Sacramento South Line Opens Friday

Amid high hopes and some worries, public transit in Sacramento opens broad new terrain this Friday with the long-awaited launch of light-rail trains from downtown to south Sacramento.The $222 million project is the first new light-rail line since the system opened 16 years ago. It brings what an official calls the "workhorse" of public transit to a string of working-class south area neighborhoods.

"It's a big deal for south Sacramento," City Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell said. "A lot of people don't have cars. A lot of people have been waiting for this."

Click to expand...

The rest of the story can be found here the free rides will be Friday from 1300 to close, and all day Saturday and Sunday.

TP,

Make sure that you take a ride for all of us.

I took my free ride this evening on the South Line and the new LRV's we now have here in Sacramento. Some observations I made, cars are nice and new (even have the new car smell). The seating is better than in the old Siemens cars with single rows as opposed to seats facing each other in a booth type style. The interior lighting is very bright (too bright for nightime riding...I have the same complaint about the LIRR's M-7's). The ride is good at low speed but at higher speeds; closer to the 55 mph top speed the cars have a lot of sway. The automated announcements are clear and the destination signs are easy to read. In essence the new cars remind me of the M-7's and R-142's in a light rail car.

Now for the complaints beside the sway and the overly bright lighting, I have one operational complaint. This is they terminate the run at St. Rose of Lima 9th and K Streets then run the empty train to the Cathedral Square station so they can cross the train over to run it back down south. It would make more sense to just originate and terminate the train at Cathedral Square.

As for the stations and scenery not much to see goes by a Junior Colege and a Campbells Soup factory and industrial area. The best thing they did was construct a flyover at Florin Road so as not to block this major artery in South Sacramento when the trains roll through. The stations are tastefully done and all have some sort of artwork in them. All in all with the limited funding they had RT did a good job with the Meadowview Line.