After Q Line

[MicrosoftFan]

Uhhhh...what about the cost of ripping up freeways to put up light rail?! No light rail into the suburbs would be feasible on that route. If we want to connect western Oakland County our best bet is to introduce commuter rail on the rail tracks through Livonia into Northville and up into Novi and those townships.

QLine rolling stock are modern streetcars, not sure what you were expecting?

Diesel Commuter rail is low ridership and high cost, and only works for commuters. Plus, it has low frequency and must share rail tracks with freight trains. It is definetly not rapid transit.

In Denver, freeways were repaired while adding LRT at the same time. We could repair our potholed freeways while adding rail at the same time.

I would have liked proper LRT vehicles on Q Line to allow for more expansion.

[professorscott]

Diesel Commuter rail is low ridership and high cost, and only works for commuters. Plus, it has low frequency and must share rail tracks with freight trains. It is definetly not rapid transit.

Well, in some places. It is not uniformly true that commuter rail trains use freight tracks, and it is not uniformly true that they have low ridership or low frequency. Here, just for one example, are the times that MBTA's Framingham-Worcester line trains leave for Boston between about 6 and 8:30 a.m.:

05:56

06:05

06:36

06:46

07:11

07:42

07:50

08:11

I would have liked proper LRT vehicles on Q Line to allow for more expansion.

The vehicles on Woodward can go as far as you'd like, and they can go up to 45 miles per hour, which is as fast as they could go in, or adjacent to, traffic. Without separation, it is terribly unsafe to have rail vehicles moving faster than cars are going. Anyhow, QLine is, at least for now, a one-off. There are no plans to expand it and never have been [[the abortive DDOT effort was an entirely different animal, not an expansion of this one) and any likely increase in route miles will likely occur, as others have indicated here, by putting lines on additional streets in/near downtown.

If we ever do get funding for a truly enhanced, regional system by some means, under the current law that created the RTA, it will have to be some type of bus transit unless the RTA can get a supermajority to agree on rail transit. If that miracle somehow does occur, then the system can be expanded by however much the funding allows, in some type of phased fashion. But it is cheaper to create commuter rail than light rail, assuming there are tracks available where you need them to be, because then all you have to buy are trains. The trick is that the tracks are all privately owned by companies that would prefer not to share them with others.

[MicrosoftFan]

Well, in some places. It is not uniformly true that commuter rail trains use freight tracks, and it is not uniformly true that they have low ridership or low frequency. Here, just for one example, are the times that MBTA's Framingham-Worcester line trains leave for Boston between about 6 and 8:30 a.m.:

05:56

06:05

06:36

06:46

07:11

07:42

07:50

08:11

But that's Boston, if you take a look at the most successful new commuter rail systems [[Salt Lake City & Miami), they have around 10-15k riders per day and off-peak frequency ranging from 30 minutes to an hour. Also, they are purely designed for Park and Ride operations to and from downtowns.

To have a true rapid transit, hop on hop off service, LRT or Subway is needed to get people to take the train from one place to another on non-commuting trips.