(Note: there is a new arena location on the map)
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/30582.html
Light-rail stop near arena urged
RT envisions trolleys bringing thousands to events at the proposed railyard facility.
By Tony Bizjak - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 12:30 am PDT Thursday, September 28, 2006
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1
Sacramento Regional Transit officials this week said they want to build a light-rail station near a proposed downtown sports and entertainment arena -- and transport at least 20 percent of the people attending Kings games or other arena events.
"The closer, the better," Regional Transit General Manager Beverly Scott said of the proximity of a rail stop to an arena. "Each block counts."
A recent RT study shows public transit plays a notable role in bringing fans to downtown arenas and ballparks in other cities.
The numbers vary: Up to 41 percent of those going to San Francisco Giants baseball games take transit to AT&T Park; 15 percent take Bay Area Rapid Transit trains to basketball games at the Oakland Arena; while just 3 percent do at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
"It's clear when transit service is provided -- that is quality service -- people will use it," Scott said this week, throwing her agency into the transportation debate at the proposed arena.
RT officials say they believe they can cobble together funds and have a station ready to go if and when an arena is built in the largely vacant railyard in downtown's northwest corner.
Sacramento County voters will be asked Nov. 7 whether they are willing to help finance an arena through a quarter-cent sales-tax increase. About half the estimated $1.2 billion in revenues is proposed for an arena, and the rest for other as yet undetermined improvement projects across the county.
Negotiations on details of the financing deal, however, have stalled.
Fans park an estimated 8,000-plus cars during Kings games at Arco Arena in Natomas. The team collects those parking revenues.
Team officials this week declined to comment on RT's desire to transport at least 3,600 fans to and from games, saying they haven't seen any specifics of RT's plans.
Kings President John Thomas said "some form of enhanced mass transit" generally does play a role in downtown redevelopment projects, including arenas, but cautioned that "every city is different."
"From our standpoint we just need to make sure that our customers who love what they have at the current location and do not view a downtown as ... (necessarily a better site) have assurance there is sufficient, safe and available parking," Thomas said.
Representatives for the city and the private company that intends to develop the railyard said they welcome light rail as a travel mode for arena events, and said the transit trains should play a key role in bringing people to the area's restaurants, stores, offices and residences.
A station near the arena would help reduce congestion, Sacramento Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said. That way, some fans would drive, some would take light rail, and those who live in the area or who work nearby could walk to and from the railyard district.
County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, the RT board chairman, said he has enjoyed taking transit to sports events in other downtowns, and thinks Sacramentans would too. "Simply put, it's fun."
Suheil Totah, project manager for Thomas Enterprises, which is planning apartments, offices, stores and restaurants in the railyard, said his company wants light rail, but prefers that it be a few blocks away.
"You want to create this great walking experience where you can get off a train and walk through a district with restaurants and retail uses," he said. "We don't want to create another Arco where people drive up ... and just leave. We want people to stay and enjoy a drink, or dinner or shop."
Totah said one of main avenues -- a meandering Fifth Street -- is planned to have only one lane in each direction, but extra wide sidewalks.
"It's a European feel we are trying to communicate," he said. "It's unusual for Sacramento."
Other key streets in the district, however, would be larger, with four and possibly six lanes.
The latest drawings for the district put the arena three blocks, or less than 300 yards, from the proposed Seventh Street light-rail station.
RT currently is building a station at the Amtrak depot at the southern end of the railyard, but a closer station would get substantially more use, RT officials said.
As envisioned by RT, the arena station could run trains directly to and from the transit agency's three existing light-rail lines.
One of those lines runs through Rancho Cordova and ends in the city of Folsom. It would be approximately a one-hour ride, end to end. RT officials say they plan a faster, limited-stop train on that line.
A second light-rail line runs to the junction of Interstate 80 and Watt Avenue.
The third line currently ends at Meadowview Road, but in the next few years is scheduled to be extended to Cosumnes River College.
The railyard light-rail station would be the first station on a line RT plans to extend, some day, from downtown, through Natomas to Sacramento International Airport.
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/30582.html
Light-rail stop near arena urged
RT envisions trolleys bringing thousands to events at the proposed railyard facility.
By Tony Bizjak - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 12:30 am PDT Thursday, September 28, 2006
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1
Sacramento Regional Transit officials this week said they want to build a light-rail station near a proposed downtown sports and entertainment arena -- and transport at least 20 percent of the people attending Kings games or other arena events.
"The closer, the better," Regional Transit General Manager Beverly Scott said of the proximity of a rail stop to an arena. "Each block counts."
A recent RT study shows public transit plays a notable role in bringing fans to downtown arenas and ballparks in other cities.
The numbers vary: Up to 41 percent of those going to San Francisco Giants baseball games take transit to AT&T Park; 15 percent take Bay Area Rapid Transit trains to basketball games at the Oakland Arena; while just 3 percent do at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
"It's clear when transit service is provided -- that is quality service -- people will use it," Scott said this week, throwing her agency into the transportation debate at the proposed arena.
RT officials say they believe they can cobble together funds and have a station ready to go if and when an arena is built in the largely vacant railyard in downtown's northwest corner.
Sacramento County voters will be asked Nov. 7 whether they are willing to help finance an arena through a quarter-cent sales-tax increase. About half the estimated $1.2 billion in revenues is proposed for an arena, and the rest for other as yet undetermined improvement projects across the county.
Negotiations on details of the financing deal, however, have stalled.
Fans park an estimated 8,000-plus cars during Kings games at Arco Arena in Natomas. The team collects those parking revenues.
Team officials this week declined to comment on RT's desire to transport at least 3,600 fans to and from games, saying they haven't seen any specifics of RT's plans.
Kings President John Thomas said "some form of enhanced mass transit" generally does play a role in downtown redevelopment projects, including arenas, but cautioned that "every city is different."
"From our standpoint we just need to make sure that our customers who love what they have at the current location and do not view a downtown as ... (necessarily a better site) have assurance there is sufficient, safe and available parking," Thomas said.
Representatives for the city and the private company that intends to develop the railyard said they welcome light rail as a travel mode for arena events, and said the transit trains should play a key role in bringing people to the area's restaurants, stores, offices and residences.
A station near the arena would help reduce congestion, Sacramento Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said. That way, some fans would drive, some would take light rail, and those who live in the area or who work nearby could walk to and from the railyard district.
County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, the RT board chairman, said he has enjoyed taking transit to sports events in other downtowns, and thinks Sacramentans would too. "Simply put, it's fun."
Suheil Totah, project manager for Thomas Enterprises, which is planning apartments, offices, stores and restaurants in the railyard, said his company wants light rail, but prefers that it be a few blocks away.
"You want to create this great walking experience where you can get off a train and walk through a district with restaurants and retail uses," he said. "We don't want to create another Arco where people drive up ... and just leave. We want people to stay and enjoy a drink, or dinner or shop."
Totah said one of main avenues -- a meandering Fifth Street -- is planned to have only one lane in each direction, but extra wide sidewalks.
"It's a European feel we are trying to communicate," he said. "It's unusual for Sacramento."
Other key streets in the district, however, would be larger, with four and possibly six lanes.
The latest drawings for the district put the arena three blocks, or less than 300 yards, from the proposed Seventh Street light-rail station.
RT currently is building a station at the Amtrak depot at the southern end of the railyard, but a closer station would get substantially more use, RT officials said.
As envisioned by RT, the arena station could run trains directly to and from the transit agency's three existing light-rail lines.
One of those lines runs through Rancho Cordova and ends in the city of Folsom. It would be approximately a one-hour ride, end to end. RT officials say they plan a faster, limited-stop train on that line.
A second light-rail line runs to the junction of Interstate 80 and Watt Avenue.
The third line currently ends at Meadowview Road, but in the next few years is scheduled to be extended to Cosumnes River College.
The railyard light-rail station would be the first station on a line RT plans to extend, some day, from downtown, through Natomas to Sacramento International Airport.
