Saturday, September 15, 2007

Doesn't Anyone Wanna Ride the Star?

No, not Britney or Lindsey but the Nashville Star commuter train. I think it would be a great option to be able to ride a train or subway system from the suburbs into downtown Nashville. I currently don't have one coming through my area but when I lived in Washington D.C. I loved riding on the Metro. It kept me out of traffic, wrecks, stress and allowed me to listen to music, read or just watch people.
I think if more people in Nashville tried it, they would it enjoy. I hope in the next few years we can make a bigger, city-wide train system to support the busses but also to get some cars off the road and ease the traffic problems a bit.
Please support the Nashville Star and public transportation in Nashville.


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From the Tennessean today...

A year after the launch of the city's first commuter rail, the ridership goal that was considered a measure of success for the train's first year hasn't been met.



The Regional Transportation Authority predicted a first-year average of 1,500 daily riders on the Music City Star, but fewer than half the projected number are boarding the train each day. The train saw an average near 640 daily riders at its peak this summer.



Officials say they have a core group of loyal riders that is slowly growing, and it's too soon to decide whether the Star is viable based on passengers. Experts say that commuter rail systems are booming in places they were expected to fail, and there's probably public policy to blame if Nashville's doesn't follow suit.

"We're the first commuter rail in the state of Tennessee. Anything that's a first has growing pains before it becomes accepted," said Diane Thorne, the transportation authority's executive director. "Ridership (projections) were just a goal."



Despite increasing congestion and low air quality that caused 20 ozone-alert days in Nashville this summer, she said it's a challenge to get drivers out of their cars.


Read more from the article in the Tennessean

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was a whole lot of money that could have been better spent improving our roads.

Or, you could have bought every passenger a $60,000 Hummer H2.

Corey Webb said...

Looks like a waste of money as of right now but it will be something needed when traffic continues to get heavier and heavier.