Light-Rail in SA - A Potential Revival?
 

From a morning story in the Express-News about the battle for the City Council seat in District 8:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/met...t.34fe0d1.html


Candidates such as Stribling, 51, and Obledo, 37, want to revive the prospect of building light rail in the city and creating multimodal, regional transportation plans.

Obledo said revisiting light rail, an effort that failed to gain voter approval in 2000, would do more than alleviate congestion.

"Think of the impact it could have," Obledo said. "It would stimulate the economy, provide jobs and it would mean cleaner air. I think it could truly revitalize areas when you look at the dead zones."

Stribling said a transportation plan should look out 20 to 25 years and include accurate population projections. "I'm not sure if changing the timing of lights is going to help in the long term."

I'm kind of surprised that SA doesn't already have light rail on some scale. It's a big city with a very popular CBD. What's the major factor preventing it from happening, politics?

It's lack of funding. There was a vote on funding a light rail system in the early 2000's. It failed badly. The proposed system serviced the Southside and the Northwest side with no North central or Northeast route. IMO that was unfair some of the most congested areas would get no relief and their was no promise of further expansion. As a SA voter I would only vote for a started system that would prove it's self like in houston, or A full system that services the Northside as well or better than the mostly rural southside.

This is the map that was proposed back in 2000.
http://www.lightrail.com/maps/sanant...antoniomap.gif

Wow, judging by that map the 2000 plan was pretty damn ambitious. No wonder it failed. Gotta start small and simple, and let the system prove itself.

:previous:

Could someone find and post the startup plans (maps) for Dallas and Houston's light rail...?

More accurate map below from Double L.

^ That is much less ambitious...

Maybe the best plan for S.A. would be Downtown to the Airport.

^ I agree. There would be a bunch of upset cabbies, though. :hell:

That would guarantee riders, with potential stops near museums, SAC/Trinity/UIW and the Quarry...

I like it a lot.

I really hope the city gets going on this soon. Was up in St louis recently, I took their metro everywhere. It was really useful from the Aiport to the place i was staying. Not to mention we used it to go downtown quite a bit.

I think any start line should either connect downtown with the North Star Mall and Airport area or downtown to the Medical Center.

Well at least they built something! And are continuing to expand...

That Houston map is not accurate.

This is the first line which was proposed in 2000 and completed in 2004.

http://www.railway-technology.com/pr...mages/img1.gif

This is the full system that voters approved in 2003.

http://www.lightrailnow.org/images/h...s-rail-map.jpg

Noticed your thread. Thought I'd share a couple of thoughts regarding Phoenix's development.

Phoenix tried 3 times to get some sort of light rail plan approved by voters. The first (1989) was the most ambitious, and was defeated 2-1 at the polls. The second was scaled back, and was defeated by a narrower margin. The third time (in 2000) was the charm. Voters approved an even smaller starter line (it is still pretty large for a starter segment), 20 miles in length, with 27 stations, and spanning 3 cities, at a cost $1.4 billion.

In 2004, before construction on the starter line had even begun, Maricopa county voters approved a half-cent sales tax to fund an overall transit package worth $16 billion, about $4.5 billion of that going to the extension the light rail for an additional 57 miles. Opponents pulled out all of the usual arguments, but to no avail, it won 57-43 percent.

Now we have cities fighting to join the regional board, and are jockeying for position for a new route. The map below shows the 20-mile starter segment. New routes are in the planning stage, and won't be decided upon for another year.

My impression is that S.A.'s initial plan was too ambitious, much like Phoenix's. If you were to have a proposition that tied a smaller light-rail segment with bus expansion and freeway money (and presented to the voters the right way) it could probably pass.

http://kjzz.org:8080/images/news/stationsMap-low.jpg

I think with someone like Sheryl Scully now in charge and the growth and change SA has gone through since 2000, that a vote now or within the next few years would pass. I agree through, a small starter line connecting downtown to the North Star Mall/airport area and maybe to Stone Oak i.e the 281/Stone Oak Parkway intersection were developments like Park North and Tacara are being built. I think it should be done now so that it could some way be integrated with the starter toll lanes (281 from 1604 to Borgfield Rd).

What I believe should happen is the lines north end is Stone Oak Pkwy/281 and the south end is the future A&M campus. I think another line that should be created (besides downtown to medical center) is a line connecting downtown with the at&t center to the east and that heads west then southwest towards Port San Antonio and then finally the Toyota plant.

:previous: Holy crap, I almost forgot, guess where Sheryl Scully's previous gig was before San Antonio?!

You guys are very lucky to have her.

I don't know if any of you listen to talk radio, but they were big opponents of the last light-rail proposal. Fortunately, more and more of the talk show hosts are coming around to the idea. Just a couple months ago I heard Ricky Ware on KTSA saying that it is about time that SA does something about traffic, and he mentioned light rail as a possibilitythat he would like to see. I agree that the last plan was to ambitious. I think people are getting friendlier to the idea. I hope something like this gets done soon.

I don't understand how this kind of stuff ever had to be public referenda anyway - We are one of the few countries in the world, developed or developing, that allows the public to make (often misinformed) decisions about things like transportation. If it weren't for this, San Antonio would probably have a light rail system by now, and so would most other US cities that currently don't.

So very true, arbeiter