Earlier this morning I got into one of those blue-sky conversations with someone else who dreams about a light rail system for the Midlands, and it reminded me of this post from last year, in which I quoted in turn from a column I wrote back in 1998 on the subject:
Imagine: Say it’s a few years from now, and you live in Lexington and work in Columbia. You drive the mile or so to the station and leave your car in a parking lot. You take your seat and ride the old Southern line that parallels Highway 1 into the city. Call it the A line.
Despite all the stops, you get downtown in less time than it takes to drive, while getting ahead on work or (better yet) reading the paper. You change trains at the Vista Center station near the new arena and conference center.
Say you work where I do, near Williams-Brice Stadium (and why wouldn’t you; this is my dream, after all). You take the C line down one of the very tracks that used to frustrate you in your driving days (if you can’t beat the trains, join them). You get off within a block of work.
A few hours later, when you have a lunch appointment in Five Points, you take a quick ride back up to Vista Center, then through the underground stretch beneath the State House complex and the USC campus on the eastern reach of the A line.
Need to shop after work? Take the C all the way out to Columbiana, or the D along Two-Notch to Columbia Mall. (Where does the B line go? Out toward Lake Murray, which means it runs between 378 and the Saluda River, right by my house.)
The amazing thing about that original column is that it was written years before I had the chance to ride on the NYC system, which is the one I love the most, because it is the most extensive I’ve ever been on. The systems in Atlanta and Washington are nice, but the NYC system is such an organic part of the city, with such magical properties — you descend into it, and moments later you emerge into a different world.
In the last few years I’ve gone out of my way several times to go to New York mainly to ride the subways. I like to do other stuff — walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, for instance. But the key to everything I do is the transit system.
This morning, Nathan Ballentine wrote on Twitter that I-26 was “backed up like a parking lot” to Lake Murray Boulevard. How much better to be able to spend that time on a train reading the paper, coming in from Irmo, or the Northeast, or Lexington. And then to get around from Five Points to the Vista to wherever without having to hunt for convenient parking?
It would be wonderful. And it’s worth dreaming about, and enduring the scorn of those who keep saying it will never happen. Imagine there’s no traffic; it’s easy if you try…
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Brad, fixed commuter rail (light or heavy) lines are great if:
1. there are sufficient numbers of people, centers of housing and centers of employment within a reasonable radius if the stations to attract sufficient ridership
2. the frequency of rail service has to be sufficient to attract and retain riders
3. the governments must be willing to financially support these transportation services which virtually always require government subsidies
4. to be most effective in reducing motor vehicle traffic, commuter rail stations must be served by adequate commuter parking lots and bus transit systems which run on schedules convient and attractive to commuter rail riders – these too will require government subsidies
5. the management and operation of a commuter rail system and its related bus transit system require a focus on the customer – moving people – and not just moving vehicles
Unfortunately, the CMRTA needs considerable redirection and movement toward this customer focus and I suspect the governments do not have the vision or appetite to undertake what is necessary to have a truly effective transit and commuter rail system……you will have to continue to go to Atlanta, DC or NYC to enjoy good commuter rail systems.
Is there a single metro area (that is not a part of a larger one) that has a light rail system? Charlotte is just now starting to slowly build one. I just don’t think the economics are there.
should read “Is there a single metro area the size of Columbia (that is not a part of a larger one) that has a light rail system?”
No. This is why it’s a dream, and not a reality. That, and the thing Bill mentioned.
And you know how we are here. Even if MOST cities this size had light rail, we probably would not. Remember, it was only this decade that Columbia even agreed to help run a bus system, which it still hasn’t come to grips with paying for.
Only if we ran the bus system well enough to coax people out of their cars, and the buses were just full to bursting, would we consider light rail. Trouble is, even people like me who love the concept of public transportation would rather not ride the bus.
Face it, when I say I love public transit, I mean subways. A bus has none of the things I like about subways. First, they ride on the streets, and I want to get away from the streets. They get caught in traffic the same as cars (even though yes, if we all rode buses that wouldn’t be a problem). They belch unbreathable fumes. They stop on every corner.
With a subway, you leave the streets behind, and in seconds are transported across town. You leave the streets on one side of town, emerge on the other. And they run on electricity, which we can provide with nice, clean nuclear plants (uh-oh, here comes another argument).
Buses give you all the frustration of being in traffic, with the added bonus of not being in control of the vehicle…
On a subway, you hurtle forward in the darkness, not even seeing where you’re going until you’re there.
And if only we could get there from here…
Alert Mayor Bob, he’ll be all for it… and jump on it right after he has 14 more streets in town torn up first. How this bumbling idiot keeps getting elected is beyond me.
Which leads to the topic of the 2010 Mayoral election. Is there a chance to end the Coblarchy? Could be a very interesting field. Coble (of course), Steve Benjamin (a very capable guy with his sights on higher office), Kirkman Finlay (good government fiscal conservative), Kevin Fisher (naysayer and Coble hater) and Joe Azar (the Harold Stassen of the local political scene). Benjamin and Finlay could provide Coble with his toughest race, one from which he may well not emerge victorious.
I love trains. You can read on them. They get you there faster. They often run on a published schedule, so you don’t stand out in the weather waiting for them. When I lived in places that had them, I either did not have a car or hardly used mine. Columbia has tracks. Let’s use them.
Well, if we’re going to dream…
How about bringing back the electric streetcars? Re-open the canal and develop a ferry system on the rivers (for people, not cars). Trains are good, too, but they are much more efficient at moving freight than people. (We don’t stack too well.)
Remember, it was only this decade that Columbia even agreed to help run a bus system, which it still hasn’t come to grips with paying for.
Who are you and what have you done with the real Brad Warthen?