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Trains Help Revitalize America’s Cities and Towns
Monday, November 12, 2007
I recently took Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner train from San Diego to Los Angeles Union Station, one of America’s great scenic train rides and Amtrak’s busiest route outside of Boston to New York and Washington, D.C.
During the trip into Los Angeles, I discovered that there was a large contingent on the train heading to a concert at the recently opened Nokia Theater at the new L.A. Live center in Downtown Los Angeles, which is just a short distance from Union Station via the Metro Rail. Before the Nokia Theater opened, these folks taking the train would have had to drive to non Metro Rail accessible concert venues scattered across the Los Angeles area. Whether they came from San Diego or San Luis Obispo or the many suburban and rural communities along the route of the Surfliner, the train allowed them to avoid traffic and ride in comfort.
Downtown Los Angeles is undergoing a renaissance of residential, entertainment, and commercial development. Thousands of new residences are being built in Los Angeles’ long neglected center.
Planners now realize that America’s neglected city and town centers should revitalized as a sustainable strategy to accommodate growth into the future. This pattern, emulated around the country, is usually called smart growth or transit oriented development. Intercity rail and rail transit play a large role in this. Those that have access to trains put out much less climate changing carbon emissions than people who have to drive more.
And as anyone who can take the train regularly for work or pleasure can attest, train travel leads to much better quality-of-life than driving and flying exclusively. Whether you’re taking a commuter train or the spectacular Empire Builder across Montana, train travel is a much more civilized, sensitive way to experience our great country.
Recently our Executive Director Ross Capon was interviewed on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show to discuss Senate Bill 294, Amtrak, and other passenger rail issues. One caller to the show lamented that, while she would like to take the train to Cleveland, Ohio, the early morning time of the train’s arrival combined with the economically distressed state of downtown Cleveland dissuades her.
Trains thrive especially on vibrant destinations in America’s cities and small towns. Recently our board of directors traveled to North Carolina and took the state supported Amtrak route The Piedmont. North Carolina’s DOT over the past few years has undertaken renovations at many of the region’s old railroad stations. Once run down stations are now assets to their communities and focal points for the revitalization of their host communities, from cities to small towns.
What can you do to help? Call your member of the House of Representatives and let them know that you support Senate Bill 294, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act. This bipartisan reauthorization of Amtrak recently passed the Senate by a resounding 70 votes to just 22 against. It must now be introduced in the House’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and voted out for consideration by the House Rules Committee and, eventually, the full House. It’s important that this vital piece of legislation get to the President soon.
By increasing investment in Amtrak in partnership with the states, S.294 will help Amtrak connect communities and improve them – just as it is already doing along The Piedmont in North Carolina and along the Pacific Surfliner route in Southern California.
--Dennis Lytton
NARP Board Member
Los Angeles, California
Posted by NARP
Tags: amtrak reauthorization, dennis lytton, transit-oriented development,National Streetcar Conference in Los Angeles
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Thursday afternoon at Los Angeles’ historic Orpheum Theater, myself and 250 others attended the National Streetcar Conference. Sponsored by Reconnecting America, The Seaside Institute, and a local Los Angeles City Councilmember, the conference brought engineers and other experts from around the country together to discuss bringing back streetcars to America’s towns and cities. (For more coverage, see BlogDowntown and Streetsblog LA).
Streetcars, trolleys, or trams were a familiar part of cities and towns in America before World War II. They are making a comeback, however, in places as diverse as small Kenosha, Wisconsin to Portland, Oregon.
Streetcars, unlike their close cousin light rail, are designed for “place making” (as one panelist called it) as much as they are about “through” transportation. Streetcars help create walkable, sustainable, and attractive communities. They help integrate people with other transportation resources like intercity rail (Amtrak or commuter rail), rail transit, car-sharing, or bicycling. They allow people the option of having only one or no cars in their households and using them far less often and otherwise encouraging “transit-oriented development”.
What impressed me most, however, was how much local businesses and residents were involved in the planning and financing of their streetcars. In the various case studies that we went over, stakeholders elected to assess themselves special fees to pay for a part of construction. And given innovative construction techniques such as using a very light sub-base for the track structure (therefore no underground utility relocation is necessary) and running in existing streets and mediums, construction costs are very low, in the range of $10 to $25 million per mile.
Are streetcars a good idea for your community?
Dennis Lytton
Member, NARP Board of Directors
Posted by NARP
Tags: dennis lytton, streetcars, transit-oriented development,©2006 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
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