portmatrix.blogg.se - Light rail route in phoenix

The automated train system now connects the 44th Street and Washington Street light-rail stop to Terminal 3 and Terminal 4. The first phase of the PHX Sky Train opened in 2013 to connect the light-rail system to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The automated PHX Sky Train system now connects the 44th Street and Washington Street light-rail stop to Terminal 3 and Terminal 4. The starter line has been extended twice - 3.1 miles through downtown Mesa along Main Street to Mesa Drive in 2015 and 3.2 miles in Phoenix to 19th Avenue and Dunlap Road in 2016.

27, 2008, ran from Phoenix's Christown Mall in the west to Main Street and Sycamore Drive in Mesa. The 20-mile starter line, which opened Dec. Reflecting today, Hawker said "it did prove out to be positive." Growing the line "I'm pretty conservative and typically for government programs I'm not a big backer, but it was pretty well understood that Phoenix and Tempe were building the light rail and if Mesa did not join, it was going to stop two miles from Mesa's border in Tempe," Hawker said. Years earlier, the conservative suburb passed a Quality of Life tax, which included a small set-aside for public transportation, but the city had not committed to use it for light rail.įormer Mesa Mayor Keno Hawker persuaded the council to pay to bring 1 mile of light rail into the city so future politicians could decide whether to extend it further. With Phoenix and Tempe on board, Mesa had to decide whether it would fund the end of the line to the East.

Phoenix had two failed transit initiatives, with one losing by 22 votes.īut in 2000, Phoenix voters approved a 0.4 percent sales tax to fund light rail and other public transportation projects.įour years later, Maricopa County voters extended a countywide half-cent transportation tax, about a third of which has gone toward light rail and other public transportation projects. Tempe voters passed a half-cent sales tax for buses and light rail in 1996, putting pressure on Phoenix to catch up with the East Valley suburb. Without a regional transit tax, each city was left to come up with money on its own. Voters across Maricopa County defeated the $8 billion proposal by nearly a 2-to-1 ratio in 1989, sending transit proponents back to the drawing board. The project would have connected the entire Valley with 100 miles of elevated tracks. The first iteration of light rail, dreamed up in the 1980s, was an even grander and pricier plan called ValTrans.

But, 10 years after light rail changed the landscape of metro Phoenix, its future is more unclear than ever as a group of Phoenix residents attempt to halt any further expansion.Īfter attending college in Buffalo, Caitlin Waters, 27, moved to Phoenix for a marketing internship in 2013.

Today, there's a dedicated tax base to fund dozens of additional miles of light rail in the next several decades.

It took the Valley nearly 20 years to persuade voters to support a mass transit system like light rail.

Police calls near the new light-rail platforms increased 37 percent after the rail system opened.

But along 19th Avenue, the newest stretch of light rail in Phoenix, neighbors say the rail has also lured crime.

Valley leaders say light rail is responsible for luring the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four and other mega-events.

But some experts say a less-expensive public investment could have spurred similar results.

Valley Metro estimates $11 billion in private and public investment has sprouted within a half mile of the light-rail line since 2008.

But during the past fiscal year, light-rail ridership slipped by about 725,000 riders.

The rail system almost immediately exceeded its target ridership numbers, and today has an average weekday ridership of about 50,000, a number Valley Metro didn't expect to reach until 2020.

"There are dark clouds on the horizon," he said.