The new light rail system opening in December looks pretty easy to use. Most of the 20 mile route contains 2 sets of tracks where the cars will pass each other. At each station, you simply board a train heading in your desired direction. For instance, most stations are built in the middle of the street. If you are boarding a train on Apache Boulevard, you will enter the station and the west bound train will pick you up on the north side of the station while the east bound trains allow passengers to board at the south side of the station.
However, in downtown Phoenix, the tracks split forming a single track for north/south and east/west trains.
Let's use a baseball game for an example: I have talked to a ton of sports fans that are looking forward to taking the light rail to a Suns game or to see a Diamodbacks game at Chase. The stop at 3rd St/Jefferson is VERY close to both of these venues. Most people know that there is a light rail stop at
3rd St/Jefferson near Chase Field but most probably don't realize that this is an east bound train. Not to worry, you just need to know your way around. If coming from North Phoenix, you will arrive right outside of the door at 3rd/Jefferson, but when going home you will walk about a block and a half to the 3rd St/Washington stop. By clicking on
this pic of the 3rd St/Washington station, you might get a better idea of what I am talking about. The reverse is obviously true for people coming from the east valley. Before the game, you will exit at the Washington stop and will board the Jefferson stop on your way home. I know the folks at Majerle's Sports Grill love this, as they are right by the 3rd/Washington station! :-) Light rail will definitely be a benefit to the businesses close to the stadiums.
To help you navigate and better understand these areas, we are working on a light rail map that allows you to see the location of the stations and to zoom in/out to see views of the areas and stops. This is a work in progress and we will be "tweaking it" for a while. You can zoom in to see the downtown stations and even type Majerles into the "find" box on the left hand side to get an idea of how close they are to the station. We will be adding cool and better functionalities in the future. :-)
At
Rail Life, we want to be your resource because we understand that "your life is on the line!"