MTA inks real-time contract

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on February 17, 2010 at 10:22 am

The Metropolitan Transit Authority has asked ACS, a unit of Xerox, to design and build a system that will relay real-time route info to a number of its stations and shelters as well as its Web site and commuters’ phones.

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Tags: Affiliated Computer Services Inc., information technology, Metropolitan Transit Authority, public transportation, software, Xerox Corp.  

Forbes: Nashville in dregs of green-commute poll

By E. Thomas Wood Posted on February 16, 2010 at 1:34 pm

As if to reinforce the message of Joey Garrison’s City Paper piece this week on just how far Nashville has yet to go in developing viable mass transit, Forbes is now out with a chart ranking the top 60 U.S. metro areas by various metrics related to commuting. It is not a proud civic moment for the Music City.

Crunching census data on the percentage of commuters who got to work by carpooling, walking, biking or using public transport in 2008, the magazine ranked Nashville 55th as a “green commuting” city. In an overall ranking that factors in travel time and other data as well as greenness, we come in 49th, just ahead of Chicago and L.A.

Salt Lake City came in first overall. The snarl that is the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area came in last, a ranking many acrophobics out there will consider justified purely on the grounds of the big swoopy bridge you have to cross if you want to go south from the airport.

[h/t Freddie O'Connell]

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Tags: city rankings, commercial real estate, environment, Forbes, infrastructure, public transportation, sustainable development, swoopiness, traffic  

Stronger 2010 start for the Star

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on January 27, 2010 at 8:26 am

Ridership on the Music City Star has risen markedly in the first few weeks of this year, forcing its operators to add capacity.

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Tags: Music City Star, public transportation, railroads, Regional Transportation Authority  

New buses to boost MTA’s green efforts

By Sananda Sahoo Posted on July 30, 2009 at 11:51 am

The Metro Transit Authority is looking forward to acquire three buses from stimulus money for its green Bus Rapid Transit route on Gallatin Pike. The BRT program will consist of these additional buses along with the new hybrid ones already in service on the Gallatin route, the upgraded stations with real-time bus arrival information, ticket vending machines and the already-installed Transit Signal Priority equipment.

“Providing separate lanes may be something we’re able to do in the future but that requires a much more significant investment,” said Jim McAteer, director of planning at MTA.

According to Federal Transit Administration, a BRT corridor aims to improve speed and reliability of bus transit with the implementation of dedicated transitways/busways, limited-stop and express services, and exclusive bus lanes.

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Tags: alternative energy, bus rapid transit, Jim McAteer, Metro Transit Authority, public transportation  

New bus service ready to run

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on July 26, 2009 at 11:31 pm

Anchor Trailways is wrapping up preparations for the launch of the A.T. Runner, which will connect Nashville with Florence, Ala., and point in between. Funding for the venture is coming from state and federal sources.

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Tags: Alabama, Anchor Trailways & Tours, infrastructure, public transportation  

Railroaded stations

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on June 30, 2009 at 6:55 pm

This wistful look at bygone train stations from around the country sure makes us happy that Nashville’s Union Station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places a decade before the last Amtrak train pulled out of town.

Of course, reading about many cities’ plans to join the nation’s budding high-speed rail network also has us steamed that Nashville features nowhere in that picture.

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Tags: high-speed rail, National Register of Historic Places, public transportation, transportation, Union Station  

Hybrid buses for MTA

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on June 8, 2009 at 2:40 pm

The Metropolitan Transit Authority has ordered two hybrid electric buses from a Michigan-based company that promises a 40 percent drop in emissions.

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Tags: alternative energy, Azure Dynamics Corp., electric cars, hybrid buses, public transportation, transportation