T: ~3mi
To Airport via San Pedro from WSMM: ~8mi
To Brooke via N. New Braunfels: ~4.75mi

45 miles to starter network build-out, but only about 12-18 miles for the first portion, which is par for course for starter lines.

[alexjon]

Can anyone make an overlay for google earth plus with the population density map from the city of san antonio's webpage? It should be in the district demographics area. I can work on stop placement tonight.

[210]

I wonder if we should just use the myspace page as the temp site until the future when we can really go at it hard.

Anyone agree? We can make the myspace site look really professional.

[slaleman]

I'll see what I can do in Google Earth...give me a day or two, though...

[alexjon]

Excellent! Thanks