Last week, we mentioned that Light Rail would be "rolling in to Mesa" today. While it wasn't exactly a huge party, it was symbolic of what is to come for Mesa. In many ways, I feel that Mesa will benefit greatly from this initial stretch of rail. While they only have about a mile of light rail, the future extensions extending in to Mesa should benefit greatly from the experiences of the project. Yesterday, in Phoenix, Rick Simonetta (Metro CEO) spoke about how they are continuing to improve their systems. West Mesa has been in the news a bit recently and there is no doubt that the area has been and will continue to change. The future for Mesa heading east to a downtown that has failed in revitalization attempts in the past, appears much brighter with light rail cars getting people to and from there. The Mesa Arts Center, the shops along Main street and some of the older neighborhoods that have so much potential should benefit greatly from this light rail system. It doesn't take a genius to see how much development has been put in place along the existing 20 mile stretch of the starter line. For all of us at Rail Life, it will be fun to watch... We hope you enjoy the ride! 

Ok... So I mentioned that they were going to be doing some testing in Mesa this week. I just so happened to be heading south on the 101 yesterday and decided to exit to take a look on Apache and see if any of the light rail cars were running. Sure enough, I was able to follow one towards the Sycamore / Main stop and shoot this quick video. Yeah, we were driving and holding a camera out the window. (please don't try this yourself, it could be kind of stupid) I did notice a lot of people stopping to check everything out. Glad to see the testing is going well.

Everyone likes a party, right?!? Thankfully, METRO and the cities of Tempe and Mesa don't appear to want any unforeseen problems during Mesa's August 6th light rail celebration. Sounds like the Tempe and Mesa areas will be getting a ton of light rail traffic in the very near future. Here is part of an email that was sent out recently speaking of tomorrow's (Thursday) testing.

"METRO will be conducting vehicle testing tomorrow, Thursday, July 31, meaning light rail will be operating through the heart of the Tempe campus.
The train is scheduled to depart from 48th Street and Washington at 7:30 a.m. and head east to the end of the line in Mesa at Main Street and Sycamore. Operators will frequently run the vehicle on Thursday from the METRO station at Veterans Way/College to the end of line.
Tempe and Mesa’s police departments are being consulted to provide extra support as needed.
PTS encourages all members of the ASU community to become educated about light rail safety."  (PTS stands for "Parking & Transit Services" at ASU)

This info was sent to people at ASU and I'm sure it is part of a light rail safety and awareness campaign for ASU students. So, keep an eye out for the trains. If you haven't yet had a chance to see them, you could always head over and take a look. If you happen to get some good pics, be sure to share the with our Rail Life Flickr group! Have fun, be safe and remember... "Your Life Is On The Line!"

There have been numerous celebrations and photo ops for Phoenix and for Tempe light rail parties. On Wednesday, August 6th you can check out a Mesa Light Rail Party along with Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, City Council members and other notables representing the city and local community who will take a commemorative ride to welcome light rail into Mesa. Mayor Scott Smith and METRO CEO Rick Simonetta will be there to speak about light rail. We hope to see you there!

Come join us! For residents of Arizona, or anywhere else, if you would like to show your pictures of light rail cars or of the fun places, businesses, housing, restaurants, hotel's, schools, entertainment etc along the 20 mile light rail route, we have just created a "Phoenix Light Rail" group on Flickr. Please join in and participate! I KNOW some of you have some great pictures to share!

In addition to the group, you can view all of Rail Life's pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/raillifepics/

Do you live near the line? Do you have a favorite restaurant on the light rail line? Are you a student that will be using light rail? Sports fans that can't wait to take the light rail trains to the games? Serious, the choices are endless. We will post links to the best ones from time to time right here on the blog. Hey, there's an idea; maybe a weekly link to our favorite pics?!? We want to help show some excitement for the changes coming to our communities.  So, click on THIS PHOENIX LIGHT RAIL GROUP to join in and share pics as you take them. If you already have some good pics, go ahead and add them..

Basic rules are.. Keep it clean, keep it relevant to life on the line. Have fun! We will be adding pictures regularly and hope you will too. Thanks for stopping by!