Streetcar

[HOT ROD]

Brookville's Liberty looks very nice!

[HangryHippo]

I like the looks of the CAF model the best.

[CuatrodeMayo]

I'll be beyond thrilled to see any of these traversing the streets of OKC. It will be a far cry from the city of my childhood.

[Anonymous.]

At the start I was leaning towards keeping the wires. But as I've thought more and more - I would actually prefer wireless. Wires will help people see where the streetcar goes, but in this day and age - finding a route on an app or seeing the shelters and rails is sufficient.

I have a strong feeling that anyone willing to take the streetcar is going to put enough effort into seeing where it actually travels.

Does having the wires incline people to blindly go to the shelter and ride? Or does it just help those who were already planning on riding the streetcar, find it? (I am asking those who have/had extensive experience in a city with a system in place)

[OKCisOK4me]

I think the wires will help vehicle operators to identify the area they are driving in to be more alertful.

[Plutonic Panda]

I'd still prefer wireless, but we've been down that route before.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it was already decided OKC is going the wires?

[Paseofreak]

I will have the capacity to go wireless for some distance to deal with obstacles like overpasses.

[catch22]

Depot debate: MAPS 3 committee member protests Santa Fe station renderings | The Journal Record

Anybody have access to the full article? Warreng88?

[Laramie]

I'd still prefer wireless, but we've been down that route before.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it was already decided OKC is going the wires?

Don't think that a concrete decision has been made. The longer it takes, who knows; wireless just may be an option.

Could the city start out with a system using wires; then transfer over to a wireless streetcar model?

[David]

Depot debate: MAPS 3 committee member protests Santa Fe station renderings | The Journal Record

Anybody have access to the full article? Warreng88?

I saw a tweet that I'm guessing is related from the OKC Streetcar Twitter account earlier:

Initial @cityofokc Santa Fe plans show no pedestrian relationship to @Maps3 Bricktown stops... the primary stops. Disappointed...

[ljbab728]

From Bill Crum.

http://www.oklahoman.com/article/5374811?embargo=1

Jeff Bezdek, a streetcar advocate and member of a MAPS 3 streetcar advisory group, told committee members and the architects that he had hoped the designs would do more to connect the depot to streetcar stops on Reno and Sheridan avenues.

The stops will be on the Bricktown side of the tracks, which is the back side of Santa Fe Station.

[warreng88]

Depot debate: MAPS 3 committee member protests Santa Fe station renderings | The Journal Record

Anybody have access to the full article? Warreng88?

Here you go:

Depot debate: MAPS 3 committee member protests Santa Fe station renderings

OKLAHOMA CITY – A presentation Wednesday on the Santa Fe station intermodal hub renovations prompted concern from a member of the MAPS 3 streetcar subcommittee.

During the Bricktown Urban Design Committee meeting, Tap Architecture architect Scott Parker and Chicago-based Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architecture architect Stan Szwalek presented initial drawings for a renovated Santa Fe station, including a tunnel to connect the Central Business District to Bricktown. The station’s renovations showed space for restaurant and retail development. The tunnel will be glazed and could be a showcase spot for local art.

“This project is very much about connecting and activating; connecting the downtown side with the Bricktown Canal and activating the interior part with new business opportunities and a streetscape on the plaza,” Szwalek said.

Tap’s renderings include a streetcar stop across E.K. Gaylord Boulevard. However, that streetcar stop won’t be part of the initial route, said Jeff Bezdek, an at-large MAPS 3 subcommittee member.
“The stop in front of the station will not be used at all,” Bezdek said.

He said Amtrak passengers would have to walk to stops next to the fountain on E. Sheridan Avenue or the flag plaza on E. Reno Avenue to hop on the streetcar.

“You’ve done a great job opening up the tunnel and doing great things to activate Lower Bricktown, but there’s no interaction depicted between the transit uses for the facility,” he said.

He said the MAPS 3 subcommittee is especially interested in making sure that ties to other modes of transit are properly depicted because it has about $10 million invested in the $40 million project.

Public Works Director Eric Wenger told The Journal Record that the City Council-approved streetcar map shows that the route near the Santa Fe hub is a possible extension to the original route. It would stop on the Cox Convention Center side of the street, across from the rail station.

Bezdek said the streetcar route included the hub in its initial phase, but that plan was changed after retailers, Mayor Mick Cornett and city councilmen asked for the route to go further into Bricktown. He said the committee is concerned that passengers getting off the Amtrak train who want to take a streetcar to a hotel would have to walk at least a block east.

“Our concern is that for the first 10 to 15 years of this facility’s use, the primary interaction is the MAPS 3 streetcar, and that connective tissue is not depicted authoritatively,” he said.

Parker said Tap was told to depict the hub as a streetcar alternative route, with a stop on Gaylord.

“Our committee will be protesting that, because (Gaylord Boulevard) will not be the primary streetcar stop,” Bezdek said. “The transit advocates will protest this all the way to City Council unless the connective tissue to the streetcar is well-established.”

The city says streetcar service could start in 2018.

[Urban Pioneer]

I didn't want to discuss this on the thread publicly until I had heard the presentation. Basically, we had hoped for a weather protected architectural connection, signage, and automated arrival, information boards. The architects have done a great job on the preliminaries for the tunnel and establishing a pedestrian connection to the facility.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of understanding in the Public Works Department as to exactly where people will walking to catch the streetcar from the station.

The tunnel took on new importance when we moved the stops to the "backside" of the facility to connect further into Bricktown. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing I depicted establishing how the first initial two modes of transit connect with one another.

We will fix it, but I am disappointed that we have to fight for it. It seems that we have to fight for everything. And it is always the same people standing in the way.

[CuatrodeMayo]

At least somebody is there to say something. Good job, Jeff.

[TheTravellers]

I didn't want to discuss this on the thread publicly until I had heard the presentation. Basically, we had hoped for a weather protected architectural connection, signage, and automated arrival, information boards. The architects have done a great job on the preliminaries for the tunnel and establishing a pedestrian connection to the facility.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of understanding in the Public Works Department as to exactly where people will walking to catch the streetcar from the station.

The tunnel took on new importance when we moved the stops to the "backside" of the facility to connect further into Bricktown. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing I depicted establishing how the first initial two modes of transit connect with one another.

We will fix it, but I am disappointed that we have to fight for it. It seems that we have to fight for everything. And it is always the same people standing in the way.

Thanks for all you do, man, I'd probably be in jail over killing city/state gov't folks by now if I had to do what you have to...

Just absolutely baffling that they can't google/research/investigate how other cities connect transportation forms, it's not that freaking hard, been done hundreds (thousands, probably) of times all over the world, correctly, and it's just plain damn common sense and logic!

[Just the facts]

If only this route how been adopted from the beginning think of how much time and trouble would have been saved.

[shawnw]

I would have been okay with Sid's route suggestion

[BoulderSooner]

If only this route how been adopted from the beginning think of how much time and trouble would have been saved.

46 blocks double tracked. Give or take or 9 miles of track. Where is that money coming from?

[Urban Pioneer]

It has nothing to do with the route. It has everything to do with traffic engineers trying to renovate a train station.

Why are we discussing routes again?

[Urban Pioneer]

Thanks for the kind words on the previous page.

[Plutonic Panda]

Czech company is leading contender to build MAPS 3 streetcars | News OK

[Plutonic Panda]

The single comment is funny. Only American engineering is the best quality in everything.

[Urban Pioneer]

I must confess that I am excited about this. The Czechs have a long history of providing functional streetcar vehicles here in the United States with equipment in Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, and other cities. There is a well developed consortium for parts and maintenance services between the various transit authorities for these specific vehicles.

Their trams are not exactly cutting edge technology compared to some of the other companies, but this was exactly the kind of streetcar that inspired the MAPS 3 streetcar program to begin with. In fact, the original renderings of the streetcar during the MAPS 3 campaign are based on an earlier model from this company. Portland and Tacoma were what our graphic artist based his renderings off of.

I can't really put in writing the pro's and con's of the various companies that bid on the project until the process is over. Quite frankly, I was surprised that we didn't have a couple more American bidders. There was only one.

But if people are concerned that we are on budget (we're under budget with this bid package) or whether the system will reliably operate on day one, this is probably one of the least riskiness decisions that could have been made for this program.

[catch22]

I must confess that I am excited about this. The Czechs have a long history of providing functional streetcar vehicles here in the United States with equipment in Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, and other cities. There is a well developed consortium for parts and maintenance services between the various transit authorities for these specific vehicles.

Their trams are not exactly cutting edge technology compared to some of the other companies, but this was exactly the kind of streetcar that inspired the MAPS 3 streetcar program to begin with. In fact, the original renderings of the streetcar during the MAPS 3 campaign are based on an earlier model from this company. Portland and Tacoma were what our graphic artist based his renderings off of.

I can't really put in writing the pro's and con's of the various companies that bid on the project until the process is over. Quite frankly, I was surprised that we didn't have a couple more American bidders. There was only one.

But if people are concerned that we are on budget (we're under budget with this bid package) or whether the system will reliably operate on day one, this is probably one of the least riskiness decisions that could have been made for this program.

Thanks for the update. I too am excited.

[TheTravellers]

Yeah, I'm very excited too, loved riding the El and Metra trains in Chicago and burbs, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than driving (unless you wanted to go to a club show and lived in the burbs 'cos Metra trains stopped running to the burbs at 12:30 AM).