Greater Cleveland RTA said it has restored all service on its Blue and Green lines that had been suspended for the past eight weeks due to track construction.
The track work took place between the Buckeye-Woodhill Station and Shaker Square.
The project involved replacing 7,000 ties, 29,600 e-clip fasteners, 54,800 spikes, 27,400 feet of rail and 12 turnouts.
The agency spent $8 million on the work and said that last time this segment of the track had been repaired was in the early 1980s.
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority has awarded a rail grinding contract to Advanced Rail Management.
The contractor will provide rail grinding project management designed to improve wheel/rail interaction on 38 track-miles on the Red Line and 10 track-miles on the Blue and Green lines.
In a news release, ARM said it will provide project management and be responsible for the quality, technical accuracy and coordination of all required services through 2023.
The work undertaken by ARM will include optical rail measurement to capture rail profile, and to measure rail wear prior to the grinding and post-grind optical rail measurement, to assess the effectiveness of the grinding work.
Annual measurement will enable ARM to monitor wear rates over the course of the program.
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is eyeing a standardized type of light-rail car for use on all rail lines of its network.
The move, which was reported by rail passenger advocacy group All Aboard Ohio on its website, is part of a request for proposals for replacement cars.
Cleveland RTA is looking to spend $350 million to buy 40 to 45 cars to replace its aging fleet, a process that is expected to be done in two phases.
Currently, RTA uses cars built by Tokyu on the Red Line between East Cleveland and Cleveland Hopkins Airport via downtown.
Those cars, which were delivered in 1984-1985 would be replaced first because they have substantially deteriorated.
The Green, Blue and Waterfront lines use cars built by Breda that were delivered in 1980-81.
Although those cars are older, they have held up better than the Red Line cars.
RTA is reportedly seeking a type of car that serves both low and high-level platforms.
The Red Line has high-level platforms whereas all other rail lines have low-level platforms.
Stations at East 34th, East 55th and Tower City have both types of platforms.
Americans With Disabilities Act standards require transit platforms to be the same height or within 2 inches of a train car’s floor. Rail car doorways must be no farther than 4 inches from the edge of the platform.
This means whatever type of car RTA buys must be adaptable in use to varying platform heights or all of the agency’s station platforms must be modified to be a uniform height.
The two types of rail cars used by RTA have different specifications for floor height and doorway width.
There are transit rail cars in use today in the United States that are capable of adapting to varying platform sizes.
AAO’s report, which cited unnamed RTA officials, said it isn’t clear if the agency will move to standardize platform dimensions or seek rail cars that can adapt to platforms of varying heights.
The report said RTA’s may make that decision based on the responses it gets from its request for proposals. Cost may be the deciding issue.
One advantage of a standardized rail car fleet would be the ability to run direct service from the Blue and Green lines to Hopkins Airport.
Currently, passengers originating on the Blue or Green lines must change cars at either 55th Street or Tower City to get to Hopkins.
A track work project will result in buses replacing trains on the Blue and Green lines starting June 28.
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority officials said rail replacement is being undertaken between East 55th Street and Woodhill on a section of track used by both routes.
The work is expected to last through Aug. 8.
During the interim, A 67R bus route will serve stations on both lines between Tower City in downtown Cleveland and Van Aken Boulevard (Blue Line) and Green Road (Green Line).
The 67R bus route will not make stops at the train stations at East 55th Street or the Campus District station.
Riders wishing to get off at those stations are being directed to ride Red Line trains.
The 67R buses will make additional stops at Woodland-East 55th Street and Woodland-East 79th Street. The Tower City stop will be on West Huron at West 3rd Street.
Orange 67R bus signs will be place at bus stops. During the track work project 67R buses will be fare free.
Waterfront Line rail service will operate every 30 minutes during this shutdown.
RTA said regular Green and Blue line service is expected to resume at the start of the service day on Aug. 9.
The transit agency also said it has posted new schedules for several routes due to summer service change that take effect on June 28.
In an related matter, Cleveland RTA’s board of trustees has spurned a call by Clevelanders for Public Transit to divert some funds from the agency’s police budget toward increased service and fare reductions.
The advocacy group also demanded that RTA stop having its police officers engage in fare enforcement.
In a statement, the trustees said RTA police engage in many activities other than fare enforcement, including seeking to prevent robberies and assaults.
Thus far in 2020, RTA police have cited 50 people for fare evasion and cited 119 in 2019 and 259 in 2018.
The statement also noted that crime at RTA properties has fallen 65 percent between 2012 and 2019.
RTA police have received de-escalation and racial bias/sensitivity training and officers have been restricted in using choke holds when using force to subdue or detain suspects.
Board President Dennis Clough said during a Tuesday trustees meeting that trustees have asked RTA to provide more data about the services transit police provide, but the board is not interested “in diminishing the safety of our riders or all the other jobs that our police department does.”
Clough said the board would consider using civilian staff for fare enforcement if the RTA administration recommends it.
During a public comment session of the meeting, 10 speakers said addressed the board via online connections on the matter with one person saying or so people during a public comment period at Tuesday morning’s board meeting, conducted remotely with the public able to watch via Facebook and submit questions or comments online.
One commented that law enforcement efforts “tend to systematically target and harass Black riders.”
RTA Police Chief John P. Joyce said RTA recently updated its policy in regards to use of force by officers and the force will expedite a planned purchase of body-worn cameras from 2021 to “as soon as possible.”
A public transit car of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority appears to be pacing an eastbound Norfolk Southern intermodal train near downtown Cleveland.
The image was made in August 2016 near Old Broadway in Cleveland. The NS train is on the Cleveland District while the RTA car is headed for the Blue Line to Van Aken Boulevard in Shaker Heights.
Greater Cleveland RTA said buses will replace trains on Aug. 17 and 17 on the Blue and Green lines east of Tower
City due to construction work on the East 116th Street bridge.
The 67R buses will not serve the Tri-C- Campus District or E. 55th stations, which will continue to be served by Red Line trains.
In a service advisory, RTA said the stop for Tower City is on West Prospect at West 3rd Street.
There is also a 67R stop at Woodland-East 55th and Woodland-East 79th.
The 67R buses will stop at all other stations on the Blue and Green Lines at the special orange 67R bus stop signs.
Work got underway this week to repair the signal system on the Blue and Green lines of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.
Trains may face minor delays during the course of the project, which is expected to take three to four months to complete.
The signal upgrading is part of a $47 million rehabilitation project. Earlier this month, the agency replaced 7,300 ties and rebuilt some track structure on Red Line.
The Blue and Green lines have 30 miles of one-way track that serve 34 stations.
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority has begun construction of a renovated East 116th-St. Luke’s station on its joint Blue and Green lines in Cleveland.
The $7.2 million project will provide enhanced security features, emergency call buttons and better lighting, and ramps that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act standards. Construction.
The project is expected to be completed in May 2019. The station was last renovated in 1981.
Shirmir Construction has installed a temporary access way so riders can use the station during construction. Panzica Construction Co. is the general contractor, while City Architecture is providing the design.
The East 116th Station opened in 1920, when service began from Shaker Square to East 34th Street and downtown Cleveland.
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority will reduce off-peak frequencies on all of its rail lines on March 11 as part of a $4 million cost cutting move.
RTA is increasing the headways or how many minutes there are between trains during the hours before and after the morning and evening rush hours.
Currently the Red Line operates every 10 minutes during non-rush hours. The Blue, Green and Waterfront lines have headways of eight to 15 minutes, depending on location.
Starting March 11, the Red Line headways before and after rush hours will go to 15 minutes while the headways on the Blue, Green and Waterfront lines will change to 10 to 25 minutes depending on location
Weekend Waterfront Line service is now every 15 minutes, but will change to every 30 minutes.
Some bus routes will also see increased headways. RTA said no bus routes are being eliminated. Likewise, no overall hours of service will be changed.
RTA CEO Joseph Calabrese said that no layoffs are expected in March, but he plans to submit a revised budget this spring that will call for staff cuts through layoffs, demotions, transfers, reduced shifts and reduced overtime.
Calabrese said the austerity measures are being undertaken due to reduced funding from the State of Ohio for public transportation.
He said by increasing headways RTA is scaling back use of its most underused vehicles.
Although acknowledging that some riders will be inconvenienced by the increased headways, Calabrese hopes that the buses and trains that continue operating will have a higher load factor, with some trains and buses running at 90 percent occupancy.
In 2017, RTA ended the year with a $36 million surplus, which Calabrese said has helped forestall further service cuts, but will not prevent long-term cuts.
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