Tulsa's exciting rail possibilities

[stageidea]

Well, we can't get a train to Tulsa but they can build the biggest train line of them all.

http://cleantechnica.com/2010/03/13/china-wants-to-connect-its-high-speed-rail-to-europe-largest-infrastructure-project-in-history/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cleantechnica%2Fcom+%28CleanTechnica%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

[nathanm]

Well, we can't get a train to Tulsa but they can build the biggest train line of them all.

It helps that they have trillions of dollars of our money to use for these things. If we still made things here other than risky and complex derivatives, we might have some of our money, too.

[stageidea]

No doubt, I had same discussion with some family members this morning. 

[TheTed]

We've apparently lost our Amtrak bus service. You could get on Amtrak.com and book travel to/from Tulsa. I believe it was served with a Jefferson Lines bus that stopped at the downtown bus depot and took you to the train in Kansas City or the one in OKC.

The idea of a middle of the night bus ride was not exactly appealing, but some type of connection to our nation's train system is better than nothing.

[Red Arrow]

We've apparently lost our Amtrak bus service. You could get on Amtrak.com and book travel to/from Tulsa. I believe it was served with a Jefferson Lines bus that stopped at the downtown bus depot and took you to the train in Kansas City or the one in OKC.

The idea of a middle of the night bus ride was not exactly appealing, but some type of connection to our nation's train system is better than nothing.

Any idea on the number of people using the service?

[patric]

The I-244 bridge over the Arkansas River unveiled:

[Conan71]

The I-244 bridge over the Arkansas River unveiled:

Is that after 20 years of service?  Where's the smoking skid marks?

[nathanm]

I especially like the person standing to the right on the pedestrian bridge area looking confused.

[we vs us]

I like the luxuriously deep Arkansas River.

[Conan71]

I like the luxuriously deep Arkansas River.

And they were somewhat honest in representing the color of the water. 

[dbacks fan]

Soooo, in thirty some years when the road decking starts to crumble, it'll be dropping on trains and a pedestrian bridge.

[SXSW]

patric, where did you find that?  The concept is cool but it needs more style.  Hopefully this is a work-in-progress.

[dbacks fan]

patric, where did you find that?  The concept is cool but it needs more style.  Hopefully this is a work-in-progress.

http://www.okladot.state.ok.us/meetings/a2010/100429/i-244presentation.pdf

This also goes into the possible high speed rail from Tulsa to OKC to D/FW as well as Little Rock to Texarkana to D/FW and then a continuation from D/FW to Austin to San Antonio.

[Red Arrow]

The I-244 bridge over the Arkansas River unveiled:

That'll teach us to only fund half a bridge.

[SXSW]

Saw this article in the TW about INCOG developing a transit plan for the metro and gathering public input over the next few months before presenting the plan in the summer.  There is a kick-off presentation and open house at the TCC Center for Creativity on Jan. 19 if anyone is interested.  The mayor of Charlotte will be there to discuss how light rail was built in his sprawly Southern city and how it has spurred new development.  I'm hoping this type of dialogue is the precursor to developing a streetcar and/or light rail plan so that when the next V2025 comes along it is heavily transit-based and lots of the planning has already been done.  OKC passed MAPS 3 which will build a streetcar line but little of the planning had been done so actual construction is still several years away.  

http://www.transitsystemplan.org/website/Home.aspx

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=16&articleid=20101227_16_A1_JamesW213304