[PRCo] Puerto Rico

[Bob Rathke]

Harold,

I am one of the railfans who has been in Puerto Rico recently.  A couple of
years ago we were there for a week, but unfortunately we didn't see much
rail at that time.  We had a rental car and drove all around the island.  No
problem finding people who spoke good English. Puerto Rico seemed like a
Spanish-speaking U.S. state to us.  Even the Walgreens stores there had the
same layouts as Walgreens on the mainland - except the signs were in
Spanish.

We had better luck finding rail in Hawaii in 2002, and in Bermuda in 2001.

Bob 4/17/03

-----------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: Harold Geissenheimer <transitmgr2 at earthlink.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>; <jswindler at hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 8:57 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: [Fwd: Transnet 113]


> Greetings
>
> There is only one new line and its electric, third rail, rapid
> transit.  Not diesel.
>
> Puerto Rico is part of the USA no matter what its called.
> I have a close Puerto Rican friend and have visited with him with
> his relatives down there.  Several are Army vets and receiving
> military pensions.  Puerto Rico is part of the Army and Airforce
> National Guard.  An Army Guard unit has just been called up.
>
> So why not US DOT money?  We pay for the highways, why not
> trains?.. Why not a New Start project?   Like I said, these are
> American citizens just as the people in Guam and the V Islands are.
>
> Several railfans have been there.  Ray Berger most recently.  Bill V
> has worked on the project and our company was part of an unsuccesful
> team to do the DBOM.  I wrote the op and mnt plan for our proposal.
>
> To operate the trains and hire the crews we had included Peter Pan Bus
> Lines.  At the time they were operating the main contra flow bus route
> as a privatized carrier.  Peter himself was involved!
>
> Later this year I recommend that you all take a trip down there.  No
passport.
> its the USA.  Good place to stay is the Hilton.  And Yes, English is
spoken.