OKC Rail yard

[mranderson]

Earlier this week, we gained a new member of the group who is a talk show host on KOKC (Formerly KOMA). The program is on Monday thru Friday 6AM to 8AM, and is quite good.

On today's program, one of the guests was Tom Elmore who is a known transit expert (I think some members know more about him). He said some interesting things I knew nothing about.

We have enough rail lines in place, that are not used that can be easily converted to intra metro rail. All it would take is a little refurbishing, buying the trains, and staffing it. This is so simple it is not even funny.

The problem is multifold. One. The railyard is being closed to make room for the new freeway. Two. Negitive attitude toward rail. Three. The Governor would need to stop the closing of the yard. Four. Some transportation people, like Neil McCalib, are so pro freeway, they are blocking efforts.

We are SOOOOOOOOOOOO close, people. We need to move on this. We DO need light rail, no matter what some people try to tell you.

[TheImmortal]

I am definatly on the same page with you. I've been researching this and looking into it for about a year now and it makes me want to scream to think that this infrastucture could be destroyed. Myself and others almost feel betrayed by city leaders even considering this. Every single person I have asked said if light rail was present they would ride it regularly(4-5 times per week was the average response). Is our city ignoring us? Maybe. Probably. I discussed this issue with Mayor Cornett about at year ago and his response was basically complaints about how there is no way people are going to give up their cars and ride mass transit instead. And something about how he didnt like the extra price of making stations comply with ADA Standards. I thought both of these responses were fairly ingnorant. I ampretty sure as gas prices surge, so will ridership of mass transit. this has already proven to be True in Edmond with The Eddy. Ridership is up 50% from this time last year and I beleive there was a 38% increase from Febuary to March. Also The Edmond Sun interviewed a couple citizens who said that if bus stations were more clearly marked they would consider using the Eddy as an alternative to their cars. Well the bell just rung. Maybe ill finish my rant later.

[metro]

I couldnt agree more. This is the stupidest thing I have seen our city and state leaders do. To destroy infrastructure and right of ways that we already have is taking a step back to our Pre-Maps days. I encourage everyone to write Mayor Cornett and Gov. Henry and let them know we won't settle for sub-par decisions and that the average citizen is more aware of the issues than they want to believe!

[renffahcs]

The cities that currently have rail service used to say the same things. The excuses you hear out of your Mayor is the same kind of stuff you hear in San Antonio. However all the cities that have rail had the same naysayers. Well they are pretty quite now. Cities like Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston. The only difference between a DFW & Houston and OKC might be the severity of traffic. People hate to commute so bad here the train is a relaxing time to read the paper or drink coffee on the way to work. In fact, many companies in Dallas buy monthly passes for their employees as a benefit. Texas Instruments is one that does this. Yes, people like your Mayor are ignorant.

[metro]

Below are the email addresses of city and state leaders I encourage everyone to write and demand a response directly from them and not their staff.

mick@mickcornett.com
mayor@okc.gov
ward1@okc.gov
ward2@okc.gov
ward3@okc.gov
ward4@okc.gov
ward5@okc.gov
ward6@okc.gov
ward7@okc.gov
ward8@okc.gov

You can also write Gov. Brad "lotto" Henry at www.ok.gov and fill out his form. Below is a sample letter I wrote to him. We must stop this and allow for more discussion before it is too late.

Dear Governor Henry,

I am writing you to address my concern for what I feel is a huge mistake our state and city leaders are making. I am referring to the Union Station rail yard in which the old lines and infrastructure are being destroyed without truly and honestly thinking about our future. I strongly believe the COPTA feasibility study was merely a "cover" to show that our "leaders" have made an honest effort when truly they must not realize what a step in the wrong direction this is. The public is more educated on this issue and politics than officials would like to admit.

Currently OKC is trying to attracting the "creative class" or simply the young professional to retain our talent in state. Well, I happen to be one of these who it is very tempting most of the time to not only move out of state, but my business also. Many leaders have stated that "Oklahomans will not give up their cars for public transportation"; although that may be true to a degree, I amoung thousands of others would prefer to take public transporation (light rail) more frequently and keep my vehicle for more mundane tasks and out-of-town trips. I think another feasibility study conducted by another independent reasearch firm would show this to be more feasible, especially when gas prices are at an all time high.

I am challenging you to take a stand for what is right and at least bring this issue more out in the public for further discussion and stop the current demolition scheduled for Union Station lines. Don't allow the authorities in control to take a step backwards to the Pre-MAPS days after we are doing so well to turn our city and state around.

I appreciate your efforts so far and hope that you will make a step in the right direction on this issue and do not let our city down. I anxiously await your response.

Respectfully,

[xrayman]

I agree, MrAnderson. The problem is highway contractors who find ways of filling campaign coffers and, as with so many things, stuffing pockets over quiet dinners. Make no mistake, Oklahoma government - at all levels - is rotten to the core with corruption. Things that seem so obvious (aka common sense) is explained when you account for the good 'ol boys with their open wallets and deep pockets.

[bubfloyd]

Encouragging and refreshing to hear all of these positive comments and interest in this vital issue. I encourage you to follow through on the letter writing. Unfortunately, our elected leaders downtown aren't as e-responsive as we might like.

Two more things:

1. There will be a Pro-Amtrack rally on Monday April 11th at 11AM on the South Plaza of the State Capitol Bldg. Mayor Mick Cornett will speak in favor of funding for Amtrack. Try to attend if you can and spread the word.

2. Drop Tom Elmore an e-mail of support and appreciation for his years of hard work on this issue. Tom is an aol subscriber and his address is Gtelmore.

Onward

[gtelmore]

Visit the OKC Union Station terminal building at 300 SW 7th between Hudson and Harvey Streets. It is owned by OKC Metro Transit, purchased in 1989 using a $1.2 million Federal Transit Authority grant with the support of that era's state transport secretary Neal McCaleb to be our region's transit hub. Although it is ideally suited for that role, the plan was, mysteriously, never completed it serves today only as offices and commercial rental space for Metro Transit.

Check the rail yard behind the terminal building. You'll see rows of wooden elevation stakes with yellow ribbons driven by ODOT, apparently outlining the dimensions of the trench in which the "New Crosstown" would lie. As we've long said, it will clearly obliterate every square inch of the marvellous rail yard, together with the Robinson and Walker Street underpasses and the passenger and freight tunnels linking the 3 passenger platforms to the mail / express rooms and grand waiting room in the terminal building.

I'm convinced that ODOT may well be speeding up its plan to excavate the yard, figuring "that'll end the argument." Clearly, rising fuel prices have begun to drive questions about transport alternatives in Central Oklahoma -- and even children can see the how the Union Station complex might quickly be transformed into the center of a wide-ranging rail / bus transit system. Of course, it won't be an issue if it's already destroyed.

My organization's website is sparse, but developing. Several others local websites also have good information. For addresses, contact me (see below).

Thanks for the good words. The threat to the Union Station yard is very, very imminent. Governor Henry can and should stop this project and commission either an independent review or perhaps a Grand Jury probe of the New Crosstown route decision. There is no excuse for what the road builders are trying to do here -- but we're down to the very final moments. I'd ask you to write and call Governor Henry ASAP -- and don't take "no" for an answer.

TOM ELMORE
North American Transportation Institute
405 794 7163

[Sooner&RiceGrad]

Hi Tom. I haven't heard of you till lately, and at first was slightly skeptical of your "futuristic" ideas.

I would say that the relocation of I 40 is a must. But on second thought so is light rail in downtown. This is even seeming more possible, LOL.

Can you tell me if there is any way to have both? If we re-plan I 40, is there a way to save the rail yard? If we not tear the Crosstown down, would we be able to save pieces of it atleast?

I do think the Crosstown must be torn down. It is old. Rickety and dangerous, and an eyesore.

[Sooner&RiceGrad]

Oh, I forgot to mention that now I understand you more, and see where you are coming from. I look forward to your response, and weloome to the OKC Talk family!

[gtelmore]

I'm kind of pressed for time tonight, but I'm very grateful for your response so I'll respond the best I can. I've been at this for 15 years or so. I've seen "too much" in some respects, I guess -- but I understand now that in these big policy matters nothing happens for no reason. It's just not very pretty and not what folks would like to believe -- but I don't think anybody heard any of the players I talked about this morning on the radio calling in to spar with me about it. It's not that I'm so "hot," it's just that I have a pretty fair grasp of the history and the facts and I'm such a cotton-pickin' hardhead that I can't -- and won't -- back down.

I strongly believe in Oklahoma and our history, good, bad and ugly. I strongly believe we have greatness in us -- if we are willing to simply look at what we HAVE and say, "what could we DO with these things?" instead of blindly destroying the priceless gifts of our forebears. There's plenty of room for a quality Crosstown and Union Station, too -- but I'm convinced that world trends and the clear experience of other Western cities with new transit systems proves that Union Station is the more important of the two.

Look at the "nomoron" website. Click on the Union Station archive and check out what former city planner Garner Stoll wrote in criticism of the New Crosstown plan. He hit the nail directly on the head.

When new, the "Crosstown" was called the "Stanley Draper Expressway." There's a statue of Mr. Draper holding the blueprints to the "highway in the sky" down in the park in front of the Civic Center Music Hall. It was a product of the mid-60s, but it was considered a great breakthrough. I have it on perhaps the best authority in the state that the structure is sound, but that it is simply way overdue for redecking. It could be upgraded for many years of use, and perhaps made more pleasing to the eye -- but, after all, it's just a highway, whether on stilts or in a trench.

I have letters from a DART official, a Denver RTD official, and international transportation economist who long worked for the World Bank -- all lauding in the strongest possible terms the reuse of facilities like Union Station -- and pleading with us to reconsider.

Denver saved what remained of ITS Union Station only after the yard space had been halved. Dallas Union Station's yard had also been impinged upon by surrounding development before city officials came to their senses. They'll all tell you that they must have been out of their minds to have allowed those yards to be compromised -- but that they are unspeakably grateful to have what they had left.

Salt Lake made the mistake we're about to make. Some time between 1992 and 1997 they allowed their old downtown rail passenger yards to be destroyed -- covered by a retail mall. Then came their TRAX rail transit system and they knew immediately that they'd made a horrible, horrible mistake. You see, there's much more to quality transit than "light rail." A central hub bringing all modes together is critically important.

Check out Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson's speeches about it on the net. He goes any and everywhere warning other city leaders in the strongest possible terms -- DON'T LET THEM HAVE YOUR RAIL TERMINALS! YOU'RE GONNA NEED 'EM! He played a large role in persuading Denver RTD to buy Denver Union Station. Surely we can learn from both the successes and terrible failures of other cities!

To see what could be done RIGHT NOW with OKC Union Station, check "colorado rail car" website. They sell US-made, new-tech, diesel self-propelled rail cars called DMUs. Such a car could serve Will Rogers Airport to Downtown right now -- with interim rubber-tired trolleys or shuttle buses linking an Airport Freeway at S. Meridian stop to WR Airport terminal and from Union Station on a downtown circulator route down Hudson and up Harvey. Similar service could link other areas RIGHT NOW.

The key -- and the thing I'm convinced Istook understood very well -- is to get SOME service under way. Improve it incrementally. We have one great, great boon -- and that's Union Station and its existing rail lines. That means everything. Istook KNOWS this, which, I'm further convinced, is why he was willing to hazard his powerful transport subcommittee chairmanship (of House Appropriations) to get the last $51.5 million for the Crosstown. He robbed Republican colleagues in the Northeast on the pretext that they simply asked that Amtrak's full funding request be honored. He robbed their ROAD FUNDS. Many of them had been reelected only by the narrowest of margins, promising badly needed road work (their roads are just as bad as ours!) Istook MUST have understood that the Republican leadership would not allow him to continue to jeopardize their majority to suit his own purposes, but he went for it anyway -- and they quite unceremoniously unhorsed him. But -- I'm afraid he accomplished one of his KEY goals before that happened, and that is the destruction of the Union Station yard. He's CLOSE to the Utah folks. He KNOWS what it's meant to them to have to scramble for funds to replace the rail yards they destroyed. I'm afraid he understands very well that the destruction of our Union Station would take us out of regional competition for sparse federal transit funds for the foreseeable future.

Don't take my word for it -- but think about it.

Governor Henry must be made to understand that once the Union Station yard is gone, there's no going back. As Homer said, "Once harm is done, even a fool understands it." The whole point of leadership is to understand it BEFORE it's done.

TOM ELMORE

[xrayman]

....or perhaps a Grand Jury probe of the New Crosstown route decision. There is no excuse for what the road builders are trying to do here -- but we're down to the very final moments.

I agree. A multicounty grand jury would be the perfect investigative body for this.
See tonight's Oklahoman http://www.newsok.com/article/146674...late=home/main

[Sooner&RiceGrad]

Well... are we talking about light rail, or commute lines?

I think we need light rail, and a single line cominmg in from Norman.

The problem is that we have blight, and people would rather barrel trhough the blight of the South side of town on a freeway, I 35, rather than on the ground in a trolley. Safer that way.

[Sooner&RiceGrad]

Oh, and I still don't understand the specific feasibility of having both. Could someone help me out here?

I did check out Tom's website, the OIMC, right? Found some great news, but still nothing like blueprints and suggestions for improvements.

[Patrick]

Hi Tom, it's great to have you aboard. If anyone knows rail and the need to save Union Station, I know it's definitely you. You'll probably remember Keith and I. We tried to start OCART (Oklahoma City Area Rapid Transit) along with a few others from the old OKC City Hall Talkback forum...we met at the old downtown library for awhile. You came to a few of our meetings. We finally grew tired of speaking to the wall when we made transit presentations to the city council. I hand it to you. I thank you so much for fighting all of these years to save the Union Station Rail Yard.

Hopefully Istook being taken off of the Transportation Appropriations Committee will help our cause!

[gtelmore]

Thanks for the good words.

It is a good thing that Istook is no longer transportation subcommittee chair of House Appropriations; however, then there's Jim Inhofe. Inhofe is an aviation guy, and is very "close" to the highway contracting lobby. Nothing wrong with a REAL "conservative" approach to highways and air services -- except that's not what we get from Inhofe and other "conservatives" monolitically supporting the status quo in these areas.

An example: In Chicago recently, Mayor Daley closed historic Meigs field, a largely general aviation airfield very, very near downtown. There was a lot of resistance to the closing among those who used the airport, of course -- but the Mayor insisted that in the wake of 9-11-01 it posed a security hazard.

Inhofe stepped into the controversy at a very high profile. As chairman of the very powerful Senate Environment and Public Works committee, he naturally maintains such a profile -- telling criticizing the closing of Meigs, and telling the Mayor that he should not expect all the federal transportation moneys he was requesting in the next round of appropriations since he's busy "shutting down historic, irreplaceable transportation infrastructure."

Of course, what is INHOFE doing in his support for the destruction of the Union Station yard?

Like Istook, Inhofe likes to criticize transit and Amtrak funding while regularly lauding the Federal Highway Trust Fund as "an example of transport supported by users" -- but, in fact, the FHTF is actually another black curtain behind which taxpayers are forced to massively SUBSIDIZE commercial trucking and the rest of the highway lobby. Even a child can see that the driving public pays over two-thirds of yearly "contributions" to that trust fund while commercial trucking -- responsible for ALL the damage to federal highways, practically speaking, pays less than one-third. Any acknowledgement of this obvious problem, let alone attempts to reform it from Inhofe's office? Nope. Instead, the oft-told "big lie" about the vaunted highway trust fund is treated as "the truth," and constantly, off-handedly repeated as though beyond question.

Meanwhile there's the cost to US taxpayers of keeping up and improving the FAA's air traffic control system -- yet Inhofe contrasts commercial airlines to Amtrak and transit as "real businesses."

The Senator's had long enough to "figure it all out." Yet, instead of REAL reform and REAL information for the benefit of his constituents, with the gushing complicity of the local press, he's one of the "regulars" at the "conservative masquerade ball," one of the senior guardians of the Washington wall of voodoo -- even as highways and roadway bridges all over the nation sink into the swamp of "unfunded maintenance need" under the wheels of spiralling numbers of heavy trucks.

Justice Robert H. Jackson knew what he was talking about when he said, "It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error."

[Patrick]

Tom you're speaking words to my ears. Unfortunately, it's the moral issues (and Oklahoman's stupidity) that's allowing people like Inhofe and Istook to continue getting reelected. Many Oklahomans are simply uneducated about what these lawmakers are doing in Washington.

You are so right when you question the conservative values of these lawmakers. Midtowner has been pointing this out for sometime now. I don't consider spending millions on the new Crosstown conservative when we could rebuild the existing crosstown for much less and save a very valuable rail yard which might not be able to be used now, but could be used by our children in the future. You know as I do that Dallas leaders have told us for years now that we're foolish for even considering destryongi the Union Station Rail Yard.

Anyways, about the uneducated voting public in our state, that's where your job comes in.....you're trying to educate our fellow citizens about the damage these guys are actually trying to do. I've listened to you for years now in agreement, but unfortunately, many Oklahomans refuse to accept the fact that our lawmakers aren't serving the common good of their citizens, and instead are serving the common good of corporate contractors.