Think Twice: Buffalo Metro Rail

The Light Rail does need to be extended and I believe that the Airport has the priority as the highest increase in ridership and the most likely to be self financing.

There are some things to note:
1) There are people that will ride Light Rail because the stations are safe, secure and temperature controlled unlike bus stops.

2) There needs to be more places to park in order to take advantage of the light rail.

3) As the Erie Canal Wharf develops, the DL&W will be more valuable as developable space...and the only other location for the NFTA maintenance sheds is the Central Terminal.

4) The growth along the Airport Corridor is significant: Transit, Airport, Galleria, Central Terminal, Larkin, ECC downtown...all major economic changes.

5) Liklihood of the Central Terminal being reactivated for High Speed Passenger Rail

6) Ruling against High Speed Rail to Niagara Falls which all but forces Light Rail to be the connection to Niagara Falls.

7) Expansion of ECC Downtown Campus means that the Bus Station is soon to be unwelcome...no better place than the Central Terminal.

8) Growth at Buffalo State, D'Youville and HealthNow all support future reactivation of the Belt Line for Light Rail.

9) UB 2020 does include plans for additional Centers for Excellence...and those centers for excellence will be located off campus...but one thing is for sure...they will need to be light rail accessible.

I can easily see a Center for Excellence on the Westside / Black Rock area near the Belt Line brownfields.

I can easily see a Center for Excellence around the Central Terminal and Broadway/Fillmore Area or Larkin District area.

I can easily see a Center for Excellence and/or Conference/Convention Center in the First Ward off a South Park extension.

I can easily see a Center for Excellence in Niagara Falls.

You want to dream...imagine a light rail extension from Transit Road to Darien Lake.

10) The new Federal Courthouse should boost redevelopment of the Statler..which in turn will push the relocation of the Convention Center...but one this is for sure...the new location will need to be light rail accessible.

OH AND AS OUR FRIENDS IN ROCHESTER HAVE CLEVERLY FOUND, TRANSPORTATION FUNDS CAN BE INCORPORATED FOR NON-TRANSPORTATION USES. ROCHESTER IS USING TRANSPORTATION FUNDS TO FINANCE A BUS TERMINAL, PERFORMING ARTS, DOWNTOWN COLLEGE CAMPUS AND RESIDENTIAL.

IF ROCHESTER CAN DO THAT WITH 1 BUS STATION. IMAGINE WHAT BUFFALO CAN DO WITH EXISTING 12 LIGHT RAIL STATIONS, A RAIL STATION AND A BUS TERMINAL.

IF ROCHESTER CAN DO THAT WITH 1 BUS STATION THEN IMAGINE WHAT BUFFALO CAN DO WITH 12 STATIONS TO THE AIRPORT, 12 STATIONS TO NIAGARA FALLS AND 3 STATIONS TO AMHERST AND 3 STATIONS TO SOUTH BUFFALO.

Just because Buffalo has been to stupid to look under the goose for golden eggs...doesnt mean we dont have a golden goose.

There's a lot of great information in this article, and some ideas I know have been floating around but, because of the often skewed view of the Rail, people have failed to act.
Personally, I think that when comparing cities for either travel or relocation, a city generally sounds more attractive and accessible if it has any type of subway or light rail system, opposed to only buses.

People just will not use buses...I dont know why...but people will ride a train...that would never consider riding a bus.

Expansion sounds great... as it has for 2 decades now. It's all just talk until a politician takes the reigns and runs with it.
Hint hint... someone stand up and be the hero.

I love Metro Rail and ride it whenever I have Main St. errands. I wish I could take it to Niagara Falls and the airport. I would patiently endure a tax increase if I knew that 100% of it was going to Metro Rail expansion.

The only thing I do not love is smokers in the underground stations. Doesn't matter that signs everywhere forbid it, they light up anyway and get nasty if you say anything. This is an especially serious issue at the hospital stops, where sick people with no other means of transportation have no other air to breathe.

I think the rail should stay and I believe most agree. It would be a waste to get rid of it altogether and it should be expanded. Most, including myself, feel that Main should be reconstructed so that the two could coexist like they do in many cities.

Calling our rail system "one of the most successful in the country" is a massive overstatement.

Ditto everything Queen said.

$5 a gallon gas would speed things up

Our light rail line, bringing 26k people into downtown each day is probably the only reason that Main Street has been so good looking compared to the rest of downtown for the past 30 years.

Remember chippewa, delaware, Ellicott and all these other streets 10-15 years ago. Main Street for my whole life has been a stalwart of stability in the CBD. Sure it has had its problems with buildings here or there but by in large has been the most populated and alive place in my memory.

As per expansion.. it is covered heavily here and UB north is a must.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=115736043256615441006.00044eb528193e33bf877&ll=42.924755,-78.896942&spn=0.380614,0.699005&t=h&z=11

Related link:
http://archives.buffalorising.com/story/nfta_maps_new_ideas_nftagoogle

Also if UB is going to grow. It needs LR to handle the amount of students and traffic. The roads and buses are maxed.. adding anything to them will only cripple them more. UB needs LR to expand.. and NFTA needs UB to stop playing transportation agency and do what the rest of the world does... Us their regional transit systems for student needs.

Why UB runs its own parallel transit system with 30+ buses, some of which ride right on top of the LR, boggles the mind. Completely absurd.

I would prefer an extension to our light rail over high speed rail any day (like high speed to Buffalo has a snowballs chance of happening).
FYI – back in Aug.2008 had some friends visit from Hamburg, Germany. They were very impressed with our clean and graffiti free stations and cars.

my NYC friends always like to take our train because it is kept is such good shape. Sometimes you need to take a step away from home to see that the grass isn't always greener.

Sure its 6.4 miles but is does do a lot for those 6.4 miles.

Just incredible that UB North and South are still not connected.

We need an underground rail system and we also need a street car system. The underground rail system can make less frequent stops while, the street car system can make more frequent stops . I think public transportation is the way to go if you want rejuvenate the city. The current rail system hurts the city's center.

i really don't get this whole airport thing. why not connect it with the maid of the mist?

so has everyone noticed how different the city looks from 5 years ago? with the way things are just imagine how out of the world issa's tower would be. i was driving past and man does that side of the city starting to look like it is inhabited.

I was also thinking how neat the casino will look from coke a cola field.

now all i can do is hope that this inner harbor project has more heterogenenity then the apeasement of its sponcership.(a bunch of lead weighted ideas)

so what is happening with pitt's std pallasaide. Because no doubt the other project would really take the gloves off. people would start to see buffalo as a city and now just a place where buildings ended up.

This all makes me pine for the days when public transportation really served the city and first ring suburbs. Every major thoroughfare emanating from downtown that we know as the spokes on maps had routine lines. North and south as well. In the northern areas, lines traveled Elmwood, Delaware, Miltary, Colvin, Niagara Falls Blvd., Englewood, Niagara, Tonawanda, Hertel, Skillen, Sheridan, Main, Bailey, Kenmore, Amherst, etc. Residents were seldom far from a convenient line or connections. The obsolete trolley tracks were still in some of these streets well into the late 60's.

I remember some of the early renderings of this project which pictured incredible vitality along Main with the rail line clearly at its heart. It's hard to blame the line for the death of retail on Main St. given that in almost every major american city at that time, downtown department stores were closing and taking with them all of the ancillary trade. But the line has to be expanded and reach more communities to drive the renewed interest in Downtown and in mass transit. UB North, The Tonawandas and Niagara Falls, the airport, South Towns, Lancaster, etc. should all be connected, not only to bring those residents back into the city, but to enable city residents to find work in the far-flung suburbs, an issue that has had a painful history in Buffalo.

Oh, and great photos, BTW!

it is unfortunate that our leaders back in the mid '50s did not have the vision to build a rapid transit system connecting the airport to downtown, preserving the humboldt parkway greenspace, instead opting for the construction of the kensington, and the rest is history...i know, revisionist history, blah blah blah...just the first in a series of unfortunate events...anyhow, expansion would be great, first we must grow our private sector and reverse the shrinking population trend. it would be great to have a train airport to downtown via genesee street, then continuing on through niagara street to niagara falls, also extend the existing train route via south park to the basillica and beyond, since we're dreaming, how about a train route along elmwood through seneca essentially tying in most neighborhoods to the downtown business district...ok, i'll now move on...enough dreaming for one day...

Got to admit, I'm one of those people who will ride the rail but not the bus.

Love the night photo with City Hall in the background. Great shot B4L.

buses are slow as molasses. Waiting is a huge pain and they stop everywhere. It's easy to hate buses. The train is quick. That's what makes it so nice. I hate the train downtown. There it's just as slow as a bus. But getting to and from downtown? great!

Anyone read about the announced 60, 50 and 40 story towers to be added to the Niagara Falls Ontario skyline.

Now, it seems to me that a light rail connection to Niagara Falls, NY is a good investment.

One has to wonder, how long it will be before, investment in Niagara Falls, Ontarior spills into Niagara Falls, NY and Buffalo, NY. I wouldnt say its as far off as people think since there are quite a few visitors to Niagara Falls Ontario that arrive via Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

Buffalo needs to reinvent it's once maginificent public transit system. Buffalo has done way too many stupid things in it's past and now needs to become a city known for being "proactive".
In 1950, the International Railway Corporation, IRC, discontinued all streetcar service in the Buffalo Niagara region. Buffalo at the time had one of the most innovative transit systems in the world.
Streetcar routes followed major throughfares such as Delaware, Elmwood, Broadway, Clinton, Fillmore, South Park, Hertel, etc. The IRC even had lines go all the way east to Lancaster, south to hamburg,north to Niagara Falls, even to the point where we had connecting routes to Toronto. Could you imagine today working with a cross border relationship with GO Transit to have unimpeeded rail service between Buffalo and Toronto.
Reinventing the steetcars would be a great boost to the local economy. It's not as though we need to build trackbeds, many are still in place.
I have always wondered this for example. How was the Buffalo Niagara Region able to have high speed rail from Buffalo to Niagara Falls and then in turn streetcar lines in the Falls as well as the Great Gorge Route. By the way that was the turn of the century...19th to 20th. Why have we digressed?
Our corrupt politicians along with the NFTA who enjoys there stranglehold on this area would say it couldn't be done, cars and trains can't share roadways, years of studying, and all that other BS. All I have to say is it works in Toronto.