Passenger rail about going "through" Bristol
BY LEIF GREISS | BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
Nov. 27, 2018: BRISTOL, Tenn. — Mayor Margaret Feierabend told Bristol Tennessee City Council on Tuesday night that bringing passenger rail to the Twin City is about “going through Bristol, not just to Bristol.”
Feierabend is chairwoman of the Bristol TN-VA Rail Coalition, a group of more than 20 organizations in Tennessee and Virginia that support the extension of passenger rail from Roanoke, Virginia, to Bristol and destinations southward. Amtrak passenger service already extends from Washington, D.C., to Lynchburg to Roanoke. In 2017, Amtrak completed an economic study that found running a passenger line to Bristol could be profitable.
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During council’s work session, Feierabend said the coalition envisions passenger lines that would run from the Twin City to Knoxville to Chattanooga then to Atlanta, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama.
Click here to read the full article in the Bristol Herald-Courier.
BY LEIF GREISS | BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
Nov. 27, 2018: BRISTOL, Tenn. — Mayor Margaret Feierabend told Bristol Tennessee City Council on Tuesday night that bringing passenger rail to the Twin City is about “going through Bristol, not just to Bristol.”
Feierabend is chairwoman of the Bristol TN-VA Rail Coalition, a group of more than 20 organizations in Tennessee and Virginia that support the extension of passenger rail from Roanoke, Virginia, to Bristol and destinations southward. Amtrak passenger service already extends from Washington, D.C., to Lynchburg to Roanoke. In 2017, Amtrak completed an economic study that found running a passenger line to Bristol could be profitable.
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During council’s work session, Feierabend said the coalition envisions passenger lines that would run from the Twin City to Knoxville to Chattanooga then to Atlanta, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama.
Click here to read the full article in the Bristol Herald-Courier.
What's the hold up?
TARP has one notable disappointment to report from the Year 2018.
One of our best goals from 2018 was to motivate Amtrak and Greyhound to develop a Nashville Thruway Bus service that would connect the Nashville Greyhound station with Amtrak's Crescent service at Birmingham's all-new $33-million dollar intermodal station.
Both companies supported the proposal. In fact, the two companies have an agreement in place. So what's the hold-up?
On the Amtrak side, there's a serious timekeeping problem with the Crescent. Due to serious freight interference, the train arrives late at Birmingham almost every day.
On the Greyhound side, there's a serious shortage of drivers. Buses are frequently delayed when drivers run out of legal driving time and have to take mandatory rest. In many cases, relief drivers are not available, which causes late operations and missed connections.
Under these conditions, a rail-bus connection cannot be implemented until and unless conditions improve with both companies.
TARP's Board will continue to follow the issue and try to propose a meaningful resolution. We will report any new information that we receive.
TARP has one notable disappointment to report from the Year 2018.
One of our best goals from 2018 was to motivate Amtrak and Greyhound to develop a Nashville Thruway Bus service that would connect the Nashville Greyhound station with Amtrak's Crescent service at Birmingham's all-new $33-million dollar intermodal station.
Both companies supported the proposal. In fact, the two companies have an agreement in place. So what's the hold-up?
On the Amtrak side, there's a serious timekeeping problem with the Crescent. Due to serious freight interference, the train arrives late at Birmingham almost every day.
On the Greyhound side, there's a serious shortage of drivers. Buses are frequently delayed when drivers run out of legal driving time and have to take mandatory rest. In many cases, relief drivers are not available, which causes late operations and missed connections.
Under these conditions, a rail-bus connection cannot be implemented until and unless conditions improve with both companies.
TARP's Board will continue to follow the issue and try to propose a meaningful resolution. We will report any new information that we receive.
Nashville Traffic Prompts Revised Train Schedule
Nashville's notorious traffic problem is so intense that RTA/MTA had to make a slight change to the schedule of the Music City Star.
To allow a more reliable connection from the #93 connecting bus, the evening outbound trains were given slightly later by 5-minutes and 10-minutes. Evidently the growing downtown traffic jam resulted in delayed train departures.
As Nashville's population continues to grow and long-term transit solutions are nowhere in sight, we expect problems such as this to only worsen with time.
While adjusting the schedule for the later outbound trains, the Friday night evening train to and from downtown was eliminated from the schedule. The new federal requirement to install Positive Train Control prompted RTA/MTA officials to reduce the number of scheduled trains in order to avoid the PTC requirement.
Installing PTC on the Music City Star route would require a $20-million dollar capital investment, which is simply not practical given the market, ridership, and funding requirements of the train.
In a stream of good news, the Star reported another fiscal year of ridership growth in 2018 going from 283,000 trips the year before the 295,000 in the most recent count. Steve Bland, CEO of RTA, was quoted in the Nashville Business Journal saying, "we've pretty much seen ridership growth throughout all the Star stations."
Speaking of stations, the new stop at Hamilton Springs came on line in August, 2018. Hamilton Springs is a transit and pedestrian-friendly mixed-use planned community in Wilson County, the first of its kind in all of Tennessee.
Nashville's notorious traffic problem is so intense that RTA/MTA had to make a slight change to the schedule of the Music City Star.
To allow a more reliable connection from the #93 connecting bus, the evening outbound trains were given slightly later by 5-minutes and 10-minutes. Evidently the growing downtown traffic jam resulted in delayed train departures.
As Nashville's population continues to grow and long-term transit solutions are nowhere in sight, we expect problems such as this to only worsen with time.
While adjusting the schedule for the later outbound trains, the Friday night evening train to and from downtown was eliminated from the schedule. The new federal requirement to install Positive Train Control prompted RTA/MTA officials to reduce the number of scheduled trains in order to avoid the PTC requirement.
Installing PTC on the Music City Star route would require a $20-million dollar capital investment, which is simply not practical given the market, ridership, and funding requirements of the train.
In a stream of good news, the Star reported another fiscal year of ridership growth in 2018 going from 283,000 trips the year before the 295,000 in the most recent count. Steve Bland, CEO of RTA, was quoted in the Nashville Business Journal saying, "we've pretty much seen ridership growth throughout all the Star stations."
Speaking of stations, the new stop at Hamilton Springs came on line in August, 2018. Hamilton Springs is a transit and pedestrian-friendly mixed-use planned community in Wilson County, the first of its kind in all of Tennessee.
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Birmingham: Out of the Darkness and Into the Light
The dark days of waiting for the Crescent under the windowless railroad viaduct are finally gone! Amtrak has finally arrived at the bright and spacious new intermodal station in downtown Birmingham! The 1960’s-era benches with worn down cushions in a bleak waiting area have been officially retired. In their place are modern, comfortable seats in different configurations, some of which have individual charge outlets for electronic devices. Passengers are greeted by an enormous waiting area with floor-to-roof window glass for an abundance of light and an uninhibited view of downtown. Morris Avenue appears in full view, which enables arriving passengers to watch for their private vehicle rides from the comfort of the climate controlled lobby. The large front overhang shades direct sunlight and sheds rainwater to make loading and unloading from the street a little easier. Arrival and departure information is posted on electronic display boards complemented by an audible public announcement system. Amtrak’s ticket and baggage offices are in plain view and so are the offices for Greyhound. Amtrak and Greyhound personnel can see the entire waiting room from their work posts as well as the front entry doors and the better part of the street. The presence of Greyhound and Amtrak under the same roof will make interline connections imminently more practical. The existing train and bus schedules will allow connections to and from Montgomery. Slightly modified bus schedules will allow connections to and from Nashville and Huntsville. We hope a new bus schedule can be introduced as well with connections to and from Memphis in the foreseeable future. The only complication rail passengers must cope with for now is the trek from the waiting room to the track area. The walk involves a circuitous route with twists, turns, and elevation changes. A separate construction project will remedy this. This spring the old ticket office will be demolished and the back wall removed to create a direct walkway from the waiting area to the track area. The former waiting area will become part of the new access corridor, albeit with some cosmetic and lighting improvements. Birmingham is already a relatively popular location for Tennesseans who travel by Amtrak. This new station will make train travel much more practical and appealing! We expect ridership and revenue on the Crescent to grow now that Birmingham rail passengers are coming out of the darkness and into the light! Next Stop: Birmingham! The Magic City! |
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TARP Members Helped "Clear the Track" in Birmingham
Birmingham's all-new $33 million dollar intermodal station is one of the largest passenger rail improvement projects in the entire Southeast. However, instead of noticing the soon-to-open facility in the background, rail passengers were noticing an enormous amount of trash and refuse at track level. Fixing the problem was no easy feat. Whereas the station complex belongs to the City of Birmingham, the tracks and platforms have a complicated mix of owners and lease agreements. Getting a single owner to take responsibility for the mess was like herding cats, and yet the problem was too large for Amtrak to take on its own. Last summer the Tennessee Association of Railroad Passengers proposed that Amtrak and the various property owners set aside a clean-up with volunteer helpers to tackle the problem. It took several weeks to clear the idea through various legal and bureaucratic hurdles, and then on a cool Saturday in November the project came together. Jarod Pearson, President of TARP and fellow TARP member Bobby Gass worked with a team of Amtrak personnel to clean up the mess. In five and a half hours the small crew removed enough trash to fill 31 lawn-sized bags! The results were amazing! From this point onward, Amtrak staff will perform a weekly litter patrol. The Birmingham Police Department has also agreed to perform daily patrols on the platform to keep away trespassers and keep the area secure. Passengers can now take notice of a beautiful new facility that welcomes them to the Magic City! The track is clear now! |
TARP Members Bobby Gass (l) and Jarod Pearson (r) cleaning up the Birmingham station platform
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