Arizona Rail Passenger Association

Proposed METRO Rail Station Name Changes.

Transit systems across the world all have stations named for landmarks, to help visitors and residents find their way. If Washington DC named their stations the way the Phoenix stations are named, they would have a station called “12^th Street and Independence Avenue SW” instead of “Smithsonian.”

I served as a volunteer on opening day. On that day and ever since, tourists have asked me what station the Airport is at, and does the train go to Sun Devil Stadium? Even Congressman and former Tempe Mayor Harry Mitchell didn’t know what “Veterans Way and College Avenue” was – it needs to be the Sun Devil Transit Center.

Short, simple station names help riders find their destinations quickly. They help tourists know what is along the line. They make maps easier to read. Stations become sources of neighborhood identity. Naming stations after street addresses is cold, confusing and unhelpful. When riding the #17 bus, the announcements say, “Approaching 16th Street” and “Approaching 24th Street” — not “Approaching 16th Street and McDowell” and then “Approaching 24th Street and McDowell” — the McDowell part is obvious because that’s the bus you are on. Repeatedly saying “…and Central” on the train is silly and pedantic.

Furthermore, the stations with two platforms need to be named as one station. Signs there should be updated to, for example, “For Dobson, use platform on 1st Avenue.” Boston eliminated confusing one-way station names (Milk one way, Water the other) in the 1960s.

These station names must be changed as soon as possible.

The entire line should then resume the Red Line name, as it replaced the (pre-metro) Red Line bus… and before that, the Washington Street #1 streetcars which carried red marker lights since the 1920s at least… giving the Red Line an eighty-plus year history. As other lines are built, they should resume the color line names (Green Line on Thomas — not Highway 10!, Blue Line northeast on Highway 51, etc.)

– William Lindley, Arizona Rail Passenger Association. 2010-02-25.

The City of Tucson in late May ordered seven modern streetcars from Oregon Iron Works (www.oriron.com), the first American company in sixty years to manufacture one. The company, in Clackamas, Oregon, has received orders both from Portland and now Tucson. The company, founded in 1944, builds bridges and military patrol craft; and especially because of “Buy American” requirements, could capture a fair percentage of orders from the dozens of cities across the country considering streetcar service.

Story from Oregon Public Broadcasting: http://news.opb.org/article/5078-tucson-orders-seven-streetcars-oregon-company/

PHOENIX: “Metro will start late night service on weekends in July… [using] some of the savings that cities accrued when the feds paid back early… [this is about double the cost of] Owl trains… about $256,000 a year… Metro won’t run a one-year experiment. [Huzzah!] Late trains will be part of service from now on. That means the last train will cruise through downtown Phoenix and downtown Tempe just after 2 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday…”

Also: “planners told the board that the economic slump will force Metro to delay by one-to-two years the upcoming extensions and that plans to extend light rail toward Paradise Valley Mall may have to wait until voters adopt a new sales tax. The problem is the last transportation tax, Prop. 400, is bringing in billions of dollars less than expected. No decision was reached. A vote is scheduled for June 17…”

Rest of the story: http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/lightrailblog/53722

Construction on the 3.2-mile northwest extension of the Metro light rail line could start by April if everything goes according to plan.

The only caveat is the price tag, which won’t be known until late January or early February…

[Meanwhile in Mesa]

…Although the final reports have yet to be written, Mesa is leaning toward extending the light rail line from its current origination point at Sycamore and Main streets east to Power Road, according to Mesa Deputy Transportation Director Mike James.

“In general terms, our findings about ridership and demand are that light rail would be better (than other transit options), and extending it down Main Street would make for a more seamless trip,” James said.

Rest of the story in the Business Journal of Phoenix, 26 December 2008.

LRV 114B leads a westbound train out of the Tempe Transportation Center. Marc Pearsall photo

Opening weekend’s popularity is evident in this photo of METRO light rail in Tempe, Arizona. December 27-28, 2008 saw over 150,000 riders try out the new 20-mile train service linking Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa.

Here, LRV 114B leads a westbound train out of the Tempe Transportation Center, just steps from Arizona State University’s Sun Devil Stadium, which saw another 70,000 Kansas-Minnesota football fans crowding on and near the train for New Years Day’s Insight Bowl.

This portion of the METRO light rail is historic, as the mainline was build within the former “Creamery Branch” railroad right-of-way. Originally built through Tempe as a far flung-Santa Fe Railway subsidiary Phoenix & Eastern, the mainline from Phoenix to Tempe — and eventually Winkleman, Arizona — was turned over to Southern Pacific control in 1908. Downgraded over the years to a spur line known locally as “The Creamery Branch” due to the traffic generated by the still-standing 8th Street Dairy Creamery (Four Peaks Brewery today), the spur was abandoned by Union Pacific in 1997 when the Hayden Flour Mill in downtown Tempe closed.

METRO light rail bought the right of way in 2003 and the new Tempe Transportation Center was built upon the site of the original P&ERR depot! What is old is new again!