A dream of light rail for Northwest Arkansas

[WhiteTara]

http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=61bad72a-a97f-479c-9382-aec776da4052
From Spokane to Orlando cities throughout the country are developing passenger light rail. There are at least 30 existing systems and another 40 or so on the boards.

A recent study led by the University of Arkansas Center for Community Development found that Northwest Arkansas is a strong candidate for light rail. The study, which included work by University of Arkansas and Washington University at St. Louis architecture students and design professionals from Minnesota and California, has won two major national design awards.

The study is an “advocacy document” says UACDC director Stephen Luoni. “Were pushing the conversation to get to that level of support to get to a feasibility study.”

snip

Northwest Arkansas provides important characteristics for light rail. Rail systems are most efficient when they are arranged in a linear configuration rather than in amoebic conglomerations. The string of merging cities from Fayetteville to Bentonville originally grew up around rail service — two-thirds of the population lives within one mile of the main rail line. As much as 66 percent of the cost of building a new light rail system is used in acquiring the property. Most of this right of way already exists in Northwest Arkansas and is used lightly by the Arkansas Missouri freight line.

This would be a big yeah for our area. It would be a nightmare to widen roads and the traffic is terrible. I would be so excited.
Draft Bill Halter!

[jsamuel]

1. does sound like a good idea

[Art_from_Ark]

2. That would be nice, but I can see stumbling blocks

Most of the old railway line goes through older sections of town that have declined due to the ever-expanding sprawl that seems to be going ever westward, far away from the rail lines and closer toward the I-540 corridor. Pinnacle is a prime example of sprawl out in the middle of nowhere, far from any potential rail station. But it would be kind of neat to hop on a train in, say, Rogers, and get off on Dickson Street in Fayetteville near the university.