[PRCo] Re: Light Rail Videos

Thu Dec 4 11:44:34 EST 2008

Jerry:

I should take this off list but I'm putting it here because I believe  
in eddy-kay-shun.

I think that Hudson Bergen is one of the best examples in the nation  
of where I think we are going in the future.

As the oil runs out we are going to have to centralize our life  
styles again.   We may not like cities but we are going to have to  
learn to live that way again.   From what I can determine, D-day is  
going to be a lot sooner than most of us realize.

And Hudson - Bergen is an example of how all of the industrial area  
along the waterfront in Hudson County, New Jersey has evolved into  
new housing and a new city.   Rich Allman, who is on this list, will  
remember when we went to look at the line just after the first  
segment opened in 2000.   HLBR was reinventing horse car speeds.   We  
left Philadelphia.   The sun was shining and it was warm.  We got to  
Noith Joisey and the temperature had dropped 30 degrees and the wind  
was ripping off the Hudson River.  It was dismal.   Jersey City was  
just as dismal.   This summer a man was telling me how many new  
condos and apartments had been built along the car line at the south  
end of Jersey City ... something on the order of 20,000 homes.   In  
2000 I took an unimpeded photo of two cars passing with the World  
Trade Center rising behind them in New York.   Today that  
intersection is 20 story buildings in New Jersey!

You can see this evolution of cities elsewhere but it in this part of  
Hudson County, New Jersey it is dynamic ... stunning ... rapid.   In  
other places it is a small neighborhood.   Yes, you can observe  
places like University City in Philadelphia slowly changing but no  
where can I think of such a huge area that change from a slum into an  
upscale neighborhood as fast as the waterfront in Weehawken and  
Jersey City advanced.  Bayonne seemed to change from lower middle  
class to middle class.   It is slowly climbing.

This summer I rode up the line with a friend who is a regional  
manager for German Rail and who lives in Munich.   The last time I  
saw Christopf I was in Munich on a Sunday afternoon.   It was October  
2007 and I was amazed at how the streetcars were packed on a  
Sunday.   Well, this June, Chris and Dwight Long (a PTM member from  
"slower Delaware") and I were riding HLBR on a Sunday.   It was after  
five o'clock when we got to the mall and Macy's store where the  
Erie's Pavonia Yard used to be.  The crowd surged onto the light rail  
car.   I thought I was back in Munich.   Most of the riders were  
speaking Spanish and most got off at the station in the old West  
Shore Railroad tunnel and took the elevators up to Bergenline Avenue  
in West New York, N.J.   But for a while it was like riding in Forbes  
Avenue from the University of Pittsburgh in the 1940s after class  
change ... you would have had trouble packing another soul into that  
car.

I don't know if they were illegal immigrants and didn't want to be  
caught driving.   I don't know if the Spanish simply have a higher  
riding habit than some of the rest of us.   I don't give a rat's  
ass.   They're human beings and they're were using transit.   I  
observed on an earlier trip that the operator for New Jersey Transit  
was printing instruction bulletins in Spanish and handing them out at  
the Bergenline Avenue station.   Nice touch.   Cater to your  
public.   It's working.    Passenger counts rose from 7.9 million in  
fiscal 2006 to 10.7 million in fiscal 2007 ... their numbers.   If  
all days were equal, that would be 29,300 per day on Hudson-Bergen.   
But we know weekends have to be lower.   We're probably talking  
somewhere around 35,000 a day on weekdays.  Not bad at all when you  
consider that Pittsburgh system-wide is 6.9 million riders a year and  
SEPTA for all city and Red Arrow routes is 27 million.   Do I buy  
into their numbers?   More easily than some agencies from what I've  
seen when I have ridden and I've ridden it four or five days now.

When you go there ... after you are done riding ... two really good  
places to go for dinner:

1.   If you like Mexican, just go up the Hudson Bergen to Bergenline  
Avenue.   You'll find some truly authentic places up on the avenue.    
It's a safe, middle-class neighborhood.   Have no fears.
But you may need a menu translator.   I had Carle Salley with me and  
his last wife was Mexican.   Some of you may have known Carle as the  
head of PAT's Early Action Program.

2.   Or, and I know Rich Allman will second this motion, go over to  
the Iron Bound section of Newark.   You will find some fabulous  
Portuguese restaurants there.   Some of the best this side of Lisbon.

Fred

On Dec 4, 2008, at 9:36 AM, Jerry MATT Matsick wrote:

> Fred - keep them coming, I really enjoyed the Hudson Bergen line as  
> I lived in that area right out of
> college, what seems unique to me, seems like a 21st century Trolley  
> Line,  need to go up and visit
> relatives and take a ride,  Keep the videos and all your great  
> right ups coming (others on group too
> this "olefart" enjoys it all.  Thanks
> --
> From: Jerry "Matt" Matsick
> AGING: Eventually you will reach a point when you
> stop lying about your age and start Bragging
> about it.
>
> -------------- Original message from Schneider Fred  
> <fwschneider at comcast.net>: --------------
>
>
>> HOW WOULD YOU GUYS LIKE SOME LINKS TO YOU TUBE VIDEOS TO TROLLEYS AND
>> LIGHT RAIL LINES RUNNING TODAY?
>>
>> Tampa -- but they really are not safety cars.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOQC5PfNdUo
>>
>> And the same type car in Little Rock
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rll3Cu2q_5Y
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RiTMiwPiEw
>>
>> And the Memphis heritage lines. The first one
>> is an example of someone who loves photographing
>> crossing gates.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O440kGu9xwE&feature=related
>>
>> The New Jersey Transit RIVER LINE from Trenton to Camden.
>> This is also a crossing gate picture. Governor Christy Whitman
>> called this light rail. The same cars in Escondido CA and Austin TX
>> are considered commuter railroad.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA7YyaidJ-Y&feature=related
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TizfWStIy-M&feature=related
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixMw5M9tt80&feature=related
>>
>> Hudson Bergen Light Rail is also operated by New Jersey Transit.
>> This is a must see ...must ride line for all of you. I never thought
>> I would be sandwiched in a swinging load on a streetcar on a Sunday
>> afternoon in the U. S. but it happened to me there last summer.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKMCAGuFk6k&feature=related
>>
>> The new extension of the Newark City subway ... the line on the
>> surface to Lackawanna station
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLFJJefG2qw&NR=1
>>
>> I only picked on link for Minneapolis. There are many other films
>> that you might want to look at.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M2PyW2sgIQ&feature=related
>>
>> And here is a nice shot of a UTA car in front of the Mormon Temple
>> in Salt Lake City. I'm reminded of the day I tipped doorman at the
>> old Hotel Utah to lead me up onto a fire escape so I could photograph
>> the temple from a higher elevation. Can't do that as easily today
>> because the hotel is a LDS church office building.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNe1GtxRH7A&feature=related
>>
>> This is a nice night-time movie in downtown Houston. Again, there
>> are a whole lot of additional Houston pictures. This line is moving
>> about 40,000 people a day. Great operation.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZtdoZOi7F0
>>
>> IF YOU LIKE WHAT I PICKED OUT ... ASK ME AND I'LL TRY TO
>> FIND SOME OF THE OTHER SYSTEMS.
>>
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