[PRCo] Re: Second__Time__Around.......

[Fred Schneider]

Did you see SEPTA repaying the feds after they rebuilt and then immediately abandoned
route 6 (new rail and I think wire and poles),  and extensively rebuilt much of track
and then abandoned route 50?  And now that they are rebuilding PCCs again for
restored service on route 15, dost thou believe they will repay that money when it
fails?  If your political strength is sufficient, nothing need by corrected.

Jim Holland wrote:

> Good Morning!
>
>         Same goes for lrv in general   ---   with Buffalo a case in point.   Twas
> considered abandoning but then they would have to repay the Feds!   Some
> lrv construction today is more fad than substance.
>         What about Kenosha   ---   budget cuts actually shut the operation down
> for a while   ---   brought back on a limited schedule.   Don't know where
> it stands now.
>         Don't know that I would call the first round a failure   ---   just that
> 'everything has its day in the sun' and then it passes into history.   For
> the 'streetcar' aka 'trolleycar' etc., the time has basically passed!   The
> PCC staved off abandonments for a while in some places with the help from a
> wartime economy!

It's Sunday ... time for a sermon.

I'm not against rail, fellows.  I'm simply against spending my money on something
that has proven before to be unworkable.  Rail lines seem to work well if they are in
highly populated corridors, or in corridors where traffic is severely restricted by
bridges (PATCO in Philadelphia, or St. Louis to East St. Louis) or tunnels
(Pittsburgh or PATH in New Jersey or BART's trans-bay line), or in cities so densely
settled that autos don't fit (San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and more recently
Washington DC).

I just have trouble with building new rail lines in places where, if street C is
blocked by an accident, you can simply move over to B street or D street.
(Indianapolis, Columbus, Minneapolis, and so forth).  I also have a problem with
people thinking that a brand new heritage trolley will bring tourists to a city and
people downtown, when a) no tourists go there otherwise, and the jobs have already
moved out of downtown.
The northern end of the light rail line in Baltimore is a glorious example ... it
runs beside Interstate 83.  Is the Jones Falls Expressway typical?  No.  Traffic may
be heavy on weekdays, but it never slows under 45 mph and unually most people are
driving at 60 or better on at 5:15 in the afternoon.

And I also have problems when people who think that, because something will work in
another country, it will work here too.  Pedestrian only streets work well in
Germany.  They don't work in the United States. Different concept.  Germans walk.
Americans refuse to walk.    They didn't work in East Liberty.  The concept failed in
Biloxi, MS.  It didn't work in Reading, PA.  And it also failed in Baltimore.
Americans don't think like Europeans think.  High speed trains work in Germany,
Italy, France, England, and Japan.  It works because people go from city to city.  We
go from suburb to suburb.  Different concept.  The new high speed service from Boston
to Washington appears to work well, but the Germans would be running trains every 10
minutes in a corridor that densely settled.

Enough moaning.  Have a great evening.


>
>
> > Greg King wrote:
>
> > I tend to agree with you (look at the original Detroit operation, the one
> > that started it all)
>
> > What these groups need to focus on first is; Is there a need for a transport
-- Trailing quotes stripped by Listar --