http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070418/bs_afp/chinatransportrail_070418104652
Another continued example of America’s continued irrelevence in rail mass transit. Oh I forgot, we can all just fly in overcrowded planes out of overloaded airports after waiting 2 hours and getting our obligitory frisking and body cavity searches before we can even get on the plane.
Peanuts anyone?[;)]
If vsmith can persuade his fellow Angelenos to get out of their cars and take the train to work, we might actually get somewhere.
We’re trying, we really are…
With $3.20 a gallon gas, Metrorail ridership is up, as is Metrolink. We’re building the Gold Line metrorail extension south into East LA, and if we can beat the NIMBY BANANAs into submission in Cheviet Hills, we can get the dam Exposition Line built from downtown out to the Santa Monica pier. Add the proposal to convert Pico and Olymipic Blvds to one way only, and the extend the Orange bus line in the San Fernando valley, we are pushing hard to get the numbnuts out of thier SUVs and off the freeways.
Its funny, but when HST are brought up here in the city, its a no-brainer, build it and the riders will come! but outside the city the NIMBYs cry afoul, or all the local politicians insist that the dam thing has to stop in their little backwater, which defeats the purpose.
If the HST follows the current proposed route between San Diego and Sacramento there should be exactly 7 stops.
San Diego
San Bernardino or Riverside
Los Angeles w/ branch service to Irvine and to Riverside/SB for a southern HST loop
Palmdale
Bakersfield
split route at Stockton
one branch west to Oakland or San Francisco
branch north to Sacramento
with eventual branch connector between Oakland and Sacramento for a northern HST loop
Eventually intermediate stops at smaller cites could be included, but its critical to get the long runs up and running to tempt people out of their cars and provide an alternative to the crowded airports.
They do this stuff everywhere else around the world - except here where its needed.
One of the initial advertising slogans that were promoted for the opening of The Skokie Valley Line of the CNS&M was a question. “Did you ever travel 80 miles an hour?” Coordinated intermodal bus service feeding into stations…intermodal piggyback service…lcl service…over eighty five years ago. We have become a backwater in ground transport…twiddling our thumbs waiting for the other shoe to drop. Treated like preconvicted cattle in a paranoia ritual branding chute to be squeezed into a flying tube, only to be delayed, dropped, held, overbooked and given a bag of celebratory miniscule bag of dried peanuts rewarded like a monkey trained to ride a bicycle. Dread has replaced anticipation. With one eye on the revolving gallonage wheel and one on the price…we are being backed into diminished expectations so low that if nothing goes significantly askew, we are thankful for a status quo rather than any improvements either planned or in our futures. Ah yes, and the “expressways” …synthetic reheated, overpriced airport food…Where’s my steak on the Milwaukee Limited whisking through the frozen countryside at 80 mph…Wheres my flying car? One final observation, have you ever noticed that the slings and arrows of fortune are easier to take when you have something to look forward to? One wonders if this applies to our larger community…Remember the Race To The Moon…a series of firsts? What do we have now thats comparible as far as moving forward…a national goal outside of avoiding bankruptcy, the next hurricane or ?