Music City Star

For the American Association Basketball team, see Music City Stars.
Music City Star

Three EMD F40PH locomotives in use by the Music City Star lined up within the Lebanon, Tennessee yards. The third F40PH on the far right is painted in Amtrak Pacfic Surfliner scheme.
Overview
Owner Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT)
Locale Nashville Metropolitan Area
Transit type Commuter rail
Number of lines 1
Number of stations 6
Daily ridership 1,225 (FY 2011)[1]
Operation
Began operation September 18, 2006 (2006-09-18)
Operator(s) Tennessee Regional Transportation Authority (RTA)
Reporting marks NRTX
Number of vehicles 4 Locomotives
7 Coaches
Train length 3 Multi-level cars
Technical
System length 32 miles (51.5 km)
Track gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)
System map
Legend
Distance
Station
0 mi Riverfront
Connection to CSX
Briley Parkway
10 km
6 mi
 Donelson
 Stones River
15 km
9 mi
 Hermitage
19 km
12 mi
 Mount Juliet
25 km
16 mi
 Martha
28 km
17 mi
 Hamilton Springs (Proposed)
 Lebanon Pike
32 km
20 mi
 Lebanon

The Music City Star (reporting mark NRTX) is a commuter rail service running between Nashville and Lebanon, Tennessee. The service uses the existing track of the Nashville and Eastern Railroad. The line currently has six stops: Riverfront Station, Donelson, Hermitage, Mount Juliet, Martha (State Route 109 and U.S. Highway 70), and Lebanon. The operation covers 32 miles (51 kilometres) of rail line. Service began on September 18, 2006.[2]

Description

The Star is considered a "starter" project to demonstrate the effectiveness of commuter rail service to the metro Nashville area. Expansion plans include as many as six more lines, terminating in Gallatin, Columbia, Murfreesboro, Dickson, Springfield, and Clarksville via Ashland City. All are planned to use existing CSX Transportation railroad lines. The planned seven lines meet in central Nashville in a star formation, hence the name of the system, which also alludes to the city's many country music stars.

The Star is the first passenger train service of any kind for Nashville since the discontinuation of Amtrak's Floridian in 1979. The Nashville and Eastern line, part of the former Tennessee Central Railway, had not seen passenger service for many decades prior to the Star, with the exception of excursion trains operated by the Tennessee Central Railway Museum and the Broadway Dinner Train.

Rolling stock

Model Built Number Road Numbers
F40PH 4 120-122, 381
Gallery cars 7 400-402, 500-503

The Music City Star regional rail service is currently served by four rebuilt ex-Amtrak EMD F40PH locomotives and seven former Chicago Metra coaches, standard gauge. The coaches are bilevel rail cars with seating on both levels.[2]

Lines

The Riverfront Station in downtown Nashville

Currently there is only one line, with six more planned to other satellite cities around Nashville.

The current line is 32 miles long with 6 stations. The line is mostly one track, so this limits arrivals and departures to how long each train has to wait for the other to pass. The first "starter line" cost $41 million, or just under $1.3 million per mile, which made it the most cost efficient commuter rail start-up in the nation.[3]

East Corridor line

Ridership

Music City Star ridership steadily increased from 104,785 passenger trips in 2007 to 277,148 trips in 2012.[4] In 2013, ridership decreased to 253,421 trips.[4] The service's highest ridership on a single day occurred on April 19, 2011, when 1,374 passengers were carried.[1]

50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015

History

The train began operations on September 18, 2006, becoming the 18th commuter rail system in the United States,[2] with a projected daily ridership of 1,500 passengers. The service launched with an estimated annual cost of $3.3 million, of which $1.3 million was covered by revenues.[5]

In the first month after service began, ridership failed to reach the projected goals,[5] a situation which continued for several years, culminating with a financial shortfall of $1.7 million by the summer of 2008, of which the state of Tennessee covered $1 million in a bailout of the service.[6] Financial difficulties continued into the next year; in June 2009, the service was nearly shut down for lack of funds until state and local authorities granted the service $4.4 million to continue service until 2011.[7]

During 2010, a third passenger car was added to all Music City Star trains to accommodate increasing ridership.[8]

On May 2, 2010, the East Corridor line was closed because of damage related to the floods that hit Middle Tennessee. Flood waters pushed tracks off a concrete trestle over Sinking Creek in downtown Lebanon. This trapped Star trains at their Lebanon storage yard, causing RTA to suspend service until the trestle was repaired. MTA substituted chartered buses instead, picking up passengers at all stations except Martha.[9] The line was repaired in one week.

Fiscal year 2011 saw a 24 percent increase in total trips from the previous year, with a daily average ride increase of 45 percent at 1,225 per day.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Music City Star experiences record year of ridership" (PDF). Regional Transportation Authority. September 13, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 "A Star is born: Nashville commuter trains to begin Sept. 18". Trains. August 21, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
  3. ↑ Latham, Garl B. (2008). Rail Transit: An Oklahoma Economic Opportunity (PDF). OnTrac. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 28, 2010.
  4. 1 2 Harrison, Scott (May 2, 2014). "The little engine that hasn't: Thinking it can hasn't been enough for Music City Star". Nashville Business Journal. Retrieved August 21, 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Music City Star fails to meet ridership goals". Trains. October 27, 2006.
  6. ↑ "Tennessee offers to bail out Music City Star". Trains. July 17, 2008.
  7. ↑ "Music City Star gets two more years of funding". Trains. June 22, 2009.
  8. ↑ "Music City Star ridership continues to climb" (PDF). Regional Transportation Authority. October 12, 2010. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Bus, Train Service Suspended". NewsChannel5.com. May 2, 2010. Archived from the original on May 6, 2010.
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