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Friday, May 24, 2013
Light rail from Downtown to River District opens Friday
by Melissa Corker, published on June 12, 2012 at 12:28 PM
Storyline: Politics
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The first leg of the long-awaited Green Line from downtown to the airport will make its debut Friday at a grand opening celebration.
The Green Line is a 12.8-mile-long project that will eventually connect downtown Sacramento to South and North Natomas and the Sacramento International Airport. This first phase, which opens Friday, is a 1.1-mile segment that extends from downtown at the H and Eighth streets station to the the Township 9 station at Seventh Street and Richards Boulevard in the River District.
In addition to linking the central city to the airport, the Green Line was designed to serve as a key connector to the airport and to the central city for residents in the Natomas area – a part of the city that has seen its population almost quadruple since 2003.
The project broke ground in 2009 and will include 13 light rail stations, a light-duty maintenance facility and seven park-and-ride lots when it is completed, according to the Regional Transit website.
Here is the map of the proposed Green Line from downtown to the Sacramento airport.
RT Light Rail Green Line Map“For the River District, this is going to be a signature station,” Patty Kleinknecht, executive director for The River District, said Tuesday. “We are all about connecting: the river, downtown, the railyards and more. The future of the Green Line is going out to the airport, and this is just one step to get us there.”
The Green Line is funded by a combination of local, state and federal funds that include developer fees, sales tax revenues and federal grants, according to the Regional Transit website. The first segment from downtown to Richards Boulevard/Township 9 was designed and built without federal funds.
The project’s final completion date has not been determined because it depends on when funding becomes available, according to the website.
The grand opening event Friday begins with a ceremony at 10:30 a.m. hosted by the Sacramento Regional Transit District, followed by a lunchtime celebration with food, live entertainment, community booths and prize drawings, according to a press release.
The inaugural Green Line train will arrive at the Township 9 station at 11 a.m.
For more information about the Green Line, go the Sacramento Regional Transit website.
Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter @MelissaCorker.
Editorial note: The article has been corrected to relfect that the first phase of the Green Line extends from the H and Eighth streets station to the Township 9 station.
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express rail would never get the funding necessary. too many suburbanites are scared of public transportation and too fat, lazy, and stupid to get out of their gas guzzlers.
truxel is heinous. with all of the stops and "rush-hour" traffic, it would take even longer than rail!
What reasoning--the suburban working people, for whom you have nothing but contempt, wouldn't approve of express rail to the airport, but somehow an even slower and less appealing light rail system there would be acceptable??? Really???
Maybe they won't get out of their cars because *time* and *safety* matter to them. Maybe an express bus would appeal to them for commuting. The arrogance of apparatchiks like you is really something to behold.
"truxel is heinous. with all of the stops and "rush-hour" traffic, it would take even longer than rail!"
And yet you want to run light rail, at street level, so it goes even slower than that! What reasoning!
As for the revitalization of Midtown, the rail system steers well clear of the J Street Corridor.
If you want to talk about revitalization in midtown, look at K Street near the Capitol up to 16th and R. KBAR, DiveBar, Pizza Rock, District 30, the Crest, Ella, Pyramid, and then Shady Lady, Burgers & Brew, Space 07, Ace of Spades, Magpie, R15/Bernardo, Naked Lounge, Hot Italian, etc.
It's obvious that public transportation stations near these businesses increase their patronage, why refute that?
• "that will eventually connect": key word "eventually".
• "H and 13th streets station": had a hard time finding this place.
• "ARCO Arena": says the map. I guess "Smart Balance" did not make the map.
• "For the River District, this is going to be a signature station": In the river district, a contractors port a potty is a signature bathroom.
• "The project’s final completion date has not been determined because it depends on when funding becomes available, according to the website.": The High Speed Authority should listen to Regional Transit in this regard, instead of lying about their supposed completion dates.
• "The inaugural Green Line train will arrive at the Township 9 station at 11 a.m.": with more passengers on a train than the line will see for the next three years.
• RT should allow homeless to sleep on this train and go back and forth from 13th & R to Township 9 all day, so the trains will appear full and they can count each movement of a body as a passenger.
Jay Tulock, Vacaville
What does Elmira mean?
I may be an "out of town whiner". You may be an "in town whiner". Let the audience decide.
I challenge you. Take on each of my points, above, and dispute each. May the best whiner win.
Jay Tulock, Vacaville, CA
You quibble with them calling the green light "long-awaited" because it does not go where you want it to go yet. Well, as every train line has to start somewhere, I'm not sure what your beef is. I suppose you would have complained about the transcontinental railroad because it was not immediately, after driving the first spike, transcontinental?
Eventual connection to Natomas and SMF: Yes, "eventually." What's wrong with this word? You want it to say "immediately?" I'm sorry, but this is a huge project and perhaps "immediately" was not possible. All of the the light rail that currently exists was originally planned using the word "eventually." The same goes with your criticism of the River District. It's a new development. Developments do not happen over night. The upside of this particular development is that it seems they've actually taken public transit into consideration *before* building rather than after, which is too often the case.
Funding: Yes, they are going to build as the funding becomes available. Did you want them to wait until all of the funding was available at one time? If so, why exactly?
As far as your snarky ridership comments, ridership will indeed probably be low in the beginning. However, as the River District development continues, ridership will increase. And as the green line opens more stations, ridership will increase. (See my previous comment regarding public transit not being an afterthought in the urban development process.) Again, every line has to start somewhere.
By the way, I was in Vacaville the other day and I couldn't seem to find a light rail train anywhere. Puzzling.
Jay Tulock, Vacaville
And Jay, your right, I almost never use public transit because I ride my bike and light rail does not currently go where I need to go. When the Green Line makes it out to Natomas, I will be able to ride it from the central city, where I live, to work. In the meantime I don't begrudge the fact that it doesn't service my needs and complain (whine) that it is a waste of money because it doesn't.
Is that whining? Let the audience decide.
Of course, I am a civic cheerleader and everyone knows it.
* Where X is hopefully less than 10....
IN A CAR: travel on surface streets before hitting the freeway, wasting gas. Get on freeway. travel ALL THE WAY around the central city before driving 15 miles north to get to an airport in the middle of nowhere. at the wrong time of day this can take an hour, sitting in the heat, air con blasting, wasting gas. get into the airport, and pay exorbitant fees to leave your car for a few days. reverse the process to get home, wasting gas.
ON LIGHT RAIL: (If you need to, drive to the station, using gas). Get on light rail, pay $2.50 ($6 for a transfer). Get to the airport. Reverse the process on the way home.
Which one costs too much money? Which one seems more viable? For people that b*tch and moan about freedom, I appreciate the freedom of NOT giving money to multinational petroleum corporations, and then to a private parking company to leave my car in a half-empty lot. I appreciate the freedom of getting to my destination safely, efficiently, and without a MAXIMUM of consumption and pollution.
Now we have less routes, less access, must pay more. Most everyone hates the ridiculous prices we must monthly to ride it...It's not cost-saving to the commuter. It's actually MORE expensive....RT has screwed the pooch royally....I haven't met anyone yet who likes Light Rail, for any reason...