Atlanta’s MARTA was overloaded Friday with no parking available at any lot. MARTA’s C-LNG bus fleet has been able to operate and the Diesel fleet only reduced. Saturday was a record weedend day for MARTA except for olympic days.
On the down side governor Sonny Purdue’s previous adamant opposition of commuter rail has come to roost. If the Atlanta - Athens commuter line (for students and U of Ga. games) had been installed many people from Alabama would not be stranded without gasoline now. Purdue’s solution was - more roads would solve all problems. Well obviously this is one problem that has not been solved. By the way Katrina almost caused a shortage but no one paid attention.
Prices here in Burlington and Camden counties New Jersey are lower than they were before the last Gulf coast hurricane, and I haven’t heard of any supply problems in the greater Philadelphia area.
From what I’ve heard the Atlanta shortages are due to pipeline problems from the Gulf coast. Apparently there must be plenty of fuel available, but no decent way to get it to Atlanta, consequently the oil companies have to sell it somewhere. So good old supply and demand seems to have caused the lower prices here, in other words the local supply must have increased, bringing the price down. I can’t imagine that this is likely to be a long term situation, once the distribution to Atlanta, and wherever else there are distribution problems, gets fixed I would expect supply and prices to tip back to normal, whatever that is.
A: Mainly North Carolina and Georgia. One reason for Atlanta’s shortage was the area’s requirements for a special type of fuel. It’s a unique fuel affecting the sulfur content that’s required in 45 counties in Georgia. But the temporary waiver of the reformulated gas, combined with more refineries coming back online, should ease the shortage.
Q: The Northeast seems to have escaped the shortages? Why?
A**:** They have more supply options in the Northeast. There are more refineries along the way and they get supply from other parts of the country, in addition to the Gulf Coast refineries and pipelines. The Southeast depends mostly on Gulf Coast refineries and pipelines.
Here in Charlotte we are having the same problems with supply. Police and security guards arrive with the gas tankers at many locations to control the crowds. A gas delivery lasts only a few hours and only comes every few days.
It is starting to ease a little, but is still a big problem. Prices are 50 or 60 cents a gallon above the national average when we are usually 5 cents or so below the national average.
C.A.T.S. is hauling record numbers of passengers. One express bus route is up 45%. The light rail is at capacity. They would run more trainsets if they had them. More have been ordered, but delivery is not expected for more than a year.
Phoebe: It appears that the areas of Birmingham, Nashville, Chatanooga, Atlanta, Ashville, Greenville, Charlotte, Raliegh, etc needs to get a public transit and disaster plan in place. The almost shortage lessons of Katrina evidently were not learned. Now I wonder if Ike’s lessons will be learned. It is not a matter of if but when the next interruption of supply of the Colonial and Plantation pipelines will occurr. Since there is no good alternative to those pipelines for the above cities from barges other plans are needed to deal with a fuel shortage.
First public transit systems (light rail) that is electrically powered is needed. Also commuter rail systems. These southeast operations should use identical equipment of other systems that are out of the SE area (maybe a PCC II needs to be specified). If a Cat 4 or 5 storm shuts down the Texas refinereys then the basic infrastructure is in place. Federal Legislation probably needed so FEMA could declare an emergency and send some equipment from non short areas to short areas. Also there could be a reciprocal agreement to provide equipment in the other direction. Since federal funds partially build public transportation no reason this plan could not be provided. This is really disaster planning that needs to be done.
We are building a light rail system, but only one line is up and running so far. It is hauling many more passengers than even the most optimistic estimates. They are wishing they had built the stations long enough for triple train sets as originally planed. The next line is being designed as we speak. The entire system is not scheduled to be completed until 2030.
Phoebe: You have pointed out a very important item that has been missed by most light rail planners. Whenever any system is first started whether light rail or commuter; provision should be made for additional train cars in any set. You can build a platform and shelter (especially important in the north) for only one or two cars but space for additional cars. My idea is for light rail train capacity of 800 (crush) and commuter rail of 20 - 80ft cars. If for whatever reason there is a sudden crush then a temporary asphalt extension can be paved and later a permanet platform built. This solution prevents the many problems that occurr with additional train starts. Of course the electrical system has to have the capacity to handle the extra load. The original permanent platforms would satisfy the ADA compliance issues while permanent extensions are built.
All of you readers out there be sure to bring this up whenever you attend any hearings on new or expanded systems. Phoebe I hope that CATS can solve the short platform problem maybe with these temporary extensions I spoke of. Of course you may not have enough cars. I can’t wait until my travels allow me some time in Charlotte. Any serious discussion of speeding up the construction timetable??
Sonny didn’t even build roads. All we got was ramp timing lights - which still aren’t turned on in Gwinnett. Agree about the lessons of Katrina being totally missed.
Check with Matthewsaggie, he has more info than I do. He is actually involved in the project.
Incidentally, that doesn’t say 4’7" it says 4.7 feet. The company is German. They design in metric and convert to American measurments for our documents.
Ceement Sonny hasn’t done anything in six years. He now says he is for rail, but of course, he hasn’t done anything on that either. We might as well admit that we are going to have to wait for the off-year election to get rid of this lame duck and pick a new gov. There seems to be more talk of commuter rail from the governor wannabees.
