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The Sacramento TMA Online Newsletter - Regional Transit light rail extensions |
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| Gold Line light rail extension to Folsom opens | |
| Trouble financing RT's light rail extensions | Construction updates |
| Overview of street closures in August | Calendar of street closures in August |
Light Rail Construction update
With a break in the weather expected over December 27 and 28th, crews will be paving the 8th & I intersection, as well as portions of 8th Street in that area. Also, paving will be taking place on H Street between 5th & 8th streets. In both cases, the work will be taking place during the day. Expect some delays and possible detours when driving in the area. For those operating bus service Downtown, the impacts to afternoon bus service should be minimal.Please use caution when driving in this area and possibly consider detours December 27 and 28th.
Which is faster, car or light rail? Two Sacramento Bee reporters compared the commute from two commuter suburbs, first Folsom, then El Dorado Hills. The goal was to arrive downtown first. One took light rail; the other drove solo on the highway.
The days they races, the car was quicker. Highway 50 had none of the crashes that can cause delays. Regional Transit's light-rail Gold Line, by comparison, is consistent. But if top priority is time, light-rail trains stop at 26 stations in the 23 miles between Folsom and Eighth Street in downtown Sacramento, making the end-to-end run 50 minutes.
The small Ford sedan, driving the prevailing speed, easily won the race to the state Department of Education building downtown at 15th and N streets, beating light rail by 24 minutes in the morning and nine minutes in the evening.
The car's total travel time for the 25-mile one-way commute was 48 minutes in the morning, compared to light rail's 72. The car's evening trip took 57 minutes, compared to light rail's 66.)
But while cars win on time, they lose on cost. Light rail came out far ahead financially.
With Sacramento gas prices this week at an average $2.90 per gallon for regular unleaded, The car's monthly commute gas bill would be $138 - based on 20 working days and 21 miles to the gallon (the national average).
Add to that a $70 monthly fee for a parking spot in a garage near work, and an estimated $100 a month for wear and tear on his car, and our car commuter is paying $308 a month to drive.
Park a car for free less than three miles from "home" at the Historic Folsom station and take the train, pay only about $27 on car costs. And, with the state transit subsidy, a state worker pays only $20 of an $80 monthly RT pass.
The racers found that time and money are far from the only issues commuters contemplate when deciding whether to travel rail or road.
There are matters of taste - whether you prefer the privacy and flexibility of your car or the more communal experience of the train, where some riders relax and people-watch, chat, read a book or newspaper.
Whether in your car or on a train, you can listen to music, talk on a cell phone or sip a cup of coffee.
Then there is the serious question of time.
On the freeway, each time traffic lightens, we speed up, feeling the need to make up for lost time. There is the constant concern that a crash ahead could make us an hour late for work.
The train-taker loses precious minutes parking and waiting at the station. Perfect timing, when you show up at the platform just as the train arrives, could cut that delay. With trains running only every 30 minutes through the four new stations at the end of the Folsom line, if you miss a train you have either a half-hour wait or a stressful catch-up drive to another station down the line.
In measuring the merits of the two modes, there are intangibles, measured only in terms of personal preference. Some feel virtuous riding light rail instead of causing pollution and congestion on the freeway.
Gold
Line light rail extension to Folsom opens Regional
Transit's light rail extension offers an alternative to traffic on Highway 50.
The downtown Sacramento-to-Sunrise Gold Line adds 7.4 miles and four new stations, all flanking Folsom Boulevard, and each teamed with a park-and-ride lot. The terminus station is in old town Folsom; the other three are along Folsom Boulevard at Glenn Drive, Iron Point Road and Hazel Avenue.
Regional Transit officials say they expect 4,000 daily boardings at the new stations by the end of the first year. That adds to the 24,000 boardings registered on the existing line.
Those ridership numbers are small, however, compared with the 138,000 cars and trucks that travel the same section each day on Highway 50. Transportation officials say they expect light rail to offer a more reliable and cheaper alternative for some commuters, but it won't pull enough drivers off the freeway to provide congestion relief for those who stick to their cars - at least not in the short term.
Commute-hour traffic on Highway 50 has grown 10 percent in the last two years - more than double the statewide average - and is expected to get worse in the next few years.
Transit officials say their timing in opening the new line appears to be good. Gas prices last month hit record highs at more than $3 a gallon, and President Bush recently urged Americans to drive less.
Transit analysts say the new line's success will hinge on a short list of factors:
Do the trains run on time? Are they competitive with freeway commute times? How does the $80 monthly rail and bus pass compare with the gas and downtown parking costs for car commutes?
Also important is whether commuters decide the light-rail ride is clean, comfortable, pleasant and safe.
It will take 50 minutes to ride from old town Folsom to Seventh and K streets in downtown Sacramento, according to RT schedules. Riders who board at the Hazel stop will have a 35-minute ride to the 16th Street station in midtown Sacramento.
By contrast, Caltrans engineers say travel time during peak commute hours on Highway 50 from Hazel Avenue to the 16th Street exit ranges from a decent 20 minutes to an aggravating 30 - longer if there's a crash.
Planned "limited-stop" light-rail trains are expected to cut travel time by five to seven minutes, but they won't be put into service for another two years.
For now, RT is able to run trains from Folsom at 30-minute intervals. At Sunrise, RT will switch to every 15-minute service. If the new line attracts more peak-hour customers than expected, RT could run trains every 7 1/2 minutes out of Sunrise during rush hour, officials said.
Patricia Mokhtarian, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who studies travel behavior, said travel time is important, but other practical items and amenities, such as a Wi-Fi system allowing riders to link their laptop computers to the Internet, can tip the balance for some commuters. RT officials say they are exploring the technology for their trains.
"People make their choices based on practical considerations," Mokhtarian said. A 50-minute commute on rail may be more attractive than 40 minutes by car to those who feel they can use the travel time more productively.
"But you have to take into consideration where they are coming from and going to," she said. "If they have to drive to get to the station, then transfer trains or do something else (before they arrive at work), that is a psychological barrier beyond travel time."
Assemblyman Roger Niello, an auto dealer who previously served as head of the Regional Transit board, told the Sacramento Bee that he will give the line a try but driving will be more convenient for him. The last train home each night leaves the station near his Capitol office at 6:34 p.m., when he sometimes is still working.
Niello warned that the trains will be pulling into communities where people really like their vehicles - he calls them "car desirous" - and that makes them a tougher sell for transit.
Regional Transit General Manager Beverly Scott said her agency is well aware it is making a groundbreaking foray into an area that is "not by any stretch of the imagination a transit community."
But, Scott said, given the rapid growth in east Sacramento and El Dorado counties, and the daily uncertainty of Highway 50 congestion, "people really have a reason to pause to think about what their choices are."
Folsom resident Will Kempton, head of the state Department of Transportation, intends to be on the 7:01 a.m. train most days of the week. Kempton, whose downtown office is a half-block from a light-rail station, says he'll use the time on the train to read the newspaper, which in turn will free up a half-hour in the morning to go running.
He plans to drive his car or ride a bike the one mile to the park-and-ride lot at the Folsom station.
The Folsom extension is part of a larger project that includes an unfinished extension downtown to the Amtrak train station. Together, the two extensions cost an estimated $255 million.
The impact of the new line on Highway 50 congestion will not be noticed right away, but it may have more impact in the future.
Update on RT financing light rail extensions (fall 2005) RT officials still face some major issues on how to finish paying for the rail extensions. The work, which includes the as-yet unfinished extension downtown to the I Street train depot, is an estimated $20 million over budget. RT has not yet found the funds to cover those costs.
RT General Manager Beverly Scott met with Federal Transit Administration officials in San Francisco in October to ask them if they would fund half of the overrun costs.
The project had been budgeted last year at $237 million but has grown to $255 million, officials estimate.
The causes of the cost overrun, according to RT's Wiley, include higher-than-expected purchase prices for land to build tracks and stations along the Folsom line, as well as a rainy spring that resulted in construction delays and overtime work.
RT also had to slow the planning process and move the downtown Sacramento line after federal courthouse officials - leery of a terrorist attack - complained the light-rail line would run too close to their building.
Also, workers digging into city streets discovered numerous utility and fiber-optic lines that had not been listed on any map.
