Buffalo Metro Rail

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Metro Rail
Locale Buffalo, New York
Transit type Rapid transit
Began operation 1984
System length 6.4 miles (10.3 km)
No. of lines 1
No. of stations 15
Daily ridership 19,100 (avg. weekday, FY 2007)
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in) (standard gauge)
Operator(s) Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA)

Buffalo Metro Rail is the public transit rail system in Buffalo, New York, USA; it is operated by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, or NFTA. The system consists of a single, 6.4-mile (10.3 km) long line that runs for most of the length of Main Street, from HSBC Arena downtown to the south campus of the University at Buffalo in the northeast of the city.

Contents

[edit] Light rail or metro?

The question of whether Buffalo's Metro Rail is a light rail system or a heavy-rail metro system is not an easy one to answer. The Metro Rail uses small, 1-4 car trains powered from an overhead power line, similar to many light rail systems. On the other hand, for 5.4 miles (8.7 km), the trains travel underground, totally separate from all other rail and automobile traffic, with high platforms in stations. The southern 1.2 miles (1.9 km) of the line is on an at-grade pedestrian mall in downtown Buffalo; while there are no cars traveling on the trains' right-of-way, the trains do interact with auto traffic at cross streets and obey stoplights.

[edit] Fleet

Buffalo Metro Rail train entering Allen-Medical Campus station.
Buffalo Metro Rail train entering Allen-Medical Campus station.

The NFTA operated 27 LRV cars (Number 101 to 127) for the Metro Rail system. They were built by Tokyu Car Corporation of Japan.

Twelve St. Louis Car Company PCC streetcars from Cleveland, Ohio's Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (obtained second hand in 1953) were bought in 1980s to serve the Tonawanda turn-out, a Metro Rail route to Tonawanda and North Tonawanda. Only used for trial runs, the plan route was scrapped and cars sold to a museum in Brooklyn Historical Railway Association. These cars were scrapped in 2003 when the BHRA folded.

Fleet details:

Current

  • Car Type: LRV
  • Number of Cars: 27
  • Fleet Numbers: 101-127
  • Car Manufacturer: Tokyu Car Corporation, Japan
  • Years of Service: 1984-present
  • Length: 64 ft
  • Motors: Westinghouse 1461, DC Chopper controlled

Proposed

  • Car Type: PCC
  • Number of Cars: 12
  • Fleet Numbers: N/A
  • Car Manufacturer: St. Louis Car Company
  • Years of Service: None - trial runs only, never in revenue service

[edit] Practical information

Map of Metro Rail system
Map of Metro Rail system

Metro Rail runs seven days a week, weekdays from approximately 6 a.m. to 1 a.m., Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to 1 a.m., Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m (although bus service is available until 1 a.m. in the same area). Trains run as often as once every seven minutes at rush hour, and no less often than once every twenty minutes. A one-way ticket is $1.50. You can also buy an All-Day pass for $3.50, which lets you ride the entire rail and bus system for the entire day. In order to purchase an all day pass, you need to purchase the tickets from a RED Metro Rail ticket vending machine. Monthly passes are also available.

Travel is based more or less on the honor system; tickets are checked by NFTA personnel on trains and, somewhat more frequently, upon exit from stations. Travel on the above-ground portion of the system is free, though ticket machines are available at above-ground stations for those passengers continuing on to the paid area. The trip takes 22 minutes from end to end.

Metro Rail and Metro Bus schedules are can be viewed at www.nfta.com/metro.

[edit] Points of interest / Current Stations

[edit] History and future

Metro Rail in leaving Lafayette Square station at the Main Court Building across from Lafayette Square in the Free Fare Zone
Metro Rail in leaving Lafayette Square station at the Main Court Building across from Lafayette Square in the Free Fare Zone

[edit] Construction

When the Metro Rail began construction in 1978, it was intended to be the first line for an extensive system that would spread throughout the city and suburbs. However, during the construction of the line and afterwards, Buffalo's population significantly declined. As a result, the new line's ridership was much lower than originally anticipated. The cost of the urban section was so high that no funding was available to extend the lines into the suburbs, including the Amherst campus of the University at Buffalo. Efforts to obtain funding for feeder lines have met with little success.

[edit] The downtown business district

The construction of the pedestrian mall along Main Street downtown coincided with the decentralization of the region's population and retail market. Like many other cities in the Northeast, suburban shopping malls were being developed in closer proximity to regional population growth and regional wealth. This shift in retail concentration and regional wealth resulted in downtown Buffalo losing many of its long time anchor department stores and smaller shops to suburban malls and strip plazas. It was these retailers that originally served as some of the major traffic generators for Metro Rail. Overall, the 1980s saw a decline in the area's economic health, reducing both the number of potential passengers and the tax base available to fund the system.

The city of Buffalo is planning to reintroduce cars onto Main Street in a shared trackbed/ roadway. Curb parking lanes will be provided for short-term visitors. The project is expected to start in 2008 and to be completed by 2011.[1]

[edit] Railcar rehabilitation

It was announced in May 2006 that all of the LRV railcars will be rehabilitated by AnsaldoBreda. This project will be completed at SuperSteel's manufacturing facilities located in Schenectady, NY. The rehabilitation is scheduled to be complete in 2010 and will feature many improvements. The improvements will include enhanced video monitoring of the railcar interiors, upgraded brakes, rebuilt HVAC systems, rebuilt door systems, a brand new white, blue and gray interior, upgraded propulsion, and repair to the body shells. In addition, the railcars will receive new monitoring systems, automated announcements, new door chimes, and interior/exterior LED signage to replace existing rollsigns. The first rehabilitated railcars are expected to be in service around Spring 2008.

[edit] Future prospects

There are currently no viable plans to expand the system. Still, the truncated system serves 23,000 passengers daily. Some downtown business groups occasionally call for the removal of the transit system so that they can return to normal vehicle traffic and curbside parking, hoping that this measure might recreate the prosperous days of the past. Without extended branches in the suburbs, the system serves primarily a declining city population and those suburbanites who take buses or cars to one of the outer stations.

One group, the Citizens for Regional Transit (CRTC), advocates the cause for expansion. As indicated in their statement, the CRTC seeks to educate the public, public officials, their authorities and agencies in the Buffalo-Niagara region about the benefits of a comprehensive transportation system including an expanded Metro Rail.

Two lines that are at the front of CRTC's agenda include the Airport Corridor, and a Tonawanda Corridor, proposed as following:

The Airport Corridor would begin in Downtown Buffalo, near the current Metro Rail's CHURCH station, and continue in an easterly direction in/out Division Sts., diagonally in a northeastern direction near Jefferson toward the abandoned New York Central Terminal, cross Broadway, and then continue eastbound in its private ROW (Right of Way) to the Thruway Plaza, Walden Galleria and Buffalo Airport.

The Tonawandas Corridor would operate from LaSalle Station northwesterly to the City of Tonawanda using the abandoned Erie Railroad tracks. The NFTA went as far as purchasing second-hand PCC trolleys (the first regularly schedule service in the area using PCC cars) from Cleveland, Ohio. The idea for using these cars was scrapped because the cars were too wide to operate down Main Street.

On Monday, December 4, 2006, in The Spectrum, a publication of the University at Buffalo (UB), it was announced that UB President John B. Simpson is planning to get a project underway that would connect UB's three campuses via a transportation system. The proposed systems included a subway, trolley or light rail.

[edit] Annual ridership

Year Ridership
1996 7,135,746
1997 6,918,812
1998 7,213,821
1999 6,335,643
2000 6,568,165
2001 6,355,955
2002 5,797,407
2003 5,857,687
2004 5,478,002
2005 5,373,321
2006 5,631,864

Source: [1]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Return of Vehicular Traffic to Main Street. Buffalo Place Inc.. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.

[edit] External links

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Currently operating light rail and streetcar systems in the United States
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Buffalo Metro Rail