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River Rail


skirby

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As big of an advocate of urban planning concepts and smart growth as I am, I just don't get the huge outcry against this...as if this is the first time any highway department has proposed increasing capacity due to increasing demand.  It would be one this if there were NO freeway here, and one was planned...but it's already there, and widening it to accommodate continued growth seems like a logical response to me.  "Pretending" that we can handle growth and capacity by public transit and bike lanes, etc. is idealistic at best and just plain ridiculous at worst.

When a spokesman for the AHTD says on TV that the main route for people traveling between Memphis and Dallas is the I-30 bridge then something is wrong, this traffic should be taking I-440. The more I look at the design the more I am against it. It looks as though it might increase speed on I-30 but cause more problems for downtown LR. What they are calling the Cantrell Interchange is a major problem unless their intent is to increase traffic in the downtown area. They intend to close the 2nd Street circle which I use to get to the River Market Parking Deck. In order to get to the parking deck or the River Market if someone is coming from the north or south they will have to use Cumberland to President Clinton in one plan or go to Scott to President Clinton because Cumberland will be closed. In this plan you will need to go down 2nd to State to get on La Harpe because La Harpe will dead end at President Clinton.

If someone is on the west side of I-30 and wants to travel to the east side they now have five streets to use between President Clinton and 6th(including those). With most of the interchange plans there will be only one street to use between President Clinton and 6th. Some of the plans are calling for 3rd to be closed as well as 4th.

As far as I can tell someone will not be able to use Cumberland to travel between 3rd and President Clinton in any of the plans. All plans will increase the number of cars using President Clinton to get into the River Market which will in turn slow down the streetcars more than they are now and people will have to drive or walk further to get around the  area.

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Has there been any effort to identify who uses the I30 bridge and I30 through Little Rock. Are they local or interstate travelers.   

None that I know of but I'm sure the AHTD has these figures.  Metroplan came out last week an said that if the project is completed as visioned by the AHTD an additional $4 billion will be needed to improve highways  feeding it. Something not mentioned by the AHTD is who will build it and at what cost. Their estimate is for over $400 million with the project to be finished in 2021/2022. The last few bidding programs have not gone as planned. Not enough or no bidders for some projects and estimates too high.

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Since they renamed the transit system to Rock Region METRO the streetcar system is now referred to as METRO Streetcar. The former River Rail introduced a free ride summer and for June ridership went from under 8000 to over 15000. Due to the increase  free rides will continue until the end of the year. 

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1 hour ago, skirby said:

Since they renamed the transit system to Rock Region METRO the streetcar system is now referred to as METRO Streetcar. The former River Rail introduced a free ride summer and for June ridership went from under 8000 to over 15000. Due to the increase  free rides will continue until the end of the year. 

"How do we make money? Volume."

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I realize I don't see the number of riders of the streetcar every day.  However, whenever I do so the trolley, there is usually one passenger on the thing--the driver.   How did the number of passengers increase from 8,000 to 15,000?  

I'm an advocate of mass transit, I just wish the trolley car system was set up to actually take people from home to work and back in addition to around downtown.  

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5 hours ago, Arkanzin said:

I realize I don't see the number of riders of the streetcar every day.  However, whenever I do so the trolley, there is usually one passenger on the thing--the driver.   How did the number of passengers increase from 8,000 to 15,000?  

I'm an advocate of mass transit, I just wish the trolley car system was set up to actually take people from home to work and back in addition to around downtown.  

I rode the trolley in June from NLR to the River Market and then later that evening back and there were at least 12 to 15 riders both ways. One of the people I was with was going to ride the trolley the next morning from NLR across the river to attend a conference at the Clinton Library. With the increasing population of downtown Argenta I believe this should increase ridership in the future. If the East Village is a success the streetcar would only have to be extended a short distance to service that area.

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1 hour ago, ndark said:

The streetcar will be free beginning December 21 through all of 2019. 

Bummer, I'll still have to shell out the big bucks to ride it to the Razorback basketball game tonight.

The powers in charge no longer refer to the streetcar system as the River Rail but it is now known as the METRO  Streetcar, which is about appealing as a piece of gum on a sidewalk.

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