What is RRTC proposing?
The RRTC has issued a report to the community leadership which asks for three things:

• Professional feasibility studies of potential rail transit corridors.
• The preservation of necessary rights-of-way (the required land).
• Strengthening the foundation of support for all mass transit in Rochester, including bus pass programs for employees and improvements to bus service.

Urban Issues

Why build rail transit in Rochester?
The main reason why RRTC is asking that rail transit be seriously studied is to change the direction of our transportation systems to support a revitalization of the established areas of greater Rochester.

The main benefits of any rail transit system are in the areas of land-use management, urban revitalization, control of traffic congestion, control of air pollution, regional mobility, accessibility, and maintenance of quality-of-life. In Rochester, traffic congestion and air pollution are not yet serious problems, but our community faces serious problems with urban decay and the accessibility of jobs and services to those who have limited transportation options.

How can rail transit affect the problems of urban decay?
Transportation is a powerful force affecting the development of a metropolitan area. An exclusive reliance on the automobile creates sprawling development patterns that encourages suburban growth while discouraging investment in older, more densely developed areas such as the city of Rochester and the villages. Rail transit can move large numbers of people into centralized areas, thereby allowing for denser development patterns.

How do sprawling development patterns contribute to the decline of a city?
As more offices, factories and residents leave the city for the suburbs, the tax base of the city declines. As the tax base of the city declines, the decrease in services and the increase in taxes creates a vicious circle that leads to greater urban flight.

Also, a city needs strong neighborhoods and a vibrant downtown. Downtown Rochester is perceived as being "dead" after 5PM, and many of our city neighborhoods are weak or decayed. To a lesser degree, the same factors are also present in our village centers.

Are you saying that rail transit is a miracle solution for the problems of the inner city?
Not at all. The problems of the inner city are many, and the solutions to these problems are difficult and complex. Rail transit is simply the best way to spend our transportation dollars if we want our transportation policies to help the city instead of hurting it.

This sounds good in theory, but has rail transit actually been proven to increase urban development?
Yes! Several cities, including Portland, Oregon and Sacramento, California, have used new rail transit systems as part of an urban redevelopment strategy. The results are quite clear: rail transit can help to limit suburban sprawl and focus more development back into established areas.

Would rail transit only benefit the city?
No. Any rail transit line in Rochester would most likely service suburban neighborhoods, and the same revitalization potential that would help the city would also help the villages served by rail transit stations. Many suburbanites are concerned about the overdevelopment of their neighborhoods. With the sharp rise of suburban office and industrial parks and retail centers, many suburban residents are facing traffic and noise problems that they never envisioned when they bought their homes. Many suburban residents are concerned that commercial development is changing the character of these neighborhoods for the worse. Rail transit can help restrain over development of the suburbs.

If I live in a stable neighborhood primarily with single-family homes, would rail transit change the character of my neighborhood?
Not unless the residents want it to change. Rail transit only makes it possible to increase the density of an area. If an increase in density is not desired, existing zoning laws would prevent an increase in density in established neighborhoods.

How does rail transit affect property values?
Rail transit usually increases property values. However, there are a number of factors affecting property values, and rail transit line cannot guarantee an increase in property values.

Isn't Rochester too small and dispersed for rail transit?
No. Rochester is in the same population and density range as Sacramento, Portland and Calgary, which have all built successful light rail lines. Light rail is ideal for applications in smaller cities.

Because the cost of the light rail is far lower than rapid transit heavy rail, a sufficient cost/benefit ratio can be achieved with the ridership levels found in smaller cities.

Roads vs. Rails

Rochester does not have much of a problem with traffic, why would we have to widen roads?
Even though our population is stable, the increase of sprawl in our metropolitan area is increasing trip lengths and commuting diversity. The longer the average trip length, the greater the road capacity required to support the same number of cars. The greater the commuting diversity, the more complicated it is to manage traffic. Traffic volumes in Rochester are expected to increase at an average rate of 3% per year, doubling in 24 years.

How would rail transit help control future road congestion problems?
To some extent, rail transit would help by removing people from the road. A full bus or rail car could remove 40 to 150 cars from the road, but the greatest impact the rail transit could have on our roads would come from controlling sprawling development patterns. The more that sprawl is contained, the slower the increase in future traffic volumes.

Why should we build rail transit when we can't even fill the buses that we have today?
Rail transit can draw many more riders than buses can, and rail transit creates new transportation system capacity, whereas buses get bogged down in traffic, along with everyone else. Rail transit is the economical and environmentally responsible alternative to increasing road capacity. Additionally, rail transit routes typically cost only half as much to operate as buses.

Light Rail

What is "light rail"?
Light rail is a form of rail transit for applications with lower volumes than the rapid transit (a.k.a. "metro" or "heavy rail") systems found in larger cities. Light rail lines are usually built on the surface and use rail cars that are basically modern versions of old-time trolleys. Light rail vehicles are powered by overhead electric lines and usually operate as single cars or in short trains of 2 to 4 cars.

Why is light rail cheaper to build than heavy rail?
Light rail is built mainly on ground-level. The cost of building a line on the surface is far lower than building the subway and elevated structures associated with heavy rail. A light rail line does not have to be completely grade separated. That is, light rail can cross over streets at street level, although busy streets are usually crossed by a bridge or underpass. Reducing the number of bridges and underpasses decreases the cost of building a line.

Wasn't the light rail line in Buffalo extremely expensive?
Buffalo's line is not a true light rail line. Most of Buffalo's line is heavy-rail-style subway, and as a result it was extremely expensive to build. The line in Buffalo was many times more expensive than any line proposed for Rochester.

Crime

Wouldn't rail transit make it easier for criminals to reach the suburbs?
There have been several studies done in cities that have introduced new rail transit systems, and there is no evidence that the new lines have increased crime in the suburbs. From a law enforcement perspective, it is much easier to apprehend a suspect fleeing on a rail transit route than it would be to find a suspect fleeing by car. A suspect fleeing by rail would have to wait for several minutes at a patrolled station with security systems and then board a patrolled train, whereas a suspect fleeing by car can quickly disappear into the streets. Areas that would be serviced by rail transit are currently served by busses, so rail transit would not offer any added benefit to a car-less criminal. Fear of the inner city is very common, but unfounded fears should not be an excuse for exploring the many positive benefits of rail transit.

Quality of Life

Aren't rail lines noisy and dirty?
Freight railroads are usually considered noisy and dirty, but modern light rail lines are attractively landscaped and very quiet.

Light rail vehicles are electrically powered, and modern light rail technology eliminates most of the "clickety clack" and screeches freight railroads are notorious for. Commuter railroads operate over existing freight rail lines, and commuter trains are typically quieter than freight trains.

Costs

How much would rail transit cost in Rochester?
A typical light rail line would probably cost about $15 million per mile, and a commuter rail line could cost as low as $1 million per mile.

That sounds expensive to me. How can that cost be justified?
Light rail would most likely be less expensive to build than the cost of increasing road capacity. Adding a new lane to I-490 in the city would cost about $50 million per mile and would have an extremely destructive impact on the surrounding neighborhoods (and as a result it is not likely to happen). The widening of I-490 between routes 441 and 31F, just completed, cost $19 million per mile. Also, the cost of constructing a new parking garage in downtown Rochester is over $10,000 per car, and that is roughly the cost per passenger of a new light rail line.

A light rail line would be a powerful force for downtown development and neighborhood renewal, and it would have many positive effects on mobility and quality of life. A parking garage merely gives one a spot to park one's car. Ramp garages have the undesirable effect of placing an architectural barrier in the way of a pedestrian-friendly, vibrant community.

Rochester Rail History

Didn't Rochester once have a subway? Why did it close?
The old Rochester "subway" operated from 1927 to 1956. It was not truly a subway, since only one mile of the route was in a tunnel. The old line was really a light rail line--long before the tern "light rail" was invented.

The purpose of the old line, which ran from the Rochester Products plant on the west side to near Monroe Avenue in Brighton, was to provide streetcar and interurban trolley service with cars that did not operate on the street surface. The line was closed when the eastern portion was taken for the construction of the eastern I-490 expressway and part of what is now I-590. At the time it was felt that cars would meet all transportation needs. Today, many people, realize that closing the old line was a mistake.

Isn't most of the old line gone? How can we build a new line?
The old tunnel under Broad Street downtown still exists today, almost exactly as it was left over 40 years ago. This tunnel would be critical for any plans to build a new light rail line. There are a number of other corridors outside of downtown that can be used to build rail lines to such places as Charlotte, Fairport, Brockport, and the airport. However, some of the land required to build these lines may be in jeopardy, including the tunnel itself, so it would be prudent to attempt to preserve these potential corridors.

Weren't there plans for new rail lines in Rochester before?
Yes. In the late sixties and early seventies, there was a plan for rail line from Charlotte to Riverton. Initially the line was planned as a heavy rail line, but later this was changed to light rail line called "RACE", Rochester Area Commuter Express. This plan was considered too ambitious and the plans were eventually shelved.

The plans were taken off the shelf in the late seventies for a study that was concluded in 1982. The feasibility study for this "North-South Corridor" from West Ridge Road to Henrietta said that the line was feasible. However, the skeptics outnumbered the supporters, and the plans were once again shelved.

Two new studies are today underway, and the Rochester Rail Transit Committee is actively engaged in seeing that the plans from these two studies are not shelved as the last two have been.