Railfan for Life
Enjoy a rich journey across the American railroading landscape through the lens of our founder Hal Carstens!
In this new book from Carstens, you’ll enjoy more than 100 pages of color photos selected by our editors spanning Hal’s trackside adventures from the last sixty years. From coast to coast, from steam to diesel (and trolleys, too),
from main lines to short lines and everything in between!
mute in and out of downtown Washington, D.C., every weekday. In fact, such commutes account for only about 25 per cent of the 20 million daily trips in our region. Over half of the remaining 75 per cent of daily trips are made from suburb-to-suburb during rush hours. Moreover, the Washington Region’s public transportation mode share is signifi- cantly higher than any other city in the U.S.(except for New York City). Some Montgomery County residents were disappointed when the council reversed its previous pro-light rail plans for the pro- posed Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT) in the fast-growing upper part of the Maryland jurisdiction, and opted instead for buses. The arguments for light rail are com- pelling — the late Paul Weyrich, whose Free Congress Foundation was in the forefront of the late 20th/early 21st century light rail re- vival in the United States, nailed it: “People don’t want to ride buses!” he said. Herewith some validations of that assessment: Boston — In beantown, the Massachu- setts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in its wisdom decided to tear down the ele- vated Orange Line rapid transit service. The fact that 51.8 per cent of the community did not own automobiles did not did not deter the authorities. A new Orange Line was built several blocks away as an underground sub- way. Oh, but don’t worry, the locals were told. They would end up with something as good as or better than the elevated trains that had served them for many years. What they have ended up with (after en- during 15 years of dirty, smelly diesel buses) is a Silver Line bus operation — originally promised as a “dedicated” lane service. What the residents were not told was that
the bus lane would be “dedicated” for only a few hundred yards. Most of the so-called bus lane that emerged was in fact dedicated to the bus — and to the double-parked vehicles that crammed its path on any given day, rendering the lane useless and also leaving the residents with a much longer commute than the rail service they had enjoyed on the old Orange Line.
Cleveland, Ohio’s second-largest city, has implemented a BRT line for its HealthLine Corridor. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has reported that the new service is “touted as a faster, more efficient way to travel.” Euclid Ave. is moving at the same slow pace as the bus it replaced. One passenger despairs “I know this is supposed to operate like a train, but on [rubber tire] wheels, but it’s just not there.” In fact, the proposed traffic-signal priority for buses has drawn complaints from Cleveland motorists. Back to the Maryland suburb of D.C — BRT was sold to the Montgomery County Council as being more “flexible” than Light rail. Yes, but that is actually a weakness of the bus system. Studies have shown that fixed rail is far more likely to generate eco- nomic development than is Bus Rapid Tran- sit because the infrastructure (track, elec- tric
power, etc.) that is required to
implement light rail demonstrates a com- mitment to operate service that won’t be yanked overnight. Light rail, while more ex- pensive to build, is cheaper to operate (four to six rail cars with one operator can’t be du- plicated by a bus, which would require an operator for each individual bus.) Besides which — a bus is still a bus. Wes Vernon is a Washington-based writer and veteran broadcast journalist.
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