We Did it! The Symposium was a Success!

 
A Note of Thanks From our Chairman, DeWain Feller: 
 
RRTC Members: 
 
We did it!  The symposium on Friday was a great success.  For those of you who 
were there, I'm curious to hear your reactions.  For those of you who weren't 
there, I think its safe to say that we have scored one of our biggest victories in 
RRTC's history.  Many thanks to all of you who have been a part of this effort; our 
efforts have paid off. 

We had a capacity crowd of 120-150 people. We had people from RTS, the City, the County, the DOT, State elected officials, academia, environmentalists, and probably more. We only had a few disappointments, one was that Mayor Johnson did not show (but understandingly he is a busy man), and the other was that the Gannett papers did not show as well (no TV stations showed, but we weren't expecting them). Most of the questions and conversations were quite positive and upbeat in nature, although I'm sure there were a number of skeptics in the audience.

Perhaps one of the most positive outcomes of the symposium was that RTS/R-GRTA now appears more favorable to rail transit. Don Riley (the new head of R-GRTA) seemed quite interested, and was intrigued by the fact that 70+% of the St. Louis line's ridership is new to transit, and that it has drawn in a sizable suburban constituency to transit.

By no means is Rochester's leadership ready to give LRT a green light tomorrow, but we have been able to make more progress toward building a consensus than ever before in the history of LRT plans in Rochester.

Once again, thanks for all of the work, and I look forward to hearing your reactions.

Dewain

DeWain may contacted at 73562.756@compuserve.com.