re: NO to BR train won't work so says expert

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It is 4.4 miles from the river to Cortana mall, and BRT costs ~$30million/mile and light rail costs about ~$50million/mile. So it would cost anywhere from $130million-$250million for a mass transit option down Florida Blvd.

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Actually it's over 7 miles from Cortana Mall to the River Center so at 30 million per mile that's 210 million dollars and 350 million for light rail.

But it's true though isn't it?


The white people of BR think they will get raped and robbed the second they step on a city bus


It's kinda the same mentality here though. No one but poor people use the city buses here as well. Although people do utilize the light rail that goes from Tempe to downtown Phoenix. If I lived closer to it I would certainly use for events I wanted to go to downtown and be able to drink and not have to drive back.

My little brother used the BR buses all the time when he still lived in BR. He never had any issues safety wise.


I used them when I was a teenager and wanted to go to the mall or something with my bf. 14-15 years old riding a public bus and I never felt unsafe as well.


However...that isn't the common sentiment of the rest of the white population in BR.

CATS stinks.
The busses are dirty
The routes take forever because they stop every damn block whether people are waiting there or not
And they come so inconsistently that they are very difficult to rely on if you have a job you need to get to at a set time.

Not to mention multiple CATS board members and executives have been caught either on the take or stealing taxpayer money. CATS is an absolute joke.

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What good is getting a train station from one city to the other when neither has adequate mass transit to get you from that station to your final destination efficiently?

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You need to think outside of the box, or traffic in Louisiana will never be fixed.

The best place for the New Orleans stop would be at Union Station which currently hosts Amtrak trains, Greyhound buses, RTA (city) buses, and now finally the city street car line is tied in as well. Of course, numerous cab drivers camp out there all the time too. The main negative of that place is that free parking for commuters is very limited in that area.

Baton Rouge would be a bigger issue. The passenger train station was converted to a museum years ago. The Greyhound terminal is on the other side of downtown from that old train station and the CATS (city) buses, while on the same street as the Greyhound station, are across the street and several blocks away from it. If the city bought that vacant lot next to the Greyhound station or even the old Goudchaux building behind, they could move the CATS station there, and both of those lots also happen to border a train track, so the CATS station could also include the station for the train to New Orleans and even that downtown tram that they are adding. There is a huge, largely unused, parking lot at the old Goudchaux building that commuters could park at.

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Actually it's over 7 miles from Cortana Mall to the River Center so at 30 million per mile that's 210 million dollars and 350 million for light rail.

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1. I didn't say the River Center. I said the river which is where a hypothetical mass transit line would end.
2. For some reason when I typed in Cortana mall google dropped the pin by our lady of mercy school, but when I did it manually it came out to 6.2 miles. Not that it really matters.

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Another thing to consider. How much will the parking be at the BR station for people to safely leave their cars? How safe would you feel at the NOLA train station once you arrived? Are people gonna be willing to just hang out at these stations with their valuables waiting for cabs/Uber or waiting for their train back to BR in the evening?


People in areas more sprawled out just view public transportation differently. People in EBR just see public transportation as being used by the poor people of the city. How many people do you know would willingly ride city buses in BR without fearing for their safety?

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How safe is your car at work?

BR and NOLA are not unique ppl in the UK, Eastern Europe, the northeast, and all over the world have to deal with those same questions and they have answered them. BR and NOLA ppl can too. More ppl are hurt, and killed in car accidents than are robbed, assaulted, or injured on busses. So it is not exactly like they are safe in their cars.

Again I am not endorsing the project, I am just saying all those little questions have been answered by other commuter rail and rail lines in the world. All BR & NOLA would have to do is apply them.

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CATS stinks.
The busses are dirty
The routes take forever because they stop every damn block whether people are waiting there or not
And they come so inconsistently that they are very difficult to rely on if you have a job you need to get to at a set time.

Not to mention multiple CATS board members and executives have been caught either on the take or stealing taxpayer money. CATS is an absolute joke.

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+1

The reasons why busses aren't utilized in BR and NOLA is not because of safety or race issues (even though we might joke about it). It is because they offer 0 advantages over driving. A streetcar, light rail, BRT, or commuter rail all have their own right of way or lane and can skip traffic. Busses you are stuck in traffic, and then you add in the fact that CATS is incompetent (the nicest way that I can describe CATS) and the RTA doesn't have enough busses. There is no reason to take a bus right now. A commuter rail would roll right past the congestion and right now save 12-20 minutes and the suffering of sitting in traffic if you were commuting from downtown BR to Gonzalez.

So the new trains won't stink, nor will the people who run them steal. They will run on time and things will be great.

If you don't mind I'll wait and see before a govt. run program actually is run well.

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If you are talking about All Aboard Florida then you are ill informed. All aboard florida's parent company Florida East Coast railways owned the majority of the track. The only land they were given was for the stations. They are also paying upto $4.5million/yr to lease that station.

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Those stations are prime real estate given to them. Also there is this.

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Other questions center on AAF’s funding. In August, the Florida Development Finance Corporation approved AAF’s request to issue $1.75 billion in tax-exempt Private Activity Bonds, a category reserved for private projects with a public benefit.

CARE characterizes these tax exemptions as a government subsidy, to the tune of $600 million. CARE has also, in the courts and in public statements, argued that various irregularities marred the approval of bond financing by the Florida Development Finance Corporation, a pseudo-public issuer operating with state authority. CARE alleges that several FDFC commission members had not been properly confirmed at the time of the approval, and that AAF does not technically qualify for the funding because it is not a high-speed rail line.

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It's a boondoggle and it's unnecessary given there is a turnpike route to Orlando. FEC is doing this to increase their freight lines and get the local communities on the route to pay for the silent crossings.