I supposed Tacoma is empty of car traffic, so this *streetcar* needs no grade separation at all. If the neighborhoods shown are so empty, was there really a need for this rail at all?..
Eventually it is planned to go to TCC. It might really pay off at that point. Also, it will go by some of the real treasures of Tacoma like Stadium High School, First Presbyterian Church, and Wright Park.
I see a lot of fairly tall apartment buildings that this extension seems to be passing so my immediate thought is that these are possibly the target commuters for this streetcar. If buses become overcrowded and frequent enough that “bunching” starts to occur it can seriously inhibit the systems reliability so in order to counter that the go to option is usually to increase the capacity of each vehicle. I’m not sure how long the buses are in Tacoma but light rail vehicles are often longer and seat more people so this may be a compromise between relieving congestion from the bus route but not spending as much $$$ on a fully grade separated metro line. Feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong though because I don’t live in this neighborhood of Tacoma
It's interesting to note that the route that they chose to build the extension on consists of mainly local traffic. The non-local traffic in this area generally uses the shorter steep grade roads (perpendicular to the track before the beginning of the video) or the 4-lane arterials (parallel to the track towards the end of the video). There has been quite a few projects that started to get built along the new track since this video was filmed, so that will naturally increase ridership as well.
Downtown is dead. No one is going to use this pointless tram… honestly it’s basically a bus on rails. What Tacoma needs is to be connected to the light rail line that goes to SeaTac, and then we need the underground/elevated light rail line to continue past the Tacoma Dome into the city that connects in a couple spots in Tacoma. But there’s no way this street level light rail line (a tram) will be used by anyone.
New video update! Heavy construction is almost complete. ua-cam.com/video/45TGnjdgu10/v-deo.html
That’s it good choice of places to put a light rail. Hill top is a crime ridden area and has been that way for decades!
Are the light rail vehicles able to go up such steep grades? Did they have to modify them in some way?
Nice, but get ready for multiple collisions between trains and cars :(
Nah, no one drives that fast in Tacoma and there are very few trains
May 2023 update! ua-cam.com/video/dFenbUdOqjo/v-deo.html
I supposed Tacoma is empty of car traffic, so this *streetcar* needs no grade separation at all. If the neighborhoods shown are so empty, was there really a need for this rail at all?..
Eventually it is planned to go to TCC. It might really pay off at that point. Also, it will go by some of the real treasures of Tacoma like Stadium High School, First Presbyterian Church, and Wright Park.
I see a lot of fairly tall apartment buildings that this extension seems to be passing so my immediate thought is that these are possibly the target commuters for this streetcar. If buses become overcrowded and frequent enough that “bunching” starts to occur it can seriously inhibit the systems reliability so in order to counter that the go to option is usually to increase the capacity of each vehicle. I’m not sure how long the buses are in Tacoma but light rail vehicles are often longer and seat more people so this may be a compromise between relieving congestion from the bus route but not spending as much $$$ on a fully grade separated metro line.
Feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong though because I don’t live in this neighborhood of Tacoma
It's interesting to note that the route that they chose to build the extension on consists of mainly local traffic. The non-local traffic in this area generally uses the shorter steep grade roads (perpendicular to the track before the beginning of the video) or the 4-lane arterials (parallel to the track towards the end of the video). There has been quite a few projects that started to get built along the new track since this video was filmed, so that will naturally increase ridership as well.
Downtown is dead. No one is going to use this pointless tram… honestly it’s basically a bus on rails. What Tacoma needs is to be connected to the light rail line that goes to SeaTac, and then we need the underground/elevated light rail line to continue past the Tacoma Dome into the city that connects in a couple spots in Tacoma.
But there’s no way this street level light rail line (a tram) will be used by anyone.