Quote:
Originally Posted by plutonicpanda
Right but two things here:
initial ridership estimates though important I don't find very reliable to determine a routes success and arguable quite then contrary. A ridership projection that was mediocre to being with translates into success for having ridership that pales in comparison to established cities with mass transit or what about a more apples to apples comparison and holding Phoenix to cities like Milwaukee, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, etc?
|
Phoenix's light rail has higher ridership per mile than Dallas and Denver... and Portland and San Diego and Salt Lake City. An even better comparison would be to compare ridership per mile with systems similar in overall length. In that case, Phoenix is below Minneapolis, essentially the same as Houston, and higher than Charlotte.
Quote:
Originally Posted by plutonicpanda
But the trains still run slower due to being at grade no? Having a train on a viaduct or tunnel would allow for quicker end to end travel times.
|
This is very true, however, very few cities can support or justify the insanely higher costs of doing this. My point is the light rail mostly has at grade intersections with vehicular traffic, yeah, but it's not like that's the end of the story... things have been done to prioritize the train.