WMATA's 50th anniversary from the start of service, Part 5: Making a better transit network | Connecting heavy rail + light rail + railroad -- a concept for New York City

This last entry in the series was prompted by a recent Substack post (below)

-- "Reprint with editing: Today WMATA Metrorail's 50th anniversary from the start of service | Part 1: many lessons can be found, if you look"
-- "WMATA's 50th anniversary from the start of service, Part 2a | The Original Approved Metrorail System (1968-1970)"
-- "WMATA's 50th anniversary from the start of service, Part 2b | Lessons learned: Proposed expansions and the Metrorail system we don't have"
-- "WMATA's 50th anniversary from the start of service, Part 3 | Stations"
-- "WMATA's 50th anniversary from the start of service, Part 4 | Buses"
-- "WMATA's 50th anniversary from the start of service, Part 5: Making a better transit network | Connecting heavy rail + light rail + railroad -- a concept for New York City"

Benjamin Schneider, in his "The Urban Condition" Substack, has a two part series on how the original proposal for a TriboroRX by the Regional Plan Association in 1996--now separated into two projects, one a Metro North rail project called Penn Station Access, adding four stations in the Bronx and a connection of the Harlem Line to Grand Central Station, and the Interborough Express (IBX) for Queens and Brooklyn--could still come to a kind of fruition, through making better connections between the various modes.

In "Unlocking the full potential of the IBX" he makes the point that network connection planning doesn't happen very well, because planning tends to be mode specific (in silos).

These two projects, the IBX and Penn Station Access, were once envisioned by the RPA as a single line within a grand regional rail system. Now, they are on totally separate tracks, literally and figuratively. Though these two services come within about a mile of one another, passengers will not be able to transfer between them. This outcome is a reflection of the region’s siloed approach to transit network planning, and its limited ambitions with each individual transit project it pursues.

In the first piece in this series, I did make the point about creating a regional transport association and using transit infrastructure projects as a way to drive improvements across the transit network.

And in the stations piece, I discuss planning and implementing for access before a station/line is opened, not afterwards, to put transit's best foot or visage forward, from the start, rather than sometime far after the opening.

Past entries on the Purple Line, Silver Line, and Blue Line make similar kinds of points, not just about access but driving necessary improvements forward, leveraging the power of new infrastructure, etc.

-- "Codifying the complementary transit network improvements and planning initiatives recommended in the Purple Line writings," (2022) 
-- Setting the stage for the Purple Line light rail line to be an overwhelming success: Part 1 | simultaneously introduce improvements to other elements of the transit network (2017)
-- Part 2 |   the program (macro changes) (2017)
-- Part 3 |   influences (2017)
-- Part 4 |   Making over New Carrollton as a transit-centric urban center and Prince George's County's "New Downtown" (2017, originally 2014)
-- PL #5: Creating a Silver Spring "Sustainable Mobility District"
-- Part 6 |  Creating a transportation development authority in Montgomery and Prince George's County to effectuate placemaking, retail development, and housing programs in association with the Purple Line (2017)
-- Part 7 | Using the Purple Line to rebrand Montgomery and Prince George's Counties as Design Forward (2017)
-- Revisiting the Purple Line article series after one year: Part 1 | a couple of baby steps (2018)
-- Revisiting the Purple Line (series) and a more complete program of complementary improvements to the transit network (2019)

-- "Using the Silver Line as the priming event, what would a transit network improvement program look like for NoVA?," (2017)

-- "A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for the Metrorail Blue Line," (2020)

Schneider offers a number of recommendations for connection.

As I wrote in part one of this piece, the IBX will have a transformative impact on mobility in Brooklyn and Queens from the day that it opens, largely because of transfers to express subways that will quickly get riders to popular destinations like Midtown, Downtown Brooklyn, and the JFK Airtrain at Jamaica.

With a few complimentary transit projects, the mobility benefits of the IBX could be extended to the Bronx and beyond, as envisioned by the RPA thirty years ago. With a handful of more ambitious initiatives, the benefits of the IBX could reach even further, to Long Island and New Jersey; as well as to air travelers landing at LaGuardia and intercity train passengers on the Northeast Corridor.

This piece lists those projects in order of difficulty and expense. Most of the following ideas are speculative and have not been formally proposed by a government agency. However, they follow transit planning best practices as reflected in white papers from advocacy groups like the RPA.

The central premise of these conceptual projects is to better integrate the IBX and the rest of the New York City subway system with what is now called the “commuter rail” system. These projects seek to make the most of existing infrastructure as much as possible, rather than building expensive new lines. And they embody the notion that travel to and from the downtown core is no longer the central, overriding purpose of transit planning.

More connections, more access, faster trips.

His list:

• Add high-frequency ferry service between Brooklyn Army Terminal, Staten Island and New Jersey
• Make the LIRR Atlantic Avenue Branch a super-express subway line
• Extend the G Subway, which serves Queens and Brooklyn exclusively, on the north and south to connect to the IBX
• Build an IBX-LIRR infill transfer station near 51st Ave. in Queens
• Extend the IBX one mile to connect with Metro North’s Penn Station Access project, providing a link to the Bronx, Westchester and Connecticut
• Extend the IBX to LaGuardia Airport
• Upgrade the IBX-Metro North transfer station into an intermodal Northeast Corridor rail-air hub
• Build the Harbor Tunnel for passengers and freight

I've written a piece like this about Baltimore ("More remonstration about the molasses of change: Transit planning, Baltimore County, Maryland and Towson," "Transit agenda for Greater Baltimore"), merging the VRE and MARC "commuter railroads" into a 24/7 passenger rail system like the S-Bahn ("One big idea: Getting MARC and Metrorail to integrate fares, stations, and marketing systems, using London Overground as an example," "A new backbone for the regional transit system: merging the MARC Penn and VRE Fredericksburg Lines,"  and leveraging the once proposed, since cancelled Maglev system ("DC, Transformational Projects Action Planning, and the Baltimore-Washington Maglev project ).

The second entry in this series:

-- "WMATA's 50th anniversary from the start of service, Part 2a | The Original Approved Metrorail System (1968-1970)"
-- "WMATA's 50th anniversary from the start of service, Part 2b | Lessons learned: Proposed expansions and the Metrorail system we don't have"

provides a framework for the heavy rail part.  Some of the recommendations in the Purple Line series do for Maryland-side commuter rail:

• Integrate MARC and VRE fare payment into the SmarTrip/ CharmCard fare media system (note that with their regular tickets, MARC and VRE provide reciprocity, and include free rides on Baltimore local transit)
• Introduce bi-directional passenger rail service between DC and Frederick on the MARC Brunswick Line
• Consider charging DC-Montgomery County trips on a bi-directional Brunswick Line using the Metrorail/Purple Line tolling/fare schedule. That would treat mileage from railroad trips in the context of a complete (linked) trip on railroad+subway+light rail as a single fare
• The White Flint Sector Plan calls for an infill MARC station. Plans to build that station should be accelerated as part of this proposal.
• Build an infill train station in DC on the Penn Line, serving the New York Avenue corridor
• Set the opening of the Purple Line as the deadline for the integration of the MARC Penn Line and VRE Fredericksburg Line into one combined railroad passenger service
• + the Baltimore area recommendations in "Transit agenda for Greater Baltimore"
• + the Eastern Shore ("Letter to the editor in the Washington Post about passenger railroad service to the Eastern Shore")

Dan Malouff's proposed passenger rail system.  He didn't include Southern Maryland because at the time they were planning a light rail line to Charles County.  It also doesn't have a line from Baltimore to Frederick, nor the Penn Line to Delaware.

I don't have a handle on what to recommend on the Virginia side.  

Many years ago, at the BeyondDC blog, Dan Malouff provided a couple of schematics of how an integrated passenger rail system could provide service deeper into Virginia, connections to Pennsylvania, and an extension of the Penn Line to Delaware.

His framework provides a pretty good agenda for Virginia.  It complements various rail passenger expansion efforts throughout Virginia by the State, through its Amtrak Virginia program, support of VRE and exploration of other rail service options, and acquisition of right of way from CSX ("Virginia to build Long Bridge and acquire CSX right of way to expand passenger train service," Washington Post). 

WMATA and MWCOG announce new joint transit initiative | Could a regional "transport association" be on the horizon, or just a transit bailout?

According to Twitter and other news sources ("WMATA and MWCOG announce new joint transit initiative," DC News Now) WMATA the operator of regional subway and bus services, and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, are going to start working together.

The COG is the union of local governments and designated by the USDOT as the region's metropolitan planning organization for regional transportation planning and coordination.

From the article:

In a news release sent out Wednesday, officials said that the organizations’ Boards of Directors will meet on May 1 to start “months-long discussions about how to efficiently provide, fund, and govern public transit.”

Funny of course, because this is driven by the financial pressures faced by WMATA foremost ("Facing massive budget shortfall, Metro releases budget proposal that slashes service and increases fares") but also other area transit providers, who've lost lots of riders in response to work from home.

But the issue of base funding for WMATA has been discussed for decades, including by me.

-- "Getting WMATA out of crisis: a continuation of a multi-year problem that keeps getting worse, not better," 2015
-- "DC area transit commission board member thinks he has a brilliant idea on how to fund Metrorail: sales taxes," 2022

It's a shame that it had to reach the level of a super crisis to do anything.  15 years ago I first wrote that WMATA needed to rebuild the regional consensus about the value of transit:

-- "St. Louis regional transit planning process as a model for what needs to be done in the DC Metropolitan region" (2009)

DC area transit planning and operations is an extreme example of gaps.  Sorry to repeat ad infinitum but my joke is I might be a bad planner but I am great at gap analysis and I have been writing about this failure in transit and transportation planning coordination in the DC area for almost 20 years, with very specific suggestions on how to address it.

Concepts.  The concept of a multi-regional and multi-state transit network is outlined in "The meta-regional transit network" (2009).  I made a presentation about this at the University of Delaware public policy school in early 2010, "Metropolitan Mass Transit Planning presentation"  (link to presentation within).

My mobility shed/mobilityshed and transit shed entry dates to 2006, "Updating the mobilityshed / mobility shed concept."  

Another related concept is intra-district versus inter-district transit ("Making the case for intra-city (vs. inter-city) transit planning," 2011).  This concept eludes almost everyone who writes about transit.  It's about speed versus access.  Also see, "A thought about an intra-district transit network for Tysons," (2020).

And a more expanded concept of "sustainable mobility" as a platform dates to 2018 ("Further updates to the Sustainable Mobility Framework").

Other seeds include Steve Belmont's Cities in Full and his discussion about monocentric versus polycentric transit systems, Robert Cervero's coining of the term "commuter shed," the hierarchy of networks in the Arlington County Master Transportation Plan, the invention of transportation demand management planning in Victoria state, Australia (also see Engwicht's Reclaiming our cities and towns: better living through less traffic), mobility hubs, and the concept of high frequency transit sub-networks.

The 2018 entry, "Branding's not all you need for transit," states that there are three elements to transit systems:

• an integrated metropolitan/regional transit system through a transport association
• treating transit as a design product
• tying it all together with an integrated branding system

1.  I first understood the DC area transit planning gap in two dimensions.  By default, WMATA is the area transit planner, with no checks.  Second, when budget crisis hits services are cut.

-- "Without the right transportation planning framework, metropolitan areas are screwed, and that includes the DC area," 2011

2.  And financing. The area doesn't have a dedicated sales or payroll tax for transit (MTA and a couple other systems do have a payroll tax, it's standard in France). 

My point was to get one passed, do it when you're successful, not when you're desperate. Best would have been the early 1980s when the system was still bright and shiny and growing.

Plus WMATA's success in farebox revenue recovery (at one time, 80% for rail) was true but a chimera. It charges by mode, so bus + rail is two fares. Most transit agencies charge one fare. (2) There was a lot of use of the federal transit pass, so there was a lot of insulation from the high fares. (3) for a long time there were no real discounted transit passes, where other systems offer them to encourage transit use and discourage car use.

So in good times, revenue was high and this made the jurisdictions happy because it reduced their annual outlays.

Note in bad times, sales and payroll tax revenues tend to drop also.

Some places also take a percentage of the real estate transfer tax.  It's easier though when all the participating jurisdictions are within one state, not three.  For example, Virginia Governor Ralph Youngkin has vetoed more money for WMATA out of pique on losing another issue ("Youngkin Dumps Metro Subsidy on F.C., N. Va.," Falls Church News-Press).

-- "Metrolinx Toronto: 25 potential tools to fund transit-transportation infrastructure," 2013

Metro (WMATA) Owner's Manual: Your Metro...How to Use It, cover.  Advertising supplement to the Washington Star, 1975.

3.  My recommendation was to split planning from service..  That the planning function should define network breadth -- the broad area in which services are to be provided and network depth -- level of service standards and other requirements for service.

If the budget didn't match the network breadth and depth requirements, rather than cut service, first the transit operators should make their case for more money.  If it wasn't forthcoming, only then cut service.

4.  Combine the commuter railroads, make it a 24/7 service.  A variant is that starting in 2006 I also wrote that the area's railroad passenger services should integrate into what I later called RACER, Railroad Authority of the Chesapeake Region.  But the idea wasn't unique to me, it started a few years before that by Dan Malouff of BeyondDC.

This map is a concept, it didn't include Southern Maryland because at the time, Maryland MTA was planning light rail for the US-301 corridor.  I'd say there should be a line between Baltimore and Frederick, etc.

-- "A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for a statewide passenger railroad program in Maryland," 2019

-- "DC, Transformational Projects Action Planning, and the Baltimore-Washington Maglev project ," 2021

In 2017, I wrote "A new backbone for the regional transit system: merging the MARC Penn and VRE Fredericksburg Lines," about how to jumpstart the railroad merger.  I note that GGW just wrote about this this week...

5.  Hamburg's transport association is the model.  In 2014, I visited Hamburg, Germany which has an amazingly integrated transit system with multiple modes--train, subway, bus, ferry--reaching hundreds of miles into two adjoining states.  

I learned that it was led by the City of Hamburg, which often holds ownership stakes in the various services, but services were delivered, including bus, by more than two dozen operators.

Hamburg "invented" the German transport association form, where all the transit operators in a region are coordinated as a group, that planning is separate, that schedules and fares are integrated.*

This came about because Hamburg realized in the early 1960s that if they wanted people to use transit, it had to be easier to use.  It took them 5 years to get everyone together, and to create a coordinated schedule and fare system. 

Later the method was adopted by Germany as a whole, as well as Austria and Switzerland.

-- HVV, Hamburg Transport Association
-- "HVV Celebrated 50 Year Anniversary, City of Hamburg
--"Verkehrsverbund: The evolution and spread of fully integrated regional public transport in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland," Ralph Buehler, John Pucher & Oliver Dümmler, International Journal of Sustainable Transportation (2018)
-- Transport Alliances - – Promoting Cooperation and Integration to offer a more attractive and efficient Public Transport, VDV, the trade association for German transport associations.  

* note that one "problem" with the VV model is it isn't expansive enough, you need private services like taxi and bike share and at times, the highway people, at the table too

A good model for coordination and presentation of modes is laid out on a website is for the Manchester, UK system.  Transport for London and SF MUNI also.

6.  Gaps don't abate.  While continuing to write often about discoordination in transit planning in the DC area, with multiple different BRT systems, and the railroads, etc.

-- "Silver Line Metro expansion a classic example of the need to have true regional transportation planning," 2011
-- "One big idea: Getting MARC and Metrorail to integrate fares, stations, and marketing systems, using London Overground as an example" 2015
-- Will buses ever be cool? Boston versus the Raleigh-Durham's GoTransit Model," 2017
-- "Route 7 BRT proposal communicates the reality that the DC area doesn't adequately conduct transportation planning at the metropolitan-scale," 2016
-- "Reviving DC area bus service: and a counterpoint to the recent Washington City Paper article," 2019

7.  German VV as the model for DC.  It took me until 2017 to write an entry specifically mentioning the German VV as the way forward for the DC area, in an organization I suggested could be called the DMVTA.  That's 7 years ago in March.

-- "The answer is: Create a single multi-state/regional multi-modal transit planning, management, and operations authority association"

Conclusion.  But I imagine the impetus for this initiative is WMATA's massive budget shortfall, not better transportation planning, coordination, and integration in the DC metropolitan area.

Note the area does some best practice things.  Like a common fare media card system, which even works in Baltimore.  

But otherwise, there are multiple different transit "stores," systems and liveries for BRT, lack of one integrated call center, failure to integrate railroad services into the fare card system, lack of coordinated planning, etc.

I guess I'll send this to them.

Brightline West should also be used to transform public transit service in Las Vegas

Riffing off of "Florida's Brightline passenger rail as an opportunity to rearticulate and extend transit service in cities like Orlando," that entry mentioned that Brightline is developing a similar railroad service between "Los Angeles" and Las Vegas, called Brightline West.

The Brightline West train will have stops in Victor Valley, Hesperia, Apple Valley and Rancho Cucamonga in California, and Las Vegas in Nevada.

It's 270 miles driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, a trip of 6 hours or more.  

Millions of people make the trip every year. so it's a lucrative market for transportation services, especially if they are convenient and cost effective.

Metrolink at Rancho Cucamonga Station.  Photo: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

While Los Angeles Union Station is awesome, it'd be a challenging engineering project to start Brightline service there, so Brightline is settling on starting its service at Rancho Cucamonga in San Bernardino County, LA's exurbs.   That's about 50 miles from Union Station.

It's served by the Metrolink commuter rail service, so to get there by train will require starting and ending on Metrolink--at least one transfer, and probably two, will be required.

Brightline will be building a dedicated train station at RC ("Rancho Cucamonga will get new train station for Vegas and Ontario airport transit projects," Inland Valley Daily Bulletin).

Brightline's portion of a trip to Las Vegas will be 218 miles, and touts that the trip will take 2 hours 15 minutes--half the time of driving.  

But that's the second leg of the trip.  There will be at least 1 hour 15 minutes on Metrolink to get to the Brightline train--that's from LA Union Station, which will take longer from other stations, and likely will require an additional transfer, so three legs to the trip. (Eg from Santa Ana, the trip would be almost 2 hours 30 minutes to RC.)  Driving to RC is another option, or to an intermediate Metrolink station.

Brightline aims to capture 30% of the 40 million trips by car or bus to Las Vegas from Greater Los Angeles.

The task of building may be slower than in Florida, because in California especially, they have to get agreements to use right of way (mostly along I-15), although they have been successful doing so. The Las Vegas station will be built on Las Vegas Boulevard on the Strip ("Brightline buys land for high-speed rail terminal," Las Vegas Review-Journal).

But they plan to start building the station later this year, and have it open next year so clearly they are moving fast ("Nevada senator backs grant for Brightline’s LV-LA train system," Las Vegas Review-Journal). But it is not scheduled to start service til 2027.

Four years isn't a lot of time to do big things in adding transit infrastructure and programs, but there is still an opportunity, using what I call the "transformational projects action plan" approach to transit planning, with the idea that new additions to service should be used to simultaneously drive other improvements across the transit system.

-- "Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen, Japan, as an example of Transformational Projects Action Planning | Planning and executing complementary improvements across the transit network + advances in transit marketing," 2022

-- "Revisiting the Purple Line (series) and a more complete program of complementary improvements to the transit network," 2019/2020, original multipart series published in 2017

-- "Using the Silver Line as the priming event, what would a transit network improvement program look like for NoVA?," 2017

-- "Crystal City Arlington as Amazon one-half of HQ2 | Part 3: Leveraging Amazon's entrance for complementary transit network improvements," 2018

-- "Crystal City Arlington as Amazon one-half of HQ2 | Part 4: Pie in the Sky transit improvements," 2018

-- "A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for a statewide passenger railroad program in Maryland," 2019

-- "A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for the Metrorail Blue Line," 2020

-- "DC, Transformational Projects Action Planning, and the Baltimore-Washington Maglev project ," 2021

-- "Prince George's County's newly announced transit oriented development program for the Blue Line," 2022

Photo: RTCSN.  People lining up for The Deuce.

Transit in Las Vegas

Bus. RTC Southern Nevada is the public transit agency in the Las Vegas Valley.  Las Vegas has a bus-based transit system ("Las Vegas RTC: Where Image is Important," Mass Transit Magazine).

They have a couple of premier and premium services that are especially well positioned and marketed, one called The Deuce, serving the Las Vegas Strip with double deck buses, a 24 hour servicen with an all day fare, and a free Downtown Loop shuttle.  

The Deuce averages about 200,000 riders per day, which might be the highest use of any bus line in the US.

The SDX--the Strip and Downtown Express--provides similar services to The Deuce but a faster trip, because of limited stops. Likely it is used more by employees than visitors.

The SDX buses are articulated and "fancy."

RTC also runs a bikeshare program, manages certain intelligent transportation systems functions, and a number of game day sports related express bus services.

The Deuce is a robust service, connecting to the hotels on the Strip and Downtown, the Airport, and Convention Center, and the football stadium and hockey arena.

Monorail. The Las Vegas Monorail wasn't designed to be mass transit.  It was a private venture connecting two hotel-casinos about one mile apart starting in 1995.  In 2002, it was extended almost 3 miles, connecting to a number of other casinos.  

The system went into bankruptcy and now is run as a nonprofit.  It doesn't go north to Downtown or south to the Reid International Airport.  Costs to extend exceed the capacity of the organization. 

Extension is difficult because of how the line is situated, behind casinos on the east side of the Strip, and there can be long distances between stations and destinations especially between the west and east sides of the Strip.

Vegas Loop underground tunnel.  The crazy Elon Musk Boring Tunnel underground serving the convention center is an ersatz transit service.  A tunnel with buses would have a lot greater capacity.  Now vehicles carry three people and they plan for little shuttles that can carry 12 people.  There are plans to extend the system by many miles, but the capacity per hour is pretty low.

No passenger rail service. Train service between Salt Lake, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles was provided starting in the early 1900s by the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, a part of Union Pacific.  

Las Vegas' art deco train station was replaced by a modern boxy station for Amtrak, which was proximate to the Plaza Hotel and Casino.

When Amtrak took over passenger rail services from the railroads, the Desert Wind, originating in Chicago, provided service to Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles ("Rails remain, but Amtrak left Las Vegas with the Desert Wind," LVRJ).  Service was suspended in 1997.

Last Vegas Transit Network Complementary Improvements Program in association with the development of the Brightline West passenger rail service 

The blog entry "Branding's (NOT) all you need for transit" lays out a three point plan for strenghening transit systems.

The first element is an integrated public transportation system.  In Las Vegas it would mean bringing together the RTC, Las Vegas Monorail, and private services including taxi and shuttle services, Brightline West, the Nevada DOT, and probably the Airport and Convention Center in an overarching German style transportation association.  I don't know the landscape there.  Right now, if RTC and Brightline work together, that's huge.  And the taxi industry and drivers are a very strong lobby against public transportation.

The second element is treating transit as "a design product" and ensuring that each and every element within the system of providing transit and mobility services is designed to be effective, efficient, successful, powerful and connected.

The third element, tying it all together, is an integrated branding system.

The recommendations below reflect these points.

1.  Extend Deuce bus service to the Airport. (Now.)  Yes/No/Maybe.

The Deuce has suffered ridership losses ("Las Vegas Strip bus revenue drops, spurring possible route changes," LVRJ).  I would attribute this partly to the need to do constant marketing to tourists, and the rise of ride hailing services.  

But a possible factor is that it doesn't serve the Reid International Airport directly (other RTC services do, which connect to The Deuce).  

Extending the route to the Airport would create a more legible bus service, presenting transit to tourists as the glue of their trip--from the airport to hotel to casinos to Downtown to the Convention Center to sports facilities and back.

One model is how STM in Montreal brands their bus service from the Airport to Downtown as the 747.

An advantage The Deuce would have over the 747 is that it would be one seamless service connecting most major destinations within the city, starting with the Airport. 

As it is, The Deuce is potentially the best example of point to point bus service in the US.  People don't have to learn about other transit services, other routes (other than the Downtown Loop Shuttle), they could stick with The Deuce and meet most of their needs.

OTOH, people getting to and from the airport have luggage, and don't want to take what feels like a circuitous bus trip with many stops to get to their hotel.  And most of the hotels have airport transportation shuttles.

Plus, the taxi industry is very organized, unionized, and fights public transit service to the airport.  So maybe extending The Deuce/SDX to the airport doesn't make sense.  

Alternatively, it could be done with the Express route, the SDX, the Strip Downtown Express, which is an articulated bus, and likely focused on employees and residents as riders, since it is limited stop.

And co-marketing The Deuce and proposed "Airport Express."

Another option would be to work with the hotels that offer their own airport transportation shuttles to co-brand the vehicles with RTC/The Deuce, to reinforce the use of transit during the stay and that The Deuce is the best option.

2.  RTC should create a new marketing program for The Deuce in association with the launch of Brightline service/partner.  RTC/The Deuce should be a marketing partner with Brightline and vice versa.  The Deuce should be marketed in Southern California train stations where Brightline will stop, on trains, etc.  A good example would be how Brightline is already marketing its service in the Orlando's Airport.

Note that in South Florida, comparable to how SoCal's Metrolink works with local transit services, the QR code on a Brightline ticket provides a free trip on Miami-Dade's Metrorail and Metrobus ("‘Brightline+’ app to enable door-to-door trip ticketing," Trains Magazine).

Partnership should include integrating Brightline into the RTC app, and RTC into the Brightline app.

One of the most intriguing transit co-marketing examples I've seen is in Kyushu Prefecture in Japan, which last September launched a new Shinkansen service (Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen, Japan, as an example of Transformational Projects Action Planning | Planning and executing complementary improvements across the transit network + advances in transit marketing," 2022).  As part of it, they wrapped buses and taxis with ads promoting the new train service.  

3.  When the time comes, extend The Deuce to the Brightline West Station. 

Rendering of the Brightline West station in Las Vegas

Extending The Deuce to the Brightline West station is a no brainer.  Brightline has great first mile/last mile services in South Florida connecting people to the station before their trip and to their final destination after.  

Brightline has "taxis", electric shuttles, and other vehicles for moving people between origin point, stations, and their final destination.

But in Las Vegas, rather than develop their own services, at least for people staying in the main hotels, they should partner with RTC and the hotels, focused on The Deuce, and provide discounted access, inclusion within the Brightline and RTC apps, etc.  (Separately, Brightline could focus their own first/last mile services outside of The Deuce service area.)

Note that RTC could do this "now" by extending service to the Las Vegas Premium Outlets South, which is across the street from the future train station. But that's a step can wait til the opening of Brightline.  Unless, the Outlet Mall wants to subsidize an extension.

Likely the preferred alternative would be to have a different Deuce route that goes to Brightline/Las Vegas Premium Outlets, while the main service continues as is.

4.  Consider extending the Monorail to the Airport (and Allegiant Stadium).  The Deuce has 200,000 riders daily and provides more direct service to destinations.  But monorails are cool and it would be used more heavily if it served other important destinations.  

OTOH, its fundamental design flaw--located behind the casinos on the east side of the Strip, making direct service to the west side impossible, that people would still have to get to their hotel with luggage, and the fact that The Deuce is an incredibly successful and definitely cost effective point to point bus service already means that this is an expensive and unneeded option.  

(Not unlike how the new underground terminal at Grand Central Station serving the LIRR doesn't really save LIRR riders much time, because of the time required to get to the street surface.)

Plus better to spend the money on projects that have better return in ridership.

5.  Work with Utah to provide passenger train service from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City.  In keeping with the idea of transformational projects action planning and the Rio Grande Plan for Salt Lake City ("Transit as a formula for local economic success and improvements in regional quality of life: Salt Lake's Rio Grande Plan"), multi-state passenger rail should be promoted.  Frontrunner is a passenger rail service from Provo to Ogden, which should be the platform for extending train service elsewhere in Utah and to adjoining states.

The Mayors of Salt Lake and Boise have discussed extending train service between the cities ("Boise, Salt Lake City partnering to request rail service between cities," Boise Dev).  Similarly, there should be planning to extend Front Runner to Southern Utah, and to Las Vegas.  

The Union Pacific did provide service to various destinations in Southern Utah including Cedar City and St. George. Cedar City was staged as the jumping off point to the National Parks.

This could provide important connections serving tourist destinations--major National Parks--in the south as well as higher speed transit connections between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City (and ultimately to Boise and beyond).  This is shown by historical service once offered, in the Union Pacific timetable and system map pictured below.

Page 6, Table A, Chicago to Los Angeles serving Omaha and Salt Lake City, Union Pacific Railroad passenger train time tables publication, issued April 30, 1967

Back cover with map of the system, Union Pacific Railroad passenger train time tables publication, issued April 30, 1967

6.  Ideally, Salt Lake to Las Vegas train service could be routed to the Brightline station on the Strip.  I don't know if there is enough capacity.  Obviously, because we don't have multi-state railroad planning in a coordinated fashion ("Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 1 | Amtrak should acquire Greyhound"), it's not like such questions are being asked.   

Site view of the proposed Brightline West Las Vegas station.

7.  Frontrunner-Brightline co-marketing/cooperation.  Like how it is recommended above that RTC and Brightline have a marketing partnership, the same goes for Brightline and Frontrunner, if train service were to be extended from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. And as recommended above wrt RTC,  Brightline and Frontrunner should develop a co-branded Salt Lake to Los Angeles train trip in their respective apps.

A mural promoting Amtrak service in Las Vegas remains extant at the Union Plaza hotel.  Flickr photo by Martin Manning.

8.  Train tourism as part of the Las Vegas experience.  Working with railway museums in Nevada, perhaps some train tourism options could be built into Las Vegas from the Brightline West station, although it might be counter to the image of Las Vegas as modern and futurist.  

One such line could go from Las Vegas to Hoover Dam.  (Although historically, such service was provided by bus.) The Nevada State Railroad Museum is based in nearby Boulder City.

This piece is about DC, but extendable, "Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 2 | Running tourist trains from Union Station."

Florida's Brightline passenger rail as an opportunity to rearticulate and extend transit service in cities like Orlando

I have zero personal experience with transit in South Florida.  

I know that Miami is served by bus, a heavy rail system that was burdened by a poor system design that didn't focus on stoking ridership, an intra-district downtown transit service called Metromover ("Making the case for intra-city vs. inter-city transit planning," 2011, "Brief follow up to intra-district transit proposal for Tysons: Toyama City Compact City initiative (Japan)," 2020) and a regional commuter railroad that apparently doesn't serve a lot of places--it's only with the creation of Brightline that it will extend from Palm Beach County to Miami--it doesn't currently serve Dade County (Tri-Rail Miami Link).  

Also see "Two of a kind: Miami's Metrorail and Metromover."  There are a couple of Metrorail stations--a polycentric system--that link with the Metromover.  Miami Metrorail is one of the "next generation" new heavy rail systems in the US along with BART in the SF Bay, MARTA in Atlanta, Metrorail in DC, and the one line subway in Baltimore (it was at the tail end, so funding for expansion disappeared).

Cool train branding designs though for Tri-Rail.

I have five foundational pieces on organizing transit at the regional and multi-state scales.

The first proposes a "transport association" based on the German VV model, where all the local transit providers commit to integrated service, and a common schedule and fare system.  Although it has a problem of not necessarily including for profit actors.

-- "The answer is: Create a single multi-state/regional multi-modal transit planning, management, and operations authority association," 2017
--"Verkehrsverbund: The evolution and spread of fully integrated regional public transport in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland," Ralph Buehler, John Pucher & Oliver Dümmler, International Journal of Sustainable Transportation (2018)
-- Transport Alliances - – Promoting Cooperation and Integration to offer a more attractive and efficient Public Transport, VDV, the trade association for German transport associations.   

The second uses my "transformational projects action plan" approach to transit planning, with the idea that new additions to service should be used to simultaneously drive other improvements across the transit system.

-- "Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen, Japan, as an example of Transformational Projects Action Planning | Planning and executing complementary improvements across the transit network + advances in transit marketing," 2022

-- "Revisiting the Purple Line (series) and a more complete program of complementary improvements to the transit network," 2019/2020, original multipart series published in 2017

-- "Using the Silver Line as the priming event, what would a transit network improvement program look like for NoVA?," 2017

-- "Crystal City Arlington as Amazon one-half of HQ2 | Part 3: Leveraging Amazon's entrance for complementary transit network improvements," 2018

-- "Crystal City Arlington as Amazon one-half of HQ2 | Part 4: Pie in the Sky transit improvements," 2018

-- "A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for a statewide passenger railroad program in Maryland," 2019

-- "A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for the Metrorail Blue Line," 2020

-- "DC, Transformational Projects Action Planning, and the Baltimore-Washington Maglev project ," 2021

-- "Prince George's County's newly announced transit oriented development program for the Blue Line," 2022

Relatedly, the third is about transit as a "design product" and branding.

-- "Branding's not all you need for transit," 2018 
-- "One big idea: Getting MARC and Metrorail to integrate fares, stations, and marketing systems, using London Overground as an example," 2015 

-- "BVG Jelbi — world’s most extensive MaaS solution in Berlin," Medium

The fourth, based on how rail passenger services are organized and delivered in Japan, proposes passenger rail as a foundation to regional and multi-state transit, with regional railroads (like my RACER proposal for the DC area, "A new backbone for the regional transit system: merging the MARC Penn and VRE Fredericksburg Lines," 2017) organized through six districts covering multiple states, with wide scale passenger services across and within districts provided by Amtrak.

-- "Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 1 | Amtrak should acquire Greyhound," 2021

The fifth is writing on bus transit.

-- "Making bus transit service sexy and more equitable," 2012
--"Will buses ever be cool? Boston versus the Raleigh-Durham's GoTransit Model," 2017
-- "What Richmond can't teach DC about bus services," 2019

Brightline is a new railroad passenger service that started in South Florida, is expanding to Orlando and intends to expand to Tampa.  They are building modern train stations with the aim of their serving as business and community hubs.

 A Brightline train travels southbound on the Florida East Coast Railway bridge across Fort Lauderdale's New River.  Photo: Erik Bojnansky.

Note that separately, Brightline is building a similar service between Las Vegas and Exurban Los Angeles. Brightline West will start at the Rancho Cucamonga Station in San Bernardino County, which is served by the regional Metrolink passenger rail system. People will ride out to Rancho Cucamonga and transfer to Brightline.

The station at the Orlando International Airport will have a fancy bar and other amenities.  

The train stations aren't necessarily world class, but a step forward for the US (outside of Grand Central Station in New York City).

To ride is expensive compared to the regional commuter rail in South Florida and Brightline has had serious problems with crashes with vehicles and pedestrians.  Lots of deaths.

But it's quite impressive in two ways.   

It's being built relatively quickly.  They started planning in 2012, construction in 2014, and opened the first stations in South Florida in 2018.  The extension to Orlando is opening later this year.  

Granted they've been able to do it because Brightline is a division of Florida East Coast Railroad and uses its right of way.  But still.  To get from Miami to Orlando in 11 years is an incredible accomplishment.  

By contrast, It's taking 40 years from the concept of the Purple Line transit line in Suburban DC to realize maybe 20% of the proposed line, 18 miles, with zero planning for extensions currently underway.

It's over 200 miles between Miami and Orlando.

 And their first mile/last mile transit connections might actually be the best in the world.  Brightline is a true innovator in creating transit service zones around their stations, some services are free, others cost money or are built into premium services.  They have branded special event transit service, provide service to certain airports, and the Port of Miami Cruise Terminal, etc.

Also see:

-- "To and from origin stations can be difficult: More on the Silver Line and intra-neighborhood transit (tertiary network)," 2022

Brightline as an opportunity to improve transit in Florida cities, using the Transformational Projects Action Planning Approach.  

I hate to admit that despite all my writings on TPAS and transit, it hadn't occurred to me to explore the concept with the Brightline passenger rail system.

The planning approach needs to be applied  at multiple scales.  Within cities and metropolitan areas.  Across metropolitan areas.  And across the state.  And note Brightline made some commitments to put in a station or two between West Palm Beach and Orlando ("Where will Brightline have train stations between Orlando and Tampa?,"Tampa Bay Business Journal).  

With local subsidy, they've already opened additional stations in Aventura and Boca Raton, which weren't planned as part of the original service footprint ("27% of Brightline riders come from new stations," Miami Today).

Brightline is a great opportunity to drive improvements across local transit networks in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Orlando, and eventually Tampa.

A friend is in Orlando right now and he says that public transit isn't great.  They do have bus service, which in the past has been heralded as a great example of marketing and branding, and a poorly used commuter rail (it costs them more to collect fares than they make in fare revenue).  

They are looking to improve transit but haven't had a lot of success--failed tax referenda in 2020 and 2022 with another possible attempt for 2024, and there is back-biting ("Mayor Demings wary of Universal’s SunRail expansion plan, cites ‘lack of transparency’," Mass Transit Magazine).

Again, Brightline provides a perfect opportunity to build a new consensus for how to handle public transit in Greater Orlando, along the lines I've recommended for DC Metrorail for a long time.  

-- "What it will take to get WMATA out of crisis continued and 2016's 40th anniversary of WMATA as an opportunity to rebuild," 2015
-- "WMATA and two types of public relations programs," 2015
-- "St. Louis regional transit planning process as a model for what needs to be done in the DC Metropolitan region," 2009

And some of that seems to be happening, at least with the local commuter line ("Brightline, Orlando and Orange County collaborate on potential convention center rail route," Orlando Business Journal).  From the article:

The vision of the "Sunshine Corridor Program" would include a shared corridor between Brightline and SunRail which would allow SunRail to connect with Orlando International Airport, the Orange County Convention Center and Walt Disney World.

 Photo: Ryan Lynch, Orlando Business Journal. 

My friend says there is no good public transportation from the airport to the city's major hotels.  From the OBJ:

The growing Iinternational Drive resort area currently has about 75,000 employees, a number projected to reach 100,000 in the next few years, which increases the need for a connected transportation system.

Again, airport to city transportation is a great opportunity for rearticulating transit. Especially with the opening of Brightline service there.  That would be a big deal in any big city.

Sadly, Disney dumped their Disney Express service which provided high quality transit service to Disney World, bundled into hotel reservations, although the private sector has stepped in. 

-- "Manhattan Institute misses the point about the value of light rail transit connections to airports | Utility and the network effect: the transit network as a platform ," 2020
-- "Airport transportation demand management in flux," 2019
-- "Transportation demand management, transit: Los Angeles Airport (LAX) and Logan Airport, Boston," 2019
-- "London's Stansted Airport provides digital information on transit options," 2019
-- "Why not a bicycle hub at National Airport?, focused on capturing worker trips but open to all," 2017
-- "A brief comment on ground transportation at National Airport vis a vis VRE rail service," 2016
-- "Revisiting stories: ground transportation at airports (DCA/Logan)," 2017
-- "Airports and public transit access: O'Hare Airport and the proposed fast connection from Downtown Chicago," 2018
-- "More on airport-related transit/transit for visitors," 2013

The Tampa area has had many failures in trying to pass referendums to support transit expansion ("Tampa Bay Times investigative report on transit in the Tampa-St. Petersburg Metropolitan Area," 2017). 

But that could be reversed in association with Brightline service extension from Orlando, especially if they have examples of Brightline + local transit network improvement in Orlando and the South Florida cities now.  

In South Florida some of that is happening, maybe not with bus and heavy rail, but the commuter rail is expanding some.  And some of the cities un-served by Brightline are building stations in return for agreements for future service.

Kamome train at Nagasaki Station.

Kyushu Shinkansen as an example of how to do complementary transit improvements across the network.

What Kyushu Prefecture has done with the Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen is a perfect example.  Complementing the new high speed rail service, they've invested in new train stations, in tourism marketing, in better connections, such as to the Nagasaki International Airport, and transit marketin.  It may be the best "in real life" example of the point I make about linking new infrastructure with complementary improvements across the transit network. 

A way to do this would be to organize transport associations in South Florida, Orlando, and Tampa, to coordinate transit services.

Brightline as an opportunity to improve transit in Florida State.  Brightline serves South and Central Florida, focused on the east side of the state.  There aren't plans to extend north up to Jacksonville.  There aren't plans to extend north and south from Tampa on the west side of the state.

Amtrak train in Tampa.  Photo: Amtrak Guide.

Amtrak.  Perhaps some of the slack could be picked up by Amtrak.  Amtrak could expand and extend services within the state to complement Brightline.  

The Silver Meteor and Silver Star serve the Atlantic Coast with service to Jacksonville, Tampa, and Miami and intermediate points.  The Auto Train allows people to travel with their car from Virginia to Florida.  

The Sunset Limited served Florida at times, but for almost two decades initially because of hurricane effects on infrastructure, it has not.

Florida could step up like some states--California, Maine, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington State are premier examples--that have created joint programs with Amtrak to expand intra-state service. Amtrak Cascades actually joins Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia working together.

Perhaps Brightline could be expanded to be a true intra-state railroad passenger service, not unlike how I suggest Maryland (MARC), Massachusetts (MBTA), New York (Metro-North, LIRR), and Pennsylvania (SEPTA) could have true statewide rail systems by building out from existing rail services.