This morning the CEO of Metro, Rick Simonetta, spoke to a packed house at a Phoenix breakfast meeting. The enclosed video will give you a great understanding of the current and future plans for our light rail system. Some of the highlights from his talk (for me) were:
We are just 142 days from the opening of our Light Rail system! The project is on schedule and on budget.
The Arizona Light Rail system is the nations largest and most complex light rail system ever to be built and open at one time. It is interesting to hear about the complexities of this huge project.
Our 20 miles of light rail is just the beginning. The voters approved 57 miles of this project in 2004 as part of prop 400 which needs to be built by 2025.
The project is approximately 92% complete. Final touches, amenities, artwork and car testing still to be done.
There is a very sophisticated monitoring and communication system. Each car and station is monitored from a central location where they can communicate with the cars, change message boards at the stations, see where the cars are, look at any camera on the trains or the stations, can talk to people on the platforms etc. etc..
It is very important to have a fully integrated transportation system. Aligning the bus and rail systems is critical for an effective system. They need to give people information on the park and ride lots, all 28 stations have bus connections, some will have transit sectors where many bus routes come together.
Hours of service will coincide with the bus system as will the fares. Bus fares and light rail fares will be easily transferred from one to the other.
Dec 27 and 28 will be the grand opening of light rail, all 28 stations will be operational, all rides will be free of charge and people will be able to use light rail to get to all of the destinations along the line.
These are just a few of the things Rick discusses on the video. Of course, Rail Life will be following up on these items and keep you informed as we get more information.