Dallas Blue line to UNT opened today.

^
Updated to reflect DART blue line.

We've had a ton of projects completed over the past year and very few added, so I'm using The Transport Politic's Transit Explorer to do a quick audit of US cities, to see if we're missing anything.

So this list goes city by city. A dash means this thead already accounts for all rail construction. A note in regular text means there's something set to begin construction this fall but not yet ready to be put on the list. A note in bold means we had missed a project that's under construction and I've added it to the list.

• Atlanta: -
• Baltimoe: -
• Boston: -
• Charlotte: Gold Line phase 2 is in bidding right now. Not u/c yet.
• Chicago: -
• Cincinnati: -
• Cleveland: -
• Columbus: -
• Dallas/Ft Worth: ADDITION: TEXrail commuter rail broke ground in August.
• Detroit: -
• Denver: -
• Grand Rapids: -
• Honolulu: -
• Houston: -
• Indianapolis: -
• Kansas City: -
• Los Angeles: -
• Miami: -
• Minneapolis: -
• New Orleans: -
• New York: -
• Oklahoma City: Streetcar scheduled to begin construction in November.
• Orlando: -
• Philadelphia: - Elwyn to Wawa extension
• Phoenix: -
• Portland: -
• Saint Louis: -
• San Diego: -
• San Francisco/San Jose: -
• San Juan: -
• Seattle: -
• Raleigh: -
• Washington DC: Purple Line LRT utility work is underway but real construction hasn't started yet.

The next phase of Sound Transit (including another 62 miles of light rail and a second rail tunnel through Downtown Seattle) is winning 55-44 today. More results coming in later today but looks encouraging.

http://soundtransit3.org

OKC streetcar update: Construction hasn't started yet, but it will "within weeks." It's not on this list yet.

Technically a third rail tunnel through Downtown Seattle including the BN Tunnel used by Amtrak, Sounder commuter rail, and freight.

But yes it'll be a pretty epic expansion of the system.

We talk about the "Big 6" US cities for urbanism & transit, NY, SF, DC, Chicago, Boston, Philly. Seattle & LA are often mentioned as the next group down, not quite there. Isn't it interesting how the 2 cities w/ the biggest transit expansions going on right now are... Seattle & LA.

I wonder if it'll be enough to make it a "Big 8."

LA and Seattle are willing to self-fund to invest in modern. reliable, transit that will create good jobs. As I posted on another page here, with Congress's biggest Amtrak hater or a Reason Foundation Inc. hack rumored to be the next Secretary of Transportation, the only growth in transit systems will likely come from those metro areas that are willing to commit their own funding.

^ it's a real shame that the republicans are back in charge because if the feds had renewed the 'moving forward' program, let alone supplied transit matching funds, the system build-out voters just approved could have been done in half the time. imagine getting that full system up in 15 years. you'd be talking about lines opening every year for several years in a row, 2022-2030 - imagine what that would do for the city, the built form, the patterns of movement. not hard to imagine in that reality another return to the voters to further expand, fill in, bury, elevate, convert to rail, cut headways.

trump is a tragedy for a giant number of reasons more important than LA transit, but just on this narrow one, man, it stings.

It isn't slated to start until January now. :/

Not sure why, but they pushed back the start date.

In August the city announced it is rebidding the Gold Line (streetcar) phase 2 and will award contract in November. Per the city website:

"Construction is projected to begin early 2017. Phase 2 service start date is projected in late 2020."

Also, right now they are using the heritage trolleys that the city already owned on the existing phase one streetcar line, but have agreed on the purchase of new streetcars that will start use when phase 2 is complete:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/up-bucket-0...b9de373287.jpg

http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/i.../59/c1/map.jpg

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Good. If you want people to think it's serious transportation, not just a toy train for tourists, that's what it should look like.

Any news going on? What about Miami or Phoenix? Haven't they already got an approved? Any news on Metrorail?

Yes, that's always been the plan, but to get the first phase going sooner it made sense to use the trolley cars the city already owned. These will be good once the line is extended with phase two (and beyond).

EDIT: Charlotte received a re-bid on construction contract $29 million lower from Johnson Bros Corporation and will award the contract be the end of this month.

New York's 2nd Ave subway will open New Year's day.

Per the city website, OKC is now scheduled to begin streetcar construction in February. Will post an update once it's officially U/C.

Houston's Green Line extension opens today. Houston no longer has any LRT under construction.

Charlotte's Gold line supposedly broke ground today, so I'm adding it to the list.

Oklahoma City's Streetcar is officially under-construction.

Photo's here: http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.ph...449#post980449

It's been pretty low key but major work is scheduled to start on a three mile regional rail extension in Philadelphia in a few months.