Travel along the Lehigh Valley Line in the Year 2020


Its Friday, October 7th, 2020, and John Shelly, an RIT student living at the Riverknoll student housing complex, is getting ready to travel home for the weekend to Long Island by the new high- speed Amtrak service. To get to the Amtrak station, John walks to the light rail Blue Line. The line is officially called RTS Route 26, but most people call it the Blue Line (after the color of the line on the RTS route map). A few people call it the "Lehigh Valley line" after the old freight railroad that ran along part of the route decades ago.

The last stop on the line is on the south side of Wallace Memorial Library, just a short walk from Riverknoll (a good thing, since even though John is packing light, he doesn't want to lug around his suitcase more than he has to). Since the Blue Line was finished this year, a lot of new students at RIT have decided not to go though the expense and bother of owning a car. A lot of the older students who didn't have cars are now celebrating being liberated from the RIT "suburban swamp island". Even students who do have cars find it easier to hop on the Blue Line to go shopping at Southtown, to the bars downtown or to part time jobs.

The Rochester Institute of Technology station has a 200 foot- long canopy over a low concrete platform. There are three glass-enclosed, heated shelters that look like big bus shelters at the ends and center of the platform. Inside of the shelters are the ticket vending machines. You insert money or tokens into the machine to get either a one-ride ticket or a daily, weekly or monthly pass. However, RTS has an agreement with RIT which allows all RIT students to ride Free, so the only proof of payment needed is a current valid Student ID Card. The shelters are crowded during cold or rainy days, but since today is a gorgeous Fall day, everyone is on the platform outside of the shelters.

There aren't any turnstiles or barriers like there are on the New York subway, and you don't pay your fare when you board like you do on a bus. You just keep the ticket or pass that you purchase from the vending machine, and every once in a while a ticket inspector will roam through the train to make sure that everyone has paid their fare. To many people from downstate, this seems like an odd way to enforce fare collection, but the fines that are given out to violators keep the vast majority of people honest. In a way, it is kind of like a parking meter; there are no physical barriers to force you to put money into the meter, but the thought of getting a ticket from a meter maid makes most people pay their due. The on-board ticket inspections also give passengers an extra sense of security.

Most of the people at the station are students, faculty or staff, but a few of the people are passengers who got off of the #86 Park-and-Ride bus route from Scottsville and Caledonia. The 86 still goes all the way downtown, but some passengers find it easier to get to their destinations by transferring to the Blue Line. Several bus routes that used to go downtown now just feed into the light rail lines, but RTS did not want to force the Park-and-Ride passengers to transfer to the light rail because they have already made one transfer: from their car to the bus.

The two-car train is now gliding toward the station. A gentle trolley-like "cling-cling" alerts the people on the platform that the train is approaching, since the electric trains are so quiet that people might not hear them otherwise. A strobe light on the roof of the train in front alerts the hearing-impaired. Even though the station platform is only about a foot high, you can step right onto the train without steps because the floor of the train is very low to the ground.

Inside of the train, the seats have blue cloth with a thin cushion. The driver is in a cab, but the walls of the cab are transparent, and passengers can talk directly to the driver if there is an emergency or if they need help. There are video cameras in both cars so that the driver can see what is going on in the entire train, and there are intercoms near the doors so that passengers who are not in the front of the train can talk to the driver. At night, when the trains only have one car, people feel safe sitting up front near the driver. Taking the light rail is the safest way to travel around Rochester.

After a few minutes of layover, the doors close and the train pulls out of the station on schedule. The ride is extremely smooth; you're not jarring through potholes like on a bus, and you're not rocking and swaying like on the old Amtrak trains. The ride is also very quiet; there's no rumbling of a diesel engine. The train can accelerate and decelerate very quickly, which is good because some of the stops are only a quarter mile apart.

Speaking of a quarter of a mile, the train in now stopping at the RIT/ Residence Halls station by the dorms which are at the end of RIT's famous Quarter Mile. The doors open, a few students get on, and in a few seconds we are on our way again. The next stop is RIT/Perkins Green, where most of the people getting on board are commuters who park at the Park-and-Ride lot across from the Perkins Green student housing complex. Looking out the window, we can see one of the bicycle lockers that are provided at almost every station. Not only can people take their bike to transfer to the station, but during the off peak hours, you can actually bring your bike right on to the train (as long as there is room).

After traveling though the fall colors of the forest east of John Street for a few minutes, we pull into the Southtown Plaza station. The station is behind the plaza, but the plaza owners built a new entrance facing the station. There is another Park-and-Ride lot here, and a connection to the #62 "circulator" bus which pulls in right alongside the station. The #62 travels around central Henrietta in a loop, bringing people from residential neighborhoods to the station. At the Southtown station, you can see the construction underway on a new branch of the Blue Line that will go directly to the Marketplace Mall and Calkins Road, making it easier for more people in Henrietta to get to the line.

The train pulls out of Southtown, and crosses over Jefferson Road and the Conrail tracks on a long viaduct. Once over the viaduct, we arrive at the Mortimer station on Brighton- Henrietta Town Line Road, where people transfer from the #55 crosstown bus route, which mainly travels along Jefferson Road. As we look around inside of the car, we see that the passengers are a cross section of society. We see attache- carrying businessmen in suits, hospital workers in their whites, factory workers with lunch boxes, UR students with book bags, and average office workers, a few of who are resting their eyes during their morning commute.

Now we travel through a long stretch of forest in west Brighton. The fall colors are simply beautiful, and a variety of birds can be seen by the retention ponds. We cross over Crittenden Road; out the window we can see the crossing gates holding back a single car. Unlike being stopped at a freight railroad crossing, this driver has no reason to get upset, since the crossing gates are down for only a few seconds. There was some heated debate in the 90's over whether or not the Blue Line should be built through West Brighton. Now most of the neighbors wonder what all of the fuss was about; it’s hard for the residents (or the wildlife for that matter) in the area to notice that anything is passing through. Many residents are now thankful that the Blue Line was built, even if they don't ride it because traffic on West Henrietta Road was getting out of control.

Now we pull into the Westfall/Genesee Valley park station on East River Road, where some people get off to go to the UR labs. More people get on from a small Park-and-Ride lot. The train now crosses over I-390 and the canal, and pulls into the Strong Memorial Hospital Station. This station has a large transit center where a number of buses interchange with each other and the Blue Line. A lot of people are getting off to go to work at Strong Hospital, and a large number of people transferring from buses get on.

The train now leaves its own private right-of-way and pulls onto Intercampus Drive. The trains operate on Intercampus Drive with other traffic just like old-time streetcars did, but the traffic is not heavy on this campus road, so the trains aren't slowed down too much. We cross over Elmwood Avenue and pull into the University of Rochester - South station. A number of students, faculty and staff get off to go to the U of R. A few minutes later, we pull off of Intercampus Drive and into the University of Rochester - North station, where some students from the Susan B. Anthony and Hill Court dorms get on board (from the looks of things, most of them are going to part-time jobs downtown).

We then cross over Wilson Boulevard and the Genesee River on old railroad bridges. Looking out the window at the view of the river in the autumn makes one wonder why anyone would want to spend their morning commute looking at the bumper of the car in front of them. On the other side of the river, we pull into the Riverview Place station, where a new housing development has been built. Market-rate housing had been proposed in the early eighties for this location, an old industrial site that has been vacant for decades. It wasn't until construction was underway on the Blue Line that developers became interested in this site. Most people who live here work either downtown or at the universities, and many of them take the Blue Line to work.

As we travel north, the line runs along the river. Outside the window we can see the narrow public park along the river and its bicycle/pedestrian path. The next stop is Violetta Street, which serves the northern end of the Plymouth/Exchange neighborhood, and some more people get on to go to work downtown.

Glancing over the interior of the train, we see the yellow push-to-stop bars along the windows. These bars, like the ones in buses, tell the driver that you want to get off at the next station. During the rush hours, there is almost always someone getting on and off at each station, but during the off-peak hours, the driver will only stop if he/she sees a passenger waiting in the station ahead, or if someone on the train signals that they want to get off. This is unlike the big city rapid transit systems that always stop at every station.

After passing under the approaches to the Ford Street bridge, we then climb up alongside Exchange Boulevard in the Corn Hill neighborhood. Before the Blue Line was built, Exchange Boulevard was a wide divided highway. The road was way too large for the amount of traffic that it carried, and Corn Hill residents were upset that it was an open invitation to speeding. The Blue Line was laid on top of what used to be the northbound side of the old divided road, with a station opposite Fitzhugh Pk.

At the intersection of Exchange and Plymouth, the Blue Line turns onto Plymouth where it runs streetcar-style through the Corn Hill neighborhood with one station south of Atkinson Street. The full Blue Line had not yet opened during this year's Corn Hill arts festival, but a short segment of the line was running. The crowds loved the light rail vehicles, which helped shuttle people between downtown and the festival.

As we pass through the intersection of Plymouth and Troup, the train shifts over to its own reserved lanes on the east side of Plymouth. The downtown portions of Plymouth Avenue, like Exchange Boulevard, were way too wide for the amount of traffic carried, so the City decided to narrow the road to make it less of a pedestrian barrier. We stop at the Civic Center opposite Spring Street, and a number of people get off.

As we head north, we dip below ground, and curve east into the Broad Street Subway, which is a remnant of the old Rochester Subway that ran decades ago. According to some of the faculty in the engineering department at RIT, the route of the Blue Line was actually proposed as an extension of the old subway way back in the 50's. Just think, Rochester might have had light rail lines all over the county by now if the old subway hadn't been closed. But you can't change the past, only learn lessons from it.

The first stop in the subway is the Times Square station. A lot off people are getting off now, some off them probably transferring to the #25 Green Line, which runs north to Kodak Park and neighborhoods on the City's northwest side. The below ground station is well lit, and has attractive tiling on the walls with frescoes of the old City Hall.

After leaving the Times Square Station, we can look out of the arches of the Aqueduct, which carries the Broad Street subway over the Genesee River. A short distance later, we climb up a steep incline and emerge out onto the surface of East Broad Street in the shadow of the Bausch and Lomb building. At the Towers Station, the train nearly empties, with secretaries, businessmen, clerks, lawyers and Midtown retail employees all getting off to go to work. Midtown Plaza, B&L, Xerox Square, Clinton Square, and the Rundel Library are all clustered around the Towers Station. A few people get on; since most have suitcases in hand, they're probably headed for the Amtrak station.

The train then turns north onto its exclusive lane on Clinton Avenue. We stop at Main Street, where some more people get off to make transfers to bus lines. A lot of people who live on the east side of the city and go to school or work at the universities take buses such as the #19 University Avenue and #17 East Avenue and transfer to the Blue Line at Main Street.

After making a stop near Andrews Street, we run down Bittner Street to St. Paul and cross over the Inner Loop. We then curve east alongside the Amtrak embankment, rising up until we pull into the Rochester Station. The old Amtrak station is a lot busier than what it used to be. Out the window we can see a westbound high speed Amtrak, two commuter trains (probably from Fairport and Brockport) and a Green Line light rail train, all on different tracks.

The trip from RIT to the Amtrak station has been a swift and relaxing one. The eastbound Amtrak arrives a few minutes later. Soon, John will be on his way to downstate, where he can study and take a nap during the five and a half hour trip to Mineola. Transportation in New York State has come a long way since the days when the car was the only way to get around!