Now that a corridor has been established, the next decision to make is what areas should see service first. Since the downtown region is the focus of the system, let us assume that it will be serviced by the starter line, and work out from there. Going west, major destinations served include Delano, the new central library, and museums of the river, Friends, Newman, Towne West Shopping Center, the Dugan Business District, including Cessna, the Airport, Learjet, and residential locations west of Tyler Road. Logically, the airport would be another popular destination, as well as the two universities, as their population has a higher usage of transit. Offering commuters rides to work suggests extending the line to Learjet and commuters to downtown would need a park-and-ride station at which to board, pushing the system out to at least Maize Road, possibly 119th St. Traveling east from downtown, major destinations include Wesley Hospital, Wichita State, the Brittany Center, Bradley Fair, and Waterfront developments, as well as a rapidly developing Greenwich Road corridor. Arguing that all of those locations could support transit operations with some smaller investments, the line should extend out to Greewich, and beyond to approximately 143rd Street for a park-and-ride centered station.
Taking that starting alignment comes to a fairly lengthy 20 mile starting investment, depending on the exact routing of the line.
Some suggestions:
1) Offer direct access to the airport terminal. Creating a system requiring transfers to a bus connection makes the system less desirable to travelers. A one-seat ride is the ideal form of transit. This requires a short jog south from the rail right-of-way to the airport terminal. A map is shown to the left, with the proposed routing in blue and the ignored portion of right-of-way in yellow.
The line would access the airport from the east using a street running alignment on Airport Road. The line is drawn in accordance with the new terminal and parking design, which will be discussed in a later post. After serving the terminal, the train would cross to the west side of Mid-Continent Road and travel north to return to the original right-of-way. The alternative would be to simply have a station near the hotels and rental cars at Dugan Road. Then have a shuttle circulate from the terminal to the station.
2) At Newman University, there are two options for routing. The first is to follow the right-of-way, which is represented by the yellow line. It bends to the southeast just after West St. for a half mile before crossing Southwest Blvd. at Harry St. and recovering to the Northeast paralleling the active rail line. The second is to use street-running service on McCormick St. east from West St. and follow it around Newman University's campus.
The second option, is a half-mile shorter and serves the center of the Newman University campus. Unless the city can identify an unexpected transit need for the Harry and Southwest Blvd. neighborhood, the shorter distance and better university transit service should warrant the northern alignment.
3) The downtown alignment is something that will have to be carefully considered. It will heavily shape the future of the region and careful planning is a must. The desired function of the line needs to dictate its placement. For example, if the city wants the system to serve Century II, Intrust Bank Arena, and Old Town within two blocks, the green alignment below, following Douglas and Washington, would be ideal. However, this routing offers little opportunity for substantial transit oriented growth. To really utilize the barren acres of asphalt the downtown area has so readily available, one of the other four suggestions could be more appropriate. Obviously, there are many other options for the downtown route than are laid out here, these are just a few with different objectives for consideration. There is no evidence to suggest that ridership would excel with these options, nor is there any study to prove these streets have the capability of supporting the vehicles.
To outline these potential options, we'll move from southernmost northward.
1) The green option is a focused on service to well established portions of downtown. The rail would merge onto Douglas in the eastern portion of Delano and cross the Arkansas River on the Douglas Ave. Bridge. Following Douglas to Washington St. north to the eastern line. Major destinations within a quarter mile of the line include Century II, the Broadview Hotel, the Wichita Area Bus Terminal, Intrust Bank Arena, Union Station, and all of Old Town.
2) The red-orange option follows the green line until Main and Market Sts. Eastbound trains would travel north on Market from Douglas to Central while westbound trains would travel south on Main from Central to Douglas. The train would travel east on Central to Washington, then north to the eastern line. Destinations served include Century II, the Broadview Hotel, the Epic Center, the Government District at Central and Main, and the northern portions of Old Town.
3) The light blue option is an idealistic option. Could a tunnel be built underneath the downtown area, it could follow this track, serving the same destinations as option 2.
4) The yellow and orange tracks are two variations of the same option. The trains would stay on the rail right-of-way from Delano, across the Arkansas River on a new bridge, the travel north into along the western side of downtown to either Pine St. or Murdock St. The train would then turn east and travel to the eastern line. If the train traveled on Pine it could be converted to a transit mall of sorts and the train, once under a new overpass for the Central Rail Corridor, would join directly to the eastern line. Otherwise it could travel on Murdock and go under the current overpass and angle back to the eastern line using a small abandoned curve. These lines would also serve the same destinations as option 2, with the exception of northern Old Town, while adding St. Francis Hospital.
Finally, another way to bring down the cost of the initial build process is to only partially build the technology through the corridor. Most light rail systems are powered by overhead electric lines, but Diesel Multiple Units are diesel powered versions of light-rail vehicles that would not require the vast network of wires to be in place from the start. Secondly, while ideally a double-tracked system would be built, running operations on single-tracks with sections of double-tracks for passing and stations can reduce initial costs. Finally, there is always the option of scaling down the suggested starter line. Service to all the suggested areas may not be profitable and further study should be conducted to identify locations that should be served in the first phase.