urbanSTL

STLEnginerd wrote:^i don't think it's stupidity. There a legit reason to think the loop trolley will not be successful. It makes me a little ill to think that St. Louis is investing millions into a trolley from on Metrolink station to the next one down the tracks. The worst aspect is that it's failure will likely reflect poorly on the notion of expanded transit, despite the fact that the failure here is actually going to be over capacity.

It's only because it has such a staunch and respected backer that it actually is close to being built. It's unfortunate that Joe Edwards was so insistent that it go to the loop. A streetcar on grand (grand center to south grand) would have been a much better proposal.

That said its pretty late in the game to start trying to oppose or apply new financing restrictions on it now.

From a transit standpoint its meh, but from a development standpoint its gold. I don't think this was ever intended to be a major transportation project, its been noted for years that this is a tourist attraction. I don't see how it will fail, I assume it will be a novelty like the historical streetcars in a dozen of other cities and if its expanded to Forest Park, I could see thousands of suburbanites that would never use Metrolink taking it to the Zoo or Art Hill to Fitz and Blueberry Hill. Yes, it would have been much better on Grand Avenue and would probably be rolling by now, but nobody in the city has the nuts or vision to propose something like this but Joe Edwards. U-City leadership talking about ripping the rails out of the ground because it would be a big failure, just sounds stupid as hell and reeks of 1950s ideology. The fact that an elected official from one of our most urban suburbs would say that is absolutely mind boggling. No wonder 90% of Washington University graduates hightail it out of town. Do these people ever leave St. Louis? GOSH!

Why exactly would they need to rip the rails out in the first place even if it's not a great success? How badly do we wish we still had rails in place all around the city now?

Just because something isn't successful now doesn't mean you tear up all the costly infrastructure.

Maybe it has a bigger impact on the roads than I'm envisioning, though.

In order for it to become truly useful to residents, it should connect to the Central Corridor Streetcar.

Thats if the central corridor street car gets built. sorry not trying to sound pessimistic I just wish they stop with all the qualms and get things started its already been delayed long enough

They aren't giving up

West End Word - Appeal In Loop Trolley Lawsuit

A federal judge on April 28 dismissed a lawsuit against The Loop Trolley Transportation Development District (TDD). One month later to the day, the four plaintiffs in the suit have filed an appeal.

http://www.westendword.com/Articles-Uni ... z33jJaky9r

jstriebel wrote:Why exactly would they need to rip the rails out in the first place even if it's not a great success? How badly do we wish we still had rails in place all around the city now?

Just because something isn't successful now doesn't mean you tear up all the costly infrastructure.

Maybe it has a bigger impact on the roads than I'm envisioning, though.

I'm not an expert, but wouldn't they need to remove the rails the next time they did routine road resurfacing or whatever? Wouldn't leaving the rails in make maintenance more costly going forward for little or no benefit (if the trolley failed)?

^ no, not at all...you can resurfce around it.

dbInSouthCity wrote:^ no, not at all...you can resurfce around it.

Alright then, I guess they're just idiots. Sorry, U-City residents.

Well, sure, you can resurface pavement around and on top of the old rails, but you can't just uncover old rail and start running trains on it. Any future rail-transit system would have to rip out the old stuff and put in all-new roadbed and all-new rail.

^ If the Loop Trolley fails I'm guessing we'll all be long dead before the tracks are uncovered and ripped up for new rail.

STL Business Journal - History Museum property on Delmar to be used for Loop Trolley

The long-vacant land the Missouri History Museum owns on Delmar Boulevard will be put to use at last by the Loop trolley project.

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/morn ... d-for.html

^Great news! Finally!

Well that was easy.

-RBB

Isn't there still an appeal on the lawsuit that was dismissed?

Good point about the rent. Don't know where the startups are supposed to go in the eastern part since most everything was torn down and new buildings tend to be expensive.

KMOX - Delmar Loop Business Owners Laud Fiber Optic Cables

Cafe owner Patrick Liburto says that could help attract start-ups, if building owners don’t price them out of the market.

“Start-up companies normally can’t afford high rent,” he says. “So, it will be up to the commercial property owners to see what kind of attractive offers they’re going to give to allow for that growth to happen.”

Liburto says that growth could happen on the Loop’s east side, where rents would likely be cheaper.

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/07/15/ ... ic-cables/

Railway Age reports that there will be a meeting on July 24th to discuss new plans and renderings.

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/pas ... input.html

Hope it's popular enough they expand the service.

Three vehicles
20 min frequency
Sun-Thurs 11-6pm
Fri-Sat 11-Midnight

^Agreed. Also, wouldn't mind them shifting weekdays from 11-6 to 2-9.

Any news from the meeting tonight?

What will the pricing being on the trolley?

One of the posters said "Consistent with Metro"

quincunx wrote:One of the posters said "Consistent with Metro"

What would be better is if it was literally consistent with Metro and you could use a two hour pass to hope off the MetroLink and then ride the trolley.

jstriebel wrote:

quincunx wrote:One of the posters said "Consistent with Metro"

What would be better is if it was literally consistent with Metro and you could use a two hour pass to hope off the MetroLink and then ride the trolley.

I can only imagine that happening if Metro was the eventual operator of the trolley. I doubt that Bi-State would be willing to share revenue with a private company.