What A Real Transit Rail System Looks Like: The Station

[Metro Jacksonville]

What A Real Transit Rail System Looks Like: The Station



Since the decline and almost total destruction of the American Passenger Rail Network in the 70s and the demolition and dismemberment of the interurbans and streetcars in almost every city across the continent during the 40's and 50's the memory and easy familiarity with an interlinked network of passenger rail systems has almost completely faded.  In fact, for most Americans, the only images they have of passenger rail systems, and subways in particular, are Amtrak, the New York Metro, the San Francisco BART, and maybe some of the system in Chicago.

Not a very inspiring bunch.

However, most of the rest of the developed countries have quite wonderful passenger rail networks. They are clean, efficient, cheap, run on time, have as many as 20 or even 25 trains an hour (one every three minutes) during peak periods, and everybody from all income levels uses them. This is not a utopian fantasy, it is normal life for most people -- which they take for granted along with other modern conveniences like clean running water and working sewage systems.

Join Nate Lewis, economist and urban theorist as we have a look at some of the passenger rail elements and components of the rest of the world, starting with a photo essay of The Stations.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-aug-what-a-real-transit-rail-system-looks-like-the-station

[tufsu1]

this is a good article...although I wonder why the author chose to highlight one of the worst stations on DC's Metro line....several of the suburban stations have now have adjacent TOD development....and the urban stations often have attached retail (even department stores)

[archiphreak]

Ha!  The Vienna Station is my old station.  I used to live about 1 mile from there just off Lee Highway.  There was a walking trail that went behind my townhome development straight to the metro.  So, this is actually a little misleading.  If you live there and know where you are there are a number of things relatively close by (within say 1 mile).  Not the most comfortable walking distance in the winter, but not out of the question.
This is a great article though.  You've really highlighted the difference between western and eastern thinking about development and mass transit.  The thinking in America is that transit has to be set apart, outside the "hustle and bustle" of commerce.  We need a radical change in this kind of thinking.  As I'm sure all will agree here, transit needs to be an integral part of our urban environment, woven into our daily lives.

[Traveller]

The Vienna Metro station is the last station on the Orange line.  It is meant to be a park & ride station for commuters from Fairfax, Centreville, Gainesville, etc. so those individuals don't drive all the way into the District.  Same for Franconia/Springfield, New Carollton, Shady Grove, etc.  tufsu1 is correct in that many of the stations closer to town have enormous TOD's attached to them (e.g., Ballston, Pentagon City).  Problem is those neighborhoods are not cheap to live in.

Unrelated question: is it physically possible to build underground rail in Florida?

[thelakelander]

Miami's old Metrorail expansion plans, from a few years ago, included subway segments and stations under their downtown.  Unfortunately, they ended up using a chuck of that money for current operations and now they don't have the funds to the the massive expansion they promised taxpayers down there.

[tufsu1]

I personally think that above-ground rail is better for a few reasons:

1. It is far cheaper to build, even when elevated (like Miami's system)
2. It allows people to see the area around them....which may be very helpful for TOD

[Doctor_K]

I'm particularly fond of this poignant bit:

A Vibrant City without a train is impossible, because you will need lots and lots of parking--and the parking destroys the density and vibrancy.

Does that hit close enough to home, Jacksonville??

[Garden guy]

it's going to be years and years...sorry but unless something major happens to the leaders of this area a transit system is out of the picture. our leaders can't even get over a muslim being on a city board...how are they going to grasp the idea of a better transit system...ill never see it in my lifetime..i hope...but i seriously doubt it...it was so nice in europe to get around...it made traveling pleasurable.

[JeffreyS]

Great is just not what we strive for in America anymore. Great is a waste of taxpayer money.  Great takes longer than a stucco strip mall to construct.  So many Americans do not want the Government to do great things they don't want the Government to do anything at all.  This is the attitude we have to change the Dagny Taggart's should build great engines of commerce the Government should build a great quality of life environment.

[finehoe]

Socialism.

[tufsu1]

Great is just not what we strive for in America anymore. Great is a waste of taxpayer money.  Great takes longer than a stucco strip mall to construct.  So many Americans do not want the Government to do great things they don't want the Government to do anything at all.  This is the attitude we have to change the Dagny Taggart's should build great engines of commerce the Government should build a great quality of life environment.

+100

[thelakelander]

it's going to be years and years...

We'll be electing a new mayor less than a year.  Let's make it count and it might not take decades to flip the apple cart.

[AaroniusLives]

A few things...

Regarding the Vienna/Fairfax/GMU Washington Metro station:
That station was actually designed to be a "park and ride" location, where folks from the 'burbs can come and park their cars and ride the train into the central core. Now that they're expanding the Metro out to Tyson's Corner and Dulles Airport, this station is getting the TOD-refit.

Here's the site:
http://metrowestva.com/

Now, it may take longer to get there, due to the current housing crisis, but that station will be reborn as the anchor to TOD. Moreover, the need for outlying stations in metro/transit systems to be "park and ride" is a basic reality for nearly every major metropolitan area in the country. Even metro New York has this need: they may have pushed out their densities farther than most, but a whole bunch of people need those "park and ride" lots, as they are commuting from a car-centric location. In time, perhaps these locations (like Vienna/Fairfax/GMU) will need to be redeveloped as TOD anchor stations, as the dense core pushes further out.

The Japanese examples are particularly unfair as it relates to density. Japan has 127,000,000 people packed into a tiny land mass. It is more than ten times as densely populated as the United States. Japan uses their rail stations as combo-transit/shopping locations because it has no choice (and indeed, they tried to forge another choice to relieve their density: it's called the Japanese Empire of the Sun.) Which isn't to say that we shouldn't have shopping in TOD-transit stations; it is to say that the high use of the Japanese trains in both long haul and subway forms, is determined largely by their utter need to use them, to build densely, and to "deal" with having no land, high population and a high standard of living. It will be interesting to watch Japan as they lose population over the next several decades, and what that demographic and density shift does to the Japanese transportation model.

The Moscow stations are indeed beautiful. I've seen them in person. It's interesting to note that those stations were created with elaborate designs and plans, while the actual citizens of Moscow lived in Soviet-bloc housing. Meaning that if you wanted to take the train, you were reminded of the glory of the USSR. And then you went to wait in line for bark-filled toilet paper that you couldn't afford in your one-bedroom leaky flat for five. 

[urbaknight]

What does, TOD stand for?

[AaroniusLives]

While park and Ride is necessary for outlying commuters, it doesnt mean that the design of the vienna station is the best one or that the city is served by having rail stations which are not connective destinations.

We're looking at the Vienna Metro station through the prism of today's Washington DC reality. Go back to 1986, when the station was built. Fairfax County had a population of around 600,000 people. Flash-forward to today, and there are more than a million. The central core's population (DC) was continuing a residential decline, which lasted from the 1960s through the 1990s. It was a place to work, not live. Flash forward to today and you have a city that people want to inhabit, with a rise in population.

The point is this: in 1986, that station served the region well. Most people drove (and still do.) Most people were living in car-centric suburbs (and sadly, still are.) What has happened in 2010 is that what the DC region considers to be "central" has spread out from the core. "Park and ride" stations that were once at the fringe have been redone as TOD, because there is a need and a desire to live closer to the core than ever before (well, since the 1950s, anyway.)

The Vienna station was designed for cars, not people. It was designed to connect the people in their cars to the business center(s) of Metro Washington DC, without them having to drive there. It was not, by its nature, designed to create a dense, walking, environment. That its original purpose may not be as needed or as en vogue in the present is another story. But it does serve its purpose: connecting car commuters to public transit. It does connect, but perhaps not in the way urbanists define connection.  

(The Vienna station redux is also going to be quite interesting in that it's going to retain it's "park and ride" status while building TOD. I'm eager to see how they pull it off.)

The TOD model of business is one which builds in maximum use and profits from stations and lines in addition to the organic convenience to the end users.

That is a brilliant description.

BTW, I totally agree with you about the Moscow Station.  I love all the stations there but that one in particular.  Very beautiful.

The beauty still doesn't mask the conditions with which they were built. Millions of Russians suffered in squalor at home. I'm sure the refuge to the beauty of the subway station wasn't enough, and in many ways, is a huuuuuuge slap in the face.

Wonder what a Jacksonville station could be made to look like?  Wouldnt it be awesome if instead of the Transit ranch, the downtown station was also a mega publix or Winn Dixie? Or if we had regional stations that were designed to look like Flagler's hotels?

I'm torn between "beauty" and "clean, functionality." The Toronto example above is of one of their more decorated stations, but the others are much more clean and functional. They weren't "capitol" enough for DC to emulate, which is a shame, because it's insanely expensive to vault and lobby every damned Metro station. To put this another way, DC could (and should and needs) have more Metro if they focused on "clean and functional" versus "Brutalist and spacious."

Moreover, there's nothing to say that "clean and functional" can't be beautiful. Dallas' DART stations, even the dreaded "park and rides" use curved, open-air enclosures to create attractive, inexpensive stations.

As for Jacksonville, like...get a transit system first!