High-speed Rail (between Busch and Livi) within 20 Years?

[RUseaweed]

Very good article by the Targum, but this is the part that caught my eye;

"We're also looking at the possibility in the longer term of putting high-speed rail on that link, because that seems like one that would be amenable to it."

Some really good nuggets in there. If Barchi can make this stuff happen...name a damn building after him.

Targum Link

 

[lawmatt78]

I certainly like what he has to say.

I don't think he is talking about high speed rail in the sense of 200 mph trains. Maybe something like the PRT system at WVU?

How does it take more than an hour to get from Busch to Livingston? That should simply not happen. Strange. It can't be due to traffic; it must be a problem with the timing of buses. Or?

Is getting from Cook/Douglas to Busch/Livingston still a major pain, despite the all the Rt. 18 improvements?

 

[retired711]

Originally posted by RUseaweed:
Very good article by the Targum, but this is the part that caught my eye;

"We're also looking at the possibility in the longer term of putting high-speed rail on that link, because that seems like one that would be amenable to it."

Some really good nuggets in there. If Barchi can make this stuff happen...name a damn building after him.

Yes. Barchi says a lot here: e.g. "We have to get rid of surface lots and replace them by vertical parking structures."

 

[derleider]

Originally posted by lawmatt78:
I certainly like what he has to say.

I don't think he is talking about high speed rail in the sense of 200 mph trains. Maybe something like the PRT system at WVU?

How does it take more than an hour to get from Busch to Livingston? That should simply not happen. Strange. It can't be due to traffic; it must be a problem with the timing of buses. Or?

Is getting from Cook/Douglas to Busch/Livingston still a major pain, despite the all the Rt. 18 improvements?




I doubt we ever see rail. What they will find is that once they build the dedicated bus lanes, they are good enough for the short trips RU students are taking (1-2 miles.), plus they allow more flexibility in getting to more places on campus.

This post was edited on 4/10 10:55 AM by derleider

 

[RUSK97]

When I was in college 20 years ago, I remembered the discussions that we would have a monorail in 20 years.

 

[Scarlet16E]

The ideal solution would be a monorail or airport type elevated rubber-tired train.
Holds lots of passengers.
Frequent departures.
Runs in a loop in both directions.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[_dave_]

I was also there 20 years ago and there was talk about making George St 1-way with another coming back the other. There was a lot of pushback at the time and it never went anywhere.

Out of principle I never took an RU bus but it did make strategizing and registering for classes to be complicated. If the current ideas come to fruition then it will open up many more educational opportunities because people will actually be able to get from one place to another on time.

 

[lawmatt78]

The rail idea seems much more feasible between Busch/Livingston than between other parts of campus. Even if it only happened there, it would still be pretty cool. Derleider is correct, though, that Bus Rapid Transit would be more feasible.

A new rail bridge over the Raritan would obviously be quite expensive - and there is, of course, the challenge of integrating rail into downtown NB.

I don't see NB having rail lines down George and Neilson Streets. This is a pic from here in Portland, but it actually looks a lot like George Street:

This post was edited on 4/12 4:31 PM by lawmatt78

 

[derleider]

Originally posted by lawmatt78:
The rail idea seems much more feasible between Busch/Livingston than between other parts of campus. Even if it only happened there, it would still be pretty cool. Derleider is correct, though, that Bus Rapid Transit would be more feasible.

A new rail bridge over the Raritan would obviously be quite expensive - and there is, of course, the challenge of integrating rail into downtown NB.

I don't see NB having rail lines down George and Neilson Streets. This is a pic from here in Portland, but it actually looks a lot like George Street:

This post was edited on 4/12 4:31 PM by lawmatt78

Honestly, once they get a bus only lane in NB, a light rail would just be a matter of investment. The thing is - is it worth it. Sure it holds more people, but it also is much more limited in its route. The thing with a BRT is that regular buses could also use the intercampus express lanes, then become local busses on the other end. So you would have say B-L campus center to campus center running express, but then other busses hitting all of the stops, but still using that shortcut between campuses.

I guess its a question of - are the B-L, or B-CA or CA-C/D so crowded that you have to have basically a whole light rail worth of busses queued up at the end of each class period? Because thats where the real investment would pay off. In essence you would build light rail into the bus express lanes, and then run it as I suggested above, with light rail taking the place of express busses, but regular busses still running all stops routes.

 

[srru86]

Originally posted by Scarlet16E:
The ideal solution would be a monorail or airport type elevated rubber-tired train.

I think if you asked the Port Authority they would admit using Disney World as a transportation technology model was not a great idea for a four season temperate climate operation. When it gets icy and snowy enough they suspend the Airlink and bring in buses. Not that iron wheeled rail systems are completely immune to bad weather but if the buses can run when your rail line can't that says something about your system's lack of resiliency.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

Originally posted by lawmatt78:
I certainly like what he has to say.

I don't think he is talking about high speed rail in the sense of 200 mph trains. Maybe something like the PRT system at WVU?

How does it take more than an hour to get from Busch to Livingston? That should simply not happen. Strange. It can't be due to traffic; it must be a problem with the timing of buses. Or?

Is getting from Cook/Douglas to Busch/Livingston still a major pain, despite the all the Rt. 18 improvements?

It's partially because Busch has so many bus stops. College ave has 3. Livi has 3. Douglass has more, but RexLs are annoying too. Busch has quite a few, and they're spread out. I don't really go between the two that often though.

 

[lawmatt78]

Maybe there are simply too many bus stops, then.

 

[PeteGiam07]

Think they mean an hour for a bus to do a full loop. I remember most buses make an longer stop at student centers which is prob 1/3 of the time total.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[derleider]

Originally posted by lawmatt78:
Maybe there are simply too many bus stops, then.

Busch and C/D are both pretty big campuses that could use bus service even if there were no other campuses to ride to.

This is one of the reasons that I dont think light rail is a great idea if RU can come up with a way to get essentially BRT. Because you are still going to need local bus routes to cover those two campuses at least.

One other good thing about this proposal is that presumably the bus lanes could be used during football game days as well - which is going to be more important as more people are forced off of Busch by the building over of the Purple and Black lots. It might be slow getting from Busch to Livingston

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

Originally posted by derleider:

Originally posted by lawmatt78:
Maybe there are simply too many bus stops, then.

Busch and C/D are both pretty big campuses that could use bus service even if there were no other campuses to ride to.

This is one of the reasons that I dont think light rail is a great idea if RU can come up with a way to get essentially BRT. Because you are still going to need local bus routes to cover those two campuses at least.

One other good thing about this proposal is that presumably the bus lanes could be used during football game days as well - which is going to be more important as more people are forced off of Busch by the building over of the Purple and Black lots. It might be slow getting from Busch to Livingston

The Busch campus alone has A, B, C, H, and RexB going through it. C/D has EE, F, RexL, and RexB. Livingston has B, LX, RexL, and College Ave has A, H, EE, F, LX. Rutgers has a lot of buses, and there are some frustrating portions to it. You can't get directly to the Cook Campus Center without taking an F or an EE, RexLs don't stop at the quads, It's far from a perfect system.

http://www.business.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/user_files/mfina/campus-map.pdf

 

[lawmatt78]

I understand that some of the campuses are big, but it might help to simplify the system and have more buses traveling between fewer stops.

 

[derleider]

Originally posted by lawmatt78:
I understand that some of the campuses are big, but it might help to simplify the system and have more buses traveling between fewer stops.

Read the complaint above. The complaint is that the express bus doesn't hit enough places.

Why not? I assume because the extra 8-10 minutes isn't worth it for the relatively small number of people making that particular trip (or the reverse trip).

The poster is probably too young to know that there used to be a G (Cook to Busch) and a GG (Cook to Livingston). I assume that they were cancelled and replaced with the REXL and REXB because of low ridership (and thats AFTER they deregulated housing). In RU fact appears to have taken lawmatt's advice in that case - replaced a frequent stop service with an express service.

Its possible that adding an express route (campus center to campus center) to the normal B route (Busch to Livingston) would help. But it could be that just not that many people are going from center to center, and they would rather take the all stops bus, even if it cost them time.

IFFFF RU could get these bus only lanes built (between Livingston and Busc, and between CA and C/D through downtown) then I would basically go with BRT between campus centers (plus a stop at Mason Gross) and do away with campus to campus locals.

So you would have frequent fast service between campuses and frequent (since they wouldnt have to go all the way to another campus) all stops service within each campus (plus two NB circulators - one for the Easton corridor, one for downtown). I guess the issue right now is that it can take so long to get between campuses that you cant really ask people to switch buses.


This post was edited on 4/20 8:35 AM by derleider

This post was edited on 4/20 9:50 AM by derleider

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

Originally posted by derleider:

Originally posted by lawmatt78:
I understand that some of the campuses are big, but it might help to simplify the system and have more buses traveling between fewer stops.

Read the complaint above. The complaint is that the express bus doesn't hit enough places.

Why not? I assume because the extra 8-10 minutes isn't worth it for the relatively small number of people making that particular trip (or the reverse trip).

The poster is probably too young to know that there used to be a G (Cook to Busch) and a GG (Cook to Livingston). I assume that they were cancelled and replaced with the REXL and REXB because of low ridership (and thats AFTER they deregulated housing). In RU fact appears to have taken lawmatt's advice in that case - replaced a frequent stop service with an express service.

Its possible that adding an express route (campus center to campus center) to the normal B route (Busch to Livingston) would help. But it could be that just not that many people are going from center to center, and they would rather take the all stops bus, even if it cost them time.

IFFFF RU could get these bus only lanes built (between Livingston and Busc, and between CA and C/D through downtown) then I would basically go with BRT between campus centers (plus a stop at Mason Gross) and do away with campus to campus locals.

So you would have frequent fast service between campuses and frequent (since they wouldnt have to go all the way to another campus) all stops service within each campus (plus two NB circulators - one for the Easton corridor, one for downtown). I guess the issue right now is that it can take so long to get between campuses that you cant really ask people to switch buses.



This post was edited on 4/20 8:35 AM by derleider


This post was edited on 4/20 9:50 AM by derleider

Indeed, I was not aware of the G and GG busses! Sounds like they'd be useful, but I don't know about how much. Luckily, I'm rarely on Cook, I have no classes there. I wish that the proposed pedestrian/biking bridge was already made. I'd bike to all my classes from Livingston, but as it is, it's not worth it.

One thing that might make sense would be using a minibus for something like the C route, which is almost completely empty for large portions of the day, releasing that Bus for another route.

 

[srru86]

As said above Port Authority no enamored of AirLink monorail.
Star Ledger
Newark airport monorail targeted for scrap heap, cost $354M to build

 

[Scarlet16E]

As said above Port Authority no enamored of AirLink monorail.
Star Ledger
Newark airport monorail targeted for scrap heap, cost $354M to build

That's because the Port Authority was hung up on a "monorail" instead of a system like numerous other airports around the world have built. SFO, DFW, IAD, ATL, TPA, all have better "Air Trains".

 

[Scarlet Pride]

The port authority is trying some BS with the monorail replacement. Fix it improve it but crazy to spend another billion to replace it or even 40 million to plan for it