Public Open House for Sister Project

NFTA is also conducting a study to develop and evaluate alternatives for enhancing transit access in the Canalside and Cobblestone districts in Downtown Buffalo and the reuse of the DL&W as a Metro rail Station.

Join us on October 15, 5 to 7 p.m. to learn more about the study and to provide your input on which alternative should move forward.

WGRZ Covers the Study

Channel 2 ran a story on the study.

And so did Buffalo Rising.

Warning: This Post Contains Technical Documents!

As a follow up to our post about the recommended alternatives moving into the 3rd and final tier of the analysis here are two documents that informed the recommendation:

Tier 2 Screening Results

Tech Memo Revising the Recommendation

Check This Out

The Buffalo News ran an article about the project in today's edition.

A BIG THANK YOU...

 to everyone who stopped by our table today at the Downtown Farmers Market!

Thank you for your interest and your many great questions and comments.

FAQs

We've added an FAQ tab.

This is our attempt to answer all the questions we've gotten so far. Let us know if you still have more.

Some Recent Changes

Based on what we've heard from you at our two June Public Open Houses, comments you've posted to this site, and the discussions we've had with our Project Steering Committee and Project Advisory Committee, we've revised the alternatives moving forward into Tier 3 for further analysis. Tom George, Director of Public Transportation gave a detailed presentation to our Board of Commissioners  you can watch which outlines the results of our outreach efforts and the reasons for the revised alternatives.

A very sincere thank you to everyone who took the time to attend the meetings, review the project materials and provide us with your thoughtful comments! We are quickly moving forward towards a Locally Preferred Alternative and want to encourage you to continue to stay engaged.

We went from this:

 

To this:

Here's what changed:

We're no longer advancing a Bailey Avenue BRT and have added an LRT alternative to Millersport Highway for further evaluation. This leaves us with LRT and BRT options on Niagara Falls Blvd. and Millersport Highway as well as Enhanced Bus and Preferential Bus.

Why?

Well, here's a summary of the comments that provided a basis for the change:

• LRT is the preferred mode over BRT
• Most commenters who favor LRT also favor the Niagara Falls Blvd. alignment - citing more opportunities for Transit Oriented Development as one of those reasons
• LRT is perceived to have a faster travel time, fewer environmental impacts and more convenient with a one seat ride
• BRT is perceived to be too slow, especially in mixed traffic
• BRT alternatives moving forward should also have the technical feasibility to support an LRT investment in the future
• Consideration should be given for project phasing
• Connectivity to existing bus system, pedestrian and bicycle amenities is important
• Important to improve transit service for the community, especially for the transit dependent populations 

Based on what we heard from you, the revisions were made because of these considerations:  

• Bailey Avenue Considerations -
• Constrained right-of-way - BRT would operate in mixed traffic
• Limited set backs and high impacts to private property
• Similar ridership capture area as the Niagara Falls Blvd. alternatives
• Greater impacts to residential (North Bailey)
• No additional ridership benefits
• Millersport Highway Considerations -
• BRT alignment meets the condition to support future consideration of LRT
• Provides the shortest travel time
• Provides a more equitable balance of modes

Next Steps:

Over the next few months the study team will take these four remaining alternatives and evaluative them further in Tier 3. This will include:

• More detailed definition of the remaining alternatives including additional engineering
• Capital cost estimates
• Operating service plan for each alternative
• Development of operating and maintenance costs
• Refined ridership forecasts
• Cost effectiveness (cost per rider)
• Land use and economic development analysis
• Evaluation of community and environmental effects
• Financial feasibility plan with financing options

After the leg work is complete, we'll present the results to you - look for our meeting notifications in the Fall.



Here's what we heard

We hosted our public open house on June 11th and here's what you told us.

 

We also had a public open house on June 23rd and you told us this:

 

Next Public Meeting

In case you missed the last meeting, we're having another public open house on June 23rd at the Museum of disABILITY History. Come anytime between 6-8p.m. to hear about the progress of the study and provide your feedback.

The presentation from the June 11 Open House

Open house boards, June 11, 2015 from Nfta TO

Are We On the Right Track (pun intended)?

You tell us.

This evening is our public open house at UB Allen Hall. Stop in anytime from 4-8pm to learn about the 4 recommended alternatives and provide your input.

Here's a teaser - we're looking at LRT on Niagara Falls Blvd. and BRT on Niagara Falls Blvd., Bailey Ave., and Millersport Highway.

If you can't make it tonight but want to be able to provide comments, no worries. We're having another meeting on June 23rd from 6-8pm at the Museum of disABILITY History.

You can also leave your feedback here.

Public Open House

We’ve completed the Tier 2 analysis and the results are in!  We’d like to get your feedback to make sure we’re going in the right direction towards a Locally Preferred Alternative we can all get behind.

 

We're hosting an event on June 11, 2015, from 4 pm - 8pm at the University at Buffalo South Campus Allen Hall.

 

This meeting will be an open house format and everyone is free to drop in any time to learn about the study, view presentation boards about remaining alternatives being recommended for further analysis, and most importantly, provide your comments to members of the study team.

We would be delighted if you can join us! If you can’t attend please continue to follow the process here and be sure to leave your comments for the team.

 

 

Save the Date

The Tier 2 results are in and we want your feedback on the recommendations. We'll be hosting a public review on Thursday, June 11, 4 p.m. 'till 8 p.m., Allen Hall, Room 100, University at Buffalo South Campus, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo. Stop in any time. There is no formal presentation.

Transit as a Must-Have

Transit as a must-have economic development tool? Here's an example of a traditional suburban community that's rethinking transit.


 

Quick Update

Sorry everyone, it’s been a while since our last post. We’ve been hard at work refining and evaluating the 15 alternatives as part of the Tier 2 evaluation.

Remember, Tier 2 will look at order of magnitude capital costs, forecasted ridership and right-of-way impacts. The result will be a handful of alternatives to evaluate in even more detail in Tier 3. We’re pretty close to wrapping up Tier 2 and will likely have a presentation for you in June.

In the meantime, since we’re still not sure about the mode, here's an article that summarizes a couple of studies about LRT and BRT. What’s your opinion?