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APTA Urges Congress to Pass Emergency Assistance for Public Transportation
Release Date: May 25, 2010 |
On behalf of the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) more than 1,500 member organizations, we commend Senators Dodd, Durbin, Schumer, Menendez, Lautenberg and Brown for introducing the ‘Public Transportation Preservation Act of 2010,’ which authorizes $2 billion in funds for emergency transit operating assistance.
The Public Transportation Preservation Act of 2010 will provide urgently needed funding to alleviate the financial challenges facing public transportation systems as a result of the recession.
Your liberal senators at work, spending money they don't have, supporting transportation systems like the Music City Tarnished Star that should not be preserved. |
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Mass transit projects play big role in $5 billion regional transportation plan
Nashville Business Journal - May 26, 2010
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A $5 billion long-range regional transportation plan that will be formally unveiled later today includes an ambitious vision for mass transit projects such as light rail and so-called bus rapid transit lines.
The Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s draft plan includes the goal of connecting Nashville to Franklin, Murfreesboro and Gallatin with rapid transit in the next 25 years. The vision also includes commuter rail to Clarksville, which would be similar to the Music City Star service to Wilson County.
Similar to the deficits and over-projected ridership, too?
After today’s presentation of the draft plan, it will enter a public and stakeholder review process. |
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Nashville mayor eyes mass transit
RT&S (Railway Track & Structures)
February 16, 2010 |
If the convention center was a colossal and contentious public project, wait until you see Nashville Mayor Karl Dean's next undertaking: a multi-year, multibillion-dollar effort to renovate Middle Tennessee's mass transportation system...
"The money is scary," Dean said...
Talk of the area's mass transportation system has centered around light rail...Brentwood Mayor Betsy Crossley said members of the mayors' caucus have been extremely supportive of the initiative.
Voting has consequences. Know your mayoral candidates.
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Nashville Considers Light Rail, but the City's Unfit for It
thetransportpolitic.com
February 16th, 2010
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Is Nashville advancing a rail system that it cannot handle?
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
..Nashville Mayor Karl Dean maintains that his region is ripe for a massive investment in public transit. One light rail line isn’t enough for him, it seems: he wants a $6.5 billion network to compete with the growing economic heavyweights of Denver, Charlotte, and Austin...
The local MPO will develop a long-term regional transit master plan by May; the Mayor expects light rail corridors extending in all directions from downtown to be a focus of the project. He hopes to push ahead on the project as quickly as possible.
In areas with adequate density and considerable existing transit ridership, tramways are indeed acceptable solutions to mobility problems. But in places like Nashville, their expense wouldn’t be justified: they will not produce the high ridership necessary to fill trains running on corridors that attract few to buses. Before high-capacity transit is going to work, sprawled regions like the Music City must first address underlying conditions of urban form resulting from decades of government promotion of highways and single-family homes.
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Music City Star News Release
January 26, 2010 |
On Monday, January 25, 2010, the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) added a third train car to the Music City Star to assist with increasing ridership.
The car was added after one month of increased ridership in spite of the fact that ridership for all of 2009 decreased almost 5% as compared to 2008. January 2010 ridership as of January 21st was up by 11 (yes, eleven) riders over the previously highest ridership month in 2009.
Makes sense to me -- NOT! |
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Gallatin-to-Nashville transit might become reality
The News Examiner • February 10, 2010 |
The Nashville MPO funded two studies recently, one of which concentrated on the possibility of a northeast corridor that would stretch to Gallatin.
Light rail is first choice
No surprise. See the last comment on the previous article. |
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Nashville commuter rail deficit filled by stimulus
THE TENNESSEAN - December 2009 |
Facing a $1.5 million budget gap, the Music City Star commuter rail filled its funding void by diverting federal stimulus funds last month (November 2009) that had been set aside to build a permanent passenger station in Lebanon.
What are they going to use in 2010? More federal stimulus $? |
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Your Help is Needed to Determine Mass Transit Options
Cumberland Region Tomorrow Website • October 2009 |
The Nashville Area MPO is completing work on the Northeast Mobility Study and needs your input at upcoming Community Workshops to Discuss Mass Transit Options for this important regional corridor (between downtown Nashville and Gallatin). If you have every [sic] had a desire to see bus rapid transit, light rail transit, or commuter rail service in this part of the region, or if you simply are just interested in helping this region develop a strategy to implement rapid mass transit, this is your opportunity to get involved.
...At the sessions you also will hear from local and regional planners on which of these make the most sense for this area of our region.
The title of the announcement is, “Your Help is Needed to Determine Mass Transit Options,” yet the announcement goes on to say, “...At the sessions you also will hear from local and regional planners on which of these make the most sense for this area of our region.”
It sounds like the mass transit options are already determined and it sounds like they have already made up their collective mind on the goal. Anyone want to bet on rail? |
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Group challenges proposed commuter rail line
The Ashland City Times • October 28, 2009 |
A group of concerned citizens recently formed a coalition to oppose a proposed commuter rail system that would run from Clarksville to Nashville with a station in Ashland City.
That would be us!
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May Town Project Hits Another Snag
Nashville News - October 7, 2009 |
Project Not Eligible For Rehearing After Proposed Development Scaled Down
The multibillion-dollar commercial and residential development was proposed to be constructed in the Bells Bend area of west Nashville but has faced heavy opposition from area residents.
Heavy opposition from area residents can make a difference! |
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Commuter Rail Still in Laboratory Mode after Three Years
September 18, 2009 |
The Music City Star marks an anniversary today. And after three years in service, ridership on the commuter rail line is still far below initial goals.
So now it's a "laboratory" that people can go and touch it and feel it and see how it works. I don't think we needed a $40 million laboratory to go and touch a train and feel it and see how it works. Give it up; it's not working. How much more money can we ill afford to pour into this? |
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How consumers benefit from tax credits
THE TENNESSEAN - August 2, 2009 |
Consumer Benefits of the Economic Stimulus - The stimulus increases a monthly tax exclusion given for mass transit costs. Commuters will be allowed to exclude $230 a month for transit expenses like commuter van fares and transit passes such as those to the local Music City Star commuter train.
Since when is having my grandchildren pay for the Music City Star a benefit to me? |
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Budget committee reviews school budget
The Ashland City Times • July 22, 2009 |
The Cheatham County Commission’s budget committee reviewed the school district’s proposed $42.8 million budget last week as they continued to work on the 2009-2010 budget...If approved by the commission, the school budget would require nearly an 8-cent hike to the current property tax if no cuts are made.
They don't want to raise property taxes to fund school budget deficit but won't have a choice if the train comes thru. |
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Nashville-area mayors to examine region's mass transit
THE TENNESSEAN - July 22, 2009 |
Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, who called for the meeting earlier this year, wants to form a caucus to develop a way to pay for new mass transit options in Middle Tennessee.
Yet another group to promote commuter rail. The comments on the article are much more interesting than the article, e.g. "When are these idiots going to realize this city is not condusive to mass transit nor do we have the poulation[sic] to support it?"
"Mass transit systems don't fit into the Nashville suburbia, and never will unless a dedicated effort to quadruple population densities is enacted. But then Nashville wouldn't be Nashville."
"I wish we had light rail here in Nashville. If it reached to all the parts of Nashville, people would use it; as it is now, it goes to Lebanon and back--how does anyone expect that to generate huge numbers?"
I say, "Amen!" |
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Commission adopts strategic economic plan
The Ashland City Times • July 22, 2009 |
The Cheatham County Commission adopted the county’s five-year strategic economic plan on Monday — a plan that calls for establishing a commerce park in the Pleasant View area.
How many people do you suppose will take the commuter rail from Clarksville or Nashville to Ashland City and call a cab to get to the Pleasant View commerce park?
That's what I thought. |
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Planners: Commuter train's future requires walkable neighborhoods near stations
THE TENNESSEAN • June 25, 2009 |
Music City Star riders need to be able to find services in nearby, pedestrian-friendly communities. Transit planners say that was how the neighborhoods around the Music City Star train stations should have been designed before the Lebanon-to-Nashville route began in September 2006.
The trend toward transit-oriented development came as a result of federal lawmakers determining how states receive funding for transportion. That's a good thing but let's make sure our community isn't forced to have a commuter rail in our area just because there is an existing road bed and a willing host railroad. |
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Commuter train gets a $1.2M lifeline
THE TENNESSEAN • June 18, 2009 |
Music City Star faced shutdown without funding. Nashville's only commuter train has enough money to keep operating another year, but that's only after extra aid from state and local officials to fill a $1.2 million hole in the budget.
Unbelievable but this follows a $1.7 million shortfall LAST YEAR! This year the increased funding came from TDOT, Metro government, and Nashville Metropolitan Planning Organization with each contributing about $400,000 above and beyond their usual amounts. That's our tax dollars!!!
The CEO of the two transit agencies, Paul Ballard, says that the increased funding is really a stopgap measure and in 2012, the region should be elibible for $8.3 million in federal funds. Our tax dollars again (still)!!!
This train was never a fiscally responsible endeavor. |
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Work progresses on proposed commerce park
The Ashland City Times • June 17, 2009 |
Cheatham County economic and community development director James Fenton updated the County Commission Monday on the status of a proposed commerce park in north Cheatham County...and the Pleasant View area is a likely spot.
This sounds like a good reason to put the commuter rail (if there is to be one) along the I-24 corridor. |
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Summit puts focus on action for mass transit in region
The Wilson Post • May 28, 2009 |
Nashville Mayor Karl Dean wants a mass transit plan that could include light rail and he wants leaders to be "bold, not afraid and push forward fast."
We must make sure that whatever they push forward fast is the "right" thing. |
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Cities on board for rail lines
THE TENNESSEAN • May 25, 2009 |
The newest push for commuter rail has been between Clarksville and Nashville, the northwestern corridor.
This article is now in "The Tennessean" archives. According to the article, the path for the Music City Star "provided the cheapest option because it required virtually no new track...But it was also the route that would produce the fewest riders." The Initial Feasibilty Study (under the Documents tab) with its focus on the northwestern corridor has pros of an existing road bed and willing host railroad and a con of likely less ridership at intermediate station(s) than other routes. It seems like the planners still don't recognize or don't care about the financial implications to us taxpayers with their push for this corridor. |
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Bredesen, Kisber Announce Hemlock Semiconductor Coming to Clarksville
Released on December 15, 2008 |
The facility, which will produce a primary component used in the manufacture of solar panels and other energy equipment, will mean an investment of $1.2 to $2.5 billion dollars by the company and the creation of 500 jobs, with the potential of employing up to 900 people within five to seven years.
Ground has already been broken for this facility about 1-1/2 miles from I-24, Exit 4, having the potential for hundreds more riders along I-24. Why then have a commuter rail through Ashland City? It's because your governments want a commuter rail network regardless of whether or not it's effective, efficient, and fiscally responsible. |
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