Light Rail to Airport - Existing Track

[locoluke]

The UP has very little land along in that would be suitable for the required infill development to support such a service. The BNSF probably has more potential.

I personally am a fan of a built out BRT system as opposed to citywide light rail. We don’t have a ton of existing ROW that is suitable for a good light rail system.

[meliketrains]

That's a tough sell, especially given that...

I appreciate the response! I'd push back a bit on the idea of trying to work with the freight companies. We've seen from the decades of trying in the Northeast that it just doesn't work out. They have almost no incentive to allocate track to commuter trains and only ever do it as an afterthought when possible, because their core business is moving material. You can't really blame em for this either, because the politics of train systems is what made them enter into those contracts to begin with. They'd probably be happier without the headace. The Acela Train and all the new track they're laying down in that corridor is a massive breath of fresh air, though granted it's for high speed commuter rail to connect NYC, Stamford, New Haven, Hartford, Boston and a few other small cities along the way.

For Omaha, I think a better forward-thinking way is to build new track from the ground up where traffic is most dense. Yes, you'd have to deal with the US highway system, though we already have deep connections seeing as how a portion of the Omaha budget is already funded by federal street and highway, partially for Dodge. I don't really see a whole lot of reason why they would ever push back on this idea, especially if the sell is that this reduces traffic on Dodge, reduces upkeep cost, and would potentially (in the long term) reduce the actual federal allocation needed for that portion of road.

For ROW allocation, some eminent domain might need to be used just as it often is in other cities that begin developing their light rail systems. It takes courageous politicians and intelligent city planners to weed through legitimate concerns and usual NIMBY saber rattling/crying in Facebook comments. If anything, I think the inevitable success of the streetcar is going to be a huge launching point for getting people to think about these systems, and the younger generations are significantly more open to rail than the older ones.

As Garrett mentioned, a decent light rail system serving the metro should really focus on dozens of stops in and around the urban core, with specific focus off the dense neighborhoods nestled between Maple, Dodge, and Center. The further east you go, the further north and south you can expand those rail lines, but generally as you go west, it's probably easiest to serve the corridor closest to Dodge. Then, it opens the door for an expansion line/commuter line from a La Vista stop down through to Lincoln, with maybe a stop in Waverly or Ashland. Could also work as a great Game Day train. Paint it red and add a bunch of Husker slop and watch the NIMBYs dry their tears ;)

[Gobears27]

If we’re going to spend billions of dollars on a rail transit system, would it make sense to jump all the way to building a heavy rail system?

Could a line run through the river to Elkhorn using heavy rail trains(maybe the ones made in Lincoln). Have a stop at the airport and millwork commons. Then run underground along 10th and dodge with stations at the riverfront, 17st, 24th st, midtown crossing/blackstone, UNMC, UNO, crossroads, west roads. Then run in the dodge expressway median with stations roughly every mile or two until Elkhorn.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

If we’re going to spend billions of dollars on a rail transit system, would it make sense to jump all the way to building a heavy rail system?

Could a line run through the river to Elkhorn using heavy rail trains(maybe the ones made in Lincoln). Have a stop at the airport and millwork commons. Then run underground along 10th and dodge with stations at the riverfront, 17st, 24th st, midtown crossing/blackstone, UNMC, UNO, crossroads, west roads. Then run in the dodge expressway median with stations roughly every mile or two until Elkhorn.

You could. BART, the metro system in the San Francisco Bay Area is configured similarly to what you're describing, with an underground portion in downtown SF with stations every quarter mile or so, and overground section with stations further apart out into suburbia. However, I would not recommend running trains in the Dodge expressway median. A lot of cities do this, but you're not maximizing the station walk shed by, assumingly, having the stations on islands in the middle of big, wide, roadways. Walking to them is unpleasant, flanked by noise, exhaust, and concrete barriers on both sides. Seattle's approach is a bit better. Its light rail lines run along highways, but to the side rather than the middle. So they were built using ROW that was already owned by the state or could be easily be acquired, but being on the side allows the line to split off from the highway more easily so that stations can be placed within neighborhoods and connect better with the local street network. It also is much better for spurring dense, transit oriented development.

[Garrett]

Running along highways in general isn't the best form of transit. Even when tracks are off to the side, you're still generally cutting off the other side of the highway from a walkshed. You can see this a lot with Denver's RTD. Highway running transit tends to underperform.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

Running along highways in general isn't the best form of transit. Even when tracks are off to the side, you're still generally cutting off the other side of the highway from a walkshed. You can see this a lot with Denver's RTD. Highway running transit tends to underperform.

Absolutely and I neglected to mention that. However, I'm not sure where you could thread in at-grade or above-grade track that would go to places with strong walkshed, or potentially strong walkshed from redevelopment, without causing significant destruction of the existing built or natural environment. Parallel to the UP line might work best once you get out west, if you can get UP to cooperate. Maybe they will in their hometown. An alternative might be to have multiple lines along most branches of the Papillion Creek, but you'd be paying fees and for credits into the billions to the Army Core of Engineers. Perhaps there's a wide utility corridor somewhere that I can't immediately find that could be modified to accommodate transit, but I imagine there are any that go anywhere useful.

Keeping things fantastical, it would be best to run it underground, or perhaps ramrodding at the latitude Burt Street is at past, say, 90th Street until you get to the UP line, and follow that out to Valley.

[meliketrains]

Sure, in an ideal world we'd run a heavy rail system, snap our fingers and stick it underground, but Omaha just doesn't have the tax base to support that kind of work, and it likely never will. A light rail system I think is still probably the best, and even if there is disparate access due to highways and poor walkshed coverage, it's still probably the most feasible. Theoretically, you could see a system closer to how Japan integrates light rail into their network, but it would require a population willing to see their neighborhoods disrupted quite significantly, which is somehow more unrealistic than the subway idea. Americans need time to get acclimated to things like trains before hopping on board, so a light rail that minimizes the use of eminent domain is still the best bet. Then, in the future, people can reassess and talk about routes that directly enter neighborhoods and run along trails/local waterways.