Light rail’s latest challenge: summer heat

While a 6-month-old light-rail line in the nation’s fifth largest city has exceeded expectations so far, its operators are now facing their biggest test — the Valley’s sizzling heat.

Light Rail Rider’s Guide

Unlike Phoenix, no other city in the country has to run a commuter rail under the Valley’s unforgiving conditions, with summer temperatures that regularly top 110 and once soared to 122 degrees. Those conditions will test the system’s equipment and could dissuade riders from walking to rail stations and waiting for up to 20 minutes for a ride.

Tiffanie Griffin of Phoenix said the heat will stop her from riding the light rail as soon as she saves the $1,500 she needs to get her car a new transmission, hopefully by the end of the month.

“Sitting here in the heat waiting for the light rail is frustrating,” said Griffin, who gulped ice water from a giant plastic cup as she waited for a train on a recent 108-degree day. “You’re just getting off of work, you had a full day, and it’s hot as heck out here.”

The Valley has had a reasonably mild late spring and early summer, only beginning to hit its normal high of about 107 degrees for this time of year at the end of June, said Ken Waters, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Phoenix.

Now that the heat is here, there’s no end in sight until September, Waters said.

While Metro light-rail CEO Rick Simonetta said he suspects some people will find other ways to get to work when it gets extremely hot, he thinks a recent fare increase will have more of an impact on ridership.

Valley Metro, the region’s mass transit agency, recently raised the price of a one-way ticket by 50 cents to $1.75. An all-day pass increased by 40 percent from $2.50 to $3.50.

“A 40 percent increase is pretty significant,” Simonetta said, adding that consultants estimate the bump will lead to at least 10 percent fewer riders.

An average of about 34,000 people now ride the light rail on any given weekday, about 8,000 more than operators had hoped for. Monthly ridership peaked in April with about 1 million passengers, but decreased to 928,000 riders in May.

Preliminary data shows there were 807,000 riders in June.

Light-rail officials attribute some of that drop-off to the end of the college year and to snow birds, people who leave the Valley in the summer for more forgiving climates.

Simonetta said he thinks the heat will be more of a test of the light rail’s equipment than its riders.

“The first summer is really sort of the test to make sure that everything was (designed) right, it was constructed right and that it’s operating correctly,” he said. “So far, no major problems that we see, but you know that we just had our first 110-degree day, and we know there’s lots more of those.”

In Sacramento, Calif., 108-degree weather in late June caused overhead wires to sag and disconnect from light-rail trains in the city’s business district, disrupting service for about five hours on two days and leaving passengers stranded in the heat.

Simonetta said the Valley’s trains and stations were designed specifically for extreme heat. The outdoor stations provide shaded areas and cold water fountains, and trains have heavy-duty air conditioning and heavily tinted windows.

People in other hot environments throughout the world ride commuter rails in big numbers despite the heat, and the Valley likely will be no different, said Rod Diridon, executive director of the San Jose, Calif.,-based Mineta Transportation Institute, a nonpartisan research institute that conducts transportation policy studies.

“I think it’s just a matter of getting used to it,” he said. “The people of Phoenix have embraced the light-rail system overwhelmingly. Now it’s a matter of a population that loves light rail adjusting to the summer.”

Michael Roller of Phoenix said he’ll only ride the light rail in the summer, because his daughter uses his car to get to her job as a lifeguard when she’s not in school at the University of Arizona.

“The heat doesn’t affect me,” said Roller, who was wearing a long-sleeved cotton button-up while waiting at a light-rail station recently. “I’ve been in Arizona all my life. I’m used to it.”

Phoenix was the last of the country’s largest cities without a public rail line before it opened in December, becoming the latest Western city to try to flout urban sprawl and car culture and get people on public transportation.

The 20-mile, $1.4 billion startup line runs from north-central Phoenix through downtown and then east through Tempe and Mesa. More than 30 more miles are planned to open in Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa and Glendale by 2025.

Heat is more than a matter of comfort in the Valley. It kills more people than earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control. Dozens of mostly homeless and elderly people die in the Valley every year, and hundreds more experience heat-related illnesses that can cause a rapid heart beat, throbbing headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion and unconsciousness.