Take a rail to from Ames to
> Des Moines and when you
get there what happens?
=======================================
Well . . . in 1920 you could then take a train from downtown Des
Moines to downtown Chicago (loop-to-loop, you could say). And by the way, the
"loops" in both towns got their nicknames from the excellent urban rail systems
there--the El in Chicago, which is still going strong, and the street railway
system in Des Moines, which more than 50 years ago was abandoned and paved over.
(From what I read during a recent trip to Chicago--we went there by Amtrak,
departing from Osceola--the Chicago loop may have got its name from a surface
street railway that preceded the construction of the Elevated. From
Chicago, we took the train they call the City of New Orleans to
the city of its name: a fun trip, on schedule, on well-maintained
track.)
About weather and trains, of course a massive snowstorm will stop any
transport, but I was thinking about a thin layer of snow or ice that makes the
pavement slick and sends cars and trucks into the ditch along our
Interstate highways with monotonous predictability. That same thin
layer of snow or ice should have mimimal effect on the operations of a well
constructed and competently operated railroad.
Tom Mathews
Des Moines, Iowa (Which has no passenger rail service.)
All progress is change, but not every change is progress.
In a message dated 2/19/2009 10:15:51 A.M. Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
A couple
of quick things:
Severe weather (snow, ice) can block or delay rail
transport, but
locomotives can be (and are) equipped with plows,
sand for rails, etc.
Trains' efficiency remains one of their
trump cards. Another is
their comfort and convenience (in a
well designed system). If you
don't absolutely positively
expensively have to be on the other end of
the hemisphere by
tomorrow, there's no more civil way of getting there
than a good
train. And as for going by rail from Des Moines to
Ames...what
COULD happen is that when your train stops at the platform
in Ames,
you take your bicycle from the special storage compartment at
the
end of your car, and you roll it out of the car, down the
platform,
through the terminal, and pedal away. When we traveled by
train through Scotland a couple of years ago, every car was equipped
with bike racks, and there were plenty of bicyclists using
them.
Buses and metro rail systems across Europe and
increasingly here in
the US regularly accommodate
cyclists.
Bill Witt
Quoting Ronald Spears
<[log in to unmask]>:
>
> Went to England - very
good transport - buses ran every 10 minutes
> in the city
of Super Mare but it is a rather small and compact
>
country - dynamics are a lot different. Take a rail to from Ames
to
> Des Moines and when you get there what
happens?
> -------------- Original message from Thomas
Mathews
> <[log in to unmask]>:
--------------
>
>
>
> Awesome letter,
Dana!
>
> It's true, we had a better, safer, more
energy-efficient
> transportation system in 1920 than we do
today. The early 20th
> century system, as you note, was
based on rail, not automobiles.
>
> The absurdity of our
highway-based transport is obvious during a
> snow or ice
storm which would not affect railroad operations, but
>
which sends cars and trucks off the road or into multi-vehicle
> pileups.
>
> All progress is change, but not all change
is progress.
>
> Tom Mathews
>
> In a message dated
2/16/2009 7:02:51 P.M. Central Standard Time,
>
[log in to unmask] writes:
> What do we need for
transportation?
> Deborah Fink, Ames Feb. 12, 2009
>
>
Regarding David Swenson's Feb. 5 Iowa View: He's is absolutely right
> in his criteria for ranking stimulus projects.
Infrastructure and
> schools are urgent and
practical targets.
>
> What I missed was any movement beyond
the status quo. We need a
> certain
infrastructure of roads and bridges because we drive
cars
> almost everywhere we go. Should we maintain this
infrastructure?
>
> For more on this article go to
>
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009902120342
>
>
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