CATA wins APTA National Award

reversiblehatt

From the LSJ's mid-day update, CATA ranks first among 106 agencies in North America with ridership from 4 to 30 million in the American Public Transit Association's annual awards. A nice honor -- that's a lot of competition.

http://lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/NEWS03/707190370

hood

Now if only we could get light rail...

Sparty73

Not bad! I guess those giant hybrid accordions paid off afterall!

reversiblehatt

I'm very familiar, but maybe someone else is: is there any light rail even remotely on the table or under consideration in the Greater Lansing region? Or maybe some Bus Rapid Transit?

hood

There is no formal plans, but Bernero has hinted at the possibility of something like light rail along Michigan. I just wish he would make a real push for it, once the process is started it could easily take ten years before construction begins, depending on funding.

MichMatters

Wikipedia makes a reference to CATA having contracted for a study of light rail for Route 1, but gives no source, whatsoever for the information. I've tried to get information from my email contact at CATA, and though they usually reply to most of my messages, they've not replied to anything I've asked about possible light rail.

Sparty73

What about this as a possible light rail route (just for fun basically since it will probably never happen): Begin at Capital City Airport, go down GR to Cedar, take Cedar south to Michigan, Michigan east until you hit GR, then GR down to about Okemos Rd. Stops could be put at the Airport, either the GR/Cedar or Cedar/Michigan intersections (or both), Michigan and GR, and then GR and Okemos.

MichMatters

It would be nice to have it start at the airport, but the airport has nowhere near the traffic needed to even begin to support such a line.

gary

I am the writer of basically the entire CATA article on Wikipedia. I'm the one who added that section LMich mentioned to the Wikipedia article. I'm also the one that removed it...

I e-mailed CATA about a year ago about potential light rail or BRT, and was told that a "Transportation enhancement study" was being conducted that was analyzing improvements to Route #1 that could include BRT or LRT. That's when I added the section.

I e-mailed CATA a year later (a couple of months ago now), and I got a reply from Sandy Draggoo herself. She said that the study had not been started yet due to lack of funding. (Even though they said they were conducting it a year ago... ??? ) That's when I removed it.

MichMatters

How unfortunate. You'd think given the success of CATA that this is something they would have jumped on aggressively. Please, do, keep in contact with them.

Jared

I took a look at the article yesterday, and you have done a great job on it. Keep up the good work, it was pretty neat to read. I never knew the actual model numbers of the buses before.

I didn't take too lightly to the route changes they made to MSU. There isn't a bus that will take you by the Amtrak/Greyhound station anymore, whereas previously you could take the 30/Spartan Village bus to get there.