[PRCo] So you can't get to Pittsburgh?

[Fred Schneider]

Open note to Mark:

If you are worried about when PAT will open, plan a visit a year later.  Pittsburgh isn't the only place with new light rail
transit.    There are a whole lot of new LRT systems that have opened in the last year or so  that you could visit ....  And
some of them actually know how to run a railway system.  From what I could see this past weekend, the rebuilt valley line in
Pittsburgh is being fenced so it cannot be photographed.  Even the sides of the McKinley Park bridge are fenced (as if some
one is going to throw a rock at a car 100 feet in the air).  I have a gut feeling that we are not going to be able to walk
along it taking pictures like we all did in the old days.  And if you do try it, I can imagine motormen calling in a
trespasser report on the radio.

1.  Portland's north line .... a great system and a great city.  Truly worth the visit.  A vibrant downtown ... people go
there.  All sorts of food from bagels and lox to a Moroccan lamb, and all on the trolley lines.

2.  Sacramento's south extension just opened on Friday. Another extension in the Folsom corridor follows.  Area can be hot as
the hinges of Hades in the summer.  The Western Railroad Museum at Rio Vista is southwest of Sacramento and northeast of San
Francisco on the old Sacramento Northern right-of-way.  This may be one of the museums competent enough to survive.

3.  San Jose ... get there before it completely fails.  They did open several extensions to the north since the original
opening.   Headways greatly reduced last year, which better reflects how many people actually ride.   Great American amusement
park is on the northwest line.

4.  BART opened a month or so ago to the San Francisco International Airport.  And the PCCs on the F line (and a crab dinner
at Fisherman's Wharf) are worth the price of a ticket to the west coast.  BART has a ticket allowing you to ride the whole
system and get off where you got on.  You could probably ride everything for less money, if you get on and off at separate
stations in downtown San Francisco.  The new Breda cars are worth riding, even if they went back to the World War I camouflage
paint (gray cars in a fog).  The articulation joints don't try to self destruct going over a vertical curve like the Boeing
cars did.

5.  The Gold line from Los Angeles to Pasadena opened this summer.  The system was moving something like 280,000 people a day
on rail before it opened; half of the total was on the Red Line subway from downtown to Universal City.  Second place was the
Blue Line ... the old Pacific Electric line to Long Beach.  The electric network ranks in the top four in North America.
(Don't ask me for the name, they change it every so often to protect the guilty.) You like trains ... Metrorail runs
everywhere these days ... commuter trains to San Bernardino, Lancaster, Fullerton, Oceanside ... I've forgotten it all ...
about six different railroad routes in the city of the automobile.  The original Disneyland and Universal Studios are worth
the visit.  And the Queen Mary down in Long Beach Harbor (get there before it rusts away).  LA is a very cosmopolitan city ...
white northern Europeans consist today of well less than half of the population.  Very large Asian, African American, and
Muslim populations.   The older buildings in Hollywood are worth a walk through.

6.  San Diego is pushing like hell to finish the route from Mission San Diego to El Cajon.  That system and the city are worth
a visit.  And don't forget the Spreckles organ in Balboa Park.  Great Mexican food.   The most prosperous or higher income
areas are on the north end of the system.  The line to San Ysidro is rather neutral.  The east-west portion of the north east
line (where it runs south of downtown) is not an area to walk in.  I do, however, have one picture of a bum sleeping on the
sidewalk there.  Probably the area where you could inadvertanly get chopped up in a drug war.  If you liked Pittsburgh
Railways, you'll like San Diego ... the red paint is now washing off the oldest cars.

7.  Houston is about to open and so is Minneapolis.

8.  Calgary is working on an extension of the north line.  A great liveable city.  I can't say enough good about it (unless
you don't like cold in the winter).  (Biased opinion ... far nicer than Edmonton to its north.)  Chinese food everywhere.

9.  Dallas opened north to Plano in the last year.  When I was eight years old Texas Electric quit running interurban cars
there because it was out in the country ... no one went there.  When I was in the army in Texas in 1959, Dallas greater Dallas
wasn't much more than 8 miles across.  Today it stretches forever ... try 20 miles or more in any direction.  Traffic jams are
horrendous.  LRT is nice except someone should lynch the station designer ... the canopies are designed to dampen you in a
rain.  I'm not sure about the status of the Garland line.

10.  Saint Louis ... 37 miles for something like $1.30 ... airport to airport.  If you hurry, you can still get barns, silos,
and cornfields in your pictures next to the trolleys out in Illinois.  Aside from my complaint that they are distorting the
ridership by giving away the parking and fares, I've never heard a bad word about the system.  Much is all on former railroad
rights-of-way ... the Wabash to the west, the railroad tunnel through town, the railroad deck of the Eads Bridge, and the old
L&N to the east.   There was a time when the punsters said that the second prize for a vacation was a week in St. Louis and
the consolation was a week in East Saint Louis, IL.  I think Camden NJ was first prize!   They were all pretty grim.  Today,
there are some really nice areas in St. Louis.  It is a very much racially and ethnically integrated city.   Avoid the
Budweiser factory tour ... it is not much more than a chance to sell dozens of different souveniors with Budweiser printed on
them.

11.  Salt Lake City ... the extension into the University campus is new.  Clean city.  The Mormon Tabernacle organ is a must
hear.  And one needs to go to Saltair to watch the ijuts swimming in the brine.

12.  Vancouver opened a branch to its Skytrain (linear induction propulsion) system last year.  Amazing how fast those trains
can run vertically!  Great trolley bus network too.  A relatively clean city (Why is it the Canadian's understand clean and we
don't???)  It's one of those cities people go to instead of away from.  Found a nice Indian (not First Nation or Native
American) restaurant on West 4th St.  A pretty city.

13.  While it isn't new, the Denver system is worth a visit ... the portion to the south runs through nice neighborhoods ...
the north end is very much low-income.  There is also a branch to Union Station that actually serves an amusement park.  This
makes two cities today with trolleys serving amusement parks (but the girls no longer use the trolleys to go there to meet the
boys).  And if you have a free Sunday, by all means go see the Birney in Fort Collins.

I've avoided heritage operations.  I'm seen Memphis but I was not impressed with the city.  I'll be in a position to comment
on Charlotte next month.

fws


Mark McGuire wrote: