Category: Commentary

Recollections of a Vanished Era – In Mississippi

On: By: msetty@publictransit.us

By Leroy W. Demery, Jr.

Certain of our loyal and disloyal opponents love to quote statistics by the trainload (pun intended) – but avoid certain issues like the proverbial “third rail” (pun intended – again).

You are not likely to see anything related to, um, Amerikaanse apartheid (“American apartheid”) on websites such as this one, that one or that one. To paraphrase Oscar Bonavena, the late Argentine boxer, you’d think they were chicken (“Cheep! Cheep! Cheep!”).

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“Near HSR” “Magistrala CFR 800” (Line 800) – in Romania

On: By: msetty@publictransit.us

Translation of heading above: “”Minimum Duration of the Train Journey” for each year, in hours.

By Leroy W. Demery, Jr.

In the last few years, Romania has outdone the United States on implementing “near high-speed rail” on one of its major intercity passenger rail routes from Constana to Bucharest. Romania has managed to implement good service spending a fraction of the capital poured into the Northeast Corridor, for example.

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Why Public Transit?

On: By: msetty@publictransit.us

Anti-Transit Arguments Are Mostly Rhetoric, Lacking Facts

Over the years, we have grown weary of the many rhetorical, generally fact-free arguments against transit. These include the ubiquitous “You’ll never get people out of their cars,” “People won’t ride transit,” or a favorite of rail transit opponents, “There isn’t enough patronage potential to justify rail.” Such arguments are almost exclusively rhetorical in nature, lacking specific facts and examples.

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