Subject: Mass Transit Systems

• Maglev Comes To Phoenix

  February 7, 1990

• FOULING THE POOL

  TEMPE WANTS TO RUIN A WORLD-CLASS SWIMMING FACILITY. ASU SAYS, "GO AHEAD."

  April 6, 1995

• Trainplotting

  Transit-plan backers say they see a bus in your future--so how come they've been working on the railroad?

  July 3, 1997

• Letters

  July 17, 1997

• All Abort!

  Pro-life group battles city on bus ads

  April 16, 1998

• Bus Spotting

  A social lab on wheels whose subjects aspire to drive themselves

  April 22, 1999

• Flashes

  September 30, 1999

• Flashes

  From the Week of March 9, 2000

  March 9, 2000

• Letters

  March 16, 2000

  March 16, 2000

• Letters 03-23-2000

  March 23, 2000

• Flashes

  Week of October 12th

  October 12, 2000

• Reggie and the Full Effect

  July 31, 2008

• RPM's Light Rail Pub Crawl 09

  February 26, 2009

• Drive Time Live

  September 11, 2008

• "Juiciest Buns in Town" at Portland's

  It's not very often that I blog while cracking up out loud, but rest assured, I have a little tear in my eye right now. Just got a press release from Portland's announcing the debut of their Metro burger, topped with Fontina, BBQ sauce, and sauteed onions, created "in honor" of the Light Rail. To promote the restaurant's burgers, they're giving away free "Juiciest Buns in Town" t-shirts to anyone who orders one from 5 to 10 p.m. on June 16. Juicy buns? Really? I'm dying here, people. It's like

  June 4, 2009

• Spiked

  Undies from Joe's jail, reporters on the firing line and Phoenix's contribution to the Salt Lake games

  January 24, 2002

• Born to Lose

  The Slash City Daggers, Back Stabber Blues (Unity Squad Records)

  September 6, 2001

• Traffic Thicket

  Will Phoenix voters finally get onboard a transit plan?

  March 9, 2000

• Hot Links: Light Rail, Swine Flu, and Running Nuns

  Weekend revelers in the Valley might be pleased to know that Metro light rail may be extending its weekend hours. The last train currently leaves at 11 p.m., but officials are considering extending the last run on weekends until 2 a.m....ASU announced on its Web site that two students have "probable" cases of swine flu. The students are voluntarily isolating themselves until the Centers for Disease Control either confirms or debunks the cases...Firefighters in Laveen are battling a huge mulc

  May 4, 2009

• Feedback from the Issue of Thursday, April 30, 2009

  April 30, 2009

• Hot Links: Solar Banks, Coyotes Bankruptcy, and Michael Jackson

  An SUV collided with a light rail train Wednesday night at 7th Avenue and Camelback. The  crash sent another car careening over the barrier, but no one was hurt, and light rail continues to run as usual...Chandler fire crews battled a two-acre palm tree fire near Brooks Farms and Tower Road yesterday. No structures were damaged, and a spokesman for the Chandler fire department says a cause for the blaze has not been determined yet...National Bank of Arizona has partnered with SolarCity

  May 7, 2009

• Light Rail Service to be Tested by Crowds on Wednesday; Obama and D-backs Cause Service Changes

  Light rail trains will not be allowed to run past Arizona State University's Sun Devil Stadium from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday because of President Obama's commencement speech. Metro Light Rail says shuttle buses will serve as a "bridge" around the service gap.On top of that, thousands of people are expected to use the light rail system on Wednesday to see Obama, slated to begin speaking at 7 p.m., or the Arizona Diamondbacks, which has a game against Cincinatti starting at 6:40 p.m. Metr

  May 11, 2009

• Feedback from the Issue of Thursday, May 14, 2009

  May 14, 2009

• Metro Seeks Input on Plan for Interstate 10 Light Rail Stations

  Image: Metro Light Rail You can help guide the Valley's transportation future at a public forum on Wednesday to discuss how the light-rail system will connect and run alongside Interstate 10 West. The sequel to the successful launch of the 20-mile starter line is still in the planning phase, but Metro expects light rail to be blazing down Interstate 10 by 2019. The agency has identified a "study area" from 7th street to 99th Avenue -- if your house or business is near the freeway you might want

  May 21, 2009

• Light-Rail Service to Extend Past Closing Time on Friday and Saturday Nights

  This is what you've been waiting for, drinkers: By July 1, light-rail train service will be extended past 2 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. This means you'll be able to get wicked-drunk at local bars -- without the danger of potentially killing someone with your car. We can only assume the Metro board has been reading New Times... Freedom to drink into the wee hours isn't free, though: July 1 also happens to the be the date when the cost of riding light rail goes up. System-wide, the new hours wil

  May 21, 2009

• Light Rail Freeloaders Go Unnoticed by Ticket Inspectors; Numbers Don't Compute

  Chatting the other day with Hillary Foose, spokeswoman for Metro Light Rail, we ran into a dead end of confounding numbers. Goes something like this:The light rail system has two sets of measurements for freeloaders: The average number of people not properly ticketed, according to ticket inspectors, and the amount of fare that pass card holders should have paid. A major disparity in those numbers seems to  As a May 26 article by light rail/global warming reporter Sean Holstege explains, tho

  June 8, 2009

• Metro Light Rail CEO Admits Ticket Inspection Process Severely Undercounts Freeloaders

  We heard back from Rick Simonetta, CEO for Metro Light Rail, this week in response to our questions about the six-month-old system's ticket-inspection processes. Or rather, the near-absence of any such processes. As we reported, Metro says that going by data from its random ticket inspectors, the light-rail system has a "fare evasion rate" of much less than 1 percent. Simonetta had referred to that low rate back in a February newspaper article. Yet Metro officials know with certainty the ra

  June 10, 2009

• Metro Light Rail Offers Early-Bird Pass for July 4 Events; Save a Buck and Avoid Hassle

    People who plan on attending July 4 events in Phoenix or Tempe can buy their light rail passes now, allowing them to avoid long lines at fare boxes to validate tickets. Buying before the July 1 fare increase (an all-day pass is going to $3.50) will also let riders save a buck. While the convenience can only be a benefit for Independence Day riders, we're pretty sure the real reason for this promotion has to do tricking passengers into actually paying for their rides.  

  June 16, 2009

• Light Rail Ridership at Lowest Level Yet; Summer Doldrums Take Major Toll on New System

    Light rail ridership dropped to its lowest level yet in June, averaging less than 30,000 boardings a day. [You can be sure unpaid boardings make up a healthy fraction of that number]. Metro Light Rail and its boosters have plenty of excuses for the dwindling ridership, some of which even make sense. For instance, Arizona State University students made up a significant portion of the onboard crowd during the spring, and now school's out.      

  July 14, 2009

• Metro and Valley Metro Honored for Helping People With Disabilities

    The Arizona Disability Advocacy Coalition, which has numerous Valley organizations as members, is giving Metro Light Rail and Valley metro an award for helping the disabled. Valley Metro runs the Valley's buses and oversees the light rail system. The public transportation agencies were chosen for the group's American Disabilities Act Liberty Progress Award because they involved passengers with disabilities "in the design, development and execution of Valley transit services," Metro anno

  July 23, 2009

• Phoenix's Light-Rail Cities Receive $90 Million Reimbursement from Feds

  www.valleymetro.org (image on left)​The hundreds of millions of dollars the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa fronted for the federal portion of the Light Rail Transit Project will soon be almost completely repaid, thanks to a $90 million reimbursement from the federal government. The $587.2 million bill paid by Valley taxpayers went toward a variety of light-rail costs, including 36 new light-rail vehicles, 27 passenger stations, and seven new parking lots. Of the $90 million federal r

  August 3, 2009

• Valley Metro Sees 15 Percent Increase in Ridership

  wikipedia.com​The piss poor economy is driving people across the Valley to the poorhouse, and apparently, they're taking the light rail to get there.Despite the struggling economy, Valley Metro ridership is up 15 percent from last year, partly due to the addition of the light rail, but also because people just can't afford to drive."Certainly, in the last six months, overall transit ridership has been boosted by the new Metro light rail service," says David Boggs, executive director of Valley

  August 7, 2009

• Hot Links: Jaywalking, Scams, and a Convicted Ex-Minister

  ​Silent Witness is offering a $1000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect in the death of an Anthem resident. Richard Smith, 59, was killed in his home in early August, in what police believe began as a home invasion...As school reconvenes, Gilbert police are warning students and parents that they will issue citations to jaywalkers who do not heed their warnings. The fine for jaywalking is $210...Mesa company Aerocast International has won a multimillion dollar contract to

  August 20, 2009

• Home, Tweet Home: Jeff Moriarty Is Trying to Create a Cultural Identity for Phoenix, 140 Characters at a Time

  September 3, 2009

• Light-Rail Rides on Rise, August Stats Show; Boardings Bottomed Out in July

  ​ It was a sluggish summer for Metro light rail, but ridership is ramping up again thanks to a new semester at Arizona State University. Officials estimate the trains were boarded 882,328 times in August, which was far more than in either June or July. Traffic on the rail dropped from a high of more than one million estimated boardings in April to the system's low-water mark of 750,551 in July. Officials had expected the heat and lack of tourists and students would mean fewer riders, nat

  September 15, 2009

• 10 Things Under $10 This Weekend: Pirates, Psychobillies, and Creepy Bunnies

  The Bay Area's Nobunny will terrorize the Trunk Space on Saturday night. There are gonna be two kinds of people in the Valley this weekend: Those who can afford to go to Fall Frenzy, and those who can't. Given the $50-$60 price tag for tickets, its to be expected that a few thrifty types might consider looking elsewhere for entertainment over the next 72 hours. If you're more of the former instead of the latter, check out our usual rundown of dirt-cheap distractions from tonight until Sunday.

  September 18, 2009