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!"

A while back, I mentioned that I wanted to add "more life to Rail Life" by involving people from the community and hearing about life and experiences along the light rail line. Slowly, we are getting around to some of my ideas. :-)

This past weekend, I had an opportunity to speak with Sam Richard. I first met Sam several months ago after coming across his "Deserted After Dark" blog. As a member of the "Student Ambassadors for Recruitment" (StAR program) at ASU, (Phoenix Campus) Sam has some really great insight on the Downtown Phoenix Campus and student life. In the following video, some of the things we discuss are: 1.The student experience in Phoenix. 2. Will Light Rail benefit ASU students and the community. 3. Recruiting, communicating and social networking with ASU students.

The video was shot at the new "Taylor Place" dorms in downtown Phoenix while many students were moving into their new homes. Taylor place is located a short distance from the (south bound) Van Buren/1st Ave light rail station which will take students to the Tempe campus. Student's have a pass to ride light rail included as part of their tuition.

I really enjoyed shooting this video and want to sincerely thank Sam once again for taking the time to meet with me. At Rail Life, we are really looking forward to more of these videos and to meeting people who are living, working or playing along the upcoming light rail line in Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa.

Attention, business and restaurant owners between 7th Street and 7th Avenue, Buckeye to Camelback, and along the Phoenix portion of light rail line. You have a unique opportunity to advertise your business with the help of the City of Phoenix. Recently, Mayor Gordon's office sent a letter to downtown restaurants and business owners inviting them to place a free ad in the "first ever Downtown Phoenix coupon book." Restaurants / business owners can have a photo and description of their business in this coupon book to "help strengthen a loyal customer base." In addition, restaurant owners can participate in the "Taste of Downtown" on October 16th at the new Sheraton Downtown Hotel at 3rd Street and Van Buren. The expected attendance at the Taste of Downtown is 800 people giving you an opportunity to expose your craft to a lot of very interested (and hungry) people by providing small samples of your menu items. ( prepare enough for up to 100 guests.) This promises to be a great event and a great opportunity for people to see the new downtown Sheraton! 

So, if you own a business located from 7th Street to 7th Avenue, Buckeye to Camelback, or are along the Phoenix portion of the light rail line, you can submit your ad, logo and the info below to: Tiffany Huisman at Mayor Gordon's office - email the information to tiffany.huisman (at) phoenix.gov - Tiffany can also be reached at (602) 534-9514. (If you prefer, I can email the necessary form to you.)

Organization Name:
Physical Address:
ZIP Code:
Phone:
Website:
Days/Hours of Operation:
Business Description:
Other information:
Discount Offered:

(all coupons expire 9/30/2009)

Please note: Rail Life LLC is not associated with these events, we are simply forwarding this information to you as it has been sent to us from the City of Phoenix. We are asking people that might know business owners in this area to participate and pass along the information. However, we would love for you to register your business at www.RailLife.com  so that we can make sure you are in our database. We want to be a great resource for the community to find information on everything along the light rail line. If you have a favorite restaurant or business, feel free to let them know that Rail Life is coming!

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.