Our local politicians outside the major cities often say, completely unironically and unaware, whenever they do something borderline criminal like building a new sportsball arena for tax money and then selling it to the local team's private owner for a dollar:
"It will put [insert name here] on the map!"
Somewhen around 1990, satire became obsolete and redundant at the same time. Just following the "news" is enough entertaintment.
Yet another impractical and expensive public works project with a Seattle tie-in. The monorail doesn't hold a candle to Sound Transit's choo-choo train though. To SimCom's point, if completion of a project means the money dries up then where's the incentive? We are putting train tracks across a floating bridge (which has never been done) and it will only take as long as the completion of the Trans-Continental Railroad (1863-1869)! Great job everyone! /s
Over here in sub-arctic Sweden, there are two teams of looney-tunes trying to out-compete each other when it comes to railroads.
Team High-speed trains, wanting to re-do our entire railroad network (what's left of it after 30 years of capitalist neoliberal mismanagement) with some kind of super-duper high speed trains doing 250mph or more. Apart from the obvious problems, they also demand these trains be "climate neutral" and powered by wind and solar.
And the contenders, Team Mag-Lev. Whose arguement boils down to "It works in Japan".
Neither of them seem to understand the associated costs, for no real gain. If you're in hurry when travelling, go by airplane or car - it's virtually always faster than a train. What does it matter if you shave off 45 minutes on an 11 hour trip?
Since Mr. "the Knife" and I "ironman drive"* from the Pacific Northwest to see family in Phoenix (30 hrs), Albuquerque (26 - 30 hrs), and Minnesota (30 - 32 hrs), I would love just about anything to get out of the car 45 mins faster! ЁЯШВЁЯдг However, not on the taxpayers' dime. To us, it is absolutely immoral to be frittering away the taxpayers' hard earned shekels on these boondoggle projects that are NEVER done on time and under budget, and don't have any ROI. In fact, they continue costing the taxpayers. Our "Sound Transit" doesn't charge anywhere near what it needs to per rider to cover the cost of just operating the blooming thing, let alone recover the costs to build it.
*Ironman driving: One person drives during the day and one person drives during the night until arriving at the destination. Stops are limited and must combine gas/bathroom/food to make up for highway construction, traffic, accidents, etc.
Now I've got the monorail-song stuck in my head.
Now we all do!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGg5rfBfWT4
Our local politicians outside the major cities often say, completely unironically and unaware, whenever they do something borderline criminal like building a new sportsball arena for tax money and then selling it to the local team's private owner for a dollar:
"It will put [insert name here] on the map!"
Somewhen around 1990, satire became obsolete and redundant at the same time. Just following the "news" is enough entertaintment.
Just like this wonderful new.......eh, it's more of a SHELBYVILLE idea.
Yet another impractical and expensive public works project with a Seattle tie-in. The monorail doesn't hold a candle to Sound Transit's choo-choo train though. To SimCom's point, if completion of a project means the money dries up then where's the incentive? We are putting train tracks across a floating bridge (which has never been done) and it will only take as long as the completion of the Trans-Continental Railroad (1863-1869)! Great job everyone! /s
Over here in sub-arctic Sweden, there are two teams of looney-tunes trying to out-compete each other when it comes to railroads.
Team High-speed trains, wanting to re-do our entire railroad network (what's left of it after 30 years of capitalist neoliberal mismanagement) with some kind of super-duper high speed trains doing 250mph or more. Apart from the obvious problems, they also demand these trains be "climate neutral" and powered by wind and solar.
And the contenders, Team Mag-Lev. Whose arguement boils down to "It works in Japan".
Neither of them seem to understand the associated costs, for no real gain. If you're in hurry when travelling, go by airplane or car - it's virtually always faster than a train. What does it matter if you shave off 45 minutes on an 11 hour trip?
Since Mr. "the Knife" and I "ironman drive"* from the Pacific Northwest to see family in Phoenix (30 hrs), Albuquerque (26 - 30 hrs), and Minnesota (30 - 32 hrs), I would love just about anything to get out of the car 45 mins faster! ЁЯШВЁЯдг However, not on the taxpayers' dime. To us, it is absolutely immoral to be frittering away the taxpayers' hard earned shekels on these boondoggle projects that are NEVER done on time and under budget, and don't have any ROI. In fact, they continue costing the taxpayers. Our "Sound Transit" doesn't charge anywhere near what it needs to per rider to cover the cost of just operating the blooming thing, let alone recover the costs to build it.
https://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/detail/the-true-cost-of-light-sound-transits-light-rail-is-becoming-more-obvious
https://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/detail/in-five-years-sound-transit-has-racked-up-an-additional-50-billion-for-rail-plan
ARRRRRGH!
Mrs. "the Knife"
*Ironman driving: One person drives during the day and one person drives during the night until arriving at the destination. Stops are limited and must combine gas/bathroom/food to make up for highway construction, traffic, accidents, etc.