Sacramento, CA- Early Thursday after noon, a small blaze broke out off of Hing Avenue, near Franklin and 47th. The fire was contained to the dry field area between the homes and railroad tracks.   Light Rail service was minimally impacted. Trains were briefly delayed during the high part of the blaze then permitted to move through at a reduced speed due to limited visibility resulting from heavy smoke, per on scene RT rail worker. Several structure firefighting engines were in place to protect the homes along the field, while brush rigs and crews moved through the field to attack the fire and bring it under control. Per Captain Doucette, the cause of the fire is unknown.  

"When are the Operators going to get a furlough day?" Hearing that question from one of Regional Transit's Admisistrative staffers who happens to be a close friend of mine, I had to pause and chuckle. The powers that  be at Regional Transit have taken on the arduous task of bridging a 9 Billion dollar budget defecit, and that ain't no easy fix.  Furloughs, hiring freezes, unfilled vacancies....the list goes on and on but makes nigh a dent......See, the problem lies with how Regional Transit recieves, and in turn allocates funds from the Fed's and the State. Why are we facing service cuts and possibly layoffs?  Simply put, our Operational bucket is almost empty while our Capital Bucket

If it wasn't a serious situation, it would have been almost humorous today as a Sacramento Police Department motor officer stopped Jaywalkers left and right at the railroad crossing on Broadway between 19th and 20th Streets. Some may say it's just revenue for the police department, while others contend that the Jaywalkers coming and going from the Broadway Light Rail station are a true traffic hazard as they weave in and out of vehicles. According to the California Vehicle Code, "Between adjacent intersections controlled by traffic control signal devices or by police officers, pedestrians shall not cross the roadway at any place except in a crosswalk." The citing officer stated that fine

As everyone who reads the news or watches TV knows, California’s budget process has been a disaster. This is not too surprising considering the state of the economy, the fact that it takes a two-thirds majority to pass the budget, and the inability of the Democrats and Republicans to work together on anything. But what was surprising was that a recent transportation lawsuit won by Sacramento neighborhood and environmental groups was unexpectedly caught up in the middle of it. In June of 2007, Neighbors Advocating Sustainable Transportation (a coalition of Sacramento neighborhood and community groups, and the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS)) filed a lawsuit over Caltrans’ inadeq

 A downtown bound Sacramento Regional Transit train collided with a sedan at the Stockton Blvd. crossing this afternoon. The green sedan, carrying only the driver, somehow ended up in the path of the on-coming train when it was struck. No injuries were sustained by the single occupant of the sedan or by any light-rail passengers on board. Officer Schumacher with the Sacramento Police Department confirmed the lack of injury in the incident saying only that the vehicle was on the wrong side of the crossing arm. Richard Williams was working across the busy street and heard the accident but said that he did not see it happen. “It looks like the arms came down before we heard the crash,” s

In no particular order here are ten green benchmarks in Sacramento during 2008: The City Council voted in August to allocate $650,000 to count trees in the city as well as to gauge the health of our conifers. TV's CBS 13 assigned an "outrage alert" to the move inferring it was misuse of precious funds. Mayoral candidate (now Mayor) Kevin Johnson echoed similar sentiment. BTW a tree limb did fall on a campaign party in June for then-incumbent mayor Heather Fargo causing some injuries. Sacramento lost its only progressive talk commercial radio station in June as Talk City 1240 became Rejoice 1240 KRJY with a format known as hip-hop gospel. This reporter read some of the newscasts for a tim

Is it safe for individuals to ride the light rail alone at night? In a word, no. I ride the light rail on a regular basis, and have had considerable time to evaluate both the strengths and weaknesses of the system as a whole. The major problems are a lack of security, a lack of reliability, and a lack of destinations. The system suffers from a lack of sufficient/effective security on trains and especially in stations. There are no security guards at most station stops, though the busy stations such as 16th street typically do have 1-3 guards during peak hours. The trains are equally destitute of security/authority; I have never seen a train with more than one security guard, and most tr

 As of October 2008, there were 182 crimes reported for the year.  These statistics are for the transit system, which also includes bus travel. Crimes include everything from assault, robbery, auto theft and vandalism to petty theft and trespassing. In an average month, there is far less crime reported for someone riding the light rail than reported crime in Downtown Sacramento. The Sacramento PD offers a crime mapping tool where you can obtain a detailed report of all crimes during a specified period for either a particular neighborhood or intersection. In the month of October, 2008, 100 incidents were reported in the downtown area. With 17,000 residents in the downtown area, this make

50,000 people a day on average ride light rail. That to me is a success. Of course it can always improve. Gas prices are coming down, but that's no reason not to still take light rail. While light rail may not be the ideal choice for everyone, if you live outside the City of Sacramento and need to get to the center of town, there is hardly a better way to go I take light rail to work often. There is a station about 3 blocks from my home at 23rd and R St. and it lets off right at my office. This makes it an inexpensive and convenient choice of transportation. I often hear people making excuses s to why they shouldn't take light rail. One of the excuses I hear often is that Light Rail is