The best part of the design @HardeesBiscuit shared was the big UNION sign on the smaller tower. This end of Martin St is calling out for some sort of big something that you could see from the ridge that is Fayetteville St.
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Yeah let me go throw up. I’ll be back tomorrow.
Just out of curiosity - what don’t you like about it? It’s like the one you posted but with an extra tower and more design features instead of a solid rectangle.
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I need to go look in the details but I’d assume that there’s 15% or so of the units being reserved for Affordable Housing within the tower.
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Did you remember that from memory, or just guess? Because that’s exactly what they proposed to the FTA.
There’s no reason to build affordable housing units any differently than market-rate houses if you can make the math work, after all.
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Those are super early designs and I think they’ll go through quite a bit of refinement. The renderings you posted look really polished, which can often be misleading regarding where they actually are in the design process. It’s not uncommon for firms to produce near-photorealistic looking renderings that imply design is complete, when it’s actually barely begun and is likely to drastically change.
I think the tower design of Ratio’s failed proposal was far more elegant than Perkins Eastman’s, but I’m optimistic this one will improve. And I think the ground-level views are already pretty convincing.
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Nope, just a guess based on what I see in pretty much every big Atlanta development.
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On the Tuesday after the Fourth of July, City Council will meet and discuss a lease agreement for a new tenant at Union Station:
This means RUS phase 1’s last rentable spaces will be filled with potential food and coffee options for the next five years! Y’know, in case you need last-minute snacks for your train ride to Charlotte or DC.
Fun fact: it turns out this lease agreement was already negotiated and approved last September. The terms changed, though, so that the City will pay for basic upfitting while the new tenant will add fancier equipment on their own dime (as opposed to the City giving the tenant an allowance for all upfitting, which was the original plan).
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Good, this is the type of business that should take up those spaces. The closed off business offices within a train station is so bizarre and never made sense to me, adds nothing to this public space.
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I took Amtrak to Greensboro back in May and was so bummed to see that there isn’t even a coffee stand in the concourse anymore. Contrasting that with my visit to the magnificent and bustling Denver Union Station last month… man, that’s what every downtown train station in the world should look like. I think RUSbus is going to do wonders for the draw of Union Station as a whole (if they do it right), but it just feels so awkward and sterile in there right now. It’s a beautiful station, but it needs some form of activation.
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Great news! The lack of concessions really hurts RUS. It is a nice space, but definitely needs more activation.
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When I stopped by the RUS to see it in person I felt like I was trespassing! It was me, 2 security guys chatting outside, and one attendant on duty inside. Fantastic space, but lifeless for sure.
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The… lack of trains? probably hurts RUS more. 10 trains per day isn’t nothing but it also isn’t enough to really activate the space.
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Get some commuter rail lines up and going and we can easy have several trains an hour. I just rode
Basically a long distance light rail (103 miles) from Barcelona to France! It’s brilliant.
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Downtown Raleigh & Durham need to team up on offering a train that would cater to the weekend nightlife crowd & other events. I’d frequent going to downtown Durham if they had a train that would leave later than 9:30pm at night. Also if they could get the $16 round trip price down to maybe $10-$12, it’d be an intriguing option to take.
It’s crazy that we have the infrastructure in place already to get people to and from downtown to downtown in a fairly quick manner, but it’s just not marketed or utilized properly.
Like I should be able to take a train to downtown Durham, catch a Durham Bulls game, and be confident that I’ve got a ride back home to downtown on the train afterwards.
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I can only speak my experience with Boston but they’ve had on/off late night service over the years because there just isn’t enough demand for what it cost.
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Late night service in Atlanta is actually pretty good. 20 minute frequency until 2AM.
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I don’t think we’re quite there yet… honestly I think a good pilot run would be downtown Cary to downtown Raleigh for dinner crowd, so 1 trip from Raleigh to Cary that returns around 6pm, then another return route at 11 pm. Not sure how much double track there is between the two stations but from what I remember the majority of it is double
Why can drive from almost any where in Cary to Raleigh faster than trying to work around a train schedule. Have to drive to station which is only minutes from Raleigh already. Also unless going somewhere in the downtown areas have to drive or be driven on other end.
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We need to push within our current area first before looking at connectivity with other cities for nightlife.
For example: The following last departure from GoRaleigh on a Friday Night for #6 is 8:15PM. On Saturday, it’s 9PM.
For #12, the last departure is 10PM on both Friday/Saturday. #12 is a local route that serves some of the denser parts of Raleigh.
#8 & #2 has a last departure of 10PM on Friday/Saturdays.
In terms of events, there are almost no routes that connect to PNC Arena with the exception of #26 in terms of evening/night events. The #26 last leaves near PNC arena around 10:08PM. There is no way to get to downtown. The 100 route does not stop by PNC; The closest stop is almost a mile away.
As much as I would love a train that connects the two cities, we are far away from really having the demand to support it. I would love to take a bus after a Bulls game back to Raleigh. I hate dealing with after event traffic. I’d rather stand on a bus and get moving.
I don’t see a big demand pushing for this until traffic gets insane and parking gets expensive (which in Downtown Raleigh I don’t see it happening anytime soon). PNC arena event parking costs could support this along with the traffic getting into and out of the parking lot. In my fantasized bus system, the 100 bus would get off at Edwards Mill Rd and continue onto Trinity Rd running parallel to Wade Ave. I’m not sure if the Durham residents would use it as much due to the stop by the airport (if it comes back) but it would be beneficial for the DTR/NC State residents.
As I’m writing this, I’m thinking about the fireworks for tonight. Pushing the fireworks to PNC/Carter Finley was a move that promotes car use and is not transit oriented. The parking is free, but the traffic may still be terrible. Leaving the fireworks downtown could have utilized the existing bus infrastructure, however we see the last departure times are still an issue.
Commuter rail is entirely different as the trains will only run during peak times.
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