[PRCo] Re: New Railway Properties

[Fred Schneider]

They accept donations but do not charge fares, therefore they cannot  
make money.   They accept labor free but cannot get people to work  
for free during all the hours, seven days a week, that they provide  
scheduled service for the public.   But the do service an area filled  
with inner city restaurants that does attract a modicum of tourists  
in the afternoon and evenings.   And they do have a branch that all  
cars run over, in the middle of the route, to get to a DART light  
rail station.

You decide if it makes sense.   Most of the new routes I saw in San  
Jose don't make sense to me.   San Diego claims they haul more than  
100,000 light rail passengers a day.   SEPTA claims maybe 50,000, or  
maybe 25,000 on routes 10, 13, 46, 36, Media and Sharon Hill but they  
have told PennDOT that the numbers are derived and they really have  
no clue how many people they move.   The newest FTA reports no longer  
show modal counts and SEPTA doesn't give numbers to APTA.   Salt Lake  
City moves 40,000 people a day and that is about 7,000 more than  
PATCO hauls into a decaying city of Philadelphia each weekday.    
Calgary hauls something like 60% of its transit passengers on three  
light rail lines and Tom Delay is telling the public that they had  
this useless light rail system in Calgary when he lived there and  
that Houston needs something much more modern.

You tell me what makes sense and what doesn't.

After looking at more than 50 new systems, I just concluded some made  
a whole lot of sense and some were just as idiotic as the politicians  
that stole the money to build them.   But I think, as railfans, we  
need to look to the future just as much as we need to look at  
history.   And Jim, its also a great excuse to look at National  
Parks, and I know you can buy into that.   Maybe this July I'll have  
some sunshine at Denali and Glacier.

I post some of this stuff for no other reason that to jerk someone  
else's chain.    Sort of like Will Roger's telling the public that he  
didn't make up those stories, he just read the newspapers.

On Mar 15, 2006, at 5:26 AM, Holland Electric Rwy. Op. H.E.R.O. --  
Import SPTC 1.48 Models // James B. Holland wrote:

> Fred Schneider wrote:
> .
>
>> How about the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority in Dallas?      They
>> actually fill a transit need and DART makes up their operating  
>> losses.
>
> .
> Hi Fred:
>
> This one cracks me up  --  could be paraphrased:::
>
> McKinney Avenue Transit  I-S  Successful.......
>
>              .......Except when it is not!!!
>
> You mention it is worked by volunteers and uses paid workers when
> volunteers not available and they still incur losses(?)!!!       Makes
> me question the Need They Fill!
>
>
>
>
> Jim__Holland
>
>
> I__Like__Ike.......And__PCCs!!
>
> down with pantographs ---- UP___WITH___TROLLEYPOLES!!!!!!!
>
>