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Music City Star rail service draws riders, but funding to grow lags
The Tennessean - Aug 22, 2011 |
A refusal from Mt. Juliet and Wilson County to increase funding could inhibit the growth of Middle Tennessee's only commuter train.
Officials from Mt. Juliet and Wilson county are questioning why more government money is needed when the Music City (tarnished) Star is getting more fares from the increased ridership. Maybe because it's because of all those free rides. As noted below in the article from October 24, 2010, almost a third of the riders are government employees who ride on the taxpayers dime. |
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Could Clarksville Be Music City Star's Next Stop?
Jun 15, 2011 |
Planners have said the next likely leg of the Music City Star will connect Clarksville with Nashville.
The Clarksville to Nashville leg would cost millions of dollars, but board members said this expansion makes the most sense.
I think NOT! |
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RTA eyes PV bus route
April 6, 2011 |
It takes about $200,000 a year to offer the service...the response in Robertson County has been good as 50-55 passengers are riding the bus each day.
Fine, as long as 55 passengers doesn't justify having commuter rail. |
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RTA considers bus for PV
April 4, 2011 |
Mayor McCullough said the RTA could be the first step to extend bus service to several areas of Cheatham County and help justify the need to re-establish rail service to Ashland City and Clarksville to Nashville.
Tell me, please, how bus service from Pleasant View to Nashville will justify commuter rail from Clarksville through Ashland City. How many people are going to be willing to drive some distance to get on the train in Ashland City and then take a bus once they are in Nashville? |
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Taxpayers Buy Tickets for 3 of 10 Music City Star Riders
October 24, 2010 |
The Music City Star’s ridership has been on the uptick lately. The commuter rail line from Nashville to Lebanon exceeded 1,000 weekday “passenger trips” twice last month, tallying some of the highest ridership numbers to date.
But almost a third of those who take the train daily are government employees who ride on the taxpayers’ dime, according to the Regional Transportation Authority. And the train still isn’t meeting the 1,500 passenger-trips a day that planners predicted at the outset would be the norm by 2007, a year after the train first launched.
The Music City Star averaged just 866 daily riders in September this year...
It costs $4 million of the Regional Transportation Authority’s $6.3 million mostly government-funded budget to keep the train running.
The state covers about $1.3 million of the RTA’s budget, and Metro adds another $1.6 million to keep the train chugging along. The rest is made up of $2 million in federal funds, an expected $800,000 in ticket-sales revenue and another $600,000 in fees from municipalities to support specific transportation lines.
State and local governments aren’t the only employers that pay for their workers to ride.
Private employers and schools including Vanderbilt University, Belmont University, Pinnacle Bank and Letter Logic all spring for the cost of their employees’ tickets so they can ride free or at reduced rates, according to RTA.
I wish that the government would quit susidizing inefficient rail transit. If the transit industry was privatized, we would save tax dollars and we'd see more efficient forms of transportation.
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Railing against rail
The City Paper - Sep 24, 2010 |
The intent of the stop-the-train website is to provide information about commuter rail between Clarksville and Nashville. However, here's an article with a lot of comprehensive statistics about the high cost of rail transit and the Atlanta to Nashville rail project. It's worth reading. |
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Fast Train to Clarksville
The Leaf Chronicle - Sep 24, 2010
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...a grassroots meeting sponsored by the Montgomery County Environmental Advisory Committee...met on Wednesday, September 22, 2010...
A small group of local citizens interested in improving our community while protecting the environment met to discuss the many aspects involved with having a light rail transit system available for travel between Clarksville and Nashville. The group discussed the positive impacts a light rail system would have on the environment and farmland, commuting and getting to the airport, convenience and traffic congestion as well as safety and economics.
Members of the committee were encouraged to research other communities that have been successful in obtaining light rail transit systems to ascertain how funding was secured and what the positive benefits have been.
The next meeting will be held on 20 October, at 10:30 A.M. at the Habitat ReStore, 408 Madison Street.
It sounds like the train has "switched" from commuter rail to light rail. |
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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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