Trees Avenue Residents and Business Owner Sound Off About Subway

Metropolis, BR. January 26th 2015.

Trees Aveue Subway Construction At Waves-Meadow Loop. 

Months after the first tunnel shaft was dug under Waves-Meadow Loop, residents and business owners are sounding off about the proposed cut and cover construction of the Trees Avenue Subway. Plans to add a station at Trees & Interfair are making business owners nervous.

"Barriers, walls, gates, and anything you can name," said the owner of DeLavia's Pizza. They see it in New York City they claim. "2nd Avenue Subway, a mess! They want to do the same thing here."

Proposals of a Trees Avenue Subway was planned since 1982 but was never carried out due to budget constrains. Under the current plan, the 22 & 26 are planned to be sent into a tunnel under Waves-Meadow Loop and sidewander into Trees Avenue where trains will stop at The Interfair then continues into a new set a platforms adjecent to the Bridgerissa Commuter/Amtrak tracks at Metropolis Central Station. The proposal includes opening the street, digging the tunnel while the street is on wooden planks, the covering it up when the hole is dug and lined. It already causing protesst from the businesses.

The city council of Metropolis granted these business will get some sort of reperation for allowing the constuction in front of their store but for some stores it's not going to change the fact they will be losing business.

"We can't be sitting on our thumbs doing nothing," Frank Eglestien, GM of the 38c Clothing Store in front of The Interfair. "Fashion Week is set to begin in March and that's our cash cow. There is no way the money the city is paying us will cover any loses from Fashion Week."

Fashion Week is the biggest fashion convention held at The Interfair.

Freak Winter Tornado Impacts Two Major Transit Depots

South Morgan, BR. January 7th 2015.

Tornado seen destroying homes along 35th Street.

January isn't the month you'd expect to see a tornado but on Monday, January 5th, 2015 a large EF-2 tornado blew through Pecan Valley, South Morgan & Morganville destroying hundreds of apartments and homes. One of the unique things about the tornado was it's path along the N & 47 Corridor. It cross the N trolley line twice, and the 47 twice both times striking two major transit storage facilities near the tracks. The 47's main train depot was hit and two cars were slightly thrown into electrical wire poles. The depot's main build is missing glass and the power wire that give trains juice has been ripped apart. This has cause the 47 to end short at Morganville Station instead of Freehold. The N Trolley was also downed for a period of time but that was fixed within hours of the tornado strike. 

A Work Train fixing power wires near 35th Street station. 

The elevated train depot wasn't the only victim of the tornado's wrath. Slaven Bus Depot was also struck by the tornado and the result was 12 completely destroyed buses and 100 more damaged in some sort of way. The power wires for the trackless trolleybuses also were mangled in the onslaught. Of the 12 destroyed buses, 2 of them were loaner buses from Great Grundolf Transportation as part of a deal to increase service on the 79 Elevated shuttle bus. The tornado also prove to be deadly killing 2 men and injuring hundreds. It was rated EF2 based on it's damage but almost became a EF3 grade. Some homes did receive EF3 grade damage but it wasn't enough constant degree of EF3 in a pattern to give it that rate. The Southwest Metropolis Tornado is the first natural disaster Metropolis faced since Hurricane Sandy back in 2012.

Front of a leased Great Grundolf bus thrown in front of trackless coaches. 

The 47 Elevated is expected to return to Freehold by the end of the week.

Mandatory Hurricane Improvements Calls For More Elevated Space

North Christine, BR. January 3rd, 2015.

Blue Beach Yard Received 6 inches of Sea Water During Sandy 

For a system that uses the words "Elevated Railway", it actually hard to believe only 60% of the elevated network is above street & sea level. The 22, 26, 39, 47 & 79 lines all have significant portions of track at street level with the 22, 26, 39 & 79 being only a mere feet from the salty ocean. On normal days, this may seem scenic until a storm like Hurricane Sandy hit and engulfs those sections of track under feet of water. This leaves very limited space to store trains out of the damaging salt water's way. The NTSB and BDot spent the past two year conducting a study about train storage in the case of any high wave event whether if it's hurricane, nor'easter, or a earthquake triggered tsunami and the results are very grim. With the system expanding it's fleet with 150 new cars along with current 150 cars from 2005 and the 48 soon-to-retire cars from 1964 it will be nearly impossible to save the entire fleet from salt water unless more elevated space is created.

South Clubs Station is particularly vulnerable. 

Most of the Elevated Subway System in Metropolis stems from experimental elevated trolley routes as well as a few regular trolley routes that were outright converted instead of elevated. This means most lines at some point run on street level and close to waterway that could surge and flood out the tracks leaving rust deposits on rails or outright eatting them to the ballast. Metropolis Transit wants to combat this with more elevated subway space to store trains. Since during storm it's require to keep all running tracks clear, only the 79 elevated's express track, Exhibtion Hall and Blue Beach Depot (barely) are elevated enough to let water run through under it. Still monster surges in Sandy top the levee at Blue Beach leaving NTSB member to push for more elevated space.

Exhibition Hall is a good 45 feet above the street and 50 feet above sea level.

There is no definite location eyed yet for elevated subway storage but Metropolis Transit is urged to work closely with BDot to solve this problem immediately. The NTSB classed the project "Urgent" on the list of US transportation improvements. Governor Patrick Soraz (R) counters this by dismissing the study as "rushed" and "another transportation bill to spend money on" but, the Senate is taking the study finding a bit more serious.

"Sandy crippled the largest transit system in Bridgerissa for almost month because of downed train cars," Senetor Kelly Jones (R) began, "So what is there not to take serious about this study? We can't have subway trains running in the path of danger and I will try to lobby this to get the ball rolling even if Soraz doesn't care."

Only time will tell what will happen in the answer of this potential political spin.