Yesterday the Passenger Rail Task Force (PRTF) presented their recommendation for planning light rail lines through downtown Raleigh . The group has been pouring through the details about not only servicing downtown points of interest with the rail lines, but also how such lines will impact traffic. The PRTF concluded that Plan D6A is the plan that makes most economic, transportation, environmental, and logistical sense.

Plan D6A takes the line coming from North Raleigh off of the rail corridors and onto downtown Raleigh city streets just north of Logan’s. The line then travels down Salisbury Street by the legislature to the Capitol where it turns and (after making two turns at intersections) basically finds its way up Morgan street to Charlie Goodnights where it joins the existing rail corridor to head west. The East/Northbound line takes a slightly different approach. It enters downtown on Morgan Street, turns left onto Wilmington Street in front of the Capitol, and heads north to Logan’s where it joins into the existing rail corridor.

There are several reasons the group selected Plan D6A. By exiting the rail line at Charlie Goodnights, the system is able to avoid expensive maneuvers to negotiate the “wye” near the existing Amtrak station. While downtown, the plan makes use of light rail’s biggest strength, its ability to become a cable car on a city street. (Evidently the plan now calls for light rail trains that can negotiate sharp turns in downtown intersections. My understanding was that they favored a vehicle that could only negotiate sweeping turns).

Setting aside the fact that all of the considered plans are estimated to cost anywhere from 1.4 to 1.6 BILLION dollars and do not serve RDU or the RBC Center, we can still make a better plan than any of those examined by the task force.

The gogoraleigh Plan

If we are going to spend $1.5B on a transit entity, it needs to serve the existing needs of real people. It should not serve only as a Park & Ride service for downtown’s state government workers, it must also be the backbone for future private developments while including some of today’s most popular destinations and residential centers.

Faulty Pillars

All published plans have been built upon four primary faulty pillars. In order to get the best plan, each of these pillars needs to be reconstructed or the system will have severe flaws.

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