ricco67

The MARTA in Atlanta is efficient enough.  In fact, heavy rail would be more efficient over longer distances than light rail, simply due to lack of ridership on light rail. 

Like I said previously, in only a very few instances, would an express to the airport work work.   Simply not enough ridership to justify it.

IMO a rail line to the airport shouldn't be express, but just fast.  Like the MARTA in Atlanta. 

 

Of course, if there are crosstown rail lines and good quality bus lines connecting to the rail line that goes to the airport, this creates an easy transfer for people going to the airport that aren't coming from downtown. 

 

Just one rail line to the airport won't do much by itself. 

No. A rail line needs to be efficient in what it is designed for.  From there people will utilize it best if its properly designed.

The Beijing Express for one.  

I want to say shanghai airport has another, but I don't recall.

The point is, there is NO express.  The only one that can be considered an express is Reagan, and only because its so close to DC its ridiculous.   You can almost walk to it from the Capital building.

Chicago has a significant amount of usage. I forget exactly, but it was a number of stops and about 30-45 minutes from downtown.

Yes, you can build a link to The airports.  Yes. They will be utilized.  But no, they won't get the numbers you expect them to have.  Express Rail lines aren't the way to go.  At least, not currently.

30 yrs from now? Maybe.

But are those EXPRESS lines?

I've been to Chicago, NYC, Boston, and Atlanta.  NONE have express to downtown.  You board the train and you sit there for awhile with all the other transit riders until you get to your general destination.

I think as long as there is *A* connection to the airport it would be just fine.

Not everyone coming to and from IAH is planning on making a stop directly to downtown.

The Metro Express was poorly executed, but from what I understand, they were hampered in different ways so it wouldn't piss off the Taxi companies as well.

Please name cities that have DIRECT EXPRESS rail from their airports to DOWNTOWN. 

At this juncture, I can only think of one.

But as I have mentioned in other threads, odds are its going to be used mainly by tourists and seasonal travelers that are looking to save a few bucks.

Businessmen greatly don't care and will just want to get to and from the iah.

No, you build something that is needed, in this case, it needs to be elevated ort else there would have to be a shut down and maintenance problems every time there is a major rain event.

It took me awhile, but I finally got a chance to take another photo.   It didn't quite turn out like I was hoping for (still saving up for that smaller lens), but you get the general idea of how big this is going to be.

If you're on a cell phone, save your data plan and bail.  Look at it at home.

EDIT:

Can we merge a couple of the archstone threads? it took me awhile to find this one.

I would much rather see the trains run subterranean through all of downtown with access at tunnel level instead of street level, but I really don't have any idea whether that's actually viable.

The more I think about it, the train should be elevated with the HOT lane underneath.  288 is too prone to flooding.

They had high food prices I'm the land of milk and honey?

Who would have thunk it?

They can still put HOT lanes, but put them above or below the tracks.

It's a fair guess they won't allow anyone within a block facing the demo to be able to look outside the glass windows facing it.

I don't see that happening. That's still too close.

Views for this are going to suck.

Additionally, your name shouldn't be Walter White.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they mean sticks that steady and fairly predictable rises and dips in the stock price.

I had a friend that did this with some relatively small shoe stock. The price fluctuations only ranged about five or ten bucks over a period of a quarter or so, but he claimed he made quite a bit.

I never was able to have enough to buy it in quantities to make it worth my while.

Yeah, I think it could be doable.

You can't be serious.

I would hazard to say that he is.

Galveston's problems of sinking into the seas is more of a danger from erosion then climate change.

I'm not saying climate change isn't happening, but it would be pretty arrogant of us as a race to say that we're the only factor, let's not forget a few decades ago, we were worried about "global cooling."

Maybe NASA needs to speed up our ability to establish intergalactic colonies, our son will eventually be snuffed out.

I'm not convinced that a light rail system in a random city or a commuter rail line or a widening of 288 (a non-interstate highway) need to be funded by the feds. The benefits are almost entirely local, and therefore, nearly all of the funding should be local.

So you're saying that all the taxes that are taken from local tax payers, should not be used on anything doesn't benefit the nation in some form?

So should we regress into forming our own city-states?

15 minutes/day*100000 people*250 work days per year*$30/hour = $188 mil/year in time savings, not counting the people that use the HOT lanes.

 

If anyone can show me a proposed rail line that would save any commuter 15 minutes/day compared to their current commute, or even a reasonable fantasy line (heh, this is what HAIF is for - off the wall ideas), I'd love to hear it. I simply don't think it's possible.

 

Freeway projects tend to be the only projects reduce commute times or drastically increase the number of users. Transit projects have many benefits, but this is usually not one of them.

The construction/expansion of freeways is hardly done without some form of of disruption in traffic and businesses in the area.    If you're a small business located along these major projects, the disruption in business can be catastrophic.  

For all the whining that people do about Light Rail construction on the local level, it has no where near the chaos a freeway project does but with more local benefits.

That is what i usually do. I keep some excess funds I'm reserve for just I'm case a something interesting happens.

As bad as it sounds, disasters make for great buys and excellent returns. ... usually.

I waited too late on Boeings misfortune, though and didn't buy in. Price jumped before I could buy.

It could be a sign that there are problems with the vendors or suppliers of certain critical components.

To actively trade can be a nightmare. 

I've run scenarios of when I would have sold and traded stocks and I would have done horribly.   I've looked at the various Funds and have invested in a few over the past decade, but what is sad is that I blindly invested after some research and have outperformed the funds.

Buy and hold may not be popular, but it is generally more successful.  Even my dog stocks have surprised me (ENRJ being one of them).

I think you are being unnecessarily dismissive and getting offended for some odd reason. And seriously, quoting someone with "blah blah blah" belongs at chron.com.

I'm not sure how parking (just for instance) on Lamar at St. Charles has anything whatsoever to do with rush hour. Or parking restrictions. My comment was just intended to be helpful. Despite the buildup of East Downtown, it's still unbelievably empty just east of the stadium.

But maybe someone who, after exiting a soccer game and even dodging traffic and waiting for a couple of traffic lights, apparently walks faster than I jog doesn't need any transportation tips.

The reason for the "blah" is because I didn't want to quote the entire msg.

Maybe you're just seeing to much into things.

The restrictions I was referring to are the streets that do not permit parking between 4 and 6pm.

Like I said, I wanted a place to park without having to worry about getting a ticket or towed.

As I was saying, I parked on the corner of polk and Milam.

Went to see wicked last night and I saw that the valets have a private driveway so they don't have to go out on the street to bring cars in.

Thought that was pretty slick.

Garage/Hut, what's the difference

Oil stains.