As we patiently wait for the Rail Life site to be up, we want to start a few new things with the blog and I bet some of you can help.. I am thinking about weekly or bi-weekly stories, maybe even video interviews, with people that live, work, study and or play along the upcoming light rail line. You know, tell us about you, your business, your work, your obsession with the Suns, Diamondbacks or the Devils. What is your favorite restaurant near the line? Where are the coolest spots that will be close to a light rail stop? As a business owner, how do you think the light rail will change things? etc. etc..

In our short time here, we feel fortunate to have met several business owners, employees, students etc. and would like to share some of your thoughts with our readers. We want more people to really "get" what we are all about. RailLife.com is about a new way of life in the valley. We are still kind of kicking around the format and deciding if this would be a good weekend thing or what.?.? Feel free to chime in..

We took this short video of a Light Rail car crossing the Tempe Town Lake Bridge north bound on the 4th of July. The area is shown here in a pic from a little earlier in the day. Next year, I am sure the trains will be full of people heading to the 4th of July fireworks show at the lake. This year, as always, the place was packed and parking was a nightmare for many. While the trains sat at the 3rd / Mill stop, thousands of people walked by and many took advantage of having their first look inside of the cars. I noticed how well the a/c worked inside of the cars on such a warm day. Once the train left the stop for it's journey past the Depot Cantina and over the lake, I watched several people that were very surprised to see the trains in action. It was kind of funny..

Large events like this will be a great way for people to easily access the area while using one of the eight park and ride stations. Mill Avenue throws some great parties and Light Rail will be a convenient way to get to and from the action while not having to walk so far from a good parking spot.

Tempe Beach Park is the place to be for the 4th of July. In addition to the spectacular fireworks, you have a great opportunity to see the Award Winning Tempe Town Lake Bridge in action! Did you know the bridge built for the light rail cars has a state-of-the-art fiber-optic lighting system? Did you know that it will be able to change colors as the train crosses the bridge? It's true; and it is a really cool feature that will be operational on a full-time basis once the trains begin service in December.

Not only will there be tons of fun on Mill (as usual) and at the Tempe Beach Park but you also have an opportunity to get an up-close look at a light rail train! Metro, along with the City of Tempe, will have a train stationed at the Mill Ave / 3rd St stop from 4-7PM and will be providing information about the upcoming system and the very important safety aspects of light rail. Following that, more testing will begin and trains will run in both directions between the Operations and Maintenance Center and approximately the Mission Palm's Hotel area. The trains are currently scheduled for testing from 7-9PM on the 4th. According to Dilanna at the City of Tempe, "this could be an opportunity to get people use to seeing the trains in the street." - "This is our last real big opportunity to do that before we begin operations." It will also be a great way for people to see the stop they can use for next years festivities! :-)

Serious folks, if you have been wondering what the trains look like or would like to see how cool the bridge looks when lit up, you might want to take advantage of this great opportunity while celebrating the 4th of July. Have fun!

How ironic that, last night, some of us from Rail Life were leaving a really cool place on Mill Avenue called La Bocca Urban Pizzeria and Wine Bar. As we left, we were stopped by "G-Money," who asked our opinion of public transportation! :-) We chatted for a minute and then decided, as any blogger would, that we "had" to share this guy with you. When we busted out the handy little flip camera, Mr. Money got a little nervous. Once we let him know we didn't want to arrest him, he decided to play along. The following video shows this mans opinion of Arizona Public Transportation. We hope you will enjoy..

A very special thanks to G-Money for allowing us to share his opinion. We would also like to sincerely thank Melissa from Rose & Allyn for inviting us to LaBocca to meet Julian and his staff. What a great bunch of people. More on that to come..