Buffalo Metro Rail

Buffalo Metro Rail train entering Allen-Medical Campus station

Metro Rail is the public transit rail system in Buffalo, New York; it is operated by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, or NFTA. The system consists of single, 10.6 km long line that runs for most of the length of Main Street, from HSBC Arena downtown to the south campus of the University at Buffalo in the northeast of the city.

Light rail or metro?

The question of whether Buffalo's Metro Rail is a light rail system or a heavy-rail metro system is not an easy one to answer. The Metro Rail uses small, 2-3 car trains powered from an overhead power line, similar to many light rail systems. On the other hand, for most of its length (8.7 km), the trains travel underground, totally separate from all other rail and automobile traffic, with high platforms in stations. The southern 1.9 km of the line is on an at-grade pedestrian mall in downtown Buffalo; while there are no cars traveling on the trains' right of way, the trains do interact with auto traffic at cross streets and obey stoplights.

Fleet

The NFTA operated 27 LRV cars (Number 101 to 127) for the Metro Rail system. They were built Tokyu Car Corporation of Japan.

Twelve St. Louis Car Company PCC streetcars from Cleveland, Ohio's Greater Cleveland Transit Authority (obtained second had in 1953) were bought in 1980s to serve the Tonawanda turn-out, a Metro Rail route to Tonawanda and North Tonawada. Only used for trial runs, the plan route was scrapped and cars sold to a museum in Brooklyn Historical Railway Association. These cars were scrapped in 2003 when the BHRA folded.

Fleet details:

Current

• Car Type: LRV
• Number of Cars: 27
• Fleet Numbers: 101-127
• Car Manufacturer: Tokyu Car Corporation, Japan
• Years of Service: 1984-present

Proposed

• Car Type: PCC
• Fleet Numbers: N/A
• Number of Cars: 12
• Car Manufacturer: St. Louis Car Company
• Years of Service: None - trial runs only, never in revenue service

Practical information

Metro Rail runs seven days a week, weekdays from approximately 6 a.m. to 1 a.m., Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to 1 a.m., Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Trains run as often as once every seven minutes at rush hour, and no less often than once every twenty minutes. A one-way ticket is $1.50, and monthly passes are also available. Travel is based more or less on the honor system; tickets are checked by NFTA personnel on trains and, somewhat more frequently, upon exit from stations. Travel on the above-ground portion of the system is free, though ticket machines are available at above-ground stations for those passengers continuing on to the paid area.

System map

File:Bufmetmap.png

See Also: List of Buffalo Metro Rail stations

Points of interest

• Special Events station: HSBC Arena (note: trains only travel to and from Special Events station to service events at the arena; at all other times the Erie Canal - Harbor station is the south terminus of the line)
• Seneca station: Dunn Tire Park
• Theater station: Shea's Performing Arts Center and the Buffalo Theatre District
• Allen - Medical Campus: The Anchor Bar, birthplace of the Buffalo-style chicken wing
• Delevan - Canisius College: Canisius College
• University: University at Buffalo South Campus

History and future

Construction

When the Metro Rail began construction in 1984, it was intended to be the first line for an extensive system that would spread throughout the city and suburbs. However, during the construction of the line and afterwards, Buffalo became a significantly less densely populated city. As a result, the new line's ridership was much lower than originally anticipated. The cost of the urban section was so high that no funding was available to stretch the lines into the suburbs, to the Amherst campus of the University at Buffalo. Subsequent efforts to obtain funding for feeder lines have met with little success. Because of the short length of the line, its critics call it the "subway to nowhere."

The Downtown Business District

The construction of the pedestrian mall along Main Street downtown coincided with the effective demise of most of downtown's traditional retail shops. While it's not clear that the pedestrian mall caused this shift (many communities suffered the same kinds of changes during this period due to the rise of suburban shopping malls), the blocking of auto traffic from the area certainly didn't help matters. As a result, the downtown section and indeed much of the line lost much of its retail anchor at the south end, and many saw the train as being responsible for the economic gutting of downtown. All major department stores in the downtown area went out of business and many smaller shops closed or relocated in suburban malls. Finally, the 1980s saw a significant decline in the area's economic health in general, reducing both the number of potential passengers and the tax base available to fund the system.

Future Prospects

There are currently no viable plans to expand the system. Still, the truncated system serves 23,000 passengers daily. Some downtown business groups occasionally call for the removal of the transit system so that they can return to normal vehicle traffic and curbside parking, hoping that this measure might recreate the prosperous days of the past. Without extended branches in the suburbs, the system serves primarily the ever-declining city population and those suburbanites who take buses or cars to one of the outer stations.

One group, the Citizens for Regional Transit (CRTC), advocates the cause for expansion. As indicated in their statement, the CRTC seeks to educate the public, public officials, their authorities and agencies in the Buffalo-Niagara region about the benefits of a comprehensive transportation system including an expanded Metro Rail.

External links

• The NFTA, the agency that runs Metro Rail
• Urbanrail.net's page on Metro Rail
• More details at nycsubway.org
• Citizens Regional Transportation Corporation (Citizens for Regional Transit/CRTC), an advocacy group supporting expansion of Metro Rail
• Shaker Heights Rapid Transit PCCs