RICHMOND, Calif. — Richmond will hold a “Wig Wags Forever” festival on Sunday, celebrating the restoration to operating condition of two of the nearly extinct grade-crossing protection devices. The signals, near 1 West Richmond Ave…
METRA found that when they used wig wag signals accompanied by an audio recording next to the RR Crossing that said “pay more taxes…pay more taxes” most folks that voted in the METRA service area would vote to pay more taxes. Unfortunately, the signal manufacturers stopped making the signals and now METRA has a fight on it’s hands each year.[}:)][:D]
FAKE NEWS, as if you couldn’t tell (and not very funny). As an aside, wigwags were long gone in the Chicago area by the time the voters authorized the Regional Transportation Authority in 1974. The RTA has a steady revenue source in a gasoline tax in the six-county area but money for capital improvements for all three operating divisions is another story.
Of course it’s not ‘news’, and frankly I find it extremely funny.
You do realize the joke is in equating the motion of the signal to a hypnotist’s swinging a pocket watch, right?
(Would have been funnier still if he referenced ‘testing’ these wig-wags at particular crossings infamous for relatively long delays…)
Sorry, I’m a regular Metra rider and his repeated shots at commuters are not amusing.