Longing for a transit system

[FlashTalk5]

Since 2003, the last time a passenger train came to my town and ran between Galveston and Houston, I've been longing for a rail transit system. Houston already as a rail transit system going throughout the city, but from where I live, I'm longing for a permanent transit system to go from Galveston to Houston. Traffic on I-45 near the Houston area is totally out of control, especially since that accident yesterday on the I-10 Freeway in West Houston. The only thing available on the freeway is the HOV lane. Makes me wish trolleys, trams, and any sort of rail systems would take the place of a lot of automobiles. But the way things are going, it almost looks like that it'll probably never happen.

[cashnocredit]

Speaking of trains .... here's a song recorded 101 years ago. The Ballad of Casey Jones.

 

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/0000/0636/cusb-cyl0636d.mp3

[stroked89coupe]

[beli]

I think it depends on where you live.. it wouldn't work where I live. We're not densly populated as say Houston, Chicago, and New York etc. I'd much rather see where I live for them spend the money to upgrade bus routes. Where i work it's somewhat forcing me to get my license as it's not currently on a bus line and it's taking me an hour and a half to get to work when I live 10 min away by car. Closest bus for me to take is about 20 min walk and I would still have to take three buses. Lukily the place I work offers a inter office shuttle to the main office downtown, and to where most of the major bus lines run. From there I have to take two bus's. Anyone that comes first then connect to the one that gets me home which is about a 20-25 minute wait since I have to take a certain one and it only runs every 25-30 minutes. It's worse on Sundays then it's like 40 mintues.

[hrguy]

I wish we even HAD an HOV lane in Philly. Between the tri-state area here and being near the shores; it's worse than NYC here, especially on Fridays when it warms up!

[mk_378]

People riding a train means more space for my car on the freeway.

 

By the way, there are a lot of songs about trains.

Edited May 15, 2013 by mk_378

[FlashTalk5]

Yeah, mk, such as the Polar Express, Silver Streak, This Train is Bound for Glory, etc.

 

And besides Houston, I've even seen a transit system in Atlanta, Georgia. Galveston, TX has two gas trolleys running around downtown.

 

[breeze]

We are fighting it here. They want to run it from downtown out to the beach.

[Burgerwars]

The U.S. is so far behind when it comes to rail transit. A lot of it is political. I've been to Europe many times and we really look backwards in comparison. I live in L.A. There's some subway, light rail and the Metrolink, but nowhere near enough. I wonder what are we going to do when the oil runs out.

[FlashTalk5]

Well, Burgerwars, I guess we can always go back to electric trolleys (if they even care, that is), just like the famous Pacific Electric Red Car trolley system in California that was really popular in the 1920s, during the time Harold Lloyd was at his prime.

[breeze]

horse and buggy?

[mk_378]

All I remember about the train in Germany is riding the Schnellbahn(*) around Munich was cool, but an intercity trip on the DB would be expensive. It cost less for the 3 of us to rent a car and take the autobahn, even with $6.00 per gallon gas. So that's what we did. For one person the train was a better deal.

 

(*) I even know what "Schnellbahn" means, having watched a lot of Hogan's Heroes.

Edited May 28, 2013 by mk_378

[CG in TX]

horse and buggy?

Or just horses...