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Transit in Nashville


FrijolMalo

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  • 2 weeks later...

Potential great news for Nashville transit last Friday..

Despite a lot of cuts in the Mayor's budget proposal.. MTA would get an increase in funding.. and start a DOWNTOWN CIRCULATOR!

The news wasn't bad for everyone Friday. The administration said the city should give the Metro Transit Authority a $2.3 million increase so it can maintain current services. MTA also would start a bus rapid transit line on Gallatin Road and a downtown circulator bus, which might be free to riders.

Riebeling said it's important to preserve mass transit at a time when more people are using it and the city is encouraging it for economic and environmental reasons.

"It's important not to go backwards," he said.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090502...S0202/905020338

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  • 3 weeks later...

Gotta love Mayor Dean sometimes...

Mayor Dean calls for action on regional mass transit

Cities like Charlotte, Austin and Denver have something Nashville doesn't: regional mass transit.

"And I want it," Mayor Karl Dean told community leaders and transportation planners gathered Wednesday to talk about creating such a system in the 10-county Nashville area.

The afternoon conference looked at how transit has been developed in other places and how those experiences might translate to Nashville. It was put on by Cumberland Region Tomorrow, a nonprofit growth and planning group, and other organizations.

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Anyone else notice more and more of the Vanderbilt shuttles going around town? It seems like maybe... 6 months ago.. i started to notice a few here and there. Now its as if I see multiple buses every day. Am I just crazy? lol. Or is there something to this?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Aw, yeah... More good news for MTA...

MTA is adding state-of-the-art global positioning systems and computers to each bus.

"The dispatcher can see who the driver is, what route it's on, how many people are on the bus and whether it's early or late or on time," says GPS contractor Dave Rucker.

"This would be a 100 percent picture of what all the buses are doing all the time. It will literally change the way we manage the bus system," says Bob Baulsir with the MTA.

By September, every bus and MTA vehicle will have the GPS technology.

In the next six months, MTA officials say video screens will be installed at Music City Central and a few select routes. The screens will tell riders to the minute when their bus is scheduled to arrive.

MTA Buses going High-Tech

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  • 2 weeks later...

MTA master plan hearing is going on now @ MCC.. TransitNowNashville is live-tweeting.. exciting stuff!

So far:

* MTA ridership reached 9.4 million last year. Highest in recent history.

* 3 households per acre or around 5000 people per sq mile needed to justify hourly service.

* Downtown circulator expected in the Spring

* Mini hub concept would connect routes that are close together and provide better transfers and cross town mobility.

* BRT light on Gallatin route is coming September, 15 stops,15 min peak frequency and will be branded differently

The strategic master plan (draft) is available here:

http://www.nashvillemta.org/setpage.asp?pa...rplan07_09.html

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We need Lightrail NOW! I like the BRT plans for Gallatin Road, but we need to have that line from downtown, through church street/west end, through vanderbilt, and to the airport. Let BRT take over the interstates with dedicated routes from the donut counties. The big difference between BRT and Lightrail is that Lightrail is permanent, so businesses and residents can develop along these lines, while bus routes can always be changed. Some people view the density/transit delimma as a chicken and egg thing, I say Nashville should definitely go the transit route, as many people work and play downtown (we're catching up on the living). Let's be like Portland, Charlotte, where they planned ahead and got their lightrail implemented for the future. Let's not be like Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, etc. who grew but never implemented transit, and it's now way too late.

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I agree.. we need to implement transit and develop accordingly. But I do think BRT is a good idea, and in other areas, has led to development along the lines. It's less permanent than LRT, but still semi-permanent, especially when $ are spent on state-of-the-art stations.

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So.. ive been looking over part 3 of the master plan..

The second phase of BRT that has been talked about here on UP.. going to the West End corridor.. is not exactly as I had envisioned.

I assumed it would basically replace Route 3, which goes down Broadway and West End, all the way to White Bridge Rd.

But according to the report.. it will actually replace a portion of Route 35X (Rivergate Express).. which goes from MCC down Charlotte, turns at 6th, down Union, loops around to Church, then follows Church all the way down to 21st, goes into the Vanderbilt area and turns around and comes back.

Hmm.. interesting. I guess this will be helpful to many people.. but not so much for Route 3/7 riders.

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  • 2 months later...

Hmm.. wonder where we can find more details about this? I hope it runs on weekends from Nashville to Franklin.. would be cool.

A bus service running between downtown Nashville and Franklin has a green light.

Mayor John Schroer confirmed Tuesday that the Nashville Regional Transit Authority was awarded a $400,000 grant from federal stimulus money to operate a bus service from Franklin to Nashville.

Schroer sat on the committee involved in the project and said the service should

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Hmm... this other article is almost a month old, but seems to have some conflicting info.. as far as where the buses terminate..

That service will also start up on two routes, one serving the cities of Spring Hill, Thompson Station and Franklin and one serving Franklin and Brentwood. Each has three stops identified as park-and-ride lots. Both routes would travel on Interstate 65 to and from Music City Central at Charlotte Avenue and 5th Avenue in downtown Nashville.

RTA held public meetings to ask people about the proposed stops and to gauge what is a convenient schedule. "What time do they need to be at work and what time do they need to get home," Cannon said.

Williamson County residents had requested the service, McAteer said. The Franklin Transit Authority also heard there was a need and worked with RTA to select the proposed stops, he said.

Federal stimulus money will be used to contract for the Williamson service. It is also going to buy two hybrid coaches for the Murfreesboro route, the first buses that the regional authority will own.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090915...T0128/909150315

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  • 2 months later...

Does anyone know how the new BRT service is going? I've spent some time along the 31E corridor over the holiday and saw plenty of the buses tooling north and south. Didn't know if the new route would serve as a good precedent for other BRT systems in the South. I have to admit, I thought it was a little crazy that they spent so much money on "THIS IS NOT A BRT STOP" signs.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have to admit, I thought it was a little crazy that they spent so much money on "THIS IS NOT A BRT STOP" signs.

I don't blame them. How'd you like to answer all the complaints about buses zooming right past without stopping? :)

MTA has posted proposed service changes (pdf) for spring, including the downtown circulator, and my personal favorite, the return of the Vine Hill bus. All the new activity at 100 Oaks must make it a viable route again.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Can't wait to see the downtown circulator begin! Anyone know if its actually a sure thing yet? Or when we will know for sure?

According to the PDF... it's to be called Music City Circuit, and have a different look from the regular city buses.

Hybrid buses.. free... 12-14min frequency... and the Gulch route runs til midnight!

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