List of US+Canada rail transit currently under construction

[llamaorama]

Nobody is going to ride that Mid-America airport extension. What a giant load of pork.

The North-South line could also work as BRT rather than rail, it has so many stops and is mostly at-grade. They wouldn't really get value out of rail, and BRT would allow other bus routes to trunk onto whatever infrastructure is added.

Instead of spending available federal funds on building new rail lines, has any thought ever been given to improving existing lines by re-routing them, grade separations, eliminating curves, relocating stations whose original sites didn't work out, etc?

Many light rail systems built in the 1990s and 2000s made cost-cutting decisions that reduced potential ridership by making them slower or limit frequency. Some stations were built for bus route connections that don't exist anymore, or were built for some prospective urban development projects or to serve employment centers that don't exist anymore. And then on the flip side, there's opportunities for new infill stations to serve destinations along the route that weren't there when the line opened.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by Doady

Milwaukee has been cutting bus service for over a decade to build a streetcar.

Do you have a source that shows they're robbing the bus operating fund to pay for the rail capital? Usually operating and capital come from separate budgets. Streetcar operating shouldn't be remotely enough to make that kind of dent, so either something extremely fishy is going on here, or you're describing correlation rather than causation.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by llamaorama

Instead of spending available federal funds on building new rail lines, has any thought ever been given to improving existing lines by re-routing them, grade separations, eliminating curves, relocating stations whose original sites didn't work out, etc?

The federal Capital Investment Grants (formerly known as New Starts) that most cities use to pay for big new rail lines does indeed have a category of funding for "core capacity" that could in theory be used for this stuff. However, AFAIK all the core capacity money has gone to the big east coast underground rebuilding projects. It would be interesting to see an '80s era light rail system use it.

I suspect that had Dallas gone ahead with their downtown tunnel proposal a couple of years ago, that probably would have used the core capacity fund.

[mhays]

Once a line is built at-grade, replacing it with a tunnel or elevated line is often astronomically difficult.

Seattle's line in the median of MLK would be a great candidate. But it's basically unimaginable logistically, particularly with US safety priorities. My guess is they'd need to close both the line and two lanes for the duration, which would be years. That would cost billions for a useful but incremental improvement, while meanwhile we struggle to keep a large expansion program within the available funding and other parts of town will still lack rail even then.

If you have a 100'-wide corridor without much in it, then sure.

[Markitect]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Do you have a source that shows they're robbing the bus operating fund to pay for the rail capital? Usually operating and capital come from separate budgets. Streetcar operating shouldn't be remotely enough to make that kind of dent, so either something extremely fishy is going on here, or you're describing correlation rather than causation.

The bus system is overseen by Milwaukee County, whereas the streetcar is overseen by the City of Milwaukee. There is no intermixing of money between the two.

[Cirrus]

Congrats to Seattle for opening the first 6.6 mile phase of its Eastside light rail this weekend. That segment is moved to complete on the front page of the thread.

[Cirrus]

While this thread does not track every intercity rail improvement, I have added Brightline West's LA to Las Vegas line to the bottom of the list, since it just broke ground.

It's true HSR, with speeds of 200mph, anticipated to open in 2028.

[LAsam]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Congrats to Seattle for opening the first 6.6 mile phase of its Eastside light rail this weekend. That segment is moved to complete on the front page of the thread.

So if I'm reading the SoundTransit website correctly, the Eastside light rail will get connected to the main line that runs from SeaTac to North Seattle in 2025?

[homebucket]

The Downtown San Jose/Santa Clara (Silicon Valley Phase II) BART (heavy rail) extension has broken ground. It'll be 6 miles long and include a total of 4 new stations (3 underground, 1 above ground). 5 miles of it will be an underground tunnel.

San Jose's VTA EBRC (Eastridge to BART Regional Connector) light rail extension has also broken ground. This will be 2.4 miles of elevated rail, and will include 2 new above ground stations.

[Tcmetro]

Philadelphia's Line 15 - Girard trolley reopened yesterday, 6/16/2024. It runs the full route including the section from Frankford to Westmoreland that has been suspended since 2012 and slightly realigned as part of the I-95 construction. The route from 63rd to Frankford had been suspended since 2020 to allow for refurbishment of the trolleys.

https://6abc.com/post/septa-girard-a...phia/14937593/