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todareistobmore t1_j4a9uxt wrote

Reply to comment by Matt3989 in A reminder that "light rail" (as a concept) and "The Light Rail" (that we have) are not synonymous by gaiusjuliusweezer

> I use the Green Line almost every day and it's pretty great 90% of the time.

Ok, but this beside the point? If the LR would've been built with the same care as the metro, it'd have been a lot more useful.

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Matt3989 t1_j4axw5l wrote

You can't build a light rail with electrified third rail cars, that requires RoW separation.

So yeah, if the light rail had been built in a tunnel as HRT it would've been a lot more useful. Which is exactly my point, the Red Line shouldn't be LRT.

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todareistobmore t1_j4c3ww4 wrote

> You can't build a light rail with electrified third rail cars, that requires RoW separation.

So? Philly's trolleys run underground and they're fine. What's wrong with our light rail isn't that it's light rail, it's that it was built largely as a gimmick to get suburbanites to Camden Yards.

The problem with trying to do HRT across the city is that it's currently totally unaffordable, both in terms of what it costs and any realistic source of revenue for such a project. So if there is any feasible way to still build the version of the red line that Hogan asked, it's worth doing not least because we have absolutely no idea when federal money may be available again.

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