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Re: SMART goes Titanic - nothing can possibly go wrong
Author: OldPoleBurner
Date: 10-23-2008 - 23:01
Hot Diggity Dog! -- Another cat and mouse fight!
Actually Mr. Mouse, one could get the idea that you don't actually live around here.
Were you here the last two times BART got shut down for a few days. They often fail to get along with some of their employees, provoking a strikes every few years. If you were here, you would have noticed that the nearly 400,000 riders all took to the HIGHWAY instead. Or perhaps you think it no big deal to take 4 hours (each way) for a 25 mile commute. Thousands just plain couldn't get there from here - period.
When people started getting laid off all over the place (after only five days) because businesses generally couldn't function, without at least a minimum staff - which couldn't get there, the politicians in Sacramento stepped in fast. Life without BART got everybody's attention in a huge hurry. The Bay Area literally choked. Had either of those last two strikes lasted another week or so, the whole regional economy would have collapsed.
I therefore find your claim that BART or other rail transit is just a boondoggle, to be specious and absurd. Imagine a useless no-account meaningless boondoggle with so much power that it can literally bring a major economy to its knees in just a few days - just by shutting down. Wow - passive aggression never was so grand, Mahatma Gandy, step aside!
I am glad to know that what you brand as a "Boondoggle" actually is saving our butts - bigtime!
As to your perennial gripe about the gauge - get a grip! It just plain ain't that important. The only difference is a few inches wider truck frame and a few inches longer axles; adding a couple of hundred pounds of metal. At four or five bucks a pound, it might add about $1000 to the two million price of a car - big deal. Want to claim extra costs for being different - actually, there are many gauges in the world - but just to be nice, lets add in another weeks salary for some poor slob to adjust the tooling, and you get finally up to 10 grand against the two million per car. Still - Big Deal !! Double it = Still big deal!
Not only that, but there are places, such as at the connection between the Trans Siberian Railway and the Chinese Railways, where trucks of different gauges are exchanged with every train's passage. So again - big deal !!!
I know - I know - I should just consider the source - especially after the source has been exposed for what he/she actually is - but I guess I just couldn't resist!
OPB
Actually Mr. Mouse, one could get the idea that you don't actually live around here.
Were you here the last two times BART got shut down for a few days. They often fail to get along with some of their employees, provoking a strikes every few years. If you were here, you would have noticed that the nearly 400,000 riders all took to the HIGHWAY instead. Or perhaps you think it no big deal to take 4 hours (each way) for a 25 mile commute. Thousands just plain couldn't get there from here - period.
When people started getting laid off all over the place (after only five days) because businesses generally couldn't function, without at least a minimum staff - which couldn't get there, the politicians in Sacramento stepped in fast. Life without BART got everybody's attention in a huge hurry. The Bay Area literally choked. Had either of those last two strikes lasted another week or so, the whole regional economy would have collapsed.
I therefore find your claim that BART or other rail transit is just a boondoggle, to be specious and absurd. Imagine a useless no-account meaningless boondoggle with so much power that it can literally bring a major economy to its knees in just a few days - just by shutting down. Wow - passive aggression never was so grand, Mahatma Gandy, step aside!
I am glad to know that what you brand as a "Boondoggle" actually is saving our butts - bigtime!
As to your perennial gripe about the gauge - get a grip! It just plain ain't that important. The only difference is a few inches wider truck frame and a few inches longer axles; adding a couple of hundred pounds of metal. At four or five bucks a pound, it might add about $1000 to the two million price of a car - big deal. Want to claim extra costs for being different - actually, there are many gauges in the world - but just to be nice, lets add in another weeks salary for some poor slob to adjust the tooling, and you get finally up to 10 grand against the two million per car. Still - Big Deal !! Double it = Still big deal!
Not only that, but there are places, such as at the connection between the Trans Siberian Railway and the Chinese Railways, where trucks of different gauges are exchanged with every train's passage. So again - big deal !!!
I know - I know - I should just consider the source - especially after the source has been exposed for what he/she actually is - but I guess I just couldn't resist!
OPB
