You just haven’t realized that you’re the weirdo.
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Long live the Eastern Gateway or how I learned to love the Anaheim City Council after the election.
- Thread starter truecoat
- Start date
You just haven’t realized that you’re the weirdo.
FerretAfros
Well-Known Member
Prior to switching jobs and moving about 6 months ago, my daily commute was by urban rapid rail. In an average week, I probably made 12-15 one-way trips. My home was across the street from a station and my work was on the same block as one, so it was as close to door-to-door service as could realistically be expected. But the service was so unreliable, unsafe, and expensive that it was also one of the driving reasons that I changed jobs and left the region.
On a typical day, my door-to-door commute was just under an hour. However, the service was so unpredictable that about once a week one of my trips would take about 90 minutes, and about once a month I'd have a trip that took close to 2 hours. It was such a well-known problem that employers were rather forgiving with people arriving late, but it was so widespread that there were studies about how much it dragged down the local economy with wasted time. A large amount of technical jargon was in the vernacular of everyday riders, because the various problems were so pervasive. Entering the station, you never knew if this would be a normal trip, or one of the ones where everything went horribly wrong. If you had to be somewhere at a specific time (say, a business meeting or a doctor's appointment), you had to leave inordinately early, "just in case."
Unlike other modes of transit, there really weren't any alternatives. When you're stopped in a tunnel between stations because of a signal problem 6 stations ahead, it's not like a bus changing lanes to go around a crash or a car switching to a parallel route; you're just stuck there waiting it out. Because the area's transit network was designed to feed into the rail system, there were also precious few bus alternatives that could replicate the routes needed during problem times (and certainly none that had the capacity to handle the sudden influx of thousands of additional riders)
There were some limited upsides to it: I got a lot of reading done, and I occasionally took a nap on my ride home. But I also wasted a lot of time and money (it cost me around $250/month to ride) feeling like I was trapped with no viable alternative.
As a regular transit user, I can say with experience that most people don't particularly care what mode of transit they're using. They care about how reliable, affordable, safe, and clean it is. If I had been able to justifiably switch to a bus or streetcar or private auto or something else, I would have; but rail was really the only option that connected my origin and destination points in a reasonable way during peak periods. While rail has an image of being steady and reliable, it's really anything but that once maintenance issues arrive; for the type of route we're talking about here, a suped-up bus line (like BRT) would be equally effective at a fraction of the price, and would avoid the most disruptive maintenance and operations problems into the future
I would assume that the "new" project in Anaheim would receive some state and/or federal funding, right? If so, it would be required to conduct an Environmental Impact Report (California) and/or Environmental Assessment (EPA), including an Alternatives Analysis. I would be curious to see if that included any sort of bus route (rather than just build/no-build options) and how it stacks up, both in terms of impacts and rough-order-of-magnitude costs. I suspect that would make it tough to justify any sort of fixed-guideway system for this corridor...What was it again that killed off the old ARC fixed-guideway project that was essentially identical to this one?
TP2000
Well-Known Member
So.... about that Eastern Gateway. It looks like TDA is going to be fine with this being a surface parking lot for employees for at least a few years. I wonder how many Disneyland Resort Presidents will pass through TDA this time before we see the Eastern Gateway actually built. Two? Three? Four?
planodisney
Well-Known Member
As I’ve said before, it REALLY feels like they are abandoning any major resort expansion plan they might have had for Anaheim and putting all their major investments into WDW, Paris and Asia.
I’m bummed!!!!!
I’m bummed!!!!!
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
We can only hope. Less damage done to Disneyland the better.
RescueTheDay
Well-Known Member
As the DLR has been in a constant state of construction lol. Just because they aren’t adding a new hotel right now doesn’t mean they’ve given up. Why expand DTD when it’s mostly a local destination? DLR will continue to see growth.
Old Mouseketeer
Well-Known Member
I think this is both overwrought and premature. Both Darkbeer and I have said (in various ways) that there are opportunities in the next few years for Disney and Anaheim to come up with some mutually beneficial plans, including a revised Eastern Gateway. In the near term Disney needed to everything it could to create more parking. If they hadn't, we would be screaming bloody murder in these forums.
Yes, they left this for far too long. They should have built a structure at Harbor Lot. They should have built the Pumbaa structure ten years ago. They should have had a plan. They should have had a clue.
But they did open the Harbor CM Lot, built Pixar Pals structure, and now are opening the Manchester/Pumbaa CM Lot. K-Lot/Bullseye will potentially be flexible and we have yet to see if the Pumbaa guest entrance on Disney Way is still available. These are smart moves.
By all means, let's criticize Disney for putting this off for over a decade. But in the last year plus they have stepped up (at least more than they have in recent memory). In the weeks to come, through the summer, we will see if Disney's planning was adequate, and if Disney Traffic and Parking has established an effective working relationship with Anaheim Police to work cooperatively to manage the traffic as SW:GE achieves full capacity. But IMHO they have made some good decisions to handle the level of demand they can only estimate. Unlike Pandora, they're not in the middle of 28,000 acres of their own property--they are in an urban (not suburban any more) environment where mistakes in traffic and parking affect tens of thousands of local residents and public safety, overall. YMMV.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
And let us not forget that @Darkbeer1 has indicated Disney is ready to resubmit the EGW plans to Anaheim with some minor tweaks to the bridge. Hopefully that is still on-track for later this summer. So just because its opening as CM parking today doesn't mean it can't easily be shifted back to being the site for a guest parking structure. I mean just look at Pinocchio and how quickly it got rebuilt as Pixar Pals.
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Old Mouseketeer
Well-Known Member
Pixar PALS? Or was your tongue in your cheek? (Be careful it doesn't poke through!)
Disney Irish
Premium Member
Oops, I corrected it.
shambolicdefending
Well-Known Member
So, with attendance (and presumably revenue) falling short of expectations this summer, does Disney still push to resurrect the Eastern Gateway later this year?
Disney Irish
Premium Member
I wouldn't see why not. Parking is still a priority in Anaheim. So yes I expect the EGW project will still be resurrected.
However @Darkbeer1 may have a better indication on the specifics of when they may occur.
Darkbeer1
Well-Known Member
A LOT of politics in play, including UNITE HERE trying to demonize the current council.
One strategy was to show by how much of a mess the summer parking was, that how important the Eastern Gateway is needed.
With the lessor impacts so far, well, a wait and see is back in play.
But Disney KNOWS that they have to get this done prior to the 2020 election.
Jiggsawpuzzle35
Well-Known Member
Let's also get a new ballpark deal with the Angels done too. Just saw the video from 2014 that the OC Register just released and that presentation of the ballpark district looked amazing.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
That August AP unblock period is going to be very important now for many reasons....
Old Mouseketeer
Well-Known Member
Have they unblocked APs? Forgive me if I'm slow.
Darkbeer1
Well-Known Member
He means that AP's are already scheduled to start to have Access in mid to late August, depending on the AP