25. You asked, we answered

Brittany: 00:00

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of your daily commute, or how transportation impacts the community you call home? Maybe you wanna explore outside your community and don't know where to start. Well, you are in luck because this is where you hop on. I'm Brittany Hoffman and I work in Communications for Valley Metro. In this podcast, we'll discover all the ways that public transit enhances lives across the Valley. Welcome to Storylines. Well listeners, I am very excited for this episode. This is two firsts for the Storylines podcast. We have a new co-host we're introducing, and we'll get to her in just one second. This is the first time we went to our social media channels to have you ask questions that we could answer here on the podcast. But first, I'm very excited because our new co-host is gonna introduce herself.

Juliana: 00:52

Hi, I'm Julianna Vasquez-Keating and I'm so happy to be here. I'm the new Public Information Officer with Valley Metro. I came on about two months ago. And since then, I've been learning all there is to know about our two light rail construction projects, the Northwest Phase Two and the South Central Downtown Hub. And I really do love a good storyline and I'm excited to be part of the podcast, especially for this episode in particular, where we get to answer some of your questions.

Brittany: 01:17

Juliana, you said it. We are here to answer questions. Now, I've been with Valley Metro for five years and there are still things that I don't know about the agency. So, instead of just you and me chatting about all the cool stuff we do here, we went to the subject matter experts. So for our first question, from Ana and Daniel, they asked, will you be extending the Mesa line further east? And let's hear from our planning department.

Marty: 01:51

Right now, Gilbert Road and Main Street is the furthest east that light rail is planned to go. MAG's Momentum Plan identifies numerous high-capacity transit projects, but extending rail further to the east in Mesa is not one of those current projects. The projects identified in the plan include streetcar extensions in the East Valley, light rail extensions in the City of Phoenix, and bus rapid transit lines on Rural and Scottsdale Road, as well as Country Club and Arizona Avenue and in the City of Phoenix along 35th Avenue and Van Buren Street.

Brittany: 02:22

Now, Marty, will the Streetcar be extended into Mesa?

Marty: 02:27

Yes! We are starting to work on an alternatives analysis to extend the Streetcar into Mesa. The project called the Rio East Dobson Extension, is looking to extend streetcar service east along Rio Salado Parkway from where it currently ends at Marina Heights. This will serve a few different parts of Tempe, including Tempe Marketplace and the Novus Innovation Corridor. It then goes into Mesa along Rio Salado Parkway to serve the Cubs spring training stadium as well as Mesa Riverview Park and Riverview Mall. The line will then turn south onto Dobson Road in Mesa to serve both the Mesa Asian District as well as provide a transfer to light rail along Main Street at the Sycamore station.

Brittany: 03:11

We appreciate a very familiar voice here on the Valley Metro Storylines podcast, Marty Ziech, part of our planning department. He's always willing to help out when we ask. And in case you missed it, we did an entire episode one year after the launch of Streetcar. We talked to Tempe Mayor Cory Woods about how excited he was to have the streetcar in his city, and Mesa Mayor John Giles, very excited about the possibility of Streetcar coming into his city. Now Juliana, that was just question one and we've already learned a lot. What do we got next?

Juliana: 03:43

Okay, Brittany, our next question comes from Rhiannon Pooler. She's asking, when are we going to get full-fledged bus service in Surprise? The Park-and-Ride doesn't run frequently enough, and WeRide Surprise isn't sufficient either, as it doesn't cover all of Surprise. So we thought we'd talk to Joe Gregory from our planning department. We thought this would be a great opportunity to discuss how bus routes are determined in general. Okay Joe, we know this involves a lot of collaboration with our member cities, not just Surprise. Can you tell us how it all works?

Joe: 04:22

Well, thank you for that question, and understand why you're asking about that. Currently, there is only express service out to Surprise. We don't have any local service. Part of that is in order to get bus routes out there, we have to work with every city and the county along the way to make sure that we have enough funding and that we have enough buses and drivers in order cover that service.

These are very expensive investments that we're making, and we want to make sure that we and the cities are all on board and all able to support those functions and make sure that we get the best service out that we can for the entire region.

Juliana: 04:56

So, this is a pretty lengthy process. Are we talking months or years from when bus routes are planned to when they're actually implemented?

Joe: 05:03

That's years. And like I said, especially with making sure that we get correct amount of buses ordered, that takes a number of years, but then also making sure that we bring into alignment all of the funding sources that pay for these things. Whether it comes from the Prop 400 tax or the individual cities, the cities have to work through their local budgets and especially those ones that don't have dedicated funding that money has to compete with police and fire and water and everything else the city has to do to make the city livable. So it's a priority, but, we have to work together to make sure that we are all on the same page with the city as far as how we're going to support some of these routes.

Brittany: 05:42

That was great information from Joe Gregory because as part of the Communications team, it's my job to do service changes and those happen every April and October. So I know how things work when we, you know, are just going to switch things up a little bit or, you know, just tell people about a new route, but the entire planning process, that's a big deal. So, we just talked about how bus planning service takes a really long time to get implemented. So let's think about for one second how long it takes to get our light rail implemented into different cities and across our region. Most of you know in 2024 there's going to be a Prop 400 Extension vote. That's to help decide the transportation funding across the entire Maricopa County region. SB 1102 also included language prohibiting the construction of capital extension adjacent to the state capitol's legislative and executive buildings as currently envisioned. So that's going to be a big change. So, Antonio Ortega Jr. is already on the ball and asked, “Will the capital extension be reworked?” So, we brought in our Community Relations Coordinator, Jessica Parks, to give us the answer.

Jessica Parks: 07:02

The city of Phoenix remains committed to extending light rail west of downtown to underserved areas around the state capital area. Valley Metro will work with the city of Phoenix, the Federal Transit Administration, and the neighboring community to assess route alternatives and to develop a locally preferred alternative that serves community goals and connects with the future. I10 West light rail extension project.

Brittany: 07:25

Thanks, Jessica. How can people get involved?

Jessica Parks: 07:27

For up-to-date information on the capital extension project. Join the mailing list at valleymetro.org/capex

Brittany: 07:35

Now, Juliana, we all know the Capital Extension project is a big deal, but you mentioned you're working on two other projects. How can people get information about that?

Juliana: 07:46

Yeah, Brittany, we've got two very exciting light rail extension projects happening right now. Our South Central Extension and Downtown Hub and our Northwest Extension Phase two, which is set to open early next year. You can find more information on our website, valleymetro.org/projects

Brittany: 08:03

And stay tuned everybody. That's just some of the questions you asked and we're ready to answer. After the break, three more questions and one answer from our CEO.

Peter: 08:13

South Phoenix light rail stations are getting a glow-up as part of the South Central Extension project. Learn more about the new public art and the artists behind them by going to Valley Metro's Inside the Ride blog. Visit valleymetro.org/blog

Alex: 08:31

Have you heard about the new mural at our Roosevelt and Central light rail station? Step on the platform to see the colorful and inspiring artwork by our Fall Artsline Spotlight artist, Peter Farago. Learn more about Peter at valleymetro.org/artsline

Peter: 08:48

Be a part of the pollution solution. Commit to taking transit or telecommuting at least one day a week to cut down on greenhouse gases. For air quality information and resources, go to CleanAirMakeMore.com

Brittany: 09:03

And we're back on this episode of Storylines with more questions from our social media channels that you asked. And so now we're ready to answer. Julianna, what do we have next?

Juliana: 09:13

We have a question from Jonah Anderson. How are you guys working with city planners to develop density and infill along the light rail lines? We brought in Nicole Hill from our Capital Planning team to answer this one.

Nicole: 09:25

So, Valley Metro has a lot of partnerships with the various municipalities adjacent to the light rail in terms of planning and discussing projects that are within our station planning areas as well as surrounding that. So, we do a lot of partnerships and promote the various TOD, which is transit oriented-development principles that each city kind of wants to encourage in their community. So for example, the City of Phoenix, they're very interested in their walkable urban code. That includes things like 75% shade, and we really try to work with developers to promote some various design elements to kind of encourage good development around our light rail stations.

Juliana: 10:10

Nicole, you mentioned something about transit-oriented development. We talk a lot about that. Can you explain a little bit more about what that is and how it helps the community?

Nicole: 10:20

Yeah, absolutely. So, transit-oriented development is essentially developments that are including mixed-use. so there's, you know, apartments, commercial, Different kinds of uses all in one space that encourage walking around connections from the light rail to businesses as well as people's houses.

Juliana: 10:39

Since the light rail was introduced back in 2008, we've seen quite a bit of transit-oriented development in Metro Phoenix, correct?

Nicole: 10:46

Yeah, so we've seen about 17.1 billion dollars’ worth of private and public investments in development around the light rail and that's compared to about 2.3 billion worth of investment in the light rail system.

Juliana: 11:00

Brittany, that was a surprising number to me, but not surprising the way we've seen metro Phoenix grow in just the past 15 years is incredible.

Brittany: 11:09

Oh yes, we have been growing and upgrading and new advancements are on the way. Now, here is a common question that we get across all of our social channels. Not from one specific person, but from a lot. fare vending machines at light rail stations work only some of the time. And bus fare boxes are hit and miss. What is being done so riders can pay more easily? So, we brought in our Chief Financial Officer, Ken Kessler, to give us a look at what's ahead.

Ken: 11:40

Currently in the short term, our maintenance team is doing all they can to try to keep those machines, those devices working as well as they can. They are approximately 15-year-old devices that we're trying to maintain, while at the same time for the long term, we have a project underway to upgrade our fare collection system, which will provide us with new fare boxes on board the buses, as well as new fare vending machines. We actually have new fare readers out at the platforms, so today, if folks choose to. There's a mobile fare option for a single ride or a one-day pass that they can get in the Valley Metro mobile app, and they can use those and the fare readers on the light rail platforms as well as the buses are working just fine for our customers.

Brittany: 12:31

Juliana, I know you got here just a couple of months ago, but did you know that Valley Metro has mobile fare now?

Juliana: 12:38

That's something I learned right when I onboarded, and I thought it was amazing because I've used it myself and I think it's such a great way to use public transit.

Brittany: 12:47

But as Ken said, it's not the only thing we have planned for the future. If you want to know more about our fare system upgrades, head to valleymetro.org/faretechnology

Juliana: 12:58

So, we just heard from Ken some exciting stuff that's coming to our fare system next year, but what else are we looking forward to? We checked in with our CEO, Jessica Mefford Miller, to see what she's excited about in 2024. And there's a lot to be excited about.

Jessica Mefford-Miller: 13:13

Oh, it's got to be the opening of the Northwest Phase two extension, which is going to happen in early 2024. We are at a moment now where we are at a stage called substantial completion on Northwest. That means most of the construction work is done. We still have work to do. We're out there putting the finishing touches, especially on, the systems and the electrical components. But now we're working with the communities to get ready for this opening and to celebrate that. So, the getting ready, and hopefully some of those public facing events might even begin at the end of 2023, but the actual service and the opening is gonna be how we kick off our 2024 here at Valley Metro. And what a way to start the year.

Brittany: 14:02

Well, Juliana, you got in Valley Metro at the right time. There's lots to look forward to. You're on the podcast now, which means you'll be sharing all of the stories from our community with our listeners. I'm excited to have you as my co-host. And we want to remind everybody, this podcast all was made possible by our social channels. So, subscribe, follow, like, all the things. We're on every channel you can imagine, Facebook, Instagram, X, formerly Twitter. LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube. Oh, don't forget about the TikTok!

Juliana: 14:36

Yeah, we've got a pretty fun TikTok page. I have to say.

Brittany: 14:39

Just like you don't want to miss anything on social, subscribe, wherever you listen to podcasts, so you also never miss an episode of Storylines.

Juliana: 14:47

For Valley Metro. I'm Juliana.

Brittany: 14:50

I'm Brittany.

Juliana: 14:51

Thanks for riding with us.

Brittany: 14:53

We'll meet you at the next stop. Storylines is produced by Alex Tsotsos and Dane Ryals. Peter Corkery is the executive producer. I'm Brittany Hoffman. Thanks for listening.