"Tracks, Lies and Videotape"

These are myths ("facts") presented to the public in videotape presentations at meetings held by the LYNX consultants to INFORM the public.

MYTH: Trains will have no significant impact on  the community they pass through.
FACT: Light Rail will run 304 trains a day at 15 minute intervals (7 1/2 minutes both ways) that will pass every point in the line during non=rush hour service.  During rush hours from 6-9 a.m. and 4-7 p.m. trains will run at 5-minute intervals (2 1/2 minutes both ways). Now, add the 16 freight trains we already have and you can see that it WILL have a significant impact on traffic.   The consultants NOW say that 304 trains is the worst case scenario by the year 2020 and that the frequency will probably be more like 10 minute intervals (5 minutes both ways)  in the beginning.  Th 304 trains a day are their figures and now they admit that they are high???  I guess that means they really don't expect to meet their own ridership figures after all.  The impact will be the same, whether it occurs in 2004 or 2020 (when there will be more traffic in our neighborhoods).  This would reduce the number of trains by only 72 during rush hours for a total of 232 trains.

MYTH: Traffic will only be impacted by closed train gates for 30-40 seconds and coordinated traffic signals will help mitigate the impact of these closings.
FACT: 304 trains closing the street for at least 40 seconds each time equals over 3 hours and 22 minutes of blocked streets every  day.  This is equal to REDUCING the capacity of all crossed streets (Virginia Drive, Highland Ave., etc.) by 18%.  How could anyone state that this would have no significant impact on our already overcrowded streets?  Will street signals help? Ask yourself, can you go anywhere in a gridlock?  Lights only control traffic, they don't make it go away!   (232 trains a day = 2 hours and 35 minutes a day total!!)

MYTH: Trains will have no impact on the air quality in our neighborhoods.
FACT: The UCF professor who developed the pollution model used by the consultants has stated at 2 public meetings that they have used the WRONG model and miscalculated the impact of traffic in the neighborhoods near at-grade-crossings and near stations. Idling cars waiting at crossing streets and busses dropping off passengers at the stations produce many times more pollution that a car "at speed" on the Interstate.

MYTH: Trains are quieter than busses
FACT: A passing train is slightly quieter than a passing bus, IF THE TRAIN IS NOT CROSSING A STREET!!!  Busses are not required to blow their horns at every intersection.  Light Rail trains ARE REQUIRED to sound their horns REPEATEDLY for 1/4 MILE BEFORE AND THROUGH each intersection (at-grade crossings). this means that 304 times a day, every day, train horns will blast almost continually from Rollins Street (at Florida Hospital) to Magnolia and Orange Avenues.  During the 20 hours a day that Light Rail will operate, the total amount of time the horns will blow is over 5 hours. (232 trains a day =3 hours and 51 minutes a day total)

MYTH: Light Rail horns are more like a car horn than a freight train horn.
FACT: The purpose of the horn on a Light Rail train is to warn the public of its approach. It must sound and be heard for 1200-1500 feet.  The only way it resembles a "car" horn is that it is electric.  It blasts at a +90db level, loud enough to cause permanent hearing loss.  By the consultants own description, it is as loud as a jackhammer.

MYTH:Light Rail is needed as part of a balanced Multi-modal plan to relieve congestion on I-4
FACT: Studies in St. Louis and Portland show that the impact on interstate traffic is insignificant - less than the growth in cars on the interstate over a 4-month period. The Interstate will continue to be crowded, and rush hour traffic will continue to be a problem. Those who promote this as relief for I-4 traffic do so in the hope that you will use the train, leaving more room for them on the Interstate.
Light Rail is an inflexible, expensive, ineffective means of transportation that an only go back and forth on a fixed track.   It can't be modified, as a bus route can, to meet the changing transportation needs of the public.  In order for it to operate with any degree of success, it must be fed by a system of feeder busses that bring people into your neighborhood to ride the train.  Parking facilities are not provided in the stations planned for our area.  You must walk (would you walk 1/2 mile?) or have someone drive you to the station.  Cars dropping off riders and feeder busses will increase the local traffic congestion near the stations at Rollins and Magnolia.   Gate closing 304 (or 232) times a day will further aggravate this condition, as well as create traffic jams on cross roads such as Princeton, Virginia, and Highland Ave.

MYTH:Light Rail is environmentally friendly
FACT: Light Rail systems throughout the USA have consistently failed to meet their projected ridership and many are losing riders each year, as the cities become more spread out.  Most trains travel back and forth with only a handful of passengers, hardly an efficient transportation vehicle.  US Department of Transportation figures show that  when the generation and delivery of fuel is considered, Light Rail uses MORE fuel (5,278 BTU) per person per mile and pollutes more than a bus (4,143 BTU) OR a single occupant car (4,096 BTU). A 4 person car pool uses only 1024 BTU/person/mile, the lowest of all transportation modes studied.  Air quality improvements in cities with Light Rail are due to the refinements in automobile emission systems and are no greater than in those cities without Light Rail.

FACTS NOT PRESENTED

FACT: The consultants have conceded to public officials in Winter Park and Maitland, that essential services such as fire, police, and ambulance service will be delayed when the trains cross streets.  Trains will always preempt any other services and will not stop for emergency vehicles to pass.  This means that delays up to 2 minute could be encountered, possibly endangering the life of a critically ill neighbor.

FACT: If sound abatement (walls, etc) does become necessary, it will fall to the city to pay for it.   Sound abatement walls could easily cost over one million dollars for a 1-mile segment.  Wouldn't it be much less expensive to abate sound by not running the train through our neighborhood in the first place?

FACT: The financing for the southern segment of the Light Rail project is still not firm.  What about the funding for the northern segment and the Princeton/Loch Haven Alternative?  The consultants have stated in their DEIS report that Seminole and Osceola counties would most likely not pass a tax referendum to fund Light Rail.  They further state that it will fall on Orange County and the City of Orlando to pay for this project.  The recommended funding source?  A PERMANENT 1/2 cent sales tax increase would have to be passed or other "flexible funding sources" found.  Once again, the City and Orange County have failed to get the message from the last Tax Referendum.

FACT: Automobile and pedestrian accidents related to rail service would more than quadruple to near 40 per year (Maitland Police estimate).  This will not only cause delays for traffic and the Light Rail System, but also possibly involve people from our own neighborhoods.  The 304 gate closings a day are an extreme inconvenience to local drivers and may tempt people to try to "beat the train."

FACT: As if all this weren't enough, the project's estimated cost has already escalated by over $282 million in only a year.  Cost projected for building operating and maintaining the light rail project is currently shown to exceed $4.5 billion dollars through  the year 2020 The total cost to build is currently given as 1.2 billion dollars.  Annual operating expenses will cost us over 17.4 million dollars each year. All this to carry less than 1% of the Tri-County area population.  Real costs for Light Rail systems such as Portland, Sacramento, and Denver have run on an average more than 46% above estimates and ridership 59% less than projected by their consultants.  Cost overruns, such as those experienced by other cities, could burden us with serious financial obligations, with little hope of relief.  Weigh carefully any figures you hear from the consultants with these facts.

FACT: Light rail has been linked to the increase in CRIME, both at the stations that serve the communities, and in the neighborhoods themselves.  In Baltimore and Philadelphia, crime rates rose as a result of mass transit intrusions into neighborhood communities.  We have no way of forecasting what impact it may have on our neighborhoods, but experience teaches that what has happened elsewhere will probably happen here as well.

We are no longer exempt from gangs or juvenile crime.  An inexpensive transportation system that conveniently brings strangers into our neighborhood could be come a conduit for crime.

FACT: The only way to keep Light Rail out of our area is to voice our opposition in every way possible.  Notify the Mayor, your City Councilman, the Florida Department of Transportation, Metroplan and the LYNX board.   Let them know you will actively work to DE-RAIL Light Rail in your neighborhood, even if it means supporting the "No build" option.

US NEW URBAN RAIL SYSTEM PERFORMANCE

Don Pickrell, Urban rail Transit Projects: Forecast Versus Actual Ridership and Costs (Washington , DC: US Department of Transportation, Urban Mass Transportation Administration, 1989).