Sustaining the Metropolis LRT and Streetcars for Super Cities
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TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH Number E-C177 November 2013 Sustaining the Metropolis LRT and Streetcars for Super Cities 12th International Light Rail Conference November 11–13, 2012 Salt Lake City, Utah TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD 2013 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OFFICERS Chair: Deborah H. Butler, Executive Vice President, Planning, and CIO, Norfolk Southern Corporation, Norfolk, Virginia Vice Chair: Kirk T. Steudle, Director, Michigan Department of Transportation, Lansing Division Chair for NRC Oversight: Susan Hanson, Distinguished University Professor Emerita, School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts Executive Director: Robert E. Skinner, Jr., Transportation Research Board TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD 2013–2014 TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES COUNCIL Chair: Katherine F. Turnbull, Executive Associate Director, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Texas A&M University, College Station Technical Activities Director: Mark R. Norman, Transportation Research Board Paul Carlson, Research Engineer, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Texas A&M University, College Station, Operations and Maintenance Group Chair Barbara A. Ivanov, Director, Freight Systems, Washington State Department of Transportation, Olympia, Freight Systems Group Chair Paul P. Jovanis, Professor, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Safety and Systems Users Group Chair Thomas J. Kazmierowski, Senior Consultant, Golder Associates, Toronto, Canada, Design and Construction Group Chair Mark S. Kross, Consultant, Jefferson City, Missouri, Planning and Environment Group Chair Peter B. Mandle, Director, LeighFisher, Inc., Burlingame, California, Aviation Group Chair Harold R. (Skip) Paul, Director, Louisiana Transportation Research Center, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, Baton Rouge, State DOT Representative Anthony D. Perl, Professor of Political Science and Urban Studies and Director, Urban Studies Program, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Rail Group Chair Lucy Phillips Priddy, Research Civil Engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, Mississippi Young Members Council Chair James S. Thiel, General Counsel, Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Legal Resources Group Chair Thomas H. Wakeman, Research Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, Marine Group Chair David C. Wilcock, Vice President, Michael Baker, Jr., Inc., Norwood, Massachusetts, Public Transportation Group Chair Johanna P. Zmud, Director, Transportation, Space, and Technology Program, RAND Corporation, Arlington, Virginia, Policy and Organization Group Chair TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CIRCULAR E-C177 Sustaining the Metropolis LRT and Streetcars for Super Cities 12th National Light Rail Conference November 11–13, 2012 Salt Lake City, Utah Cosponsored by Transportation Research Board American Public Transportation Association Transportation Research Board 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, D.C. www.TRB.org TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CIRCULAR E-C177 The Transportation Research Board is a unit of the National Research Council, a private, nonprofit institution that is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. Under a congressional charter granted to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council provides scientific and technical advice to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Transportation Research Board is distributing this Circular to make the information contained herein available for use by individual practitioners in state and local transportation agencies, researchers in academic institutions, and other members of the transportation research community. The information in this Circular was taken directly from the submissions of the authors. This document is not a report of the National Research Council or of the National Academy of Sciences. Public Transportation Group Steven Silkunas, Chair 2012 Joint Light Rail Conference Planning Committee Richard Krisak, Chair Gregory L. Thompson, Vice Chair Toni Bates Stephanie Eiler Charles Joseph Daman Blythe Thomas B. Furmaniak Jeffrey LaMora Jeffrey Brown James H. Graebner Francis E. Loetterle Kevin Dow T.R. Hickey Paul O’Brien Michael B. Eidlin John Schumann Jennifer Rosales, TRB Senior Program Officer Jennifer L. Weeks, TRB Senior Program Officer Mary Kissi, TRB Senior Program Associate, LRT Conference Proceedings Coordinator Transportation Research Board 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 www.TRB.org Javy Awan, Production Editor; Jennifer Correro, Proofreading and Layout; Jennifer J. Weeks, Layout; Kristin Sawyer, Proofreader Foreword he National Light Rail Conference: Sustaining the Metropolis: LRT and Streetcars for Super T Cities is the 12th conference of the Transportation Research Board series on light rail that began in Philadelphia in 1975. The American Public Transportation Association became a cosponsor in 1995. At the Philadelphia conference, the technical sessions focused on introducing the concept of light rail transit (LRT) in North America. Light rail had evolved from traditional streetcar systems in a number of northern European cities into intermediate capacity and performance rail transit systems sized for mid-sized urban agglomerations. The purpose of the first light rail conference was to show local decision makers in North America that the concept had great promise for application in North American cities. The Urban Mass Transit Administration jointly sponsored the first conference and offered financing for cities willing to implement light rail. At that time there were only eight legacy streetcar systems left in Canada and the United States. Now, 37 years later, the eight legacy systems have been rebuilt with many light rail characteristics and 22 additional completely new light rail systems have joined them. Many of the 22 new systems have steadily expanded through the years, and currently nine of the 22 new systems are in the process of further expansion. In addition, eight cities have built short circulator streetcar lines, mostly in downtown districts as part of urban revitalization efforts, four additional circulator streetcar lines are under construction, and at least a dozen circulator streetcar proposals are in the discussion stage. The focus and related topics of the previous 11 national conferences have paralleled the development and reintroduction of LRT in North America: • Introduction to LRT, 1st National Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1975; • Light Rail Transit: Planning and Technology, 2nd National Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, 1978; • Light Rail Transit: Planning, Design, and Implementation, 3rd National Conference, San Diego, California, 1982 (San Diego in July 1981 was the first all-bus urban agglomeration in the United States to open European-style light rail; Edmonton in 1978 was the first in North America); • Light Rail Transit: System Design for Cost-Effectiveness, 4th National Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1985; • Light Rail Transit: New System Successes at Affordable Prices, 5th National Conference, San Jose, California, 1988; • Light Rail Transit: Planning, Design, and Operating Experience, 6th National Conference, Calgary, Canada, 1992; • Building on Success, Learning from Experience, 7th National Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, 1995; • Light Rail: Investment for the Future, 8th National Conference, Dallas, Texas, 2000; • Light Rail: Experience, Economics, and Evolution: From Starter Lines to Growing Systems, 9th National Conference, Portland, Oregon, 2003; and • Light Rail Transit: A World of Applications and Opportunities, 10th National Conference and First Joint International Light Rail Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, 2006. i • Light Rail: Growth and Renewal, Los Angeles, California, 2009. The technical information in the proceedings of these conferences (1–11) provides planners, designers, decision makers, and operators with a valuable collection of experiences and ingredients necessary for a successful transit development project. More than 250 public transportation industry experts from across the country met at the Salt Lake City Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City for the 12 National Light Rail Conference, November 11–13, 2012. Sponsored by TRB and APTA and hosted by the Utah Transit Authority, the conference focused on the positive results being experienced in metropolitan areas that have embraced light rail and circulator streetcar and, similarly, show how other metropolitan areas that have rejected these modes of transportation have fared. This conference was significant in that it returned to Europe for inspiration, both through papers and through a special plenary session highlighting the new French approach to insertion. Apparently, the old light rail dog indeed has new tricks. The new tricks center on techniques for inserting high-performance rail transit into the hearts of urban and suburban activity areas where transit infrastructure previously did not exist, in such a way as to reverse the declining role of transit while also developing transit-oriented urban forms. Just as in 1975, these exciting new European developments appear to have applicability to North American urban agglomerations. With 14 sessions, eight tours, and a products and services showcase, the conference offered up-to-date information on new ways to plan, design, construct, maintain, and operate light rail and streetcar systems. The objective of each conference in this