Bus Rapid Transit vs. Commuter Rail IV
(http://www.metrojacksonville.com/images/commuter_rail/S-LINE.jpg)<BR /><BR />WHY COMMUTER RAIL JACKSONVILLE MAY BE THE PERFECT FITBus Rapid Transit vs. Commuter Rail â€" Part 4 of a 5 part series <BR /><BR />Full Article<BR />http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/77 (http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/77)
As a Jacksonville "native" offering advice on transportation in Colombia, I couldn´t agree more. Medellin and Cali, both highly industrial modern cities, and both about Jacksonville size, built rail rapid transit. Cali, as it sits in a broad valley combined the best of LRT (Light Rail Transit) and HRT (Heavy Commuter Rail Transit). Their system has several routes, some operating as regular passenger trains but using electric LRV´s (Light Rail Vehicles) in train, with a single operator in the lead vehicle. These routes enjoy private right of way over glass smooth track. The key to the system is after entering downtown the city has the option of breaking the train into several independent LRV´s which fan out on transit malls (and yes) as well as city street trackage. Thus you have a quiet, modern vehicle which can circulate around downtown, then join with other similar vehicles and sprint out of town as a fast passenger train to the suburbs. Medellin on the other hand, is pinched in a narrow valley and has a single long double track HRT system. It is similar to the extended Jacksonville "Blue Line" and is elevated in the downtown area. A cross town link also extends from downtown at a right angle to the mainline as far as one can go across the valley. This cross town link has a terminal at the foot of the mountains that could be a model for JIA, St. Augustine, Flemming Island, Fernandina or ANY other end point terminal. Both Medellin routes run at high speed between stations in normal 3 car trains and 6 car rush hour trains. While both of these systems are clean, fast, quiet and use standard railroad track; Bogota´s BRT system has become a National Joke. The capitals system cost more then the rail transit alternative, it is bumpy, smells bad and each articulated "mega-bus" pours on the diesel smoke when they accelerate. They also failed to consider pavement has a short life span and thus the systems ride quality really suffers. While it is true that the busses CAN get off their private roadway or reserved lanes and tap the suburbs, it is equally true that with rail transit, busses can be freed from mainline service and provide those connections without major fleet expansion. The BRT vehicles even though they are very large, they are still smaller then the rail cars. None of these big vehicles mix well in traffic and their use in traffic lanes should be highly restricted, thus the big flexible advantage of busses disappears when mixing with automobiles. There also seems to be a basic human reaction to the safety and certainty of a fixed rail route as their ridership far exceeds the bus in almost every case worldwide. Let´s hope Jacksonville does not follow Bogota into this bottomless BRT money pit.