Nashville TN: Music City Star

Ridership on the Music City Star rose 30 percent in March compared with March 2010 figures, Nashville’s Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) reported this week.

A record 25,321 riders used the service in March, eclipsing the previous record of 20,465 riders set in February.

In addition, Music City Star recently set a new record for single-day ridership when 1,374 people rode the train on April 19.

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/n ... rch--26473


Average Gas Price $3.73. Range from $3.56 to $3.99

http://www.musiccitystar.org/downloads/ ... -13-11.pdf

Ridership continues increase over last year.

Single day ridership 1,455 on June 10

I heard it is not much and it is a dead end line so no overhead traffic.

gearhead wrote:I heard it is not much and it is a dead end line so no overhead traffic.

Mod Note: Merged into the Music City Star sticky topic.

mtuandrew wrote:

gearhead wrote:I heard it is not much and it is a dead end line so no overhead traffic.

Mod Note: Merged into the Music City Star sticky topic.

The MCS is a commuter operator. No freight here

http://www.nerr.com/Home.html

The Nashville & Eastern is what is left of the old Tennessee Central. East of Monterrey TN the track ends, no thru traffic.
What is left is some on line industries.

http://www.nerr.com/Customers.html seems to have a lot of local freight....Seems having passengers and the grants that come with them was a way to fix up the railroad

gearhead wrote:http://www.nerr.com/Customers.html seems to have a lot of local freight....Seems having passengers and the grants that come with them was a way to fix up the railroad

Grants for freight came first. TN has a rail program to preserve branch lines with the factories & jobs that come with them. Having a DuPont Rayon plant made a good base to attract other industry from. The MCS money rebuilt most of the line from the ballast up. I suppose you are correct in having freight run in the 20 hours a day the 2 passenger trains don't use. If you look at the loco fleet, the NERR is talented in getting older locos to work. It also helps having the TCry Museum on line. Another group of folks to keep older equipment running. The old Santa Fe stainless Budd cars still look good with TC letter boards.

http://www.musiccitystar.org/downloads/ ... -18-11.pdf

New 26,989 monthy ridership record. Up 53% for June, 40% 2011. At least some Nashvilians are using public transit.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110 ... |text|News

A refusal from Mt. Juliet and Wilson County to increase funding could inhibit the growth of Middle Tennessee’s only commuter train.

With the Music City Star breaking ridership records this year, Regional Transportation Authority officials say it could soon be time to add cars. But that would depend, in part, on funding from local governments.

The train serves weekday commuters between Nashville, Donelson and Hermitage in Davidson County and Mt. Juliet and Lebanon in Wilson County. Slightly more than half of the riders for incoming trips to Nashville come from Wilson County.

Details of what it takes to operate a commuter train in TN.

What they should be spending the money on is expanding service to non-peak hours instead of adding cars. Providing an actual means of alternative transportation is infinitely more important than providing a rush hour traffic reliever.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110 ... |text|News

With some nice pix.

Yow. Nice to see the sudden rise in ridership.

And this didn't seem to be a terribly promising route when it opened, from what I can tell. I wonder what would happen if one of the more promising routes in Nashville were built? Enormous ridership, perhaps?

So, is there any news from anyone in the know regarding expansion of service or adding lines on the MCS? There are always murmurs of more trains/more lines, but it's hard to tack down any reliable info on it.

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/p ... tar--31744#

It is tough to find any info on the MCS/MTA. The MTA runs both bus & rail services. Ridership may have been 14% better on both MCS & MTA.

Most of the action for the future promotes the building & expansion of Bus Rapid Transit BRT routes. The latest proposal calls for spending about $170Mil on a BRT East-West connector.
Go to the MTA website for more info.

GWoodle wrote:http://www.progressiverailroading.com/p ... tar--31744#

It is tough to find any info on the MCS/MTA. The MTA runs both bus & rail services. Ridership may have been 14% better on both MCS & MTA.

Most of the action for the future promotes the building & expansion of Bus Rapid Transit BRT routes. The latest proposal calls for spending about $170Mil on a BRT East-West connector.
Go to the MTA website for more info.

Yeah, I'm aware of the East-West BRT Connector. While I'm all for it, and I think it will lead to light rail in the not-so-distant future if they're able to pull it off, there is a lot of distraction from expanding the commuter rail network to make it an actually usable system for more than a couple thousand people.

But you're right, there is a dearth of info out there on MCS. They'll provide press releases on occasion, but so often they're meshed in with info on the regional bus systems without any distinction. It's unfortunate. It makes me think they have no intentions of improving service, let alone expanding, when there is absolutely no news to report on it.