Extending the Lowell trolley

Article in today's Globe about studying the extension of the trolley to the Gallagher Transportation Center:


http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... _downtown/[/url]

Good lord... over half a million dollars for a "study". I'd love to know what those consultants are getting paid per hour and what they do to earn it. As one who has enjoyed riding the Lowell trolleys a couple times a year every summer since their debut, I'd love to see the system extended, but this sounds like typical Massachusetts pork barrel politics.

The system works great for moving tourists around the National Historical Park, and the replica trolleys are neat, but as a year-round transit system it wouldn't do anything that a few buses couldn't do. Lowell just isn't that big a city, or that densely populated, and the vast majority of people going to the Gallagher Center, LeLacheur Park, and the Tsongas Arena are driving from somewhere outside the downtown area that the expanded trolley line would serve.

It's your basic pork barrell study intended to kill a project that makes absoulute sense...service to LaLachur Park and Tsongas Arena(I know I butchered those, my mistake) shouldn't be provided by the trolley. It should be by bus service only. Trolley service to the Gallagher Terminal on the other hand should be provided considering 1. it's connection to Boston. 2. it's parking spaces 3. it's connection to local buses.

On the other hand, it's not too much of a walk from the trolley's last stop to the Gallagher Terminal...I would not be surprised if that was what keeps the extention a fantasy.

As one who lives in Lowell I think this is a very good idea.For people who have been to events at the Tsongas or the Ballpark parking is hard to find sometimes and trying to get there sometimes can be a pain in the A** .With the new loop the trolley would come less than a 1/4 from all the downtowns parking garages.This would provide people places to park further away from there destionion and a way to get there. Also with the new Devlpoment planing to take place in the JAM plan(Jackson Appleton and Middlesex St) is expected to add over 1,000 units of new housing and commerical area along with the current downtown and what a better way to attract people to this area with a trolley to get you everywhere you need to go. There also has been talk of an extension too Cross Point Towers along the Former NYNH&H tracks.It would serve residential area's A big plaza with a supermarket and other stores and Cross Point witch along with the towers are a cinema complex and restraunts.I think as the city is in an upturn and a nationl model for citys its size for urban revitalaztion this project is worth it.

"Lowell just isn't that big a city, or that densely populated"
Tom I don't know what your smoking but Lowell is the 4th biggest city in the state and at only 13 Sq miles and a population of 105,000 it is a very densly populated city.

Mr. Sq, I'm a fan of rail transit and I'd love to see an expanded rail system in Lowell, but there are no cities anywhere in the country with a population anywhere close to the 100,000 range that support a non-tourist-oriented rail transit system. While politics can be a strange thing, I'd be amazed if those highly paid consultants can demonstrate enough potential ridership to justify the expense of upgraded, year-round rail transit, as opposed to the current seasonal tourist trolley system in Lowell, especially in the current funding climate
.
Look at the current LRTA bus system -- by big city standards,it offers relatively infrequent service and has no particular capacity poblems. That's not a good indicator of a crying need for rail transit, which generally gets built because buses can no longer handle demand on a given route. I certainly applaud Lowell's spirit of boosterism and the way the downtown has come back over the past decade, but if you actually get money to build a rail transit system it will be the city's biggest coup yet.

As an aside, as a minor league hockey and baseball fan I am familiar with both of Lowell's professional sports venues, and again, in my opinion (feel free to differ), the market for fixed-rail transit isn't there. Tsongas Arena is already within reasonable walking distance of downtown unless your idea of a gruelling walk is three or four blocks, and LeLacheur Park is just a little farther out. People who don't want to walk a couple blocks arrive early. I don't believe that LRTA currently runs any special bus service after sporting events, do they? (Unlike, say, the Portland Metro after Sea Dogs games.) That implies a lack of demand.

Having said all that, you may want to take a look at the 1990s-built trolley system in Memphis (a vastly bigger city than Lowell, of course), which is a case where what was intended as strictly a tourist system using some realy neat vintage equipment has now become an integral part of the city's transit network. I suspect that's the model Lowell is looking towards.

Tom I am a fan of rail transit too. But you are right the bus service in Lowell is underused other than the LHS kids. Over the last few months they have been making improvments. I ride the bus everyday to get to the train station and there are usually between 5-10 people on the bus when I ride. I feel like the new bus hub they are bulding at the train station might help out a little more. The Propoused route of the trolley would replace the downtown shuttle that runs almost same route.

Now to the sports stadiums. When I was talking about the use of the trolleys was more for the ballpark than the arena. Parking is tight for the games which if you know are are standing room only for every game since they opened the Lache. With the trolley you could park downtown go to the game and go back downtown after the game to do other things. I also think the little kids would like to ride the trolley after the game also. As for Portland I have been ther once for a game and there isn't much parking around the stadium so that's why I belive they use the buses.

As for what I think sums it up all of the people who want Lowell to be more than it is."Build it and they will come" It holds true to all of the downtown projects they have started so far. I should have noted that Seashore Trolley museum is a supporter along with the National Park. I think they also want to use this as part of Lowell's history. For only 52 million I find it not that expensive and remember that the allready they have 1 1/2 miles allready bulit. It is also less than 1/4 than what the T spent on the horiable Breads.

I didn't even know there were trolleys in Lowell. How well publicized is this operation? Is it intended to be a tourist operation, a museum demonstration, or an actual augment to the transit system?

-otto-

Otto right now it is a tourist operation.There is a street car Museum located in the Mack building witch is at the visitor center stop.Seashore plans on building a museam with a round house i belive.The plans to extend the line would be more for Public Transit but still also serve the National Park to ferry people around.

This link should help you out and if you click on the National Park one i belive there is more infor about the trolleys on there page too

http://www.trolleymuseum.org/lowell_02.html

This site has a whole lot of info you my find useful

http://www.heritagetrolley.org/existLowell.htm

Just to let you people know. There is also another board open about the Trolleys in Lowell on the Trolley board section (or whatever its called). I use to work in Lowell and I always use to talk to the trolley drivers. This extention is going to happen. The Nation Park (federal goverment) as already come up with the funding according to one of the Trolley drivers. Just want to point out a fact (and I pointed it out in the other board a while back, that the Seashore Trolley Museum and the National park trolley operation have been butting heads for a while now. See the National Park operates there trolleys for one reason. That is to transfer park visitors from one side of the park to the other so they don't have to walk. The Seashore Trolley Museum is more for fun and just want to ride around keeping the rails from rusting and well..... the two are not getting along to well.) Also just this past July the National Park just finally purchased the tracks from the Boston and Maine RR (Guilford), so with that out of the way it will make it much easier to expand. The trolleys currently run on a RR spur build by the Boston and Lowell RR in the 1830's. It last saw a train in the late 1980's (1988 I believe), since then the spur as been disconnected from the main line. The National Park's Lowell trolleys started operations in 1984, operating both trolleys and trains on the same track.