TR Circular E-C058_9th LRT Conference_2003.pdf - Florida ...

72 Transportation Research Circular E-C058: 9th National Light Rail Transit Conference
High-Floor Versus Low-Floor
When Muni’s initial Market Street subway was designed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it
was laid out as a high-floor platform facility, to facilitate boarding from a level floor. Similarly,
the vehicles eventually designed to serve it used a surprisingly successful and reliable high-low
step design to serve either the high-level subway platforms or street level surface stops. At the
time, today’s low-floor light rail car had not yet been invented.
But when planning commenced for the Third Street project, low-floor cars now existed
and offered some very attractive features. Community members along Third Street were very
concerned that massive, high-platform stations could form a barrier between the two sides of the
future revitalized neighborhood commercial street they foresaw. Less intrusive low-level
platforms, served by low-level cars were a very attractive alternative. From a planning
perspective, low-level cars and platforms also simplified wheelchair accessibility from platforms
in blocks too short to accommodate ramps at each end.
A concept was developed to through-route Third Street service with the N-Judah line.
Lowering a portion of the platform at the downtown subway stations was shown by an
engineering feasibility study to be less problematic that it might seem, and providing
accessibility at all N-line stops offered an obvious attraction to disabled transit users over the
occasional high-block mini-platforms provided only at major stops.
While this low-floor concept was given serious consideration, a decision was eventually
made, however, to stick with a uniform fleet of high-floor LRVs. Principal concerns were to
simplify maintenance requirements, as well as to retain a fleet of vehicles which could serve all
lines, and certainly simplify the capital construction program for the IOS.
Metro East Light Rail Maintenance Facility
Muni’s current LRV maintenance facility, Green Division, is overcrowded and sorely in need of
relief in order to function effectively. Muni could not even consider building a new light rail line
without increasing maintenance and storage capability, and given that Green Division is hemmed
in on all sides by development, Muni had to find a location for a new maintenance facility. After
several alternative locations had been considered and rejected, Muni settled on a site for the new
Metro East Light Rail Vehicle Maintenance and Operations Facility along the Third Street
project corridor, in the vicinity of Illinois and 25th Streets. This new facility is currently under
construction, and will be able to store, maintain, and operate up to 100 LRVs.
CONSTRUCTION STATUS AND OPENING DAY: FALL 2005
After years of planning, it is always exciting to move into actual project construction and
implementation. All segments of the Surface Rail Alignment for Third Street are under
construction as of this writing (July 2003), and the 15 LRVs needed to operate the IOS have been
purchased and delivered. The Metro East facility is scheduled to begin construction in Fall 2003,
and opening day for revenue operation on the line is scheduled for Fall 2005.