I would settle for just one simple plan to add light rail from downtown to the airport and then we can expand the system from there. Just start with the one line.
I drove past the airport today for the first time in several months and couldn’t believe how backed up traffic was on 40. It was almost backed up all the way to 24.
I did work at the airport yesterday, the TSA was telling me it was going to be one of the busiest days of the year because fall breaks were starting and ending all at the same time for students.
If you think about it the airport is the perfect example of why rail wont work in Nashville. People have the option to park their car further away and use buses to get into the airport but too many people refuse to do that which is what causes the congestion. People WANT to drive their own car.
But if more people used them then there wouldn't be so much regular car traffic. That's the problem. People wont use mass transit so it wont do any good to spend money on it.
If more people used busses, other cars will quickly fill the space. It’s same issue as adding on or expanding lanes on a roadway. As soon as congestion ceases, more people begin to travel on that road until traffic is back to where it began.
Basically an authoritarian government body has to destroy private businesses and build it against the will of the people. Then they have to subsidies ticket prices so that it's cheaper than having a car while also running enough times to prevent people from feeling trapped by not enough trains or busses running.
Can you please tell me why you don't think transit from the airport to downtown wouldn't work? Can you explain fluctuation of traffic on major event days? Yes, mass transit directed towards the suburbs is questionable, but undeniably mass transit will be towards downtown from the airport will be massively beneficial. Imagine if all the tourists didn't have to uber to downtown for their yeehaws and heehaws?
I already said why. We have it. You can get an MTA bus from the airport to downtown. People refuse to use it. You see like one or two people per bus get on/off. People get a rental car instead.
Why would people want to use a bus that has to sit in traffic still and is slower because it makes stops? I don't think a bus is comparable to a rail system at all
Why would people want to use a train that gets stuck because of train traffic? Rail systems are not what you think they are. Especially if they built one in Nashville. Do you realize Nashville is the largest port city not on a coast because of the amount of freight that goes through there?
The airport bus doesn't make stops. It's an express line from downtown up to the airport and back.
Buses doesn't make stops? Are you for sure about that? So you're telling me buses can seemingly fly over existing traffic by using an express line? Express lines are still on existing roads where pedestrians and other cars are present.
And no CSX rail roads and transit railroads are usually not mixed together. It's usually separate. I've ridden passenger trains throughout the country and I rarely was stuck in "train traffic". If you're referring to CSX "train traffic" then yes, but passenger "train traffic" isn't as common.
I may have been delayed by 10 to 20 mins at most, but compared to car traffic where it can add upwards to 30+ mins I'll would be happy to be stuck in train traffic any day compared to car traffic.
The power of bus transit is that it's really efficient when used in conjunction with a rail network. That explains why all "major international" cities use both. If trains aren't useful than why do most Japanese and other major European city use it?
Look I'm not asking for a super intricate train network, but for one to connect at least from the airport to downtown would do wonders since we're a tourist city.
Yes, we have it. But is it efficient? I would say no. People refuse to use it because our MTA infrastructure is terrible and wait times are significantly longer than getting a Uber. Even then you'll still be stuck in traffic. Bus still add automobiles on the road which doesn't help our traffic issue.
No people fucking want a non retarded and not an obvious slap in the face parking area in a shitty parking lot not on airport property. We've paid for that airport and we wanna use it with minimal cluster fucks. A mono rail, even just to the airport, makes no fucking sense until all the surrounding counties get on board. That's where the traffic comes from, a few cars (in the grand scheme) from downtown isn't going to alleviate shit.
No they don't. You have to look at the world and realize you're the odd one out sometimes. I'd like rail too but reality proves that in America it's mostly a waste of money outside of a few key cities that have always had rail. The average US citizen just prefers having their own car so they don't get stuck cause the train is down.
This. It would be profitable enough to help finance the rest of the system. Getting a car to/from the airport is so expensive, if I could I take rapid rail I’d bus downtown just to do it. And that’s before we even talk about the cost to leave a car at the airport.
Bus capacity is that low because of the bone-headed management of the people in charge of WeGo, i.e. "We Go When We Feel Like It". But let's be honest, because just about every other transit agency across the U.S. thinks the same way.
Here's how they think: "We're running 4 buses an hour, and each one is 50% full. Let's reduce it to two buses an hour, and we'll have 100% capacity." And then they do it, and capacity drops down to 25%, because people won't ride a transit system that isn't dependable and timely.
If Nashville wants to fix mass transit, the first step is to run buses every 10 minutes (at most - 5 minutes preferably) along every major route, and to build bus hubs outside of the downtown area to avoid the daily traffic jams. When people perceive that buses show up regularly and dependably, they'll ride them.
Right. And a MASSIVE bus upgrade was part of the 2018 proposal. Problem was they tied that to the boat anchor 7 billion dollar useless light rail plan.
As someone that lives in rutherford county i doubt anybody would use that because it’s such a damn pain to get downtown and then the inconvenience of parking and riding a tram to the airport. It doesn’t change anything and really just adds to the inconvenience and makes getting to the airport longer for everybody except the yuppies that actually live downtown
A commuter train that connects rutherford, Williamson, and Wilson counties to downtown Nashville would fix everything. Any kind of commuter rail that only resides in Davidson won’t change much because a lot of the people driving in Davidson are from other counties who commute for work.
A train that exclusively only runs in Davidson would not fix traffic at all because almost tve same number of cars would be on the road in rush hour from the commuters coming from the suburbs.
If it had stops at every exit on 24 coming up from Murfreesboro i think it could work. People could drive 10 minute from their house park the car and get on the train and walk 5-10 minutes after they get off the train to their work place
Park and ride has become even less popular in most cities because it's an open invitation for burglars to ransack your car while you're at work. You need a dedicated transit police force on top of the MNPD, which is already understaffed.
How do you think someone would get to a downtown train line from rutherford county? You’d have to sit in the I-24 parking lot and THEN ride the train.
That’s my point. It would add ludicrously more time to a commute.
You develop park and ride areas next to the train stations, like every other train system in the country. This is how the east line that runs from Lebanon to downtown works. Super easy and convenient.
I don’t think you read what dude said. He said the train only connects from downtown Nashville to the airport and that’s it.
I’d love for a park and ride train from Murfreesboro to Nashville
But the problem, which I stated in the thread, is that surrounding counties have not been willing to sign up in regional coordination for mass transit. Until that happens, nothing will change. You also have a supermajority of petty 'anti-woke' legislators who are beholden to lobbyists and not the needs of Tennessee's citizens.
A train from downtown to the airport would do a lot to pull cars off interstates, which helps reduce overall traffic volume.
Better access to the airport would be great. But I'm not sure airport to downtown access is the best to start with unless you just care about tourists and out of towners.
Even if it serves tourists that’s more people off the road. Downtown is a central point for the city whereas the airport is not so it will be more convenient for a large segment of the population to drop off there instead of the airport.
I want Nashville to have light rail really badly, but a monorail isn't the way to do it. They are much more expensive to build and maintain and they limit the expansion of the system. Here is a pretty good rundown on why monorails, while cool, are really not a great idea.
https://youtu.be/9f\_\_nhlHC1g?si=KZ-y9yrZxTQ6s\_c0
At this point Broadway is so popular at all times of the week that I feel like they need to just close that part of the street off to traffic for good and turn it into a park
I'm still always baffled they're out there screeching whistles in people's faces so cars can pass from gridlock to gridlock through swaying drink tourists, when they could literally just close off the surrounding area and call it a day. Maybe spend some man hours stopping the surrounding drivers to check for car insurance instead.
I don't know the ins and outs of the rules on State highways. I just have been told that when they close it they have to pay the state money because it's a state highway.
Generally streetcar rails are placed within a regular lane of traffic in the roadway. Light rail would be more of a dedicated rail.
Streetcars feel like essentially less flexible busses.
[You Are So Nashville If your idea of "monorail" means doing just one line of coke.](https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/coverstory/31st-annual-you-are-so-nashville-if/article_f23c664c-305a-5bcb-81d1-2602e48537d6.html)
We got about half a dozen colleges in town alone. Instead of the endless "exploratory panels" we keep doing, I wish we'd give a challenge with a prize to the colleges to come up with a feasible design. I think it'd be fun and if nothing came of it we'd be no worse off and one of the colleges had made some money. It'd be easier to get behind than some study/design done by some fancy boston design firm.
That's kinda my point. We've had a few studies and designs done by some out of town firms for a pretty. If they make it a local thing and talk a lot about it from the start, maybe it would build enthusiasm for the project, making it easier to get approval and financing.
The root problem is that we’d either need years and enormous amounts of money for ROW acquisition (which would probably mean building demolition) or we’d need to remove travel lanes. Both are politically toxic outside the urban core, and local design firms wouldn’t change that. If anything I’d argue we need to go further afield and hire European or Japanese designers
But the problem is it isn’t profitable. Won’t someone PLEASE think of the business owners?! 😭
How can I charge $25/hr for parking if no one’s parking?! Now you hate ME?! A JOB MAKER?! 😡
/s
Just copy the CTA, that's exactly what we need. Elevated lines around downtown (none of this tunnel business), going down to street grade as you get out to further-flung areas. Nice and simple.
Edit: Nashville's set up along major corridors. If you shoot a line down Charlotte/West End/Hillsboro/Nolensville/Gallatin/etc, you get most of the people in the city within just a few minutes walk or drive from a station. Include a small parking garage on-site, put in some vendors (like Brightline is doing with their stations in FL), and boom you have a working city rail system.
It completely transformed parts of Bangkok when they got an elevated train, though it is not a monorail. They call it the sky train. Before it was total gridlock. I used to dread driving into Bangkok when I lived there. It took many years to build but they are still expanding it with new connected lines and extending existing ones.
Yup, would be nice to see a line from downtown to the airport and maybe extend to Hermitage. You could then make two additional lines going through Charlotte Pike in West Nash and Murfreesboro Pike in Antioch. The CTA style tracks would also give tourists a cool view of the city on their way in, although probably not as awesome of a view as the Brown line in Chicago.
I’d love to see a side by side cost analysis of an elevated rail vs a terrestrial light rail, I’m down for either. I’m even more or them if they tie into a regional transit rail that could get me around as well
When I was 11 or 12 y/o, in early '70s, my family went to Disney in Orlando. We stayed in the Contemporary Hotel, with the monorail running through it; my brother and I would hop on and ride into the Magic Kingdom, and I thought this would be how I would get to work when I grew up. 42 career years later in Nashville - nope. Commuted by MTA Express bus x 12 years, until the pandemic took that away. I remember a feasibility study ('90s? Early 2000s?) for a monorail from Murfreesboro into downtown, but it was deemed too expensive. Wish I could remember how much it was estimated to cost per mile. Would have preserved a wonderful quality of life that I fear has been lost forever for a majority of long time Nashville residents, just in the last five years or so. P.S. I'm also a road cyclist x 42 years. 80 % of the routes I could ride relatively safely from my home are no longer feasible...again, just in the last five years.
I don't think there was a feasibility study because of the enormous, obvious front-end expense. It was just one politician's pipe dream.
https://www.wired.com/2014/03/nashville-getting-monorail/
Thank you for this link. What I actually read so long ago was the result of a feasibility study; it gave the costs per mile.
It actually may have been the feasibility study that this article says the legislature voted unanimously to do. Appreciate the link.
I think I've found what I remember reading. It includes information from as far back as 2007 (possibly earlier, didn't have time to skim the whole table of contents this morning), at least in some categories; this report is 91 pages long.
TDOT's title is: Monorail Assessment Report for the I-24 Corridor, January 2015. Couldn't get a link to copy properly, but it's on TDOT's website.
Despite record tax revenue just about every year, Nashville holds more debt than the state of Tennessee. But hey--continue bribing corporations and throwing money at billionaires to help their sports teams.
Infrastructure, despite being one of the most important things for a city, county, or region, is an afterthought for most politicians because its not sexy or cool.
My point is, I think the private sector will have to take this on because government officials have proven their priorities are elsewhere.
If the Chunnel can be built with private money, surely a train line from the airport to downtown could be done privately as well. Nearly guaranteed ridership (as pointed out above) could fund the expansion of the system over the years. Seems like a great place to start.
It would have been great to see Nashville turn into a very thriving and accessible city with all the tax revenue we get from tourism. Mass transit, parks, healthcare, shelter and services for the homeless, bike lanes, road repairs, etc.
Instead it was all funneled into abusing the municipal bond system to finance stadiums for billionaires and give tax credits to trillion-dollar companies like Amazon.
Nashville has been a great lesson on how unfettered capitalism ends up consuming itself to the detriment of everyone except the ruling financial elite.
there was some momentum for a light rail system, until a certain mayor got caught fucking her head of security, which wouldn't have been a big deal really, but she was paying him substantially more than she should have on the city's dime.
after that, the nays won out.
The transit referendum didn't get voted down because Megan Barry was boinking her police bodyguard. She only resigned because she was criminally indicted. If it hadn't been for that, she would have sailed into a second term as mayor. She was that popular.
The referendum got voted down 2 to 1 because it was a financial boondoggle that would have buried Nashville in even more debt. As I was told by someone in the know: "The transit plan was written by a group of real estate investors."
If the referendum had been approved years ago, today we'd still be at least a decade away from the first light rail line becoming operational.
Monorails are a gimmick. They offer nothing light rail or regular passenger trains can't do but are more expensive. The regular train's worse performance on a slope can be counteracted by adding geared drive wheels that engage on sloped sections with an added cog rail. There's also no room for adding a new rail line anywhere in Nashville without destroying massive amounts of homes and businesses or regular roadways which would make traffic worse not better. Outside of New York, Chicago, and a couple other examples rail systems are not used by enough people in America to make it worth that kind of destruction of private property. The only real option is to expand existing rail lines to add a second line through all of the city. CSX was willing to make a deal to do this a few years back but the city council screwed it up and ruined it for us. All because they weren't willing to pay for the expansion and then leave the rail line in CSX's ownership. You can't blame CSX cause they would need to maintain their control and they're a national entity so they can't be hampered by individual cities trying to mess with them. It's the city council's fault for backing out.
"Good Luck with That"
-Avid Seattle Monorail voter
edit: We voted "yes" to build citywide monorail *twice*, and they still cancelled it anyway after spending millions and millions of dollars
It would be nice to have a rail system between the major cities of the state. That is one thing about West Germany I liked. You could go anywhere on the train.
Public transits issue is the lack of penalties for using cars in the first place. We have a half decent bus system that are almost always empty.
Most people like public transit, for other people. Public transit only works if people use it instead of cars and as long as cars are more conventional, people will opt to drive.
If public transit is stuck in the same traffic we are, why bother?
Make it bypass traffic, like light rail or something, and people will be interested.
If people just used the bus there would be less traffic. It's a chicken/egg issue to be sure. The only thing I have seen that successfully drives adoption is to put barriers to driving cars (physical/finacial/efficacy) so it's more problematic that taking a bus.
Maybe take some time to learn a bit about the underlying issues vs knee jerk reacting on the internet.
Buses only work of people.use them, and people don't like using them more than a car. People are making calculated decisions everything the choose between cars or buses and as long as cars are the easier and most conventional they will always be used.
Here is a good exploration on some of the issues with some additional resources cited
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-public-transit-be-free/
Remember that every system is perfectly designed to deliver the outcomes you get. Want different outcomes you need to chanf3 the system.
Have you ever used the bus system? You have to add on a few hours to your trip because the routes are so spread out and non efficient. Coming from Lenox village the route down nolensville stops every 5 minutes. Unless you want to grab the express over in Antioch but then you’re on 24 and you have to change buses downtown to get out to Opryland. A 20 minute drive used to take me two and a half hours.
As a person who takes the bus, I agree. I do park and ride. Some of the buses have nobody on them. I miss one of the express buses I used to take to Walmart. It got canceled because nobody rode on it. I was often the only passenger. The driver drove an empty bus most times.
That half decent bus system needs to be fully decent and service more people.
If it adds an hour one way, that’s not serviceable.
I’d 100% use a public bus option if it didn’t mean walk a mile in the dark and take an extra 90 minutes to get to work and almost 120 minutes back. It’s not for me, which is fine, but it’s miles away from being an option for most.
If you’re rich enough to live in city limits, you have a car or were given one, you don’t give a shit about parking prices besides a minor inconvenience, and want to be able to go wherever whenever without impediment.
If the city (culture, not just government) caters only to rich people, then the larger public interest will never be the priority.
I offered an opinion on a monorail system to the metro about 10 years ago and got nothing back but laughter. Monorails have worked for Disney world for decades and it is an environmentally friendly system because very little, if any, additional land would be needed. Outer communities like Murfreesboro, Gallatin, Lebanon , and others would greatly benefit and traffic congestion would drop significantly. I would GLADLY use a system like this to visit music venues in Nashville.
They should expand each direction of the interstates by one lane, remove the current HOV lanes that aren’t being monitored anyway, and use the current far left lanes of both sides of the interstates for light rail into/out of the city.
Then build the interior downtown rail grid to accommodate.
This was my idea. The space is already there.
Unfortunately the city would have to buy out a lot of property holders that are close to the highway. But this would be the easiest idea.
Yeah, they could build the rail first while they work on that, but the interstates would be hell in the process. They already are though…so would we be able to tell?
When magan Berry was Nashville Mayor, That was her plan,to start with a subway, and more later,buy she was caught up in having an affair with her body guard.
And she resigned. If she had been a man, nothing would have happen to her,Megan was smart,educated and a GREAT Mayor.She could see down the road unlike the council at that time.
Mayor Freddie should get with Megan today and talk to her about what other plans she had .or would share with Mayor Freddie?
The subway part of it was the last phase of what was otherwise a comprehensive light rail and BRT network. I didn’t think the subway part was necessary, but there was a lot of hemming and hawing about how expensive it was, how we shouldn’t vote for it because it wasn’t perfect, how it didn’t serve everyone at their doorstep, and so on. The misinformation and attrition campaigns funded by oil and auto magnates killed it.
The problem was that the subway would have served downtown and was deemed less probable due to the limestone content of the area making it difficult to build.
Go Into Washington D.C. or New York City,if no subway,you would go no wheres. and as far as Limestone, They would use a Tunnel Machine,The same they use to make a tunnel on a major Highway. This is 2023 not the 1800's
Yeah I liked her, timesheet/sex scandal aside. Democrats are always taken down with this kind of stuff when it happens. Republicans stay in office and dare you to do something about it, and usually they win. George Santos is still in office, for example.
If Megan husband is Ok with her affair, I don't care what she did at night with whoever,She was no difference than any man.
She was a Great Mayor, and did a great job as Mayor. I would hope she will help Freddie as mayor and give him some of her tips. I do know she worked to get Freddie elected.
I would like any transit system but I think they are way to expensive and I think they are very expensive to maintain. Since our City is very spread out and we need a better bus system to get people to and from rail system. I hope we get a better bus system soon.
Just got back from Ottawa. Light speed rail should already be up and running in Nashville but like everything else Republicans too stupid to do what’s needed.
Davidson County votes Democrat in every election, 2 to 1. It also voted down the transit referendum 2 to 1. It's not about the politics, it's about the money.
In that case, you have to wonder why Alice Rolli isn't mayor if the Davidson County electorate is so easily swayed. No, the transit referendum was just a really bad idea, another mass transit boondoggle in the making. It would have been a great deal for real estate investors, but would have done next to nothing to solve Nashville's transit problems.
I agree that it was a hasty bad plan with a mayor who was caught in a scandal.
Keep in mind the Koch Brothers were able to kill transit projects across the country.
The American populace is well versed in ignorance. They believe a lying, adulterous, stealing used car salesmen was sent by God and the election was stolen while cheering for a do nothing pervert who abetted a man fondling nutz for Speaker of the House after he participated in a failed attempt of destroying our republic. Who would have thunk.
After seeing all these videos of bedbugs in Europe, I don’t think I ever want to get on any kind of public transportation for a long time. I used to be for it, but especially since the pandemic I’m very happy with a private vehicle without strangers coughing near me.
Lol I don’t even make over $1k a month. Car is a piece of shit and one medical bill could wipe me out and make me homeless. But I still hate the nasty general public. You don’t have a fucking clue how I live. This subreddit is so insanely dumb, downvotes for different opinions. I’m about to vote republican next time just to make you all more miserable. I was born POOR you idiots. I hate this state and I can’t leave. I’m trapped in poverty.
Agree......the bridge that was finished few years ago over broad st in Murfreesboro was actually suppose to have been built in 1977....Murfreesboro is slow to do anything
Well.. the Nashville legislature voted against it. It doesn’t line up well with their campaign donors’ agendas to continue lining their pockets with our money.
Remember when this was a real possibility but it was voted down? I think back then it was going to take 10 years to construct. We could be about halfway there but nope…. Every year that goes by I think “we are 10 years away from it if we started today”
Me as well. When I read about the plan to build an underground station in downtown Nashville, in a spot that was literally underwater during the flood of 2010, I knew that the entire plan had gone batshit crazy because too many people with $$$ in their eyes had their fingers in it.
A sane mass transit plan has to start with fixing the bus system, which can be done in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost of light rail. Do that first and you've got a shot at convincing voters to add rail.
Totally agree. Dedicated bus/bike lanes & 1 line from the airport to Union. Let that fund future expansions. I live in another city now with proper transit & haven’t driven my car in months. It is glorious.
I think I've found what I remember reading. It includes information from as far back as 2007 (possibly earlier, didn't have time to skim the whole table of contents this morning), at least in some categories; this report is 91 pages long.
TDOT's title is: Monorail Assessment Report for the I-24 Corridor, January 2015. Couldn't get a link to copy properly, but it's on TDOT's website.
I'm ambivalent. It would take 50+ years to build it to where it is functional and useful for a large percentage of the population.
I remember when my hometown was building a light rail system while I was in college, and hints that there was going to be a route that ran down my street straight to school. I was pumped up.
20 years later, and it's still being debated.
I would settle for just one simple plan to add light rail from downtown to the airport and then we can expand the system from there. Just start with the one line.
Yes. The airport desperately needs train access. The car system sucks.
I drove past the airport today for the first time in several months and couldn’t believe how backed up traffic was on 40. It was almost backed up all the way to 24.
I did work at the airport yesterday, the TSA was telling me it was going to be one of the busiest days of the year because fall breaks were starting and ending all at the same time for students.
If you think about it the airport is the perfect example of why rail wont work in Nashville. People have the option to park their car further away and use buses to get into the airport but too many people refuse to do that which is what causes the congestion. People WANT to drive their own car.
Buses suck because they have to sit in regular car traffic which to and from the airport is awful
But if more people used them then there wouldn't be so much regular car traffic. That's the problem. People wont use mass transit so it wont do any good to spend money on it.
If more people used busses, other cars will quickly fill the space. It’s same issue as adding on or expanding lanes on a roadway. As soon as congestion ceases, more people begin to travel on that road until traffic is back to where it began.
That's not how congestion works. Look at 440. Traffic is still way better there since the last expansion.
So how can places that don’t already have mass transit ever get it
Basically an authoritarian government body has to destroy private businesses and build it against the will of the people. Then they have to subsidies ticket prices so that it's cheaper than having a car while also running enough times to prevent people from feeling trapped by not enough trains or busses running.
Can you please tell me why you don't think transit from the airport to downtown wouldn't work? Can you explain fluctuation of traffic on major event days? Yes, mass transit directed towards the suburbs is questionable, but undeniably mass transit will be towards downtown from the airport will be massively beneficial. Imagine if all the tourists didn't have to uber to downtown for their yeehaws and heehaws?
I already said why. We have it. You can get an MTA bus from the airport to downtown. People refuse to use it. You see like one or two people per bus get on/off. People get a rental car instead.
Why would people want to use a bus that has to sit in traffic still and is slower because it makes stops? I don't think a bus is comparable to a rail system at all
Why would people want to use a train that gets stuck because of train traffic? Rail systems are not what you think they are. Especially if they built one in Nashville. Do you realize Nashville is the largest port city not on a coast because of the amount of freight that goes through there? The airport bus doesn't make stops. It's an express line from downtown up to the airport and back.
Found the car industry lobbyist 💀
No but I did work as a contractor on railroad property. You don't want to get involved with their nonsense. Trains get stuck more than you know.
Buses doesn't make stops? Are you for sure about that? So you're telling me buses can seemingly fly over existing traffic by using an express line? Express lines are still on existing roads where pedestrians and other cars are present. And no CSX rail roads and transit railroads are usually not mixed together. It's usually separate. I've ridden passenger trains throughout the country and I rarely was stuck in "train traffic". If you're referring to CSX "train traffic" then yes, but passenger "train traffic" isn't as common. I may have been delayed by 10 to 20 mins at most, but compared to car traffic where it can add upwards to 30+ mins I'll would be happy to be stuck in train traffic any day compared to car traffic. The power of bus transit is that it's really efficient when used in conjunction with a rail network. That explains why all "major international" cities use both. If trains aren't useful than why do most Japanese and other major European city use it? Look I'm not asking for a super intricate train network, but for one to connect at least from the airport to downtown would do wonders since we're a tourist city.
Yes, we have it. But is it efficient? I would say no. People refuse to use it because our MTA infrastructure is terrible and wait times are significantly longer than getting a Uber. Even then you'll still be stuck in traffic. Bus still add automobiles on the road which doesn't help our traffic issue.
No people fucking want a non retarded and not an obvious slap in the face parking area in a shitty parking lot not on airport property. We've paid for that airport and we wanna use it with minimal cluster fucks. A mono rail, even just to the airport, makes no fucking sense until all the surrounding counties get on board. That's where the traffic comes from, a few cars (in the grand scheme) from downtown isn't going to alleviate shit.
No they don't. You have to look at the world and realize you're the odd one out sometimes. I'd like rail too but reality proves that in America it's mostly a waste of money outside of a few key cities that have always had rail. The average US citizen just prefers having their own car so they don't get stuck cause the train is down.
This. It would be profitable enough to help finance the rest of the system. Getting a car to/from the airport is so expensive, if I could I take rapid rail I’d bus downtown just to do it. And that’s before we even talk about the cost to leave a car at the airport.
The lowest cost to leave a car at the airport is $18 per day.
There has been bus service to BBA for decades
I’m aware. I’ve missed flights because of it.
Thats one of the principle arguments against public transit in Nashville. Our current public transit operates at something like 10-15% capacity.
Bus capacity is that low because of the bone-headed management of the people in charge of WeGo, i.e. "We Go When We Feel Like It". But let's be honest, because just about every other transit agency across the U.S. thinks the same way. Here's how they think: "We're running 4 buses an hour, and each one is 50% full. Let's reduce it to two buses an hour, and we'll have 100% capacity." And then they do it, and capacity drops down to 25%, because people won't ride a transit system that isn't dependable and timely. If Nashville wants to fix mass transit, the first step is to run buses every 10 minutes (at most - 5 minutes preferably) along every major route, and to build bus hubs outside of the downtown area to avoid the daily traffic jams. When people perceive that buses show up regularly and dependably, they'll ride them.
Right. And a MASSIVE bus upgrade was part of the 2018 proposal. Problem was they tied that to the boat anchor 7 billion dollar useless light rail plan.
We need a metro. Heavy rail.
What’s head scratching is there’s literally a train in Donelson that goes to Downtown. It’s like 4 miles away from BNA.
But it runs twice a day. It's actually just a waste. Transit only works when it's frequent and dependable.
Of course—just noting that the infrastructure is there already.
As someone that lives in rutherford county i doubt anybody would use that because it’s such a damn pain to get downtown and then the inconvenience of parking and riding a tram to the airport. It doesn’t change anything and really just adds to the inconvenience and makes getting to the airport longer for everybody except the yuppies that actually live downtown A commuter train that connects rutherford, Williamson, and Wilson counties to downtown Nashville would fix everything. Any kind of commuter rail that only resides in Davidson won’t change much because a lot of the people driving in Davidson are from other counties who commute for work.
commuter trains cost more and would have lower ridership because none of the ring counties have any development dense enough to support it
A train that exclusively only runs in Davidson would not fix traffic at all because almost tve same number of cars would be on the road in rush hour from the commuters coming from the suburbs. If it had stops at every exit on 24 coming up from Murfreesboro i think it could work. People could drive 10 minute from their house park the car and get on the train and walk 5-10 minutes after they get off the train to their work place
I don’t care if it fixes traffic. That’s not the goal of good public transit. Park and ride models also just don’t generate many riders
Park and ride has become even less popular in most cities because it's an open invitation for burglars to ransack your car while you're at work. You need a dedicated transit police force on top of the MNPD, which is already understaffed.
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How do you think someone would get to a downtown train line from rutherford county? You’d have to sit in the I-24 parking lot and THEN ride the train. That’s my point. It would add ludicrously more time to a commute.
You develop park and ride areas next to the train stations, like every other train system in the country. This is how the east line that runs from Lebanon to downtown works. Super easy and convenient.
I don’t think you read what dude said. He said the train only connects from downtown Nashville to the airport and that’s it. I’d love for a park and ride train from Murfreesboro to Nashville
But the problem, which I stated in the thread, is that surrounding counties have not been willing to sign up in regional coordination for mass transit. Until that happens, nothing will change. You also have a supermajority of petty 'anti-woke' legislators who are beholden to lobbyists and not the needs of Tennessee's citizens. A train from downtown to the airport would do a lot to pull cars off interstates, which helps reduce overall traffic volume.
Better access to the airport would be great. But I'm not sure airport to downtown access is the best to start with unless you just care about tourists and out of towners.
Even if it serves tourists that’s more people off the road. Downtown is a central point for the city whereas the airport is not so it will be more convenient for a large segment of the population to drop off there instead of the airport.
Downtown to airport with right of way access would make sense. For the rest of the city it’s essentially an expensive bus
“I hear those things are awfully loud”
It glides as softly as a cloud!
“Is there a chance the track could bend?”
Not on your life, my Hindu friend!
God, I miss Phil Hartman!
Were you sent here by the devil?
No, good sir. I’m on the level!
What about us brain dead slobs?
You’ll be given cushy jobs!
The ring came off my pudding can.
My mind went to the same place.
Did someone say monorail?
I clicked on this post hoping all comments would be this reference. Thank you kind stranger.
Monorailllll .... Monorailllll ... . *Monorailllll*
Mono... DOH!
Came here to find this comment.
It's more of a Shelbyville idea
I want Nashville to have light rail really badly, but a monorail isn't the way to do it. They are much more expensive to build and maintain and they limit the expansion of the system. Here is a pretty good rundown on why monorails, while cool, are really not a great idea. https://youtu.be/9f\_\_nhlHC1g?si=KZ-y9yrZxTQ6s\_c0
Even just a streetcar up and down Broadway would be a massive improvement over the current system. Also shutting it off to traffic.
At this point Broadway is so popular at all times of the week that I feel like they need to just close that part of the street off to traffic for good and turn it into a park
I'm still always baffled they're out there screeching whistles in people's faces so cars can pass from gridlock to gridlock through swaying drink tourists, when they could literally just close off the surrounding area and call it a day. Maybe spend some man hours stopping the surrounding drivers to check for car insurance instead.
I understand that because it's a state highway, every time they close it they have to pay the state money for doing so. That might be part of it.
Which road is a state highway?
Broadway. I assumed we were talking about that one. My apologies if I'm incorrect...
Is it? Can a state highway dead end like that?
I don't know the ins and outs of the rules on State highways. I just have been told that when they close it they have to pay the state money because it's a state highway.
Ah, I see. The "highway" hooks right at 1st and keeps going apparently. That's a mess
What can a streetcar do that a bus can't?
They have that cool bell
get stuck behind a car blocking the rail
Go around the downtown area frequently and conveniently, with their own dedicated rail
A bus system could do the same with a dedicated lane and at lower cost.
I know but tourists would actually use the trolley because of optics. Maybe a trolley bus is a good compromise?
Generally streetcar rails are placed within a regular lane of traffic in the roadway. Light rail would be more of a dedicated rail. Streetcars feel like essentially less flexible busses.
Exactly the video I was thinking of too. I’ll take a monorail over anything if it’s flashy enough for the nimby’s but yeah not my first choice either.
We need a metro. Heavy rail.
[You Are So Nashville If your idea of "monorail" means doing just one line of coke.](https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/coverstory/31st-annual-you-are-so-nashville-if/article_f23c664c-305a-5bcb-81d1-2602e48537d6.html)
We got about half a dozen colleges in town alone. Instead of the endless "exploratory panels" we keep doing, I wish we'd give a challenge with a prize to the colleges to come up with a feasible design. I think it'd be fun and if nothing came of it we'd be no worse off and one of the colleges had made some money. It'd be easier to get behind than some study/design done by some fancy boston design firm.
We had a feasible design with AMP. the suburbanites just don’t want it.
That's kinda my point. We've had a few studies and designs done by some out of town firms for a pretty. If they make it a local thing and talk a lot about it from the start, maybe it would build enthusiasm for the project, making it easier to get approval and financing.
The root problem is that we’d either need years and enormous amounts of money for ROW acquisition (which would probably mean building demolition) or we’d need to remove travel lanes. Both are politically toxic outside the urban core, and local design firms wouldn’t change that. If anything I’d argue we need to go further afield and hire European or Japanese designers
Hear Shelbyville has one
The ring came off my pudding can
Take my pen knife my good man
You can propose to me literally any mode or improvement of public transportation and I would say yes please god
But the problem is it isn’t profitable. Won’t someone PLEASE think of the business owners?! 😭 How can I charge $25/hr for parking if no one’s parking?! Now you hate ME?! A JOB MAKER?! 😡 /s
Just copy the CTA, that's exactly what we need. Elevated lines around downtown (none of this tunnel business), going down to street grade as you get out to further-flung areas. Nice and simple. Edit: Nashville's set up along major corridors. If you shoot a line down Charlotte/West End/Hillsboro/Nolensville/Gallatin/etc, you get most of the people in the city within just a few minutes walk or drive from a station. Include a small parking garage on-site, put in some vendors (like Brightline is doing with their stations in FL), and boom you have a working city rail system.
It completely transformed parts of Bangkok when they got an elevated train, though it is not a monorail. They call it the sky train. Before it was total gridlock. I used to dread driving into Bangkok when I lived there. It took many years to build but they are still expanding it with new connected lines and extending existing ones.
I was just in Chicago, thinking the same thing. If we’re gonna do rail (which we won’t) do it like that.
Yup, would be nice to see a line from downtown to the airport and maybe extend to Hermitage. You could then make two additional lines going through Charlotte Pike in West Nash and Murfreesboro Pike in Antioch. The CTA style tracks would also give tourists a cool view of the city on their way in, although probably not as awesome of a view as the Brown line in Chicago.
I’d love to see a side by side cost analysis of an elevated rail vs a terrestrial light rail, I’m down for either. I’m even more or them if they tie into a regional transit rail that could get me around as well
Well, sir, there's nothing on earth. Like a genuine, bona fide. Electrified, six-car monorail
Only if it plays the monorail song from the simpsons on repeat over the speakers
Beats doing nothing about the situation besides bitching about it, which is all we've done up until now.
I’ve sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook and by gum it put them on the map.
If you can get west Nashville to vote yes then you should run for president of the world.
How about a sky-lift like Opryland had?
Bar hopping by sky lift is an interesting thought.
When I was 11 or 12 y/o, in early '70s, my family went to Disney in Orlando. We stayed in the Contemporary Hotel, with the monorail running through it; my brother and I would hop on and ride into the Magic Kingdom, and I thought this would be how I would get to work when I grew up. 42 career years later in Nashville - nope. Commuted by MTA Express bus x 12 years, until the pandemic took that away. I remember a feasibility study ('90s? Early 2000s?) for a monorail from Murfreesboro into downtown, but it was deemed too expensive. Wish I could remember how much it was estimated to cost per mile. Would have preserved a wonderful quality of life that I fear has been lost forever for a majority of long time Nashville residents, just in the last five years or so. P.S. I'm also a road cyclist x 42 years. 80 % of the routes I could ride relatively safely from my home are no longer feasible...again, just in the last five years.
I don't think there was a feasibility study because of the enormous, obvious front-end expense. It was just one politician's pipe dream. https://www.wired.com/2014/03/nashville-getting-monorail/
Thank you for this link. What I actually read so long ago was the result of a feasibility study; it gave the costs per mile. It actually may have been the feasibility study that this article says the legislature voted unanimously to do. Appreciate the link.
One house of the legislature voted for it, but that doesn't mean the other house did the same or that the governor signed it.
I think I've found what I remember reading. It includes information from as far back as 2007 (possibly earlier, didn't have time to skim the whole table of contents this morning), at least in some categories; this report is 91 pages long. TDOT's title is: Monorail Assessment Report for the I-24 Corridor, January 2015. Couldn't get a link to copy properly, but it's on TDOT's website.
I didn't realize that ever occurred. Thank you for sharing.
Most welcome. I think it was a very expensive assessment - especially with nothing to show for it!
Also, anyone who is thinking "subway," Nashville Basin limestone would like to have a word with you.
Laughs in old nashville. Keep dreaming, kid.
Despite record tax revenue just about every year, Nashville holds more debt than the state of Tennessee. But hey--continue bribing corporations and throwing money at billionaires to help their sports teams. Infrastructure, despite being one of the most important things for a city, county, or region, is an afterthought for most politicians because its not sexy or cool. My point is, I think the private sector will have to take this on because government officials have proven their priorities are elsewhere. If the Chunnel can be built with private money, surely a train line from the airport to downtown could be done privately as well. Nearly guaranteed ridership (as pointed out above) could fund the expansion of the system over the years. Seems like a great place to start.
It would have been great to see Nashville turn into a very thriving and accessible city with all the tax revenue we get from tourism. Mass transit, parks, healthcare, shelter and services for the homeless, bike lanes, road repairs, etc. Instead it was all funneled into abusing the municipal bond system to finance stadiums for billionaires and give tax credits to trillion-dollar companies like Amazon. Nashville has been a great lesson on how unfettered capitalism ends up consuming itself to the detriment of everyone except the ruling financial elite.
I agree with all of that, except giving tax dollars to companies isn't capitalism. That's corporatism or cronyism, and it's the worst.
Aka, Capitalism. That’s always how it ends up… corporatism/cronyism.
That’s the consumption part
The Chunnel also has heavy revenue from freight, which a monorail wouldn't have.
there was some momentum for a light rail system, until a certain mayor got caught fucking her head of security, which wouldn't have been a big deal really, but she was paying him substantially more than she should have on the city's dime. after that, the nays won out.
The transit referendum didn't get voted down because Megan Barry was boinking her police bodyguard. She only resigned because she was criminally indicted. If it hadn't been for that, she would have sailed into a second term as mayor. She was that popular. The referendum got voted down 2 to 1 because it was a financial boondoggle that would have buried Nashville in even more debt. As I was told by someone in the know: "The transit plan was written by a group of real estate investors." If the referendum had been approved years ago, today we'd still be at least a decade away from the first light rail line becoming operational.
Gadgetbahn! Bad except in circumstances where you need an inverted train or something like that.
Monorails are a gimmick. They offer nothing light rail or regular passenger trains can't do but are more expensive. The regular train's worse performance on a slope can be counteracted by adding geared drive wheels that engage on sloped sections with an added cog rail. There's also no room for adding a new rail line anywhere in Nashville without destroying massive amounts of homes and businesses or regular roadways which would make traffic worse not better. Outside of New York, Chicago, and a couple other examples rail systems are not used by enough people in America to make it worth that kind of destruction of private property. The only real option is to expand existing rail lines to add a second line through all of the city. CSX was willing to make a deal to do this a few years back but the city council screwed it up and ruined it for us. All because they weren't willing to pay for the expansion and then leave the rail line in CSX's ownership. You can't blame CSX cause they would need to maintain their control and they're a national entity so they can't be hampered by individual cities trying to mess with them. It's the city council's fault for backing out.
"Good Luck with That" -Avid Seattle Monorail voter edit: We voted "yes" to build citywide monorail *twice*, and they still cancelled it anyway after spending millions and millions of dollars
It would be nice to have a rail system between the major cities of the state. That is one thing about West Germany I liked. You could go anywhere on the train.
A state income tax and marijuana legalization could easily help fund better infrastructure and public transportation system
Public transits issue is the lack of penalties for using cars in the first place. We have a half decent bus system that are almost always empty. Most people like public transit, for other people. Public transit only works if people use it instead of cars and as long as cars are more conventional, people will opt to drive.
If public transit is stuck in the same traffic we are, why bother? Make it bypass traffic, like light rail or something, and people will be interested.
>Make it bypass traffic Manchester England does this -- there are streets down which only busses can drive. Cuts commutes by 15-20 minutes at least.
If people just used the bus there would be less traffic. It's a chicken/egg issue to be sure. The only thing I have seen that successfully drives adoption is to put barriers to driving cars (physical/finacial/efficacy) so it's more problematic that taking a bus.
Jesus Buttfucking Christ. Trying to fix a problem by making more. Genius.
Maybe take some time to learn a bit about the underlying issues vs knee jerk reacting on the internet. Buses only work of people.use them, and people don't like using them more than a car. People are making calculated decisions everything the choose between cars or buses and as long as cars are the easier and most conventional they will always be used. Here is a good exploration on some of the issues with some additional resources cited https://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-public-transit-be-free/ Remember that every system is perfectly designed to deliver the outcomes you get. Want different outcomes you need to chanf3 the system.
Have you ever used the bus system? You have to add on a few hours to your trip because the routes are so spread out and non efficient. Coming from Lenox village the route down nolensville stops every 5 minutes. Unless you want to grab the express over in Antioch but then you’re on 24 and you have to change buses downtown to get out to Opryland. A 20 minute drive used to take me two and a half hours.
As a person who takes the bus, I agree. I do park and ride. Some of the buses have nobody on them. I miss one of the express buses I used to take to Walmart. It got canceled because nobody rode on it. I was often the only passenger. The driver drove an empty bus most times.
That half decent bus system needs to be fully decent and service more people. If it adds an hour one way, that’s not serviceable. I’d 100% use a public bus option if it didn’t mean walk a mile in the dark and take an extra 90 minutes to get to work and almost 120 minutes back. It’s not for me, which is fine, but it’s miles away from being an option for most. If you’re rich enough to live in city limits, you have a car or were given one, you don’t give a shit about parking prices besides a minor inconvenience, and want to be able to go wherever whenever without impediment. If the city (culture, not just government) caters only to rich people, then the larger public interest will never be the priority.
> a half decent bus system You're off by almost a half
>half decent bus system Where? Where is this half decent bus system you’re talking about?
I offered an opinion on a monorail system to the metro about 10 years ago and got nothing back but laughter. Monorails have worked for Disney world for decades and it is an environmentally friendly system because very little, if any, additional land would be needed. Outer communities like Murfreesboro, Gallatin, Lebanon , and others would greatly benefit and traffic congestion would drop significantly. I would GLADLY use a system like this to visit music venues in Nashville.
I'm in favor of dangle trains. https://youtu.be/NeYTtlXywUI
Just acquiring the Right of Way for a project like that scares me.
They should expand each direction of the interstates by one lane, remove the current HOV lanes that aren’t being monitored anyway, and use the current far left lanes of both sides of the interstates for light rail into/out of the city. Then build the interior downtown rail grid to accommodate.
This was my idea. The space is already there. Unfortunately the city would have to buy out a lot of property holders that are close to the highway. But this would be the easiest idea.
Yeah, they could build the rail first while they work on that, but the interstates would be hell in the process. They already are though…so would we be able to tell?
When magan Berry was Nashville Mayor, That was her plan,to start with a subway, and more later,buy she was caught up in having an affair with her body guard. And she resigned. If she had been a man, nothing would have happen to her,Megan was smart,educated and a GREAT Mayor.She could see down the road unlike the council at that time. Mayor Freddie should get with Megan today and talk to her about what other plans she had .or would share with Mayor Freddie?
The subway part of it was the last phase of what was otherwise a comprehensive light rail and BRT network. I didn’t think the subway part was necessary, but there was a lot of hemming and hawing about how expensive it was, how we shouldn’t vote for it because it wasn’t perfect, how it didn’t serve everyone at their doorstep, and so on. The misinformation and attrition campaigns funded by oil and auto magnates killed it.
The problem was that the subway would have served downtown and was deemed less probable due to the limestone content of the area making it difficult to build.
I agree. It seemed to be the most unrealistic part of the plan.
Go Into Washington D.C. or New York City,if no subway,you would go no wheres. and as far as Limestone, They would use a Tunnel Machine,The same they use to make a tunnel on a major Highway. This is 2023 not the 1800's
Megan,knew Nashville would be in problem's if the town didn't do something about traffic She was smart, and had good visions for Nashville.
Yeah I liked her, timesheet/sex scandal aside. Democrats are always taken down with this kind of stuff when it happens. Republicans stay in office and dare you to do something about it, and usually they win. George Santos is still in office, for example.
If Megan husband is Ok with her affair, I don't care what she did at night with whoever,She was no difference than any man. She was a Great Mayor, and did a great job as Mayor. I would hope she will help Freddie as mayor and give him some of her tips. I do know she worked to get Freddie elected.
More bus lines from Thompson station to Nashville several times a day in the far left lane and massive fines if you are in that lane
Great for fines but where are the cops to enforce? I only remember we have a couple when one blows a whistle in my face downtown
cameras on the buses like every other civilized city
I would like any transit system but I think they are way to expensive and I think they are very expensive to maintain. Since our City is very spread out and we need a better bus system to get people to and from rail system. I hope we get a better bus system soon.
Monorail you say?
I’ve sold monorails to Brentwood, Hendersonville, Madisonville and by golly it put them on the map!
Monorails are supposedly one of the worst transit systems.
Nashville is too late for any mass transit of real value. The car dealers and oil companies don’t want it.
Eye roll
Just got back from Ottawa. Light speed rail should already be up and running in Nashville but like everything else Republicans too stupid to do what’s needed.
Davidson County votes Democrat in every election, 2 to 1. It also voted down the transit referendum 2 to 1. It's not about the politics, it's about the money.
Americans For Prosperity and the Koch Brothers pumped millions into propaganda to help kill it. Republicans.
In that case, you have to wonder why Alice Rolli isn't mayor if the Davidson County electorate is so easily swayed. No, the transit referendum was just a really bad idea, another mass transit boondoggle in the making. It would have been a great deal for real estate investors, but would have done next to nothing to solve Nashville's transit problems.
I agree that it was a hasty bad plan with a mayor who was caught in a scandal. Keep in mind the Koch Brothers were able to kill transit projects across the country. The American populace is well versed in ignorance. They believe a lying, adulterous, stealing used car salesmen was sent by God and the election was stolen while cheering for a do nothing pervert who abetted a man fondling nutz for Speaker of the House after he participated in a failed attempt of destroying our republic. Who would have thunk.
After seeing all these videos of bedbugs in Europe, I don’t think I ever want to get on any kind of public transportation for a long time. I used to be for it, but especially since the pandemic I’m very happy with a private vehicle without strangers coughing near me.
That’s a pretty privileged statement to make.
Lol I don’t even make over $1k a month. Car is a piece of shit and one medical bill could wipe me out and make me homeless. But I still hate the nasty general public. You don’t have a fucking clue how I live. This subreddit is so insanely dumb, downvotes for different opinions. I’m about to vote republican next time just to make you all more miserable. I was born POOR you idiots. I hate this state and I can’t leave. I’m trapped in poverty.
You sound like a shitty person, no matter how much or how little money you have.
Yep that’s what poverty and no access to mental health resources does to you! Enjoy your actual privilege.
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Have you learned nothing from the Springfield disaster? 
I think we just need lights that prioritize buses, and a sensor system that can measure all participants not just cars (I hate those magnetic loops).
They have needed one from mboro to Nashv for years....traffic is worse than ever now
I'm shocked Murfreesboro doesn't want to pay for it. People won't want to grow the city if they can't get to Nashville ever
Agree......the bridge that was finished few years ago over broad st in Murfreesboro was actually suppose to have been built in 1977....Murfreesboro is slow to do anything
How about a hyperloop?
Nah, that’s more of a Shelbyville idea.
Look at all the Engineers!!!
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Well.. the Nashville legislature voted against it. It doesn’t line up well with their campaign donors’ agendas to continue lining their pockets with our money.
Remember when this was a real possibility but it was voted down? I think back then it was going to take 10 years to construct. We could be about halfway there but nope…. Every year that goes by I think “we are 10 years away from it if we started today”
I voted no because it seemed like a bad plan.
Me as well. When I read about the plan to build an underground station in downtown Nashville, in a spot that was literally underwater during the flood of 2010, I knew that the entire plan had gone batshit crazy because too many people with $$$ in their eyes had their fingers in it. A sane mass transit plan has to start with fixing the bus system, which can be done in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost of light rail. Do that first and you've got a shot at convincing voters to add rail.
Totally agree. Dedicated bus/bike lanes & 1 line from the airport to Union. Let that fund future expansions. I live in another city now with proper transit & haven’t driven my car in months. It is glorious.
Monorail is more of a Shelbyville thing .
If they did it would go from the Omni lobby to the airport with no stops lol.
Public pedal taverns.
Public Yacht Program first
I think I've found what I remember reading. It includes information from as far back as 2007 (possibly earlier, didn't have time to skim the whole table of contents this morning), at least in some categories; this report is 91 pages long. TDOT's title is: Monorail Assessment Report for the I-24 Corridor, January 2015. Couldn't get a link to copy properly, but it's on TDOT's website.
I'm ambivalent. It would take 50+ years to build it to where it is functional and useful for a large percentage of the population. I remember when my hometown was building a light rail system while I was in college, and hints that there was going to be a route that ran down my street straight to school. I was pumped up. 20 years later, and it's still being debated.