Nashville TN: Music City Star

Ridership isn't meeting goals. Here's one of the articles expressing mild concern at the 6 month numbers:

http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=6469739

Ridership now IS trending upward. They're over 600 daily in June, and they say they're confident they'll make their goal of 1,000 by the one-year anniversary.

I'm skeptical that they can grow that quickly, but the trend line looks much more promising.

The Music City Star is the Front Cover Article in the October 2007 Railfan & Railroad. Nice 6 page article inside.

There are some good picture taking opportunities, mostly in the downtown area. Your best bet would be to capture station action in the AM or PM. However, N&E or MCS crews may call police if you tresspass onto railroad property.

N&E freights run midday or after MCS runs, so you may get some pictures of GE's in action. Just be careful to be safe!

Might these studies have any impact on the expansion of commuter ops. in Nashville?
http://www.thetennessean.com/apps/pbcs. ... /711060360

gt7348b wrote:Just looking at the layout of the Riverfront Station, I had a question maybe someone here can answer — why is the terminal station only single-track? It doesn't look like there have been any provisions made for any possible future expansion since they have the bus loop on one side and the river on the other. Plus, the building locations would also seem to preclude any eventual through-running (which would require new track) towards Downtown Nashville and the other railroad lines in Nashville.

Here's a link.

Any thoughts?

It is impossible for any service from the Riverfront Station to expand. There are no links to any other rail. This is the site of the old terminal for the Tennessee Central. Their track connecting to the "Western Lines" was sold for I-440 several years ago. The rocky hills force any rail construction to be curvy, slow, or very expensive. Blasting would be necessary to move the rock.

The only way for MCS trains to run on other track will be to get permission to run on CSX track. There's so much freight on CSX lines, the ability to run a dinky commuter is slim to none. The State/city would have to buyout the CSX ROW if there's any room to add a track.

What the MCS proves is you can take an old ROW and rebuild the RR to provide some passenger service. Cost may be 1m per mile, with no cost to aquire new ROW. You end up with a new service on an old curvy, hilly, slow ROW. Where you attract riders is when folks get tired of the parking lot on I-40. The AM/PM commute at peak hours is getting worse. Nashville will need some sort of viable public transit. What is missing today is an assured source of funding to do it. Trolleys or any type of "light rail", "subway","elevated" will struggle to find any useable ROW. There's no space to use Interstate ROW. Adding a track to the CSX lines someday is the only option left. It ain't Never going to be a Racetrack.

jg greenwood wrote:Might these studies have any impact on the expansion of commuter ops. in Nashville?
http://www.thetennessean.com/apps/pbcs. ... /711060360

More studies will be done. Another one by TDOT examines traffic on the I-40/I-81 corridor. I-40 carries a lot of East-West truck traffic, that moves northeast via I-81. (Knoxville to wherever). The Nashville-Knoxville Tennessee Central RR went bankrupt in the 1960's. This was part of a route that was never built. No direct rail connection exists today. It would take a huge investment to rebuild a mountain railroad in this territory. It would be easier to route traffic via Chattanooga.

The State does have a rail fund. Freight RR's pay a tax that helps to support rural development & shortlines. That money is what keeps the Nashville & Eastern, among other short lines, possible. (For the MCS, there is a mix of Federal/State/Local funds).

Someday the state could make an investment in NS rails on the Chattanooga-Knoxville-Bristol route. VA will be needed to continue the lines from Bristol NE. (You may know Bristol from the Nascar races). This could divert some truck traffic from the I-40/I-81 corridor.

There may also be a desire someday to have some rail service into the Smoky Mountain National Park. There may be some abandoned ROW from 100 years ago that could be useable.

This article in the Business Journal http://www.businesstn.com/pub/4_11/features/8359-1.html suggests that the Star only averaged 624 June through August, so it looks like the trend line is plateauing. The article also suggests that officials are hoping for a lot from Transit Oriented Development. That's very important, but it'll be a couple years before it really takes hold. It's not like you can throw together a high-density residential building in a year, nor change business patterns near a station that quickly.

[Edit - on the other hand, this article http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... 26179/pg_3 says ridership was 655 in September. Not a huge increase, but it does show an upward trend.
I'm pulling for this service to work.]

ne plus ultra wrote:This article in the Business Journal http://www.businesstn.com/pub/4_11/features/8359-1.html suggests that the Star only averaged 624 June through August, so it looks like the trend line is plateauing. The article also suggests that officials are hoping for a lot from Transit Oriented Development. That's very important, but it'll be a couple years before it really takes hold. It's not like you can throw together a high-density residential building in a year, nor change business patterns near a station that quickly.

[Edit - on the other hand, this article http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... 26179/pg_3 says ridership was 655 in September. Not a huge increase, but it does show an upward trend.
I'm pulling for this service to work.]

Quite often forced to endure Nashville's traffic when journeying to Western North Carolina. I, too, hope it's successful ; what a might-mare, traffic-jam that city is!!

http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/i40corridor/default.htm

I agree, JG. The commute from Lebanon is getting worse. The I-40 Corridor study may be one answer. I expect TDOT to get busy & complete 840 thru Williamson County. It already extends from Lebanon to Franklin. 840 will be the southern expressway 40 miles out from downtown Nashville.

I'd love to see the MCS work. Perhaps what we need is a way for the 9million tourists to ride the train. Gaylord runs an extensive bus service to support their hotel with downtown & the General Jackson (show river steamer).

jg greenwood wrote:
Quite often forced to endure Nashville's traffic when journeying to Western North Carolina. I, too, hope it's successful ; what a might-mare, traffic-jam that city is!!

Maybe you should try going by way of Knoxville. From Chicago, that's the way we've always gotten to Asheville.

And to Mr. Woodle's post, I can't think of any transit line that depends on tourists for even a significant portion, let alone a dominant portion of its ridership. It's gotta sink or swim with Nashvillains.

Tennesseean says MCS ridership grew "nearly 30%" in the last year.

I'm assuming this is Feb v. Feb. That can't be good.

The above links are now dead, but if it was around 600 in May and 655 in September, that gives a limit to where we could be now -- Feb '07 ridership had to be below 600, and by September, there were already 655, meaning that growth since September can't be very big.

If we guessed Feb 07 at 550, then 'nearly 30%' would mean less than 165 growth, which means fewer than 715 riders, or only another 50-59 since September.

Hmm. A few months in, they had said they were confident they'd be at 1,000 by the 1 year anniversary (which was 5 months ago). Their predictions still aren't working out. How much is that new shuttle helping?

AFAIK the new shuttles are working fine. They will be absolutely essential in delivering riders from points to the train. Some large employers (Vandy U, the State), buy tickets for the workers. The shuttle buses are required to bring passengers from the train to their location. There has been some revision of the routes to attract more riders (Belmont U).

Because of the high diesel price, the MTA will be forced to raise fares (1.50) & cut 8 lines. Gas ranges near $3.65-3.75.

Recently, the MCS bought another set of Gallery cars from VRE. They are similar to the cars from Metra. I don't know how many of those cars are still around. AFAIK, they may be parts cars since the fleet is so old. I'm not sure how well the metal holds up in the rain (no snow here).

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 8806130402

The Tennessean reports a shortfall of $1Mil on the Music City Star. About $750,000 is due to an insurance bill at startup. I don't know if the MCS qualifies as a city/state agency to have a limit on liability coverage. Fuel prices are higher. ridership appears to be in the 500 passengers or 1000 trips per day range.

The MTA bus system has a similar problem with fuel. The MTA only has storage for about a week of fuel, requiring purchase on the spot market. Diesel fuel appears to be close to $5 now, with gas at $4.

It appears the new mayor supports the RTA/MCS, so I expect a solution for the shortfall to be found. It appears the MCS may get a loan from local governments till the federal money is available again.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... ckcomments

Deficit is 1.7Mil, 1 mil more than previously reported. Looks like the MCS needs some new management.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 8807080359
ANYONE FOR A FREE TRAINRIDE????

Fun on the 4th of July: The Train to Nowhere!

It appears the MCS sold at least 1,000+ tickets for the 4th fireworks show downtown.
The train only held 750

Looks to me the MCS needs some new management, quick.