Saying Goodbye

It is with deep regret that we inform the readers of the blog that Mark Yannone died on 17 July 2009. Pursuant to his wishes, there will be no memorial or service. Anyone wishing to send letters to the family may send them via email to cherieyannone@aol.com. All notes to the family will be delivered directly.

Yannone goes on the record

Transportation Public Involvement Report 2009, page 102

Relief at last

Finally, there is less need to squat and drop in a corner of the train. That doesn't mean that riders won't bring a box of feces with them to spread on the floor of the train. That practice will continue until further notice.

They found the perfect operating company for this light rail scam

Metro Light Rail Operators Don't Have a Contract — Just Grueling Schedules and Smelly Passengers

by Sarah Fenske
Phoenix New Times

April 21, 2009

Last fall, 50 brave Valley Metro bus drivers gave up their stable jobs to take a chance on light rail.

Jim McCubbin (left) and Bob Bean, both officers with the local union representing rail operators, say they have serious concerns.

Many had been with the bus system for more than a decade. But the for-profit company that Metro Light Rail hired to manage the new rail system, Alternate Concepts Inc. (ACI), gave them a hard sell. With light rail, ACI said, drivers would enjoy shorter shifts, weekends off, a four-day workweek.

There would also be stability. Under federal labor laws, the new rail operators would be represented by the same union they dealt with as bus drivers.

"They told us, 'We're going to abide by basically the same contract,'" recalls one bus driver turned operator.

That was then.

Today, seven months later, there's still no union contract. That may not sound like a big deal — in Arizona, union protection is relatively rare. But for the drivers, not having it has led to a host of problems.

And we're not talking about working weekends. We're talking chaos. Everything from vacation time to health insurance is in a state of flux, drivers say.

More significant are their safety concerns. Operators are being asked to work serious overtime; they worry about falling asleep at the wheel. They're being asked to drive faster, too.

And most horrifying, they say, ACI has no policy in place for handling bodily fluids. Especially now that the city of Phoenix has sliced its budget for fare enforcement, transients are getting on the trains — some without shirts, others without shoes.

Passengers are peeing on the train.

And bleeding on the train.

And, in at least one instance, defecating on the train.

In other cities across the country, there are systems in place to pull a contaminated train off the tracks. But in Phoenix, trains just keep going.

"You get urine, you get regurgitation, and you'd think a supervisor would at least show up and stand by warning people until it's cleaned up," one driver says. That hasn't happened. "People just walk through it and track it all over the train." [Full story]

Photo by Victor J. Palagano III

Misallocation of resources and a deadly hazard to boot

Despite recent crashes, officials say rail safety system works

by Sean Holstege
The Arizona Republic

A central Phoenix accident last week marked the 13th collision between a Metro light-rail train and another vehicle since the system opened three months ago, renewing safety concerns about trains in streets.

Last Tuesday's crash puts Metro on pace to almost double the first-year accident rate of Houston, where light rail earned a reputation as the "Wham Bam Tram," though Houston has a third less track than the Valley.

The latest collision happened when a motorist began an illegal U-turn at a red light near Central High School, police said.

An analysis of police reports shows an early pattern: illegal turns and confused drivers causing accidents.

To date, no light-rail operator has been faulted and none has failed drug or alcohol tests.

Only one accident has raised questions about whether Metro equipment was working properly.

The record tells Metro officials they've learned from Houston's mistakes and have engineered safe trains and traffic signals.

"I don't think anything has occurred yet that says we've had a flawed design," Metro Chief Executive Officer Rick Simonetta said.

But the sheer number of accidents since the December 27 opening has fueled the ire of light-rail critics, who had warned that trains and cars sharing streets would lead to problems.

"I was at an intersection and counted 15 different signs," said Phoenix resident Bob McKnight, a longtime, outspoken critic of the system. "Somebody driving at the speed limit couldn't possibly take all that in. It's overload."

Past [sic] research suggests it shouldn't be a surprise that some motorists are having trouble navigating around the trains.

A definitive 1996 Transportation Research Board survey of 10 light-rail systems, which noted that only 30 percent of the systems' tracks were in the streets, said that 90 percent of the crashes occurred where cars and trains shared the road.

Nearly the entire length of Metro's 20-mile line shares a right of way with street traffic, and for years, Phoenix has been at or near the top of the list of cities with high rates of red-light runners.

Confused motorists

While onboard video footage of the crashes can seem dramatic, local accidents have resulted in only light damage and a few minor injuries.

A downtown Phoenix collision on February 6 best illustrates the struggle for co-existence.

Around 7 p.m., an 18-year-old Chandler woman was driving west along Washington Street, according to a police account of the incident.

As she reached Third Street, the woman turned right, against the red arrow, and across the path of a train traveling in the same direction.

She said she was unfamiliar with the area and was not wearing her contact lenses at the time, even though she needs them to drive legally.

She had been on her cell phone when she ran into the light-rail train.

The woman was cited for failing to stop at an intersection, one of nine drivers ticketed after a collision with a Metro train.


Pattern emerges

It appears to be an oft-repeated story line.

In 10 cases for which details exist, police reports indicate motorists either ignored a signal, ran a red light or were blamed for a hit-and-run.

Most often, motorists and trains were traveling in the same direction, suggesting car drivers didn't check over their shoulder before starting their turn.

In at least three cases, drivers had no insurance or valid license.


Dubious record

Although it may be too soon to draw firm conclusions about Metro's safety record, the transit system is eclipsing the accident rate of Houston's light-rail service, which opened in 2004.

In its first two years of operation, Houston racked up 62 collisions, causing 110 injuries and one death.

It's a record that prompted critics to anoint the train system with such dubious nicknames as a Streetcar Named Disaster, Danger Train and Wham Bam Tram.

Houston witnessed a crash roughly every 12 days during that 24-month period.

So far, Metro is averaging a crash almost every six days.

Both the Phoenix and Houston systems have similar traffic controls, designed to give approaching trains better odds of getting a green light at each crossing while showing red to any car that could cross a train's path.

Critics said using the same traffic-control system as Houston would lead to accidents here, too, but Metro disagreed.

Instead, transit officials say the increased rate of crashes is more attributable to Arizona's line having triple the track mileage and number of intersections.


Public outreach

In the months before the opening of light rail, Metro spent a lot of cash trying to fend off problems.

In July, the transit agency launched a $685,000 public-safety campaign. Since then, it has contacted 2.5 million people Valley-wide via telephone, mailers, and public events in an attempt to better educate them about the system.

In addition, Metro spent millions on systemwide safety features, including new curbs to separate cars and trains and bells and flashing lights to warn of oncoming trains. Special train bumpers were built to minimize damage and prevent cars and people getting caught underneath.

Nothing suggests a need to rethink safety, as long as "the trends remain the same with a limited number of minor accidents by people violating the traffic rules," Simonetta said.

"You react to what's real, not what's perceived."

For now, only one crash, in Tempe, has prompted an internal Metro investigation.

On the afternoon of January 5, a pickup-truck driver pulled into an intersection at University Drive, which is governed by a railroad-crossing arm.

Video footage shows the driver was on his cell phone and began crossing the tracks before the warning arm reached a vertical, safe position. Police cited the truck driver for failing to yield and for driving on a suspended license. Witnesses told police that the rail arm was not functioning properly. They said the arm was raised and the crossing lights stopped flashing as a train entered the intersection.

It is the only crash in which a Metro mechanical device has been called into question.

A Metro report on that incident is still weeks away.

Source

Phoenix's light rail collision count

Phoenix's light rail trains have had 18 collisions as of 03/20/09 and are ahead of Houston's light rail trains for the same time period. ~ Bob McKnight

Phoenix's Wham Bam Scam Tram

See also: More accidents, crashes, and collisions

Who needs a peace accord when you have a tram scam?

Palestinians and Israelis will fight each other over just about anything, but on the subject of light rail, they speak with one voice: Dump it.



In Jerusalem, Arabs and Jews Finally Agree ...
On One Thing, at Least: People in Both Camps Say the City's Tram Is a Dumb Idea

by Andrew Higgins and David Gauthier-Villars

[Extract] At a time when conflict over Gaza is pouring yet more poison into the gulf separating Israelis from Palestinians, a repeatedly stalled and still unfinished Jerusalem tram project is galvanizing the city's feuding camps against a common foe.

The whole project, says Mayor Nir Barkat, voicing a view widely shared across religious and ethnic lines, has been "a very negative experience." The elected mayor, who took office late last year, proposes converting more than four miles of track already laid into a bus lane.

But that would create another headache: what to do with the 42 tram cars -- each one costing more than $3 million and fitted with special glass to resist stones and firebombs -- already delivered to Jerusalem from France?

The rabbis have urged city hall "to cancel this evil." A leading Israeli business magazine this week called it "the cursed train."

"It is a waste of money, a waste of time, a waste of everything," says Ishak Abu Khadeir, a Palestinian who works in Shuafat near the site of a planned station. He predicts that if trams ever run they will likely be attacked with stones or worse. The tram windows are designed to resist rocks but not gunfire or bomb shrapnel. Its roof is curved in the hope that projectiles tossed on top will slide off.

The PLO fumes against an "illegal Zionist project" it says is designed to consolidate Israeli control over Arab districts seized after the Six-Day War in 1967.

Jerusalem's Mayor Barkat's gripe with the tram program -- launched by a predecessor -- is that it is simply too expensive, too inflexible, and too disruptive. He thinks technically advanced modern buses and possibly even a subway would make more sense.

The tram line now under construction will cost around a $1 billion in public and private money. The original plan called for as many as eight additional lines. The mayor doesn't want more and has doubts about the wisdom of finishing even the first. "We are asking serious questions about the economic viability of this project," he says.

After seven years of work, which started with the rerouting of sewers and has included the construction of a spectacular harp-shaped bridge, barely half of a first line stretching 8.3 miles has been completed. Trams were supposed to be running by now but are now due to start next year.

In 2007, Veolia and Alstom started having legal hassles in France as a result of a complaint from lawyers acting for the PLO. The PLO argued that the tram violates international law and France's own position that East Jerusalem is not sovereign Israeli territory.

When a French tribunal began examining the matter, Veolia and Alstom said the court had no jurisdiction. Pressed by a judge over the nature of their involvement in the Jerusalem tram, the companies later submitted six thick volumes of contract documentation.

After two years of procedural wrangling, a tribunal in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, is due to review the case and decide whether it can rule on the affair.

In Arab quarters of Jerusalem, meanwhile, supporters of the PLO raise more concrete issues: Will it be safe to get on a tram used by Israeli settlers? Nabil Issa, a shopkeeper whose store looks out on a heap of tram-related rubble, curses the project for disrupting his business and thinks that riding with Israelis will be "too risky."

Some Jewish settlers, he says, can be aggressive but he's more worried that the tram will become a target for Palestinian militants. "It is not safe for my family to ride with Israelis," says Mr. Issa.

"I don't know if I should laugh or what," says Alex Kroskin, chief engineer of CityPass, a private consortium of Israeli and French companies overseeing the project and determined to press on.

When planning for the light-rail system began in the 1990s, the idea of trams running across a city fragmented by faith and rival loyalties seemed to offer an environmentally friendly way to bind communities, relieve traffic congestion, and lift downtown areas out of the doldrums.

Source

I think we had the same lying salesman in Phoenix.

Phoenix light rail scam tram debuts

When free light rail ends, ASU students still ride free

by Linda Bentley
Sonoran News

December 31, 2008


ASU student says, "You get what you pay for."

PHOENIX – After receiving an e-mail on Monday saying Arizona State University students can obtain passes to ride Valley Metro transit, including light rail, for free, Craig Cantoni, author and columnist, responded, "That was an April Fool's joke, right?" He said, "Certainly, a university that teaches social justice wouldn't endorse such an unjust policy."



It turns out it is indeed true. The highly subsidized light rail will join buses in being 100 percent subsidized for ASU students, while ASU employees will receive a 56 percent discount, which, like parking permits, may be paid pre-tax via payroll deduction.

The regular fare is currently $1.25 for one ride, $2.50 for a one-day pass, $7.50 for a three-day pass, $17.50 for a seven-day pass and $45 for a monthly pass.

The actual cost to provide a single boarding is closer to $12.

The free student passes are paid for by ASU, whose regents gave ASU President Michael Crow a 25 percent raise last year to $720,000, not counting bonuses, and are raising tuition for 2009.

ASU ordered 30,000 annual transit passes from the city of Phoenix for $700,000, which is just over $23 apiece. The cost would otherwise be $540.

Phoenix will bill an additional $0.798 per boarding, providing students properly register their pass each time they ride, with a not-to-exceed limit of $1 million for the student boarding pass program.

The program was initiated in response to a shortage of parking and parking fee increases at ASU.

Valley Metro held its grand opening light rail this past weekend treating revelers with a free ride from one end of the line to the other, which, on Saturday, reportedly took one hour and 25 minutes.

Valley Metro's website claims the trip for the "entire 20-miles" is 60 minutes.

There are a number of blogs where people have posted ratings and comments about all of the Valley's public transportation.

Nick K. provided his observations about Tempe's Orbit Bus System, giving it one star out of five only because there was no means to give it a zero. He then gave it another star because it's free, adding, "You get what you pay for."

If Nick had his way, "where only sane people with good personal hygiene were allowed to board," he said he'd give it five stars.

Sara B., who gave Phoenix's Valley Metro two stars, stated, "The last time I rode the bus someone must have shit their pants," and said it was extremely inconvenient to walk the extra distance to class.

She said, "I haven't been on one since," but noted it was free and "the only thing that made it worth riding."

Norma R. stated, "I used to ride the bus every day in high school. I enjoy the theory, but the smell of it (you guessed it ... urine) bugs me to no end."

Erin gave it two stars, stating she would have given her experience four stars if Valley Metro's website hadn't instructed her to take the 122 to the 15 to the 19 to get downtown when all she needed to do was take the Red Line the entire way.

Giving it three stars, Diana F. commented, "You definitely need to set aside a good chunk of time to get where you're going!"

Matt S. wrote, "The Blue Line was great because I could pick it up just outside my home ... and take it through the Camelback corridor, down Central to downtown, without a transfer."



Because light rail does away with the redundant portion of the Blue Line, it's new southern terminus is Central and Camelback, which Matt called "a fortuitous landing for Applebees' aficionados," but said, "As for me, I will need to leave the Blue Line and wait for another form of transport, presumably light rail ... to go downtown. On second thought, maybe I'll just hop in the car."

In a September editorial for College Media Network, ASU student Mutinkhe Kaunda stated LightRailAZ.com reported businesses, real estate developers, restaurants, and hotels were all vying for spots along the rail line, "perhaps envisioning the hordes of commuters, including rambunctious ASU students that will inundate them with business once the light rail opens."

Kaunda said stricter penalties for DUIs, high gas prices, and photo radar might get students to leave their cars at home. However, she cast doubts that light rail would lower the number of DUIs.

Pointing to the inconvenience of its fixed route, she said unless one lived close by, light rail still necessitated commuters to use park-and-ride lots, take a bus, or walk to use.

Contrary to most news reports, light rail didn't debut with all glowing reviews.

Dave O., who rode it over the weekend, gave it one star and said, "What a bunch of crap … Who cares how quiet and clean it is on its first weekend when it's clearly not going to stay this way? Let's see how popular it is in the summertime."

He said it is slower than a car going the same route, and asked, "Does this not defeat the purpose of a train in the first place? We're all going to see how safe it is … I give this until the end of March for hitting a pedestrian."

Another rider, who caught the light rail after waiting an hour for the connecting shuttle from the airport, reported, shortly after boarding the light rail, being abruptly ordered off somewhere along Washington Street when it apparently ceased running for the day, leaving him stranded late at night with two suitcases in the middle of downtown.

In January 2007, a Phoenix City Council Report regarding the Regional Public Transit Authority Fare Policy Study discussed reducing fares from $1.25 to $1, claiming the reduced fare "will result in increased boardings and revenue."

However, on Monday, Valley Metro announced a series of Regional Transit Fare Policy Public Hearings beginning on Tuesday, January 6 throughout the Valley to discuss proposed fare increases due to a decline in sales tax revenues, which funds the bulk of the Valley's transit services. A fare increase of up to $1 for the $1.25 one-ride fare is being proposed, with additional price increases for all-day, three-day, seven-day, and 31-day passes.

A free public Webinar is available on Thursday, January 8 from 10 to 11 a.m. to the first 1,000 people who sign up here.

Public comments about fares may also be e-mailed to fares@ValleyMetro.org through January 23.

Courtesy photos: Valley Metro made its debut over the weekend with a grand opening celebration and free rides from one end of the 20-mile line to the other, which reportedly took one hour and 25 minutes. Free rides were available through the end of December.

Source

A new use for light rail

The propaganda never ends

Mesa sees light rail as a turning point in fortune
Many hope route will help deteriorating area

by Chad Graham

[Excerpt] "Light rail is going to bring people into Mesa and let them see how great and unique west Mesa is," said Jo Ellen McNamara, executive director of the West Mesa Community Development Corp.

Mesa resident Jennifer Mott has seen late-night drug busts in her neighborhood, Pepper Place, which sits a few blocks from the light-rail line.

Doors are broken in. Police are yelling. People are running into the street.

That kind of chaos would immediately cause most people to think about moving elsewhere. But Mott, a stay-at-home mother and head of the Pepper Place Neighborhood Association, and her husband decided to stay.

They knew that the light rail was coming. It would bring a renewed interest in the area's 1950s ranch homes on roomy lots. It could increase property values.

"We've kind of banded together and tried to stick it out through the ups and downs, and we feel like this is a turning point for our neighborhood," Mott said.

She took a picture of the first train she saw zoom down Main Street during testing of the system.

She and her neighbors are excited to be able to take the light rail to sporting events and concerts in downtown Phoenix, shops on Mill Avenue in Tempe and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

The family's bet to stay put is starting to pay off.

"We were hoping that this neighborhood would turn from a meth zone into more of a yuppie zone," she said. [Full story]

Bring out the vampire killers

Fight against powerful light-rail lobby never-ending

by Becky Fenger

Robert Leger reveals his hopeless naivety about the power and tenacity of the rail transit lobby in his editorial of 4/15, "Light rail dead; Fernandez refuses to accept victory." The experiences in other cities across the nation show how rail transit is never dead, even after being reasoned down, beaten down, and voted down by the populace.

Orange County, California, conducted a study on transportation. It found that the very least cost effective method to move residents from point A to point B was by means of light rail. So guess which method the officials chose? Folks in one city actually voted down the construction of light rail, only to have it brazenly built for them anyway!

The majority of the Scottsdale City Council refused to drive a stake through light rail's heart when backed into a corner by Councilman Bob Littlefield, toppling Leger's claim that the "City Council shows no appetite for pushing the issue." At a candidates' forum on April 16, Councilman Ron McCullagh said he would not close the door on rail transit in Scottsdale, and Councilwoman Betty Drake said she could envision it on the 101 Freeway.

The City Council "promised that any proposal to build a fixed–rail system would go to a public vote," Leger wrote. Well, the Tempe City Council promised its voters the same thing when constituents worried that if they voted "Yes" to merely study light rail the money could be converted to building it. Mayor Neil Giuliano tricked the voters and marveled at his cleverness. It could happen in Scottsdale, too, and Mike Fernandez knows it.

HDR, Inc., the consultant for Scottsdale, "shied away from suggesting light rail" Leger states. The reason could be twofold. First, thanks to strong opposition from the Scottsdale Citizens Transportation Study Committee, HDR pulled back from the hot stove, and, second, HDR could be planning to spring so-called "modern" streetcar on Scottsdale instead, after it extricates more money from the Council for further study. Modern streetcar has almost all the drawbacks of light rail transit, except it's even slower (7 mph compared to LRT's 17 mph) and more dangerous.

"There's no money anyway," reasons Leger, as if this ever stopped a city bent on buying frivolous goodies they couldn't afford. Just look to Mesa. Mayor Keno Hawker looked me in the eye and said, "I don't want light rail in Mesa!" Do you suppose he fell for Phoenix's offer to cover some of the worrisome costs?

There are millions and millions of dollars out there to be had by banks that handle the bonding for costly rail projects and their overruns, by the Association of General Contractors (who privately admit people won't use rail transit but the contracts are juicy), and by the developers who need it to push transit-oriented development. Yes, the fight against what Leger calls "comatose" light rail does require eternal vigilance.
____________

Becky Fenger has lived in Scottsdale and Phoenix for 40 years and has fought rail transit for 14 of those years.

Phil Gordon's hit-and-run light rail scam plans?

Plowing through gridlocks, accidents, and malapropisms

Proposed light-rail schedule embodies simplicity

by Garin Groff
Tribune

[Excerpt] Metro promises a more reliable transit time than car or bus. Because it doesn't share lanes with traffic, it should make its schedule even if its going down a gridlocked road. That should further encourage ridership, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said.

"It's not affected by congestion or accidents or rain or any of the other elements that would delay it so it's a very dependent [sic] mode of transportation," Gordon said.

[Source]

The affordable alternative to light rail

At $2500 for each Tata Nano, you could buy 400,000 of these 5-passenger, 56-mpg cars instead of spending $1 billion on a few miles of light rail. When solar and battery technology mature just a little more in the next couple of years, these light cars will be cheap and clean.

Source

Phoenix light rail test run

Your first impression might be "why the hell would anyone want to put that monstrosity into mixed traffic?"

Indeed.