Streetcar Meetings Review!

You saw it here first folks, an account of the first of three meetings on the new Modern Streetcar. How did it go?

Firstly, it was an awesome event. A good amount of people showed up, the presentations were very clear and detailed, and even the press was there, setting up cameras. When I started taking pics of the displays, someone asked me if I was from the media. I replied "No, but I have a blog."

The meeting started off with introductions. The heads of the transit district were there, City Councellor Issac Benton, District 3, answered some questions and shared his expieriences of the Portland streetcar, and there were also several members of the HDR Design firm.

The Presentation

I'm going to make this clear. The difference between streetcars and light rail is that streetcars serve much shorter distances, have more stops(like buses), and operate within existing infastructure. You don't need to devote a whole lane to a streetcar, cars can drive on the streetcar tracks. The question now is which lane will be used, and how the stops will be organized.




You probably already know the proposed route, Central from Tingley to Carsile, with an extension from UNM to the airport. Here's how the system will work: One route will run on Central from the Rio Grande to Nob Hill, back and forth. The other route will provide a direct connection from the Alvarado to the airport. There are a few options of doing this, but the one
they're talking about now is to have it run down University to Isotopes Park, then on Cesar Chavez to Yale, then down Yale to the airport. On the way back, it will run up Yale all the way to Central, and then go into downtown.

The proposed route:


Another thing they're looking at is how it will effect current bus routes. Route 50, from the airport to downtown, will be completely rerouted. There are two options about the Central Ave. routes...

One is to stop Route 66 at the two ends of the streetcar line. The Rapid Ride will still go through.


The other is to divert the Rapid Ride to service Lomas Blvd. while the 66 route remains unchanged.


The presentation was very good. They had some great pictures of the system in Portland, like real "Before...After" pictures. The redevelopment that went on there is nothing short of unbelievable.

Here's what it looks like now:

This is what it looks like when we strip down those cars:

Now what if the streetcar could do this?


There was more to the presentation, but I'll just leave it here and let you see it for yourself. There are two more meetings.

After the presentation we went into an intense question/answer period, which lasted at least 40 minutes. There were a lot of good questions, and it's worth seeing one of these meetings just to find out what other citizens think of the project. There were a lot of questions about money naturally, and a few about streetcar/light rail differences.

After the Q&A we could walk around and talk to the project managers. One of the displays showed some idea for station design, and how it could differ from Old Town to Nob Hill:






That wasn't all. I also had the good fortune to run into one of the representitives of the Rail Runner. I expressed my concern about the connection to the Balloon Fiesta. The final verdict? Everyone really wants a stop right at the Balloon Fiesta Park. :-D

Right after that, someone from the Albuquerque Journal had seen me taking pictures and interviewed me. I've never been interviewed in my life, so it was exciting. They probably won't post my comment, because half of the time I was at a loss to say just how awesome the system was. I didn't know where to start.
However, I did get a couple of real sentences in there. He asked if I had any concerns, and I said something along the lines of:

When this starts, I think it is going to be a tourist thing. The Airport-Downtown-Old Town, I can see commuters using it, but in the beginning it will be a tourist thing, which is why we need to expand the system as quickly as possible.

Now let me make it perfectly clear that I don't think tourists will be the only ones using the streetcar. There is definetly a market for commuters getting off the Rail Runner and going into the UNM area, and for people commuting from Nob Hill to Downtown. There is also a lot of entertainment stuff, like the sports stadiums, downtown bars, Nob Hill, the BioPark. Big markets there. But with that Airport-Old Town thing going, I think the big market is going to be tourists here.

However, a system that aims at tourists is of course not a doomed system, far from it. The San Diego Trolley started as a Downtown-Mexican Border(Tijuana) route. A few commuters probably used it, but it was mostly for tourists. But then they expanded it, sending a line into the eastern suburbs(no tourist stuff there) and expanding to their Old Town and north to Mission Valley, where the stadium and all the shopping centers are. And they're still expanding it like crazy. Today it serves tourists and locals alike.


Anyway, you must go to one of these meetings. This is Albuquerque's future we're talking about here, and it's worth it to get your opinion down and present your concerns about the project. The next meetings will be on:

Tuesday, September 26
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Immanuel Presbyterian Church
Carlisle and Central

Wednesday, September 27
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Heights Community Center
Coal and Buena Vista