The Neglect of the Legacy.

[metsfan]

I know i'm preaching to the choir when it comes to this but i feel the need to say something after seeing some things earlier today.

 

Do you have 32 million dollars? If so you could re-activate a rail line that started service in 1878! The historic Philadelphia, Newtown & New York railroad never did make it to new york city, however the track and ROW are still there from newtown to philadelphia.

 

The newtown terminal included a "standing" wye for turning equipment without the use of a large loop or balloon track. The wye has been paved & built over by a horrible wannabe brick subdivision & a plumbing contractor. The plumbing contractor uses the old railroad shop building as its business office. says it would take 32 million to fix the horrible shortsighted mistake that it made in 1983.

 

That's all good and fine. How about service from west trenton to newark? Or from philadelphia to bethlehem? How about electric freight service all in PA and NJ? How about rebuilt riverfront property along the delaware and hudson?

 

Would you approve of your taxes going into these projects if Mr. Obama were to introduce and sign a bill & get passed by house/senate? Would you mind horribly if constant-tension catenary was made the standard and not the exception? What about replacing jointed track with CWR so trains can go faster than 35 mph? What about allowing ROW with only one track to get a second or 3rd track? how about re-activating the entire milwaukee road? Yes, that BIG gap in amtrak's route map between the northern railroad and the LA-chicago route is FILLED with milwaukee road trackage just sitting there rusting for the most part! CN owns the former illinois central trackage between chicago and new orleans.... I think it sees ONE passenger train each way per day? How pathetic can you get? That route used to see 20 trains a day each way!!

 

Now don't get me wrong, i know it isn't the railroad's fault. It is OUR fault. OUR fault for not electing leaders that put mass transportation & environmentally friendly transportation at the top of the priority lists vs highways, automobile company bailouts and the like. Airports are all most entirely federally subsidized. Highways too are paid for by our taxes. Those "road improvements" that cause traffic to back up wouldnt even need to happen as frequent and wouldnt cause such a jam if this country got up off it's lazy arse and put those rails back to work for us. How do you think we won ww1 ww2? Highway? NO! We sent troops trucks tanks teargas and telecommunications equipment on the RAILS. LIRR, PRR, rading, all those venerably but now forsaken names (the real LIRR not the version) toiled and worked and sweat and died to give us something that now sits abandoned, paved over, rusting no more than 100 miles from every person in the country.

 

I urge all of you to write, email, whatever you need to do, to get this country's rail system to where it should be. I'm tired of worrying about missing my train while i see more houses being built where people live that dont' care that the house used to be a corn field and traffic jams full of fat desk jockeys in their huge gas wasting junkpiles making me late for the train.

 

- A