PPP law and AVR commuter rail moving forward (Pittsburgh, Harrisburg: leases, insurance)

[BrianTH]

Here is the article:

Plan for train from Westmoreland to Pittsburgh moves along

PPP, aka 3P, stands for public-private partnership, and Pennsylvania is moving toward adopting a PPP law that could help attract private investments for certain sorts of transportation projects.

One such project is the proposed AVR commuter rail service. Apparently that project will keep moving forward if the law gets passed.

[grimacista]

But wouldn't this commuter rail from Pittsburgh to Greensburg duplicate the Maglev that is going to solve all of our problems?

[DarkWolf]

good , hopefully this will jump start the PPPs in Urban PA. Your state needs a Transit Injection in its cities and Harrisburg seems mentally slow to do that , so this will hopefully change things. SE PA is behind by 20 billion , Urban PA as a whole is behind by 25-40 Billion in Rail , Light Rail and Bus Rapid Transit. Hopefully if this proves successful it will spread to other cities and states.

[gg]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Here is the article:

Plan for train from Westmoreland to Pittsburgh moves along

PPP, aka 3P, stands for public-private partnership, and Pennsylvania is moving toward adopting a PPP law that could help attract private investments for certain sorts of transportation projects.

One such project is the proposed AVR commuter rail service. Apparently that project will keep moving forward if the law gets passed.

This is a very interesting project. Oakmont has that huge riverfront property being developed and from what I have been hearing, it is going to be popular. I am starting to rethink Oakmont if all this happens. Living in a nice little town and getting downtown on a train sounds very good. All those retired people moving to Edgewater (that new riverfront development) will be able to get into the city easily. Seems like a winner. I don't know about Arnold. Are there that many from there that would use the service?

[DarkWolf]

Originally Posted by grimacista

But wouldn't this commuter rail from Pittsburgh to Greensburg duplicate the Maglev that is going to solve all of our problems?

LOL , your not going to get a Maglev....at least not in my lifetime. That was just a political move to win some votes. Maglev's are 6x the cost of HSR and Electrified Regional Rail

[SlurmsMcKenzie]

12-14 dollars round trip? The comes out to 240-280 per month for someone working a 5 day a week schedule, using the rail line to commute downtown. Why would someone pay this when they can pay less than that for a downtown parking lease? I'm all for the idea and I think it would be great for New Kensington. I just wonder how many riders they expect to get at this price.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

Maglev's are 6x the cost of HSR and Electrified Regional Rail

I don't want to get off on a tangent, but Maglev built at scale would likely be no more expensive than true HSR, and in fact could be less expensive than true HSR in many cases due to routing advantages from better acceleration (which means it can make tighter turns and climb steeper grades).

The reason we likely won't do Maglev is that there isn't enough political will to commit to an Ike/highway-style program to quickly build a true high-speed train system. So we are going the slow, incremental, constituency-building route instead, and that means using conventional rail. Which is unfortunate, since we have so little legacy passenger rail at this point in time that we could leap a generation ahead, if the political will existed (but it doesn't).

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

This is a very interesting project. Oakmont has that huge riverfront property being developed and from what I have been hearing, it is going to be popular.

I agree this could be a game-changer for Oakmont. I like Oakmont already, but a 15-minute train to Downtown would garner it a lot more attention.

I don't know about Arnold. Are there that many from there that would use the service?

I'm sure they would incorporate a park-and-ride too. And obviously you don't want the trains to start off full, since they need to pick up people at all the other stops along the way into Downtown.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by trlstreet

12-14 dollars round trip? The comes out to 240-280 per month for someone working a 5 day a week schedule, using the rail line to commute downtown. Why would someone pay this when they can pay less than that for a downtown parking lease?

Well, first of all a lot of Downtown leases aren't going to save you too much over that.

Then you have all the other costs of driving. The obvious ones are fuel and a share of your insurance, maintenance, and depreciation. In fact if you can actually walk to the train station you would use, you may well be able to eliminate a car from your household, which would result in big savings.

And then there is the value of your time. This service may actually beat commuting by car on time, and the time you spend on a train is potentially productive time, or sleep time, or whatever you would like to do with it.

I'm all for the idea and I think it would be great for New Kensington. I just wonder how many riders they expect to get at this price.

You can do the math from the number of trains and size of the trains in the article. Four trains times six cars times 40-60 people per car means room for 960-1440 riders.

[SlurmsMcKenzie]

There is a mention of the trains connecting to the T at Steel Plaza. Is this feasible or wishful thinking from the mayor? THAT would be truly phenomenal and could perhaps get the ball rolling for further light rail development.