Cleveland RTA: Heavy and Light Rail System

Anyone familiar with the scope of this organization? Any information appreciated.

As you probably saw on the Cleveland RTA website 1½ years ago, Ohio's largest metropolitan area has three rail lines; one heavy rail line and two light rail lines. I think the most interesting thing about these lines is they all run on the same track for a stretch, despite the fact their boarding levels are different. (From what I've read, at the shared stations there are lengthy platforms that have areas for both Red Line and Green/Blue Line boardings, with ramps getting riders to the proper "level" depending on which train they are using.)

P.S. I've never ridden any of the Cleveland rail lines, though I came very close to doing so when I visited Cleveland in July 2005. If parking in the downtown garages for Cleveland Indians games wasn't so cheap ($4 to park two blocks from the Jacobs Field!) and if I'd visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on any day but a Sunday (when you can park next to nearby Cleveland Browns Stadium for free), I definitely would have used either the Blue Line or Green Line.

The light rail line was formerly known as the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit before it was fold under GCRTA

Cleveland's Rapid (as they call it there) is interesting for several reasons. First, Red Line is a high-level line built in the 1950s and '60s by the Cleveland Transit System after WWII and the Blue and Green Line are low-floor streetcar/light-rail lines built in the 30s to help develop Shaker Heights neighborhood and were two separate companies (CTS and Shaker Heights Rapid Transit) until the 1970s or so when the current RTA was formed. These lines do operate over the same track between East 55th Street station and Tower City with each station having both high and low platforms. The three shared stations are: Tower City, East 33rd/Campus and East 55th.

Second, the Tower City station is in the bottom of Terminal Tower, the old Union Station in downtown Cleveland that was redone in either the late '80s or early '90s into a mall with a transit station below - easiest access to a mall I've ever seen (that includes the old Filene's entrance at Downtown Crossing in Boston). The Red Line leaving Tower City to the West uses the old viaduct over the Cuyahoga River the trains to Chicago used to use leaving terminal tower and continues on to the Airport. Incidentally, the Red Line was the first rapid transit line in North America to directly serve an airport since the Terminal in is the station. The only Airport Station I've used that is as easy to use as Cleveland's is Atlanta's.

Also, RTA is also redoing the Red Line stations (slowly I might add), and are closing some stations, such as East 120th/Euclid. That station is always interesting since it is only manned during rush hours and is basicaly a wooden platform that consists of what seems like untreated rail ties laid together to form a platform with a plastic shelter on top which does absolutely nothing to keep the wind off Lake Erie from blowing right through you. When the station is unmanned, you pay your fare by boarding at the front of the train and placing your money in a farebox just like on a bus. Also the Red Line is completely powered by overhead catenary, unusually for a heavy rail line in the U.S. (which the Red Line is classified as by the Federal Transit Administration).

The Blue and Green Line share tracks from the North Shore Station, which is part of the Waterfront extension that openned in 1996 or so allowing the Blue and Green Line to serve the areas west of Tower City on the east bank of the Cuyahoga such as the Flats, the Browns Stadium, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Shaker Square where the lines split. After Shaker Square, each line runs in a grass median with level crossing mainly through residential neighborhoods. Shaker Square is also often referenced by New Urbanists as a excellent example of a Transit Oriented Development since the square is really designed around the rail line.

Vehicles are Breda light rail vehicles for the Blue and Green Line built in the '80s and Japanese built cars for the Red Line also built in the '80s. One final thing about Cleveland is the there was a streetcar subway that ran run Detroit Avenue at West 29th Street (with a branch to West 25th Street) on the lower deck of the Detroit-Superior Bridge (now Vetrans Memorial) to a power at West 6th Street with stations at either end of the bridge. This little subway saw service from 1917 to 1954.

Hope this helps and as I'm typing most of this from memory, please correct anything I've gotten wrong.

I can't seem to find any information as to when the Rapid was built out to the Airport. I was under the impression that the Rapid used the same tracks that NYC originally built and electrified for access to Terminal Tower after NYC abandoned their route downtown... or am I mixed up and crazy?

-otto-

Otto Vondrak wrote:I can't seem to find any information as to when the Rapid was built out to the Airport. I was under the impression that the Rapid used the same tracks that NYC originally built and electrified for access to Terminal Tower after NYC abandoned their route downtown... or am I mixed up and crazy?

-otto-

Cleveland's four-mile airport extension opened in 1968. At the time it was heralded as the first US rapid transit line to directly serve an airport. (I'd argue that Boston's Blue Line to Logan had been doing that for years, but purists disallow that because of the shuttle bus that you need to take from the Blue Line station to the terminal.)

As for using NYC tracks... the same right-of-way, definitely, but I don't know about literally the same tracks. Cleveland Union Terminal was still a very busy passenger station when the Rapid was built in the 1950s, and there were still active railroad tracks through there, although NYC electrification had been retired in 1953. The former NYC passenger line through CUT lasted at least through Amtrak's short-lived original incarnation of the Lake Shore Limited in 1971-72. Maybe the Rapid took over a couple tracks through the station when built but I'm not familiar with that area in those days.

The West Side "Rapid" uses three different rights-of-way between the Union Terminal and Airport. Between CUT and W. 25thth St., it uses what was once CUT Co. right-of-way that was originally (1929-30) built to accommodate a rapid transit line. (This includes the Cuyahoga viaduct, where the line occupies space that was vacant from 1930 to 1985.) From W. 25th to W. 98th, it follows the former Nickel Plate, which, during an c.1913 grade separation project, also had been designed to accommodate rapid transit tracks. From W. 98th to the airport it follows the former NYC lakefront line but, as noted, it was built alongside the existing tracks and did not displace any of them. At one time an NYC industrial spur crossed the transit line at grade. Perhaps that's still there, but I doubt it.

Speaking of the airport extension, back in '87 I was visiting a friend who lived in Wheeling for a week,in fact it was over Memorial Day weekend I recall and we decided to take a ride to Cleveland. When we arrived,we parked the car and of course I had to ride the train. my friend was a theologen and wasn't into trains like I am but he rode the whole system with me. After that we went up the observation deck of the Tower. There was a security guard and somehow we started talking to him and I mentioned I was a train buff and just rode the red line out to the airport. He said that he was a retired motorman from the RTA and when the extension open up , he engineered the the very first run from there. I thought that was kind of interesting.

Otto Vondrak wrote:I can't seem to find any information as to when the Rapid was built out to the Airport. I was under the impression that the Rapid used the same tracks that NYC originally built and electrified for access to Terminal Tower after NYC abandoned their route downtown... or am I mixed up and crazy?

-otto-

The Red Line parallels the NYC right-of-way; but it's separate trackage and never uses or crosses the freight lines. The Red Line comes out from under Terminal Tower, using the old CUT bridge, and veers to parallel the Nickel Plate tracks to West Blvd. At about W. 98th St the heavy-rail tracks veer south, under a viaduct, and come out at W.117th all the way to the airport.

At about Brookpark Road, beyond the Rockport Yard (the yard is fully visible from the Brookpark Rapid platform) the tracks veer slightly and go underground to the Airport terminal and the end of the line. There is, or was, an RTA dead-line just outside the airport, where the old Bluebird cars (the original cars) and the Airporter cars (late 1960s, Pullman-Standard) were stored.

About fifteen years ago most of those old cars were scrapped, and most heavy repairs are done at the "new" consolidated repair facility around E. 30th.

Terminal Tower: The Shaker Rapid was built from the start to use the underground Union Terminal station alongside the intercity trains. That was by design; the Van Sweringen brothers first built Shaker Heights, Ohio; then the Shaker Rapid to make commuting to their suburb possible, and finally purchased control of the Nickel Plate to gain some rights-of-way. It was they who built the CUT/Terminal Tower in the early 1930s.

Both the Windemere (Red Line) and Shaker lines always used the CUT as the downtown station, even after Amtrak abandoned CUT. In the late 1980s, as noted, the train concourse was remade into a mall and food court and the RTA passenger area redone.

Hope that clears things up.

GCRTA is a system that brings back memories – when I was fairly young, my dad's company sold a crane to the RTA and I got to go with him, including rides from Brook Park to Downtown to Shaker Square. I also visited the headquarters, the new shops at East 34th where the crane was installed, and the shuttered shops by the airport, where the historic and legacy fleets were kept. The purchasing agent walked us through the entirety of both shops; quite the treat for a young railfan.

The GCRTA did what any newly formed city agency with half a pulse did in the early 80's: order new equipment from Japan or Europe and close all the legacy shops in favor of one or two shops and a central storage point. As my knowledge on this agency is quite old, I suggest reading "The Shaker Heights Rapid Transit" by James Toman. It chronicles the history of the Shaker rapid, the transition from private to Shaker Heights municipal ownership to Greater Cleveland ownership. Cursory notes on the CTS (heavy rail) system are also provided, as well as about a ten page color photos section. I'd provide some factoids from my copy, but it's about 500 miles from here right now…

(edit) Looking back on it now, I was 8 in 1989 when this contract happened, and at that time I had likely been in more auto plants and railroad shops than most grown adults – no way in heck would that be allowed today. I can also remember Dad talking some Indianapolis Conrail crews into letting me ride an EMD yard goat while they switched a GM plant in Indy, at the time I was 6 or 7 – no way would that fly today either…

There was a really good Classic Trains article for the 75th anniversary of Tower Terminal. Several pages, good photos and history.

http://kalmbachcatalog.stores.yahoo.net/ctr050301.html

I visited on summer 2005 before reading. Stayed at the old hotel that was part of the complex - very nice. Doesn't look like the mall is a very big success though but very nice to see its maintained. The old dept store (Higby's I think it was called) was closed and the store empty - it was part of the Terminal Tower project as well.

Throughout the mall there are old pictures blown up with captions. You can still see where ticket windows were - though they are closed off. Rode the Red Line out to the airport, and the Blue/Green over to the Hall of Fame - nice system but not very frequent service. All in all a nice trip.

What type of signals are used for the Cleavland light and heavy rails system?

On a visit to Cleveland back in the 1980's I remember seeing what looked like temporary low level platforms next to each station on the Red Line from the airport to downtown. Did they actually run the Breda LRV's in passenger service on the Red line? Does anyone have pictures showing such operation?

Disney Guy wrote:On a visit to Cleveland back in the 1980's I remember seeing what looked like temporary low level platforms next to each station on the Red Line from the airport to downtown. Did they actually run the Breda LRV's in passenger service on the Red line? Does anyone have pictures showing such operation?

No, at E.55th and a few other stations east of downtown, the Shaker LRVs ran on the same tracks as the heavy-rail Windemere (Red Line) units. I think the lines split off at E.79th...

I'm a West Sider, and the East-versus-West division of Cleveland is worse than that of the Mason-Dixon Line. I've literally been to Houston more than I'd been to the East Side prior to working at Collinwood...