The Amp is a proposed mass transit bus system that will connect the East and West sides of Nashville. The design includes a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system on a 7.1-mile route along Broadway/West End, traveling straight through downtown Nashville. This route will include transit-dedicated lanes (restricted from use by other vehicles) in the middle of the streets along the route.
Broadway/west end corridor : The East-west connector
The Amp will travel along West End/Broadway/Main Street through Nashville, with its two ends at Saint Thomas Health campus in West Nashville and Five Points in East Nashville. The region along the Amp route (12.7 square miles) is home to 35,000 people, or 2,800 persons per square mile - "an average population density that is approximately double the average for the City of Nashville" (BWE Report). By 2035, the Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) expects an increase in this population by 24 percent (44,000 residents).
The Broadway/West End (BWE) corridor is full of employment centers ranging from hospitals to retail businesses, universities to industrial corporations. It is the densest employment region and is home to 180,000 employees. The area is expected to gain around 18,000 jobs by 2035, an increase of 10 percent.
This is also the most concentrated site of Nashville's popular attractions. Along the route are the best music venues, the city's convention centers, art and history museums, grand hotels, esteemed restaurants, honky tonk bars, Vanderbilt University, parks, hospitals and more.
TRAFFIC ALONG CORRIDOR
This is also the most concentrated site of Nashville's popular attractions. Along the route are the best music venues, the city's convention centers, art and history museums, grand hotels, esteemed restaurants, honky tonk bars, Vanderbilt University, parks, hospitals and more.
TRAFFIC ALONG CORRIDOR
why does nashville need a new mass transit system?
Music City is gaining recognition across the nation as a city to visit. In the past year, Nashville landed no. 15 on The New York Times "52 Places to Go in 2014" between Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, and Scotland; was listed as one of the five cities in Condé Nast Traveler's "Best Places to Go in 2013" among Seoul and Amsterdam; named "Nowville" by GQ Magazine; named the "it" city by The New York Times in 2013 (a title that has drawn the attention of many across the U.S. and the globe); and recognized by many others for its food, culture, and music roots. This new spotlight is drawing people to Music City from all over the nation; currently 11 million tourists visit Nashville each year, and projections expect this number to continue increasing.
With this popularity as "the place to see", Nashville is also gaining acclaim as a great city to live in. Approximately 1.6 million people reside in the greater Nashville region and it is expected that one million new residents will be added by 2035.
This growth demands a reliable and efficient public transit system.
The Amp will ease transit worries of many different people. Tourists in Nashville will be able to travel to Nashville's prime locations with extreme ease. Many of the best hotels are situated along the BWE corridor, which means visitors can simply walk to an Amp station and go to concerts, restaurants, or other various attractions without worries of calling a cab or driving. Residents of neighborhoods in this area can make quick trips downtown without having to pay expensive parking tickets and waiting in traffic. Employees working along the BWE corridor will be able to get to work with much more ease. People living beyond the route of the Amp will be able to drive to one of the system's park-and-ride lots, leave their cars there and board the Amp, avoiding peak hour traffic and parking difficulties. This will also open up job opportunities across town from people's homes; workers may have been previously deterred from jobs outside of his or her region due to transit difficulties. It is expected that this effect will be greatest in East Nashville, where transit ridership is already higher; with the Amp, their job possibilities will greatly be increased as traveling daily to Downtown, Midtown, or West Nashville will be extremely easier.
what will this look like?
Bus rapid transit
In the planning process for the Amp, the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) designed an Alternatives Analysis, a report which studied the Broadway/West End Corridor and considered three different transportation options for this project: light rail, streetcar, or Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) with dedicated lanes. The MTA Board decided that a BRT system best suited the needs of the corridor because it would be more cost-effective (less than half the cost of a streetcar system), constructed on a shorter time scale, and flexible (bus routes can be changed in the occurrence of an emergency).
Bus Rapid Transit allows for rapid public transit, functioning similarly to a light rail. It consists of buses traveling on two dedicated lanes, one in each direction. These two lanes will be located in the middle of the street. BRT is one of the newer and brighter mass transit options. Many large cities have adopted its design, and all are success stories. The focus constantly returns to Cleveland, Ohio, and their HealthLine BRT, which was named the U.S.'s best BRT by The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. Cleveland has seen a great increase in ridership since the construction of this project, and experienced $5 billion in economic development and growth in the Euclid corridor (the HealthLine’s route).
Bus Rapid Transit allows for rapid public transit, functioning similarly to a light rail. It consists of buses traveling on two dedicated lanes, one in each direction. These two lanes will be located in the middle of the street. BRT is one of the newer and brighter mass transit options. Many large cities have adopted its design, and all are success stories. The focus constantly returns to Cleveland, Ohio, and their HealthLine BRT, which was named the U.S.'s best BRT by The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. Cleveland has seen a great increase in ridership since the construction of this project, and experienced $5 billion in economic development and growth in the Euclid corridor (the HealthLine’s route).
funding
As planned, the Nashville Amp is a 174 million dollar project. Nashville applied for a FTA Small Starts grant of $75 million, the largest amount given, in September 2013. In March 2014, the Obama administration approved the requested grant. The project will receive $27 million for fiscal year 2015, with the rest of the grant being doled out over upcoming years. Initially the proposal suggested another $59 million of funding would come from the Metro government (Nashville), and another $35 million from the state of Tennessee, although these plans are not set in stone.