Breakfast links: Taxis and corruption

by Thaddeus Bell • July 11, 2012 8:13 am

Photo by Wayan Vota on Flickr.

Council passes taxi bill, spares Uber: The DC Council passed the taxicab modernization bill yesterday, but removed the amendment which would have required Uber to charge minimum fees five times those of regular taxis. (DCist)

Harris pleads guilty: Jeanne Clarke Harris pleaded guilty to corruption charges. She funneled more than ~~$650 million~~ $653,000 to Vincent Gray's 2010 mayoral campaign from Medicaid contractor Jeffrey Thompson. (City Paper)

Bring more power lines underground?: The DC Council is considering several bills to move more power lines underground throughout the city. The more sweeping proposal would split the $5 billion cost between the District and Pepco. (Examiner)

Amtrak eyes larger Union Station: The long-term plan for faster Acela service includes building a high speed train station underneath Union Station. Improvements could lead to a 94 minute ride from DC to New York. (WBJ)

Designing smaller apartments: New York City is hosting a competition to build a residential building with apartments below 300 square feet, relaxing the current 450 sq. ft. minimum as rents remain prohibitively high for many young people. (NYT)

Map DC's abandoned bicycles: You can help WAMU and DDOT map abandoned bicycles. According to DC law, bikes left unmoved for 30 days are considered abandoned, and can be removed after ten days' notice. (WAMU)

Takoma Park mulls municipal power company: A Takoma Park, MD city council candidate is calling for a public power company to run the city's power. This would likely require a long legal battle with Pepco. (Gazette)

And...: Bikers in Portland spend more money at bars, restaurants, and convenience stores than those who arrive via other modes. (BikePortland)... Tuesday night's heavy rain caused more power outages across the region. (WTOP)... A Greenbelt co-op would allow residents to ban smoking by mutual agreement. (Gazette)

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Re: Harris funneled 650,000 bucks, not $650 million. That's more like presidential campaign money!

by Drew on Jul 11, 2012 8:19 am • link • report

@smaller apartments

Vancouver already has been experimenting with "mini-lofts" that are between 226 and 291 sq feet and rent for $850 a month. I assume in Manhattan they will end up renting for $2k at the low end.

http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/12/21/micro-living-canadas-smallest-apartment-the-size-of-a-walk-in-closet/

@Acela

I'm for more investments in rail, but I bet that you could get a better return on your investment with some basic improvements to freight rail, which would divert trucks from the freeway and improve existing commuter rail lines.

by Nicoli on Jul 11, 2012 8:58 am • link • report

@ Amtrak

So 94 minutes by what 2040? I will believe it when I see it, but if Amtrak could manage it it would make air travel obsolete on the northeast corridor anyway.

by Matt R on Jul 11, 2012 9:22 am • link • report

@Matt R--Your guess is pretty accurate. They target date is 2030. Every time I get excited about a major infrastructure proposal in the U.S., I'm devastated by the projected completion day. I think my timeline expectations fall more in line with the Chinese...

by MJ on Jul 11, 2012 9:34 am • link • report

DC-NYC (227m) in 94 minutes is fast.
To compare:
Rotterdam-Paris (275m) is currently 2h36.
London-Paris (282m) is currently 2h15.
Paris-Nantes(240m) is currently 2h08.

But then again, that is now, not 2040.

by Jasper on Jul 11, 2012 9:43 am • link • report

@Matt R, the upgrade plans for the current NEC route would achieve 2:12 trip times from DC to NYC for the Acela by 2025 (or Acela II trainsets by then). That would include the completion of the Gateway Project, B&P Tunnel replacement in Baltimore, multiple bridge replacement and four additional 160 mph segments between NJ and Baltimore. Fair amount of funding will be needed to accomplish that.

The NE Regional class trains should have improved trip times between DC and NYC as well if all the planned NEC improvements take place (not including the NextGen NEC tracks). They would remain limited to a max speed of 125 mph, but would have more 125 mph segments and encounter fewer bottlenecks and slower tracks.

The 2040 date is for the NYC to BOS segment to reach a 94 minute trip time. The years of studies, route selection, EISs, legal battles, and ROW acquisitions make the proposal to build a new pair of high speed tracks through inland CT through Danbury and Hartford to Providence RI a daunting task. If I live long enough, would be amazed if it were to get built.

by AlanF on Jul 11, 2012 10:09 am • link • report

You covered the Taxi and Uber action yesterday by the DC Council. Why the silence on Mendo's successful effort to defeat Cheh's legislation to limit RFP access to some future residents of apartment and condo buildings that opt out of meeting min parking requirements? This is an important issue and related to support for in fill development and more dense development near transit.

Tom M

by Tom M on Jul 11, 2012 10:32 am • link • report

Tom: I'm trying to work on that today, actually. I couldn't watch the video and blog all at the same time, so I need to get the recording.

by David Alpert on Jul 11, 2012 10:35 am • link • report

I'd say the fears of a super-PAC coming to local DC politics are now true. That is what Harris did. Ban corporate money and it will flow somewhere else.

However the indictiment reads very different than the post story.

by charlie on Jul 11, 2012 10:55 am • link • report

Is there a reason why we can't eventualy run the "conventional" Amtrak equipment at 135mph, since all the new equipment seems to be designed to run at that speed?

It's only a small bump, but every bit counts...

by andrew on Jul 11, 2012 11:38 am • link • report

@andrew, the "conventional" equipment will run at a max speed of 125 mph. This is the case for the new Viewliners ordered from CAF, the Siemens ACS-64 locomotives, and is the max spec speed for the PRIIA specifications for the single, bi-level level corridor cars, and the next gen diesel locomotives. The PRIIA specs call for the initial test units to tested at speeds up to 135 mph, presumably to verify stability and that the cars won't derail, but in operational use, they will be limited to 125 mph sustained speeds. Or 200 km/hr for metric folks.

by AlanF on Jul 11, 2012 12:03 pm • link • report

ordered from CAF

Ah. That's why.

by andrew on Jul 11, 2012 1:39 pm • link • report

Re: new HSR Union station

It isn't only scheduled trip time that matters. the layout of Union station does a lot to increase all Amtrak trip times by 10-15 minutes by forcing an entire trainload of people (often >500) to line up and file through a single door. This is a terrible design. Why simulate an airplane when your vehicle has something like 16 doors! Having passengers spread out along the platform until the (many) train doors open can reduce this 10-15 minutes to 1-2 minutes.

One hopes that the new HSR station design will follow standard European in using platforms as waiting areas (as is the case in cities such as Newark and, I believe, Boston). This alone would reduce the time I need to allocate for my trip by 15 minutes. (consider: we think waiting for 15 minutes for the Red line a pain in the butt; but waiting 15 minutes to board an Acela is... normal! (even though they are essentially the same technology!)

by egk on Jul 11, 2012 2:01 pm • link • report

@andrew, don't understand your point with "ordered from CAF". Amtrak owns the design for the Viewliners. The Viewliner order is mainly a build to print contract by CAF. The cars were designed for a max speed of 125 mph. Which is a common cutoff world wide speed for standard passenger railcars to the best of my knowledge.

@egk, there are plans to expand and improve the boarding and waiting areas at Union Station. An expanded boarding area is to built above the lower level tracks with better access down to the platforms. Once there are more space and access points, Amtrak should change the boarding procedure to have two lines or locations leading to the platforms. The lines for the Regionals can get ridiculous at Union Station.

by AlanF on Jul 11, 2012 3:41 pm • link • report

@Alan

Sorry. Was just making a joke that WMATA's CAF cars are notoriously unreliable and prone to derailments.

by andrew on Jul 11, 2012 4:39 pm • link • report

@egk

Perhaps it is time for another renovation of Union Station bringing into more of a railway station and less of a tiny shopping center/eatery.

What needs to be done is getting rid of everything that is near the waiting area and expanding it by far so that if can actually meet the needs of a train station.

by kk on Jul 14, 2012 10:26 pm • link • report