[Dr Nevergold]

I've visited Denver many times over the past decade, it still operates in the street.. Has to stop at intersections, and it slows the network down.

Not a bad system by any means, it's certainly something to be proud of. But just saying Light Rail when in a street still slows down. It's good that they are improving on it. These light rail systems will never be heavy rail in any way, shape, or form. They share a lot of similarities with their streetcar brethren.

Really I have a strong bias here, I don't even think about Portland or Denver - let alone St Louis - when I think of light rail transit. I think of what they are doing up in Toronto with Transit City, which I think several of the lines they propose are utter waste. The city is about to be on a light rail bonanza when it really needs a heavy rail expansion, so this light rail fad has affected cities that actually depend on transit for their backbone instead of demonstration lines or "supplemental" lines where only a small percent of people in a metro use it to fuel the central city.

Here in Buffalo - a city that gets no respect for what it is - the light rail line is as bizarre as it is cute. For its track to UBSouth, its underground the entire route except downtown where it becomes an above ground trolley of sorts on the Main Street Mall. However, the mall is traffic free, but they are considering adding cars back (albeit keeping ROW for the LRT).

But you can't mention Buffalo since the city gets virtually no respect from any angle (including me, before I moved here and realize its a real city that does function). Light rail makes sense for places like Buffalo with light transit usage and needs, but light rail is a fad that really has affected development in major urban centers. New York built a LRT to JFK instead of extending the NYC Subway network, Toronto is building this new Transit City project (or maybe not depending on how funding goes), and then you have cities like London that implemented a heavy version of light rail in projects like the Docklands Light Rail.

I've ridden the DLR, its an impressive "heavy" version of light rail. THAT is light rail done right.