DepotNews.com   NewsWire

  Norfolk Southern Railroad Plans to Increase Spending on Capital
Improvements
Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Publication date: 2000-12-21
Arrival time: 2000-12-22

Dec. 21--Despite feeling significant financial pressures from reduced
revenues and increased fuel costs, Norfolk Southern plans to spend 7.9
percent more on capital improvements next year than it did in 2000.
Highlights of the Norfolk-based railroad's $806 million capital improvement
budget for 2001 are the planned purchase of 160 locomotives and earmarking
$449 million for right of way improvements.

"We made those plans based on our business needs for 2001, to serve our
customers and to keep our system in top shape," Norfolk Southern spokeswoman
Susan Terpay said.

The company spent $747.2 million on capital improvements this year; it spent
more than $1 billion in 1999.

The spending increase of $58.8 million is partly driven by the company's
locomotive purchase. The company lease-financed 150 locomotives in 2000, 10
less than the 160 it plans to purchase from General Electric in 2001.

The locomotive purchase is part of a $256 million equipment budget. The
equipment budget also will pay for upgrades on the company's fleet of more
than 3,500 owned and leased locomotives, for rebuilding some multi-level
automobile racks, and for computer-related projects.

The company spent $143 million on equipment improvements in 2000.

Norfolk Southern's railway improvement budget of $449 million is down 22
percent from the 2000 budget of $576 million.

The 2001 railway improvement budget includes:

-- $264 million for rail, crosstie, ballast and bridge programs;

-- $63 million for intermodal improvements;

-- $35 million for signal and electrical improvements;

-- And $23 million for environmental projects and public improvements, such
as crossing signal upgrades and grade crossing separations.

The company's T-Cubed telecommunications subsidiary will spend $61.9 million
to complete fiber-optic networks between Chicago and Washington; Atlanta and
Jacksonville; and Atlanta and Chattanooga.

Norfolk Southern had issued an earnings warning after the close of trading
Tuesday, but its stock was basically unaffected by the news, rising 6 cents
Wednesday to close at $13.50.

-----

To see more of the The Virginian-Pilot, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go
to http://www.pilotonline.com

(c) 2000, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va. Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Business News. NSC, GE,


Publication date: 2000-12-21
© 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

DepotNews.com   NewsWire

  City: No hike in train speed Puyallup: Officials vow to go to the mat over
plan to set limits at 60-79 mph
Source: The News Tribune Tacoma, WA
Publication date: 2000-12-24


Puyallup plans to fight to the last legal ditch against a railroad proposal
to increase train speeds through the city.
"We're not willing to just roll over, and let it happen," said veteran City
Councilman Ken Martin. "It's a safety factor. We're trying to hold on."

City officials and residents fear high-speed train derailments in the
tightly packed urban area where some schools are next to or within blocks of
the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks.

When Burlington Northern proposed doubling train speeds on its main line
through Kent, Auburn, Sumner and Puyallup, all except Sumner brought safety
concerns to the state Utilities and Transportation Commission last year.

Burlington Northern wants to raise train speed limits along its
Seattle-Tacoma main line to more efficiently move freight and passengers.
The railroad says it has completed signal and track improvements to justify
the speed increases, and the Federal Railroad Administration agrees. But the
state commission can keep speeds lower for unique safety reasons.

The commission already has allowed the train speed increases through Kent,
Auburn and Sumner, but hasn't ruled on Puyallup yet. However, the
commission's rail safety division has investigated Puyallup's concerns and
found no proof that higher train speeds would increase the probability of
derailments.

Puyallup officials, fearing a state commission ruling against them, hired a
special-purpose attorney and opened train-speed negotiations directly with
Burlington Northern. If talks fail, the city will consider other options,
including a court fight, city officials said.

Burlington Northern spokesman Gus Melonas said he hopes the talks lead to a
resolution soon.

The company's trains must slow to 30-40 mph in Puyallup. The railroad wants
to hike speed limits through the city to 60 mph for freight trains and 79
mph for passenger trains. Currently, 45 to 50 trains a day run on the
Burlington Northern main line from Seattle through Kent, Auburn, Sumner,
Puyallup and to Tacoma. More trains are planned.

BNSF wants higher freight train speed limits to help the growing ports of
Tacoma and Seattle more quickly move trans-Pacific cargo eastbound, and to
more efficiently move consumer freight such as cars and appliances into
Western Washington. Higher passenger train speed limits would help Amtrak
better meet its schedules and ensure that Sound Transit trains can offer a
faster alternative to commuters than driving a car.

Melonas said higher train speeds don't automatically translate into more
accidents. He said most railroad accidents occur at train speeds of less
than 20 mph and that nine out of 10 fatalities nationwide involve cars or
trucks at crossings, not derailments.

Kathy Turner, a Puyallup City Council member, said she has never seen the
people she represents so united against an issue. No one - business people,
the elderly, parents of school children - wants increases in train speed,
she said.

Doug Harbaugh owns Puyallup Antique Mall at 201 N. Meridian St. His building
is 20 feet from the Burlington Northern track.

"The building is 100 years old," he said. "Freights really beat buildings
up. I have cracks in my building I didn't have before."

He said higher train speeds will intensify the shaking that ripples from the
tracks to his building and could cause more damage.

Puyallup has eight Burlington Northern crossings. The Puyallup School
District has schools in the city near the tracks, including an elementary
school 100 feet away and Puyallup High School, about a block and a half
away. The loosely compacted soils in the city's area of the Puyallup River
Valley could give way, city officials said, causing derailments if too many
heavy freight trains ran through at higher speeds.

Mike Rowswell, the state commission's rail safety manager, said his
organization researched the soil concerns, but couldn't verify a problem.

"The Union Pacific railroad is running through the same type of soils in the
Puyallup area," he said. "They have no track maintenance problems. The
concern was not borne out. We don't believe it will cause a derailment."

City Councilman Mike Deal, a former railroad employee, remembers two
derailments in Puyallup. The first was in the early 1960s. A Northern
Pacific passenger train derailed and sprawled over East Pioneer Avenue near
Meeker Junction. He drove there to see it.

"Passenger cars were jackknifed on the street," he said, and pieces of train
cars leaned against a house across the street. The train had been running at
40 mph, he said.

In the 1980s, he saw another derailment along West Stewart Avenue where
train cars hit the ground.

Trains running at higher speeds will spread out more when they derail and
likely hit houses, schools or downtown businesses, he said.

"We owe it to citizens to do everything we can legally to ensure trains run
safely through Puyallup," he said.

In Kent, Auburn and Sumner, where higher speeds were approved, trains won't
run faster until certain safety measures are taken. For instance, in Auburn,
Burlington Northern agreed to install fencing and a pedestrian overpass at
the new train station so people don't have to walk across the tracks, said
Paul Krauss, city planning director.

In Sumner and Kent, median barriers will be placed at road crossings so
vehicles cannot weave around closed crossing gates, according to a Rowswell
report to the Utilities and Transportation Commission.

- - -

* Rob Tucker covers East Pierce County. Reach him at 253-597-8374 or at
rob.tucker@....

Publication date: 2000-12-24
© 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

DepotNews.com   NewsWire

  Japan has fastest train in the world -- for now
Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Publication date: 2000-12-24


Japan has fastest train in the world -- for now
By GARY WARNER

Orange County Register

Sunday, December 24, 2000

Rocketing across the Kanto Plain between Osaka and Tokyo at 150 mph, I'm
suddenly hit with a popping noise, a lurch left and a loud rush of air.

Out my window, a blue-white flash blurs by a few feet away. Just as the jolt
of knee-buckling adrenalin hits and I dig my nails into the armrests of my
airplane-style seat, all again goes quiet and calm.

The sound and vision explosion is just my northbound Nozomi bullet train
passing a southbound Nozomi.

For everyone else in my second-class car, it's a ho-hum moment.

Passengers continue to munch from their bento box lunches of salmon, shrimp
and bean-curd cubes, scan their newspapers or snooze. Older businessmen keep
cool with ornate hand fans.

I'm watching the scenery speed by -- a momentary pleasure at best.

Terraced temples outside Kyoto pop into view and are gone in a blink of the
eye. A school playground, a rice paddy, a bus repair yard come and go in
seconds as the urban sprawl of central Japan unfolds.

Fastest in the world

The Nozomi is the fastest scheduled train service in the world, according to
the International Railway Gazette.

The latest in Japan's long line of shinkansen bullet trains hits 162 mph at
one point on its run from Hakata on the southern island of Kyushu to Tokyo.
Top design speed: about 190 mph.

I'm aboard for the most popular leg, a 343-mile stretch from Osaka to Tokyo
(roughly the distance from Los Angeles to Phoenix) that takes just 2 hours,
17 minutes.

Passengers sit in thin but comfortable seats in rows of two or three.
Attendants roll carts laden with Japanese lager, sake, coffee, tea, cookies
and boxed meals through the corridors.

"Please put cell phones on vibrate," a sign reads near the door.

Many of the gray-suited executives who pay the premium rates to ride on
Nozomi have their laptops open to survey spreadsheets or write reports.

Japan is the birthplace of the bullet train, developing The Dream
Super-Express beginning in the late 1960s. The first bullet trains entered
service in 1964, just in time for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. France
wrestled the high-speed crown away after introducing its TGV express trains
in the 1970s.

Spain's Talgos, Sweden's X2000 and the French-British Eurostar all top the
120-mph mark. America's Acela has joined the lineup, with 150 mph service
between Boston, New York and Washington.

Japan has designed trains that are not only fast, but pleasing to the eye.
The 45-foot-long tapered nose and bubble cockpit of the Nozomi make the
train look like a missile on its side.

Even Nankai, the commuter rail line from Kansai Airport to Namba in suburban
Osaka, features retrofuturistic trains that look like something from a Jules
Verne novel.

New German train

Japan's top-speed spot is expected to fall next year when the International
Railway Gazette's next semiannual survey comes out. The new German ICE-3
train has been clocked at about 190 mph on its scheduled runs.

The future will be even faster. Engineers in Japan and Europe are working on
magnetic levitation (maglev) trains that float above the rails at speeds up
to 350 mph. Someday, a train could cover the distance from Los Angeles to
San Francisco in 70 minutes.

A little over two hours after leaving Osaka, the train is snaking through
downtown Tokyo, past gridlock on the elevated highways.

The car commuters have that resigned look so familiar on a California
interstate.

The cell phones of the business people begin to beep and buzz -- Nozomi is
on time and the bosses know by the second when the train will pull into the
station.

Outside on the long station platform, a gaggle of schoolgirls in their white
blouses, red bow ties and blue skirts line up in a neat row, waiting to
board an older white snub-nosed Hikari bullet train headed for Mount Fuji.

As I exit, the cleaning crew is on its way in to make the Nozomi sparkle
when the rocket takes off in a half-hour to head back south.

Publication date: 2000-12-24
© 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

DepotNews.com   NewsWire

  Britons watch
Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Publication date: 2000-12-24


Britons watch, wait as rails screech to halt
Once premier system suffers delays, crashes as private firm hits trouble

By MARA D. BELLABY

Associated Press

Sunday, December 24, 2000

London -- No sooner does a train destination pop up on the departure screen
at London's Paddington Station than another word also appears: Delayed.

The 8:01 a.m. train to Twyford? Delayed. So are the 8:04 a.m. to Slough, the
8:18 a.m. to Langley and the 8:33 a.m. to Reading. Passengers waiting for
the 8:48 a.m. to Great Malvern, 130 miles northwest of London, should be so
lucky: Their train is canceled.

Rail chiefs have given up apologizing for the chaotic state of Britain's
rail network and instead are taking out full-page newspaper advertisements
to humbly acknowledge that "Sorry is not enough."

Railtrack, the private company responsible for maintaining the nation's
20,000 miles of track and 2,500 train stations, has declared a period of
"corporate mourning" and canceled all its corporate Christmas parties.
Seasonal merrymaking would send the wrong message while the nation's train
services are in disarray, the company warned.

Even the rare Briton who never sets foot on a train has suffered. The
Automobile Association says road traffic into London has increased by 25% as
desperate commuters clog the roads seeking alternatives to the canceled
services, lengthy delays and overcrowded carriages that have become the
hallmark of Britain's railroads in recent months.

Railroad of the world

"Getting to work is hell," Elaine Lacon complained as she hurried through
Paddington Station after her train pulled into London 20 minutes late, yet
again.

"But going home is worse," she added. "You are already tired and then you
end up standing around, waiting and waiting for a train."

Britain's rail network, which serves about 500,000 people daily, was once
the envy of the world. With the opening of the Liverpool-to- Manchester rail
line in 1830, Britain could boast of inventing modern rail travel.

Twenty years later, the British beat the rest of the world again by covering
the entire island with a web of interconnected lines. Passengers and freight
could travel from the Scottish highlands to the English Channel.

But in recent years, the fabled network has failed to live up to its former
prestige. Delays have become more common, and cars are routinely
overcrowded. Train companies have faced fines for poor service, while a
spate of fatal crashes has dented the public's confidence.

Fatalities add up

The rail service plunged into a full-blown crisis beginning Oct. 17 when a
high-speed intercity train jumped the tracks north of London, killing four
passengers and injuring dozens.

While not Britain's worst train disaster (31 people died in a crash a year
earlier), it was the third fatal crash in as many years. And this time, the
commuters weren't the only ones panicking; the rail industry scared itself.

Investigators could not blame driver error -- a one-time slip-up impossible
to predict or prevent -- but had to concede that the rail infrastructure was
likely at fault. The investigation zeroed in on a cracked rail at a curve in
the track -- a rail that had been spotted by safety inspectors earlier,
scheduled for repair but never fixed, according to a preliminary government
report on the accident.

"The most worrying factor is the rail was only 5 years old, and it broke,"
said John Slater, a consultant with Railway Magazine, a monthly journal that
began publishing in 1897.

"Previously, it would have been expected to survive for 25 years. So this
means now they've got to look at every piece of rail in the country no
matter when it was put down," he said.

Quick shutdowns

Within days, Railtrack was closing down entire sections of the network for
urgent safety checks and enforcing new speed restrictions on potentially
dangerous segments.

Commuting times doubled overnight, and some services were replaced by
overcrowded buses. The train companies that operate various routes pleaded
with passengers to remain patient.

Railtrack said the drastic action was necessary to put safety first, but
some Britons were left wondering what the previous priorities had been if
such urgent remedial action was suddenly required.

"Closing down lines at a moment's notice when the previous day they had been
regarded as safe . . . creates an impression of panic designed to drive
passengers back on to the roads," said Mick Rix, general secretary of Aslef,
the train drivers' union.

But just as Americans love and depend upon their automobiles, so it is with
Britain and railroads. Abandoning the train is not really an option.

A train ride is an everyday experience. Britons travel by train to get to
work, to shop at city stores, to visit relatives or friends and to go on
outings around the country.

Trains essential in society

"Railways are a central part of the British sense of what it is to be
British and what it is to live in Britain," said Colin Divall, professor of
railroad studies at the University of York. "They are an essential part of
everyday life, but they also mean something important. Trains are still part
of the national identity."

Travel-weary Britons may be wishing it were otherwise, however.

Faced with the prospect of being rerouted 20 miles back to Leeds station in
November, irate commuters threatened to commandeer their train. Luckily for
the driver, Leeds station was experiencing its own problems -- a power
failure. Consequently, the mutiny was abandoned, and the commuters were left
to find their own way forward.

But their anger remained.

"I have not had a train on time for six months," said passenger Keith
Norris. "People have had enough."

Privatization blamed

Many critics blame the privatization of British Rail in the late 1990s for
the current mess.

Despite the misgivings of many industry experts, the Conservative Party
government split the track off the rolling stock. Railtrack was created to
manage the track, and 25 companies were given franchises to run passenger
services around the country.

The Tories believed it would be easier to find buyers for train companies if
they were relieved of responsibility for track maintenance and repairs.
Selling off Railtrack to thousands of private investors also allowed the
process to be completed more quickly and decisively -- in the process,
making it hugely expensive for any later government to buy back control of
the nation's railroads.

"I have always said that the fragmented, adversarial, blame- culture
structure of the railways, which we inherited, encouraged different parts of
the industry to pull in different directions, against the interests of
passengers," said current Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who
nevertheless has ruled out any moves to re-nationalize the rail industry.

Safety affects morale

The Tories, while acknowledging some mistakes were made during
privatization, accuse the current government of underfunding the rail
network. They also say the government's decision last year to remove
responsibility for rail safety from Railtrack damaged industry morale and
created a who-can-we-blame culture that fails to fix problems.

Railtrack's chief executive, Gerald Corbett, resigned in November amid
rising calls for his ouster. The company's board hopes his successor, former
finance director Steven Marshall, will restore public confidence, but he has
less than one year's experience in the rail industry.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Marshall assured lawmakers that regular
train service would be restored by January, though safety checks and repair
work would continue into the next year.

Britons, meanwhile, are left to improvise -- and that includes Queen
Elizabeth II, who usually can be counted on to promote the nation's
accomplishments.

The queen was due to travel by train from London to Cambridge for a day of
public engagements last month, but Buckingham Palace said the monarch
reluctantly made the trip by car.

The journey, normally 45 minutes, would have taken up to two hours, the
palace said, and the queen might have been late for her appointments.

Publication date: 2000-12-24
© 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

SEPTA link to Reading boosted
-----Original Message-----
From: Yona Shtern [mailto:yona.shtern"sympatico.ca@...]
Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2000 9:18 PM
To: rdadddmd@...
Subject: SEPTA link to Reading boosted



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             Sunday, December 24, 2000  Go to: S M T W T F S

             E-mail the story | Plain-text for printing

       SEPTA link to Reading boosted

       Norfolk Southern, long opposed to a commuter line, offers its tracks
if a new freight line is built.

       By Jere Downs
       INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

       Norfolk Southern has offered SEPTA a new way to build its proposed
MetroRail transit line from Philadelphia to Reading.

       It's simple but expensive.

       Norfolk Southern proposed last week giving SEPTA its railroad from
Norristown to Reading - if SEPTA will build the freight line a new railroad
in the region.

       This proposal would increase the estimated cost of MetroRail to $2.2
billion - from last summer's $1.44 billion - but SEPTA officials were
pleased and undaunted.

       Both parties framed the offer as the beginning of what is expected to
be long negotiations between the transit agency and the railroad for a
project intended to help unclog the Schuylkill Expressway, offer a rail link
to King of Prussia, and spur billions in transit-friendly commercial and
residential development in the booming western suburbs.

       For four years, SEPTA has sought permission, first from Conrail and
then from Norfolk Southern, to run rail transit on new tracks in the freight
corridor from Norristown to Reading.

       Norfolk Southern didn't like that idea.

       "We are tired of being the bad guy, but there will always be conflict
if you try to move freight and passengers in the same corridor," said H.
Craig Lewis, Norfolk Southern's vice president of corporate affairs.

       In his offer, Lewis proposed that SEPTA instead build Norfolk Southern
a railroad on the abandoned 32-mile Enola rail bed through Chester and
Lancaster Counties to Creswell, where it connects to a freight line to
Harrisburg.

       The Norristown-to-Reading link "is our main line out of Philadelphia,"
Lewis said. "If you want to push freight off that line, we have to have
somewhere to go."

       SEPTA general manager Jack Leary hailed Norfolk Southern's offer as a
"major victory" for the 62-mile MetroRail project.

       "All along, I thought the best alternative for them [Norfolk Southern]
would be to adopt the Enola branch," Leary said. "I'm really pleased
[Norfolk Southern] has come to the table and said this [MetroRail] can be
accomplished."

       Leary suggested that the benefits of MetroRail would offset the big
price tag. He predicted that MetroRail would spur private commercial and
residential development from Philadelphia to Reading at a scale "up to eight
times" the $2.2 billion cost.

       In addition, Leary said, moving most freight off the track would
benefit SEPTA by encouraging industrial development along the Enola branch
instead. Norfolk Southern has proposed serving existing industrial customers
at night - such as making coal deliveries to the Peco Energy Co. plant at
Cromby.

       "This is the equivalent of a new interstate highway," Leary said.
"Having the freight railroad elsewhere benefits everyone."

       SEPTA and railroad officials stressed that the $783 million cost of
laying new track and signals for Norfolk Southern on the Enola railbed was
preliminary - the result of a $160,000 SEPTA-funded study that the railroad
issued Wednesday.

       MetroRail "has now moved from a vision to a concept," Leary said.
"These cost estimates are a blueprint for negotiations."

       The new $2.2 billion estimate doesn't account for possible savings to
MetroRail construction if Norfolk Southern was no longer moving trains
through the Norristown-to-Reading corridor, Lewis said.

       "Our gut feeling is that the cost of the Enola branch could be
entirely offset by cost reductions and time saved by SEPTA," he said.

       Nonetheless, the latest dollar figures elevate MetroRail to the
largest infrastructure project in the region in decades.

       The latest cost estimate outstrips the combined cost of two new
stadiums in South Philadelphia ($1.01 billion) and four current major
highway projects: adding nine miles of new Route 202 four-lane expressway in
Bucks and Montgomery Counties ($285 million); widening Route 202 and its new
interchange with the Schuylkill Expressway ($224 million); rebuilding
Interstate 95 ($95 million); and rebuilding 10 miles of Route 309 in
Montgomery County ($180 million).

       SEPTA hopes 80 percent of MetroRail's cost will be paid by the Federal
Transit Administration and the rest by the state.

       The escalating scale of the region's first new transit line in decades
alarmed MetroRail's critics.

       "It is shameful that the price is now more than $2 billion when the
whole project can be done for $800 million," said Don Nigro, president of
the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers.

       The transit riders' advocacy group has lobbied for SEPTA to launch
modest passenger service in the Norristown-to-Reading corridor.

       "In the software world, we call this type of proposal 'vaporware,' "
Nigro said. "It is entirely theoretical."

       Still, Norfolk Southern's willingness to accommodate SEPTA at all
means that MetroRail has cleared a major hurdle, Leary said.

       "This is a railroad that wouldn't even talk to us a few years ago,"
Leary said. "I applaud them."

       The SEPTA-funded study also offered the possibility that MetroRail
could coexist with Norfolk Southern in the current Norristown-to-Reading
freight corridor.

       But the report from Frederic R. Harris Inc. of Philadelphia also cited
$153 million in costs to widen the right of way so passenger and freight
service could coexist on parallel tracks.

       Most worrisome was the study's contention that Neversink Mountain near
Reading poses serious obstacles to MetroRail because the terrain makes it
impossible to build a transit line without disrupting Norfolk Southern
operations. The study did not estimate the cost of cutting into the mountain
to lay new double track for MetroRail.

       Untold costs could also mount because of the need to acquire extensive
amounts of property in downtown Pottstown and move a Norfolk Southern rail
yard in Reading to the Enola branch, according to the report.

       Though SEPTA commissioned the study to objectively catalog Norfolk
Southern's technical issues with MetroRail, planners at the transit agency
hinted Friday that they saw obstacles cited in the report as the railroad's
negotiating tool.

       "It is the railroad's wish list," Chris Patton, SEPTA's director of
long-range planning, said.

       Built in 1905 to relieve congestion on the Pennsylvania Railroad's
main Philadelphia-to-Harrisburg line, the Enola branch, named after a town
outside Harrisburg, was abandoned by Conrail in 1990. Rail ties and signals
were removed, leaving only a leafy rail bed running from Parkesburg, Chester
County, westward through Lancaster County to Harrisburg.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------
       Jere Downs' e-mail address is jdowns@...





   ----------

http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/12/24/city/smetro24.htm


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

comment on below:

The same deregulation which has now ruined the
British rail system is the same deregulation
which has now ruined California's power systems -
permitting big money and out of state interests
to rip off the golden state in the name of the
"free market" which is about as free as a new
Lexus is.
andy l.

   Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 23:38:14 -0500
    From: "Ronald Dawson" <rdadddmd@...>
Subject: More Railtrack news.

DepotNews.com   NewsWire

  Britons watch
Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Publication date: 2000-12-24


Britons watch, wait as rails screech to halt
Once premier system suffers delays, crashes as
private firm hits trouble

By MARA D. BELLABY

Associated Press

Sunday, December 24, 2000

London -- No sooner does a train destination pop
up on the departure screen
at London's Paddington Station than another word
also appears: Delayed.

The 8:01 a.m. train to Twyford? Delayed. So are
the 8:04 a.m. to Slough, the
8:18 a.m. to Langley and the 8:33 a.m. to
Reading. Passengers waiting for
the 8:48 a.m. to Great Malvern, 130 miles
northwest of London, should be so
lucky: Their train is canceled.

Rail chiefs have given up apologizing for the
chaotic state of Britain's
rail network and instead are taking out full-page

newspaper advertisements
to humbly acknowledge that "Sorry is not enough."

Railtrack, the private company responsible for
maintaining the nation's
20,000 miles of track and 2,500 train stations,
has declared a period of
"corporate mourning" and canceled all its
corporate Christmas parties.
Seasonal merrymaking would send the wrong message

while the nation's train
services are in disarray, the company warned.

Even the rare Briton who never sets foot on a
train has suffered. The
Automobile Association says road traffic into
London has increased by 25% as
desperate commuters clog the roads seeking
alternatives to the canceled
services, lengthy delays and overcrowded
carriages that have become the
hallmark of Britain's railroads in recent months.

Railroad of the world

"Getting to work is hell," Elaine Lacon
complained as she hurried through
Paddington Station after her train pulled into
London 20 minutes late, yet
again.

"But going home is worse," she added. "You are
already tired and then you
end up standing around, waiting and waiting for a

train."

Britain's rail network, which serves about
500,000 people daily, was once
the envy of the world. With the opening of the
Liverpool-to- Manchester rail
line in 1830, Britain could boast of inventing
modern rail travel.

Twenty years later, the British beat the rest of
the world again by covering
the entire island with a web of interconnected
lines. Passengers and freight
could travel from the Scottish highlands to the
English Channel.

But in recent years, the fabled network has
failed to live up to its former
prestige. Delays have become more common, and
cars are routinely
overcrowded. Train companies have faced fines for

poor service, while a
spate of fatal crashes has dented the public's
confidence.

Fatalities add up

The rail service plunged into a full-blown crisis

beginning Oct. 17 when a
high-speed intercity train jumped the tracks
north of London, killing four
passengers and injuring dozens.

While not Britain's worst train disaster (31
people died in a crash a year
earlier), it was the third fatal crash in as many

years. And this time, the
commuters weren't the only ones panicking; the
rail industry scared itself.

Investigators could not blame driver error -- a
one-time slip-up impossible
to predict or prevent -- but had to concede that
the rail infrastructure was
likely at fault. The investigation zeroed in on a

cracked rail at a curve in
the track -- a rail that had been spotted by
safety inspectors earlier,
scheduled for repair but never fixed, according
to a preliminary government
report on the accident.

"The most worrying factor is the rail was only 5
years old, and it broke,"
said John Slater, a consultant with Railway
Magazine, a monthly journal that
began publishing in 1897.

"Previously, it would have been expected to
survive for 25 years. So this
means now they've got to look at every piece of
rail in the country no
matter when it was put down," he said.

Quick shutdowns

Within days, Railtrack was closing down entire
sections of the network for
urgent safety checks and enforcing new speed
restrictions on potentially
dangerous segments.

Commuting times doubled overnight, and some
services were replaced by
overcrowded buses. The train companies that
operate various routes pleaded
with passengers to remain patient.

Railtrack said the drastic action was necessary
to put safety first, but
some Britons were left wondering what the
previous priorities had been if
such urgent remedial action was suddenly
required.

"Closing down lines at a moment's notice when the

previous day they had been
regarded as safe . . . creates an impression of
panic designed to drive
passengers back on to the roads," said Mick Rix,
general secretary of Aslef,
the train drivers' union.

But just as Americans love and depend upon their
automobiles, so it is with
Britain and railroads. Abandoning the train is
not really an option.

A train ride is an everyday experience. Britons
travel by train to get to
work, to shop at city stores, to visit relatives
or friends and to go on
outings around the country.

Trains essential in society

"Railways are a central part of the British sense

of what it is to be
British and what it is to live in Britain," said
Colin Divall, professor of
railroad studies at the University of York. "They

are an essential part of
everyday life, but they also mean something
important. Trains are still part
of the national identity."

Travel-weary Britons may be wishing it were
otherwise, however.

Faced with the prospect of being rerouted 20
miles back to Leeds station in
November, irate commuters threatened to
commandeer their train. Luckily for
the driver, Leeds station was experiencing its
own problems -- a power
failure. Consequently, the mutiny was abandoned,
and the commuters were left
to find their own way forward.

But their anger remained.

"I have not had a train on time for six months,"
said passenger Keith
Norris. "People have had enough."

Privatization blamed

Many critics blame the privatization of British
Rail in the late 1990s for
the current mess.

Despite the misgivings of many industry experts,
the Conservative Party
government split the track off the rolling stock.

Railtrack was created to
manage the track, and 25 companies were given
franchises to run passenger
services around the country.

The Tories believed it would be easier to find
buyers for train companies if
they were relieved of responsibility for track
maintenance and repairs.
Selling off Railtrack to thousands of private
investors also allowed the
process to be completed more quickly and
decisively -- in the process,
making it hugely expensive for any later
government to buy back control of
the nation's railroads.

"I have always said that the fragmented,
adversarial, blame- culture
structure of the railways, which we inherited,
encouraged different parts of
the industry to pull in different directions,
against the interests of
passengers," said current Deputy Prime Minister
John Prescott, who
nevertheless has ruled out any moves to
re-nationalize the rail industry.

Safety affects morale

The Tories, while acknowledging some mistakes
were made during
privatization, accuse the current government of
underfunding the rail
network. They also say the government's decision
last year to remove
responsibility for rail safety from Railtrack
damaged industry morale and
created a who-can-we-blame culture that fails to
fix problems.

Railtrack's chief executive, Gerald Corbett,
resigned in November amid
rising calls for his ouster. The company's board
hopes his successor, former
finance director Steven Marshall, will restore
public confidence, but he has
less than one year's experience in the rail
industry.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Marshall
assured lawmakers that regular
train service would be restored by January,
though safety checks and repair
work would continue into the next year.

Britons, meanwhile, are left to improvise -- and
that includes Queen
Elizabeth II, who usually can be counted on to
promote the nation's
accomplishments.

The queen was due to travel by train from London
to Cambridge for a day of
public engagements last month, but Buckingham
Palace said the monarch
reluctantly made the trip by car.

The journey, normally 45 minutes, would have
taken up to two hours, the
palace said, and the queen might have been late
for her appointments.

Publication date: 2000-12-24
© 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

=====
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I have been travelling on UK rail system for many years and have stayed with
the railways (plus my folding bicycle) over the last months.

What is happening is sad, frustrating and embarrassing. I have been ashamed
at times that my anger at the mounting problems has spilled into rudeness to
hapless front-line staff. I have on occasion quickly apologised to those
still prepared to speak face-to-face to passengers knowing the fault for
what has happened is not theirs. I have a few unforgettable examples of
decent civil and conscientious initiatives by the most junior staff which
their managers will probably never know about and if they did would do
nothing to reward.

The frustrations of a system grievously damaged by false and self-serving
views of the market and the intrinsic magic of so-called market forces are
compounded by the impossibility of getting information abut timetables or
timetable alterations because this flawed system isn't geared to give
information about itself - only spin and insincere apology (often on barely
audible loudspeaker systems that interrupt human-to-human conversation).

The rail information websites are regularly inaccessible and the phone
information lines are useless. These are now managed so as to make the
caller pay to queue in them which would be just acceptable if a caller ever
got to the head of the queue - but the normal thing is to pay for several
expensive minutes of recorded apologies and then to be automatically cut-off
or to get hold of some poor soul no clearer than the caller about what is
happening. I have on the rare occasions of getting through to a human being
exchanged consoling existential reflections on Kafka and the unbearable
lightness of being along with commiseration for having to do such a rotten
job. I do not charge for the time I spend counselling railway staff. It is
an attempt to balance earlier episodes of frustration driven ill-tempered
grumbling.

I long to see someone powerful and responsible for all this swinging slowly
in the wind - but I am ashamed of such thoughts. What is needed is the sea
change of attitude and mind-set that will learn from this debacle to give us
the most wonderful railway system in Europe.

For the moment though, I have the feeling that in this mess some acts of
leadership could at least have made sure "they all have as much tea and
coffee as they want wherever they are!!". But much of the time the buffet
cars are closed. I have a feeling that something could have been done to
ensure that at least we passengers or would-be passengers are told what is
happening - by putting many extra staff on the information lines. Instead
all we get are recorded apologies and even these are dwindling.

It's not the end of the world and it's not directly physically dangerous.
Life goes on. We eat sleep and enjoy many of the good things of life - so
what's all the fuss? It's because in some way or another the catalogue of
banal unimaginative greed driven myopic stupidities that underlie what has
happened to our rail system is a model for what we may be doing far more
seriously to the environment and the future. This isn't a bang, it's a
whimper.

All that grumble said ... I'd still prefer 10 times over to be stuck in a
delayed train than in a motorway tailback or urban gridlock. It allows me
time to hone my arguments against the genius of "the market", private
finance initiatives and the triumphalist procession of accountants dancing
on the idea of a public realm.

A Happy Christmas to one and all.

Simon Baddeley

>
> Britons watch, wait as rails screech to halt
> Once premier system suffers delays, crashes as private firm hits trouble
>
> By MARA D. BELLABY
>

> Even the rare Briton who never sets foot on a train has suffered. The
> Automobile Association says road traffic into London has increased by
> 25% as desperate commuters clog the roads seeking alternatives to the
> canceled services, lengthy delays and overcrowded carriages that have
> become the hallmark of Britain's railroads in recent months.

> But just as Americans love and depend upon their automobiles, so it is
> with Britain and railroads. Abandoning the train is not really an
> option.
>
> A train ride is an everyday experience. Britons travel by train to get
> to work, to shop at city stores, to visit relatives or friends and to go
> on outings around the country.
>
> Trains essential in society
>
> "Railways are a central part of the British sense of what it is to be
> British and what it is to live in Britain," said Colin Divall,
> professor of railroad studies at the University of York. "They are an
> essential part of everyday life, but they also mean something important.
> Trains are still part of the national identity."
>

I was reminded in a written interview recently (by the North of England
manager of Continental Airlines), that to most Americans, Britain is
London. This article shows that they are given this impression by
so-called Experts in the UK, such as the above Mr. Divall, who is not even
based in London!

Rail is may be an everyday form of transport for a large proportion of the
population in London & South East England, and for the well-off in other
parts of Britain. However, to the vast majority, it is only an occasional
form of transport. Apart from pre-booked seats on Inter-city routes to
London, the fares per mile are horrendous, and Stations are often in
remote locations, only accessible to car users.

More than five times as many people in Britain use Buses regularly, as use
trains, and a nearby low income residential area illustrates the point:

This settlement, called Hattersley, has about 8,000 residents, and is
served by a Rail 'halt' on the line from Manchester to a town called
Glossop, some 15 miles away on the north-western edge of the Peak District
National Park. Hattersley is an unemployment "black spot", and a couple of
years ago, a Social Exclusion study was done in the area, to assess the
cause and effects of Unemployment-related poverty. One of the things they
found was that only about 300 residents had used the local rail station
*at all* in the previous 12 months to the study date. This was presumably
because of the fares. For regular passengers, the fares are probably
Ł19.70 per week, compared to Ł6.70 on the (slower) bus services. With
families surviving on social security payments of as little as Ł60 per
week, this difference of Ł13 per adult is significant.
	 Further, most residential areas in urban Britain don't even have a
Rail service. 90% of the UK population live more than 400 metres (c0.3
miles) from a Rail station/halt, with the average distance being about 1.5
miles.

>  comment on below:
>
> The same deregulation which has now ruined the
> British rail system


Probably a pedantic point, or one that would seem so to anyone unfamiliar
with local bus services in Britain (outside London), but Britain's
railways have *not* been deregulated. They have been privatised, and I
would not wish to comment on the effects of this on the network, other
than to say that on all three occasions I used the Manchester to London
service between 1974 and about 1985 (not all Britons are drawn to the
Kapital - sorry, Capital every weekend), the southbound journey was
delayed between 20 and 70 minutes.
	 However, they are still regulated in that only one company can run
a particular route at a time, and minimum service levels are set by
Government. In addition, massive public subsidy is paid to retain loss
making routes. In Gtr. Manchester this totals more than Ł60 million per
year, equalling nearly Ł25 per head of population. In practice, some of
this makes up for fare "evasion" as a lot of revenue, particularly
off-peak, is simply not collected by train conductors.
	 Local Bus services outside London were Deregulated on October 26,
1986, and gradually privatised later. Indeed, the fact that Privatisation
came after Deregulation is a major factor in the decline of the industry.
By the time the former council-owned companies were privatised, they were
financially crippled as millions of passengers deserted the industry, sick
of the wasteful competition, totally devoid of innovation. Hence, they
were bargains to the rich privateers, and the local tax-payers got next to
nothing for their 56+ year investment. This also played into the hands of
the car lobby as old buses clogged up bus stops to stop their competitors
picking up passengers; fares got ever more complicated and driver turnover
was such that new drivers were forever getting lost and confused, as they
strived to learn up to 60 different routes and a multitude of fares.
Admittedly, recent years have seen a big increase in new, environmentally
friendly buses, but this is beginning to tail off again.
	 Bus users (sorry, customers) have less consumer rights than
virtually any other purchaser of goods or services, and are now even heavy
loading routes suspended (typically) three days (25/26 Dec & 1 Jan) and
thirteen evenings a year (the above days, 24 & 31 Dec and all Bank
Holidays), with evening and Sunday afternoon service levels cut; and
Sunday morning, Peak time and Bank Holiday services have been absolutely
slashed. Punctuality has also dropped dramatically, with peak hour buses
running very late, due to near gridlock conditions, and unsupervised
off-peak buses running early, as drivers either chase their competitors
around the clock, or simply "claim back" their unpaid time lost in the
peaks. In the early 1990s, eleven different companies competed on one busy
corridor in Manchester, and there were 78 companies competing for ever
dwindling numbers of customers at one time.
	 Although large amounts of tax-payers money goes into subsidising
cheap fares for Senior Citizens, people with disabilities and the
under-16s, only Ł14 million a year is spent on subsidised bus services in
Gtr. Manchester. More than half of this goes on dedicated school
services+, leaving less than Ł3 per head to pay for "socially necessary"
services at off-peak times or to small residential areas, and to cover for
the routes/times abandoned by bus companies because the profit margins are
too low (typically 15-18% margins are sought).

	 I apologise if all this sounds miserable and unseasonal, but this
is the time of year when the disadvantages of Deregulation is most evident
to the "Free Market" losers.

Phil



+ I believe the cost of schools transport only comes out of the general
Transport Budget in Gtr. Manchester & Tyne & Wear. In most of the UK, it
is paid for through the Education Budget.

DepotNews.com   NewsWire

  Fan train pulverizes house crossing tracks Minor injuries to 3 on train, 2
on house
Source: The News Tribune Tacoma, WA
Publication date: 2000-12-25


As disappointed Seattle Seahawks fans settled in for a three-hour train ride
to Portland late Saturday, a crew moving a house inched along a road north
of Sumner.
Shortly after 10:50 p.m., the Amtrak train zipped past the King- Pierce
County line at more than 70 mph. Moments later, the operators spotted the
house straddling the railroad tracks along Eighth Street East.

The crew slammed on the emergency brakes but could not slow down quickly
enough.

At 10:58 p.m., the train rammed into the four-bedroom house, tearing it in
half and throwing two men on its roof into a ditch. The house splintered,
leaving debris strewn across a field and the road.

An off-duty Pierce County sheriff's deputy was directing traffic during the
moving of the house, said Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.

Five people, including the two men, suffered minor injuries. Troopers
arrested the driver of the semitractor-trailer hauling the house on
suspicion of drunken driving and driving with a suspended license, Amtrak
and the Washington State Patrol reported.

Troopers took the 45-year-old Auburn man to a nearby State Patrol office and
later released him, Lt. Dan Eikum said.

Eikum did not release the man's blood-alcohol level, pending further
investigation. Under state law, anyone driving a commercial vehicle must
have a blood-alcohol level of less than 0.04 percent, as compared with 0.08
for drivers of private cars and pickup trucks.

Paramedics took the two men, ages 25 and 31, to Auburn Regional Medical
Center for treatment of cuts and bumps. The men had been riding on the roof
to lift up power lines as the house passed under traffic signals on its way
to Eatonville from Bonney Lake, Eikum said.

"They were lucky," he said.

Two Amtrak passengers and one employee suffered minor injuries in the wreck,
Amtrak spokesman Kevin Johnson said. All were treated and released from Good
Samaritan Hospital.

Amtrak bused the rest of the 94 passengers and five crew members aboard
train No. 757, a Seahawks football special, to Portland shortly after the
wreck.

The company took the damaged train out of service.

"There was no reason for that thing to be on the tracks," Johnson said.

The two men and semitractor-trailer driver had the necessary permits to move
the house, Eikum said. They were headed west on Eighth Street East, just
west of the East Valley Highway.

The Eighth Street East crossing is marked with gates and lights, Johnson
said. The posted speed limit for trains is 79 mph.

The train left Seattle at 10:20 p.m., after the Seahawks lost to the Buffalo
Bills in the last Seattle game of the football season. The train was
scheduled to arrive in Portland at 2:35 a.m.

- - -

* Staff writer Stacey Burns covers Pierce County crime and safety issues.
Reach her at 253-597-8268 or stacey.burns@....

Publication date: 2000-12-25
© 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

Andy L wrote:
>comment on below:
>The same deregulation which has now ruined the
>British rail system is the same deregulation
>which has now ruined California's power systems -
>permitting big money and out of state interests
>to rip off the golden state in the name of the
>"free market" which is about as free as a new
>Lexus is.

Now would be a good time to invest in some photovoltaic panels, then when
your not drawing a lot of power (like when your not at home) off the grid.
You could be putting power on to the grid and making your power bill go
down. Dawson

philip@... wrote:
>Rail is may be an everyday form of transport for a large proportion of the
>population in London & South East England, and for the well-off in other
>parts of Britain. However, to the vast majority, it is only an occasional
>form of transport. Apart from pre-booked seats on Inter-city routes to
>London, the fares per mile are horrendous, and Stations are often in
>remote locations, only accessible to car users.

That reminds me location wise of the train station for Ottawa out in the
boonies, with the only connection to the city being the transitway and
Hwy417.
									 Dawson

see quote below:

Take heart:
traveling by train or any public transportation
in LA is a novel as clean air after a rare rain
(which temporarily clears the car created smog -
placing it in the soil, if you can find land not
yet paved for the auto).
People here in Southern California think the only
non-car transport is at Disneyland
(another reason NOT to frequent Disneyland)
Liberman
carshareLA@...

From: "Ronald Dawson" <rdadddmd@...>
Subject: RE: More Railtrack news.

philip@... wrote:
>Rail is may be an everyday form of transport for
  a large proportion of the
>population in London & South East England, and
for the well-off in other >parts of Britain.
However, to the vast majority,  it is only an
occasional >form of transport. Apart from
pre-booked seats on Inter-city routes to
>London, the fares per mile are horrendous, and
Stations are often in >remote locations, only
accessible to car users.

That reminds me location wise of the train
station for Ottawa out in the boonies, with the
only connection to the city  being the transitway
and Hwy417.
									 Dawson

=====
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DepotNews.com   NewsWire

  The freight escape
Source: Evening News - Scotland
Publication date: 2000-12-27
Arrival time: 2000-12-28

MORE than 11 million pounds is to be spent to reduce jams on central
Scotland's motorways by moving freight off the roads and on to the rails,
the Scottish Executive pledged today.
Oil giant BP is to receive 10m to build a new train-loading terminal at its
Grangemouth refinery, while freight haulage firm WH Malcolm is to receive
900,000 to build a rail link at its adjacent base.

In what is being described as "a significant step" towards easing traffic
congestion on the M8 corridor and the main arterial routes to England down
the A1 and the M6, the grants are expected to remove more than five million
lorry miles from Scotland's under-pressure road system each year.

But opposition politicians and freight organisations warned the grants,
although welcome, will not make any significant impact on Scotland's
transport problems.

At the moment, only ten or 11 per cent of the 150 million tonnes of freight
moved each year in Scotland goes by rail.

The Government has already said it wants to increase that proportion to 18
per cent over the next ten years and has pledged 36m over the next four
years to the Freight Facilities Grant Scheme, for firms wanting to switch to
the railways.

Transport Minister Sarah Boyack said: "These awards will deliver huge
environmental benefits as well as make significant progress towards reducing
the number of lorries on our roads .

Congested

"We are well on course to achieving our target of removing 18 million lorry
miles each year from our roads by 2002 and I look forward to being able to
make even more awards in the next few years when the Scottish Executive
doubles the funding for this scheme."

She said the awards highlighted the way businesses can contribute to the
environment and still compete effectively.

"By transferring freight from road to rail or sea, Scotland's roads are less
congested for everyone. These grants allow for a more sensible use of our
transport network."

But the news has been met with scepticism by some critics. Gavin Scott,
Scottish regional policy director of the Freight Transport Association,
said: "Over and above the current problems with the rail system, the concept
of moving freight from the roads to rail is all very well, but it is only
suitable for some traffic.

"The vast majority of freight in the UK is moved less than 50 miles, and
trains are just not appropriate for those kind of journeys."

He added: "The Executive has had a tendency to say that because they are
throwing money at the railways they don't need to do anything with the
roads.

" More than 90 per cent of freight still goes by the roads. There still
needs to be investment there.

"The other point to bear in mind is that if we increase the number of
freight trains at the same time as trying to increase the level of passenger
services we will see trains fighting for the same track space.

"If there were more fast passenger services, as has been suggested for the
line between Edinburgh and London, then more freight trains would spend
their time sitting in loops.

"The Executive has said it wants to double the number of freight going by
rail over the next ten years. I don't think many people will notice much of
a difference because that will just soak up the expected increase in traffic
anyway."

SNP transport spokesman Bruce Crawford said: "The Executive has set itself
very unambitious targets for transferring freight to the rails.

"This announcement has a lot to do with spin and very little to do with
substance. It is simply tinkering round the edges of Scotland's very real
transport and infrastructure problems."

Derelict

Today's awards also include 700,000 to Swedish firm Iggesund Paperboard to
renovate a pier at Lochaline and to lease a ship to transport timber via
west coast ports rather than by road.

Last year, transport and logistics firm TDG Nexus was given 9.7m to reroute
bulk freight from Grangemouth off the motorways and on to the rail network
as part of the same scheme.

Under the deal, the firm was given the cash to reconstruct a derelict
terminal at the plant to transport up to 360,000 tonnes of polythene and
polypropylene a year to other terminals in Britain.

Publication date: 2000-12-27
© 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

DepotNews.com   NewsWire

  Railroad Blames Mover
Source: The Columbian
Publication date: 2000-12-28


TACOMA (AP) A driver moving a house that was struck by an unscheduled train
Saturday night never told the railroad he would be moving it across the
tracks, a railroad spokesman says.
It was the driver's responsibility to notify the railroad, which would have
stopped any trains until the house cleared the tracks, Burlington Northern
Santa Fe spokesman Gus Melonas said Tuesday.

"We were not notified," Melonas said. "Obviously, trains can't stop. They
can't swerve."

It was unclear whether the driver, Jeffrey Douglas Ponder, 45, of Auburn,
would have been informed that he should notify the railroad or check for
unscheduled trains.

Ponder, who owns Emerald City Building Restoration, says he has been moving
houses around the area for 20 years and was doing everything by the book,
including securing 12 permits for the move from assorted jurisdictions.

He also says he has moved houses across tracks before and never advised the
railroad.

A Pierce County deputy in a car was escorting the rig, but was at the next
intersection and did not see the collision, sheriff's department spokesman
Ed Troyer said.

Ponder was being investigated for driving with alcohol in his system the
state has a zero-tolerance policy for commercial drivers and driving with a
suspended license, Washington State Patrol Lt. Dan Eikum said Wednesday. A
patrol dispatcher initially had said he had been cited, but no charges have
been filed.

"We're still figuring out who did what when," Eikum said.

The case eventually will be forwarded to Pierce County prosecutors, he said.

Publication date: 2000-12-28
© 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

Hey everyone, I'm making a list. Has this been done already?
Please e-mail me any carfree developments you know of!

thanks,
PETE

Here's what I know, off the top of my head:

* Carfree development list
This will be a list of carfree developments around the world.
The entire city need not be carfree to qualify for this list --
but please add notes if necessary (ie: name of district, neighborhood).
   If you know of any *planned* carfree developments, let's include
those as well (but please make the appropriate note beside it).

EUROPE:
- Venice, Italy
- Zermatt, Switzerland
- Winterthur, Switzerland (historic center)
- Feldkirch, Austria  (historic center)
- Lindau, Germany  (historic center)
- Greek Islands (?)

ASIA:
- Gulangya Island (Xiamen, China)
- Cheung Chau Island (and others off of Hong Kong)

AMERICAS:
AFRICA:
OCEANIA:

--
Sticker Guy! / 702 Records
Po Box 204  Reno NV  89504
ph 775-358-7865  fx 775-358-2453
www.stickerguy.com

PLEASE: Quote my message in your reply!

Happy holidays everyone, where ever you are! 		 Dawson
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg

Don't forget Groningen, in Holland, then center of which is carfree.
Report at http://www.living-room.org/sustain/groningen.htm.

Richard

Stickerguy Pete wrote:
>
> Hey everyone, I'm making a list. Has this been done already?
> Please e-mail me any carfree developments you know of!
>
> thanks,
> PETE
>
> Here's what I know, off the top of my head:
>
> * Carfree development list
> This will be a list of carfree developments around the world.
> The entire city need not be carfree to qualify for this list --
> but please add notes if necessary (ie: name of district, neighborhood).
>   If you know of any *planned* carfree developments, let's include
> those as well (but please make the appropriate note beside it).
>
> EUROPE:
> - Venice, Italy
> - Zermatt, Switzerland
> - Winterthur, Switzerland (historic center)
> - Feldkirch, Austria  (historic center)
> - Lindau, Germany  (historic center)
> - Greek Islands (?)
>
> ASIA:
> - Gulangya Island (Xiamen, China)
> - Cheung Chau Island (and others off of Hong Kong)
>
> AMERICAS:
> AFRICA:
> OCEANIA:
>
> --
> Sticker Guy! / 702 Records
> Po Box 204  Reno NV  89504
> ph 775-358-7865  fx 775-358-2453
> www.stickerguy.com
>
> PLEASE: Quote my message in your reply!
>
> To Post a message, send it to:   carfree_cities@eGroups.com
> To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to:
carfree_cities-unsubscribe@eGroups.com
> Group address: http://www.egroups.com/group/carfree_cities/

--
Richard Risemberg
rickrise@...
Living Room Urban Ecology webzine: http://www.living-room.org
"There is more to life than increasing its speed."  (Gandhi)

This will be an interesting list but, as always, God is in the details.
There are to my (fairly good) knowledge of the international scene hundreds
of cities around the world (almost none in North America though) that have
car-free or almost car-free areas of non-trivial dimensions.  There are
usually reasons for this (most often either pure history or geometric or
topographical limitations, though increasingly a knitting together and
gradual extension of successful pedestrian zones), and when you look at them
together what is most notable is the range of their differences.  I make
this point because I think it's important not to be too categorical or
idealistic in such a listing. Which makes it not such an easy thing to do.

I hope very much that as you build it, you will keep the results posted on
J. Crawford's fine car-free cities site, so that they are there for all to
see, add to, qualify, etc.  This kind of process can be very helpful.

As to Peter's question about next car-free days, there are two big looming
dates for both.  The first is an "advance probe" which is being run by the
city of Bogotá on Thursday February 1st, and the second is Earth Car Free
Day which of course is on April 19th as many of you surely already know. If
you go to the Earth Car Free Day site at
http://ecoplan.org/carfreeday/EarthCFD/  (or the shorter www.carfreeday.com
will also do it), you will find full details, including how the two are
being related so as to mutually reinforce each other.  This is, I might add,
an important new wrinkle in the car-free day approach.

Later in the year we shall be seeing a lot more, including of course the
European Commission's program, probably a series of new demonstrations in
China (building on the successes of Chengdu), and, we can be sure, a lot
more.  Again you will be able to follow this on the Earth Car Free Day site.

The great thing about Earth Car Free Day 2001 is that it is being organized
so that EVERYONE can do it.  Check out the site for more on that, and maybe
you too will join us in celebrating it on the 19th.  We call this the
trickle-up approach to sustainability.  Be a part of it!  Lots more fun than
having someone in a uniform telling you what to do.


With all good wishes for a sustainable 2001,

Eric Britton

ecopl@n___  technology, economy, society  ___
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Eric.Britton@...     URL ecoplan.org
Day phone: +331 4326 1323 Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79
Voice/Videoconference/Data +331.4441.6340 (1-4)
24 hour Voicemail/Fax hotline: +331 5301 2896

I want the list to be as complete as possible. I'm aware that many
European cities (most Dutch cities) have carfree centers. I think
a list, however large, will be helpful in illustrating that the carfree
idea is not only possible and realistic, but already successfully
implemented.

If Joel will have it, we'll definitely put the data up on carfree.com.

- Pete


At 08:31 AM 12/29/2000 +0100, you wrote:
>This will be an interesting list but, as always, God is in the details.
>There are to my (fairly good) knowledge of the international scene hundreds
>of cities around the world (almost none in North America though) that have
>car-free or almost car-free areas of non-trivial dimensions.  There are
>usually reasons for this (most often either pure history or geometric or
>topographical limitations, though increasingly a knitting together and
>gradual extension of successful pedestrian zones), and when you look at them
>together what is most notable is the range of their differences.  I make
>this point because I think it's important not to be too categorical or
>idealistic in such a listing. Which makes it not such an easy thing to do.
>
>I hope very much that as you build it, you will keep the results posted on
>J. Crawford's fine car-free cities site, so that they are there for all to
>see, add to, qualify, etc.  This kind of process can be very helpful.
>
>As to Peter's question about next car-free days, there are two big looming
>dates for both.  The first is an "advance probe" which is being run by the
>city of Bogotá on Thursday February 1st, and the second is Earth Car Free
>Day which of course is on April 19th as many of you surely already know. If
>you go to the Earth Car Free Day site at
>http://ecoplan.org/carfreeday/EarthCFD/  (or the shorter www.carfreeday.com
>will also do it), you will find full details, including how the two are
>being related so as to mutually reinforce each other.  This is, I might add,
>an important new wrinkle in the car-free day approach.
>
>Later in the year we shall be seeing a lot more, including of course the
>European Commission's program, probably a series of new demonstrations in
>China (building on the successes of Chengdu), and, we can be sure, a lot
>more.  Again you will be able to follow this on the Earth Car Free Day site.
>
>The great thing about Earth Car Free Day 2001 is that it is being organized
>so that EVERYONE can do it.  Check out the site for more on that, and maybe
>you too will join us in celebrating it on the 19th.  We call this the
>trickle-up approach to sustainability.  Be a part of it!  Lots more fun than
>having someone in a uniform telling you what to do.
>
>
>With all good wishes for a sustainable 2001,
>
>Eric Britton
>
>ecopl@n___  technology, economy, society  ___
>Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
>Eric.Britton@...     URL ecoplan.org
>Day phone: +331 4326 1323 Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79
>Voice/Videoconference/Data +331.4441.6340 (1-4)
>24 hour Voicemail/Fax hotline: +331 5301 2896


--
Sticker Guy! / 702 Records
Po Box 204  Reno NV  89504
ph 775-358-7865  fx 775-358-2453
www.stickerguy.com

PLEASE: Quote my message in your reply!

DepotNews.com   NewsWire

Looping the Tokyo loop
Source: UPI
Publication date: 2000-12-30


TOKYO, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- For the past two weeks, 800,000 Tokyo daily
commuters have been enjoying the convenient services of a new subway system
that was planned more than 16 years ago for 2lst century travel beneath the
central city.
Like many other ventures planned during the height of Japan's economic
success, it is big, expensive and will be hard put to make a profit.
Nevertheless, the Oedo (Old Tokyo) Line, the 13th and longest in town, will
serve as a 40.7-kilometer subway for connecting many of the central
stations, formerly isolated on differing lines.

The two huge and popular entertainment areas of Shinjuku and Roppongi are
now nine minutes apart on a direct subway route; the old way had passengers
taking two or three trains and about 25 mins. Aoyama Juban just between them
is enjoying a boom as property developments begin to mushroom around the new
stations.

The main task of the new, figure "6" line is to directly connect the
previous inconvenient central points with its loop crossing in and out under
the surface train loop of the Yamanote Line running around central Tokyo
each day, infamously packed to the doors, serving all the major centers and
rail terminals. Out of 38 new stations below ground, 22 of them offer
changes to other subways or surface rail lines radiating out to the suburbs
and dormitory towns.

After 14 years of tunneling beneath the city, estimates suggest that it will
take 35 years of heavy traffic to pay off the $11.1 billion debt incurred by
the Tokyo metropolitan government for the construction of the new line. It
is hoped that operating revenues and bond issues will cover that sum, to
which another $1.6 billion of government subsidies will be added. In order
to get more passengers on board, competing municipal bus services will be
curtailed.

Tokyo now has 13 subway lines, running for 286 kilometers, using 269
stations, used daily by 8 million passengers.

At an overall cost of $12.7 billion, what other benefits can it bring
besides speedier commuting? One thing for sure, it's bringing a lot of new
wealth to real estate ventures above and around the stations and creating
big blocks of new developments all over the city as a result.

Just as the railroads of the Old West opened up North America, so too do the
urban rail networks of Japan's major cities pioneer a new age of
consumerism, where vendors and customers mingled briefly before homeward
journeys continued. Great rail, retail and estate empires like Seibu,
Odakyu, Keio and Sobu, lifted their central Tokyo termini into gigantic
shopping centers and got premium prices for shops adjacent to stations;
especially those where the interchange of many lines take place.

At Shinjuku and Shibuya, it is possible to buy just about anything without
leaving the station precincts. Women commuters enjoy buying dinner on the
way home at the huge downtown food departments where the choice is wide and
the prices competitive and, best of all, just a short walk to the train with
the heavy shopping.

In fact any nook or cranny where the never-ceasing commuters can pass spells
economic opportunity. A vendor along one of the many shopping passages at
Shinjuku says: "Passing trade is not only good, but most of my customers
also walk by each day."

Tokyo merchants well know the value of setting up shop along commuter and
intercity rail lines and subways and the Oedo Line has just opened just in
time for a new century of Japanese consumerism, which will be a bit more
cagey than before.

Azabu Juban is a commercial and entertainment area near to Roppongi, which
also became connected in September to another new subway, the Nanboku Line.
As a result, business on weekends from visitors has doubled. Kachidoki, near
to Tsukiji fish market by the Sumida River, was an inconvenient wasteland.
Now, not only will a gigantic commercial complex arise next April, but one
of the largest trading companies in Japan, Sumitomo Corp., will leave their
current neighbors at the Imperial Palace and site their new HQ at Kachidoki.

Roppongi already is a very bustling area, but the streets will be even more
crowded when "Roppongi Hills", an enormous residential-commercial complex is
completed.

The deep blush pink of the Oedo Line seats aside, the new century subway
still looks like the original plans drawn up 16 years ago, long before any
inkling of how the world might be now. As a result, the now substandard 1985
information technology for displaying next stations and interchanges stands
out as a good example of what one critic called "The inability of Japan to
move ahead of the times." Adding the sobering fact, that when all those
commuters come and spend their money at the new places, then the old places
will be doing lousy business.

But the best news of all for any visitor coming to Tokyo and wanting to
travel around by all manner of city trains with the absolute of convenience,
is a new fare card called "Passnet". Just put it in the slot at the barriers
and fares and interchanges are calculated for you and debited. One ticket to
ride.



Copyright 2000 by United Press International.

Publication date: 2000-12-30
© 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

DepotNews.com   NewsWire

  Car prices force rail chiefs to cut growth forecasts
Source: The Scotsman
Publication date: 2000-12-30


THE RAIL industry has cut back its forecast for growth in passenger numbers,
not because of the catalogue of errors, deaths, accidents and delays on the
railways, but because driving a car is cheaper then expected.
The unusual analysis of future trends in travel was revealed by embattled
Railtrack, which has been buffeted by a string of errors, failings and
climactic hazards.

Earlier this year the company said it anticipated an increase in passenger
numbers of around half over the next 10 years, but yesterday took a more
cautious stance, predicting a rise of a third on present numbers.

It blamed the government's decision to abolish the fuel duty escalator and
said this would damage any move to rail travel.

Since investment is linked to passenger numbers, the smaller growth
prediction means less money is expected to renew the network's
infrastructure, though the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority insisted that
high investment levels would be maintained.

A spokesman said: "The contracts we are drawing up contain commitments to
investment. In any case, forecasts can never be totally reliable. The growth
we have seen on the railways in recent years has been way beyond anything
predicted."

The spokesman added: "Roads in this country are congested. As demand for
transport increases, roads will not be able to absorb all the extra traffic.
Hatfield is undoubtedly having an effect on passenger numbers and will do so
for some months. But having said that, the congestion on the roads is not
going to ease and passengers will return to rail."

The company said the reduced growth figure, down to 37 per cent from 48 per
cent, took no account of Hatfield.

A Railtrack spokesman said: "Our revised figure does not affect investment,
nor does it disagree with the Government's 10-year plan for transport. We
are still talking about a phenomenal rate of growth on the railways."

Railtrack shares came under pressure, falling four per cent at one stage,
amid continuing concerns about the cost of its re-railing programme and its
Christmas repair programme.

Last month Railtrack estimated it would have to pay more than GBP 250
million to cover the cost of rerailing and compensation for disruption to
rail companies after the Hatfield crash. Investors are now concerned this
bill could soar to at least GBP 500 million.

The company's difficulties continued with the announcement that only local
services will run to and from London's Euston station on New Year's Eve
because of delays in its resignalling programme.

Publication date: 2000-12-30
© 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

Dear Ronald

You are sending this account of the new Tokyo underground to me and other
Brits who long for decent rapid transit just to make us feel really rotten
at this time of year ((<:)>*

Regards

Simon


----- Original Message -----
From: Ronald Dawson <rdadddmd@...>
To: <carfree_cities@egroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2000 8:14 PM
Subject: [carfree_cities] Looping the Tokyo loop


> DepotNews.com   NewsWire
>
> Looping the Tokyo loop
> Source: UPI
> Publication date: 2000-12-30
>

Simon Baddeley wrote:
>You are sending this account of the new Tokyo underground to me and other
>Brits who long for decent rapid transit just to make us feel really rotten
>at this time of year ((<:)>*

Here is some thing else for you to consider, from this side of the Atlantic.
Dawson

"We spend, in this country today, a billion dollars a year cleaning up
roadkill, from our nation's highways, and Amtrak has had to fight for
chicken scraps, for $500 Million a year."

--George D. Warrington,
Current Amtrak President,
12/11/00, on the inaugural
Acela Express.

From http://www.azcentral.com/news/1230freeway30.html  Dawson

Traffic outlook grim

$66 billion proposed for highways, transit

Carol Sowers
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 30, 2000

You think gridlock is bad now?


Fast-forward to 2019, when transportation gurus predict Valley motorists
could spend 300,000 hours a year idling in rush-hour traffic, 10 times more
than in 1995.

There's more bad news.

In 1995, you chugged along city freeways at about 30 mph in rush hour. By
2019, you'll be slowed to almost school-zone speed, 16 mph during peak
traffic time.

Those are some of the grim predictions of life on Arizona's streets and
highways if the state does nothing to relieve growing congestion, according
to a new report by Gov. Jane Hull's Vision 21 Transportation Task Force.

Although 20 more miles of Valley freeways will open in 2001, they won't be
enough to soothe angry motorists struggling to get to and from work.

The most ambitious of the task force's four proposals for untangling traffic
could cost as much as $66 billion over the next 20 years. The cost may be
paid by raising gas and sales taxes.

The three other proposals could cost taxpayers $19 billion to $64 billion.

The $66 billion would pay for widening highways such as Interstate 10,
building commuter rail, expanding bus and airline service and constructing a
freeway that would circle the outskirts of the Valley.

"This is not crisis management," said Martin Schultz, co-chairman of the
task force. "This is advanced planning."

The recommendations are heavily based on transportation needs of a rapidly
growing state.

Arizona's 5.1 million population is expected to hit nearly 8 million by
2020, boosting the number of miles driven to 190 million a day, up from the
current 127 million a day, the task force report says.

Such dramatic numbers demand bold action, Schultz said.

"This is about saving time and productivity," he added.

The money to finance the $66 billion proposal would most likely come from a
1- or 5-cent-a-gallon gas-tax increase and a half-cent statewide sales tax.
Combined, they would cost a $40,000 household from $63 to $113 a month.

Schultz said the proposed half-cent sales tax increase could be imposed
about the time a half-cent transportation tax levied in Maricopa County
expires in 2005.

"It's all about timing," he said.

The possible 5-cent-per-gallon boost in Arizona's 18-cent gas tax would
bring it in line with the national average of 22.2 cents, Schultz said.

There has been talk of a special session next year for tax-leery lawmakers
to consider the tax increases or refer them to voters.

Francie Noyes, Hull's spokeswoman, said the governor and her staff will
study the report when it's received Jan. 12.

Schultz said he is convinced that the report, a result of two years of
study, contains compelling evidence to sway voters to accept new taxes.

Tempe Mayor Neil Giuliano, immediate past president of the Maricopa
Association of Governments, which deals with transportation issues, doesn't
want to take any chances.

He says the importance of fixing the transportation mess has to be conveyed
to citizens.

"We get only one shot to go back to the voters," he said. "We really need to
communicate to them how important this is."

He said transportation planning must include "serious funding for buses and
light rail."

"We are going to have to change the way we live in this region," Giuliano
said. "We aren't going to be able to get in our cars and drive someplace
whenever we want to."


Reach Carol Sowers at carol.sowers@... or 444-8058.

Hi All,

>I want the list to be as complete as possible. I'm aware that many
>European cities (most Dutch cities) have carfree centers. I think
>a list, however large, will be helpful in illustrating that the carfree
>idea is not only possible and realistic, but already successfully
>implemented.

Yes, this is a good idea. However, Eric Britton, who also responded
to this post, has already initiated such a list on one of his
sites, and it would probably make more sense to continue to build
on that.

>If Joel will have it, we'll definitely put the data up on carfree.com.

I would, of course, be more than willing to post it a carfree.com,
but I think it makes more sense to build on what Eric has already
done. So, Eric, where is it???

Here are my additions to the Stickerguy Pete's posting (preceded by a +):

EUROPE:

Italy
- Venice
+ Parma (small area of the old center)

Switzerland
- Zermatt
- Winterthur (historic center)
+ Resort towns: Bettmeralp, Barunwald, Murren, Riederalp, Rigi, Sass-Fee, Stoos,
Wengen

Germany
- Lindau (historic center)
+ Freiburg i. B. (large carfree center plus new Vauban addition)
+ Hamburg (Stadthaus Schlump)
+ Bremen  (JHC thinks; Jan Scheurer has these details)

The Netherlands
+ Amsterdam GWL project (600 housing units)
+ Geithoorn in the Netherlands (small, rural carfree town based on boats)

Other
- Feldkirch, Austria  (historic center)
- Greek Islands (?)
+ Vienna (Autofreie Mustersiedlung Floridsdorf housing project)
+ Edinburgh, UK (Slateford Green carfree development)

ASIA:
- Gulangya Island (Xiamen, China)
- Cheung Chau Island (and others off of Hong Kong)

AMERICAS:
+ Mackinaw (Mackinac???) Island in the Great Lakes (anybody have it exactly?)
+ Catalina Island, California (I think?)

AFRICA:
OCEANIA:


                                  ###

J.H. Crawford                                           Carfree Cities
postmaster@...                                     Carfree.com

Mont St. Michel, France

"J.H. Crawford" wrote [edited]:
>
> AMERICAS:
> + Mackinaw (Mackinac???) Island in the Great Lakes (anybody have it exactly?)

It is spelled Mackinac, pronounced Mack-in-aw.  It is part of Michigan, located
between the upper and lower peninsula (east side of the I-75 bridge in Lake
Huron).

-Bob Matter
Hammond, IN
-----------
"Savage fires, the worst ever, raged
unchecked across drought-ridden US
landscapes last summer, West Nile
fever broke out in Boston. The ice cap
was found full of water and holes,
polar bears started to die and
persistent floods swept across Britain.
Yet on neither side of the Atlantic did
green issues register more than a
small blip on political screens."
    --Polly Toynbee, The Guardian

Another addition to the list is Bhaktapur in Nepal. It's not
now carfree but is attempting to reach that goal by 2015, I
believe.

>
>Hi All,
>
>>I want the list to be as complete as possible. I'm aware that many
>>European cities (most Dutch cities) have carfree centers. I think
>>a list, however large, will be helpful in illustrating that the carfree
>>idea is not only possible and realistic, but already successfully
>>implemented.
>
>Yes, this is a good idea. However, Eric Britton, who also responded
>to this post, has already initiated such a list on one of his
>sites, and it would probably make more sense to continue to build
>on that.
>
>>If Joel will have it, we'll definitely put the data up on carfree.com.
>
>I would, of course, be more than willing to post it a carfree.com,
>but I think it makes more sense to build on what Eric has already
>done. So, Eric, where is it???
>
>Here are my additions to the Stickerguy Pete's posting (preceded by a +):
>
>EUROPE:
>
>Italy
>- Venice
>+ Parma (small area of the old center)
>
>Switzerland
>- Zermatt
>- Winterthur (historic center)
>+ Resort towns: Bettmeralp, Barunwald, Murren, Riederalp, Rigi, Sass-Fee,
Stoos, Wengen
>
>Germany
>- Lindau (historic center)
>+ Freiburg i. B. (large carfree center plus new Vauban addition)
>+ Hamburg (Stadthaus Schlump)
>+ Bremen  (JHC thinks; Jan Scheurer has these details)
>
>The Netherlands
>+ Amsterdam GWL project (600 housing units)
>+ Geithoorn in the Netherlands (small, rural carfree town based on boats)
>
>Other
>- Feldkirch, Austria  (historic center)
>- Greek Islands (?)
>+ Vienna (Autofreie Mustersiedlung Floridsdorf housing project)
>+ Edinburgh, UK (Slateford Green carfree development)
>
>ASIA:
>- Gulangya Island (Xiamen, China)
>- Cheung Chau Island (and others off of Hong Kong)
  + Bhaktapur, Nepal (planning to become carfree within 15 years)
>
>AMERICAS:
>+ Mackinaw (Mackinac???) Island in the Great Lakes (anybody have it exactly?)
>+ Catalina Island, California (I think?)
>
>AFRICA:
>OCEANIA:
>
>
>                                 ###
>
>J.H. Crawford                                           Carfree Cities
>postmaster@...                                     Carfree.com
>
>
>To Post a message, send it to:   carfree_cities@eGroups.com
>To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: carfree_cities-unsubscribe@eGroups.com
>Group address: http://www.egroups.com/group/carfree_cities/
>
>
>

                                  ###

J.H. Crawford                                           Carfree Cities
postmaster@...                                     Carfree.com

DepotNews.com   NewsWire

  The News Tribune's Civic Agenda: Transportation The region's top challenge
in 2001
Source: The News Tribune Tacoma, WA
Publication date: 2000-12-31


Stanley Kubrick's "2001" - released in 1968 - cinematically envisioned a
future in which people routinely commuted between the Earth and the Moon,
and ranged far into outer space.
If only. The real 2001 is now upon us, and just getting to work and back is
increasingly a problem for earthlings who dwell in Western Washington.

Many of our highways and arterials are overwhelmed by levels of traffic they
were never designed to carry, and some of our bridges - such as the one
spanning Hood Canal -- are literally crumbling. Traffic congestion between
Everett and Olympia today is often worse than in Los Angeles.

Washington state thus has turned "2001" on its ear: It has entered the 21st
century with a 1968-vintage transportation system. And the dawning New Year
is shaping up as a crossroads: Things could get much worse - or much
better - in coming decades, depending on how well we deal with several
serious threats to our highways and mass transit.

This is why the editorial board of The News Tribune has chosen to emphasize
transportation in our annually updated civic agenda - though we have by no
means forgotten economic development in the South Sound and other pressing
issues affecting the region's future. In fact, all the objectives in our
2001 agenda - which is summarized on this page - are interconnected.

The South Sound's economic future, for example, will hinge on whether we
have an efficient transportation system, excellent public schools, abundant
college opportunity, a vibrant downtown Tacoma, crime-free neighborhoods and
a beautiful environment -- in short, the kind of quality of life that keeps
existing employers rooted here and attracts new corporate investors.

This 2001 civic agenda reflects the editorial board's highest priorities; it
will guide our editorial comment on regional and state issues throughout the
coming year.

*

2001 looks to be a critical year for transportation policy - in the state as
a whole as well as locally.

Washington's highways have been underfunded for many years, and the cracks
in the system keep on widening. One example is the HOV lane on southbound
Interstate 5 coming out of Seattle. It stops abruptly less than 3 miles
south of Tukwila, at the Kent-Des Moines exit. The remaining 18 miles of
freeway into Tacoma are severely congested on a regular basis during the
evening rush hour.

The roads of Western Washington are rife with similar chokepoints that could
be significantly relieved with construction projects the Legislature and
state Department of Transportation haven't been able to fund. And various
railroad crossings are seeing increasing conflicts between automobile and
train traffic, which threatens the timely shipment of freight to markets to
the east - and thus the international competitiveness of Puget Sound ports.
In this case, funding is needed for overpasses and underpasses to let the
cars get past the trains without impediment.

But because of the cost of improvements is so great - a single new
interchange can cost upwards of $100 million -- the available funding falls
far short of covering the needed highway work.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation -- an expert panel created by
the Legislature in 1998 - has identified $150 billion worth of highway and
ferry needs in Washington. Existing taxes and federal grants will generate
about $55 billion over the next 20 years. That leaves a shortfall of $95
billion. Perhaps $40 billion- to-$50 billion of this gap might be closed
with better traffic management and greater efficiencies, but there will
still be a need for $30 billion to $40 billion in new revenues over the next
20 years.

Lawmakers had been putting off action on transportation until they saw the
Blue Ribbon Commission's recommendations. Those long-awaited proposals are
now in hand. The panel has identified an array of ways to spend our highway
dollars more intelligently and raise the additional revenues that economies
alone won't cover. It is the job of the 2001 Legislature to act on those
recommendations and enact a transportation package that will permit our our
roads and transit systems to expand with our growing population. New taxes
or fees will be required in addition to reforms; so the job will demand
political courage and leadership from Gov. Gary Locke and state lawmakers.

*

State action is also required on the planned second Narrows bridge, another
transportation issue of critical importance to the South Sound.

Years ago, the general shortage of highway money led the state to enter into
a controversial partnership with a private consortium to build a new,
toll-financed bridge over the Narrows. But the state Supreme Court ruled two
months ago that the contract, while constitutional, violated a 1961 statute.
That law must either be amended or the state must find another way to build
the second bridge, which is necessary to improve the safety of the existing
span and alleviate the severe backups it creates on Highway 16.

*

Finally, Sound Transit's light rail system is under siege. Cost overruns -
some of which the agency bears responsibility for, some not - have brought
out a legion of critics who want the project killed. If they succeed in
derailing this initial segment of tracks between Sea-Tac Airport and the
University District in Seattle, commuters in the Puget Sound region will
never have an efficient alternative to the increasingly crowded highways.

Sound Transit must make whatever changes are called for, but it must proceed
with light rail. In 50 years, when the region's population will be far
greater than it is today, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren won't
remember the cost overruns. But like electric rail commuters in New York,
Chicago and other cities, they will be glad we had the foresight to create
the system when it was still possible.

- - -

Agenda 2001: Tuesday: No. 3: Quality of life issues

The good life we enjoy in the Pacific Northwest depends on strong schools,
college opportunity, public safety and the preservation of our natural
resources.

Agenda 2001: Monday: No. 2: Economic development

Pierce County's efforts to attract investment, create jobs and expand the
private sector have suffered from lack of coordination. That needs to
change.

Publication date: 2000-12-31
© 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

Also welcome to the 21st century. 			 Dawson