O'Toole: Trains are for Tourists, Negative opinion Options

[KevinKorell]

Opinion expressed on National Public Radio, 3/19/09:

When I went to Europe, I loved to ride the trains, especially the French TGV and other high-speed trains. So President Obama's goal of building high-speed rail in the United States sounded good at first.

Continued here.

[EvergreenRailfan]

Him again. During our campaign last year for ST expansion, a local talk radio host(who is not like the ones that are nationally syndicated) had O'Toole on, and was warning us not to do what Portland has done to his city. He seems to think that France's TGV trains are for tourists? Where does he get that info? I am beginning to believe whatever this guy says about rail, believe the opposite. He seems to be resorting to lies now to prevent any more passenger rail expansion in the United States. It's a shame, I heard he once wrote an article in the old Passenger Train Journal about passenger rail in the Willamette Valley, or was the publication giving time and space to opponents of passenger rail in those days?

[AlanB]

Evergreen,

He works for the Cato Institue, an anti-rail organtization, hence his anti-rail stance. They love to spin the statistics in such way as to promote what they are saying. One of my favorites that I saw him print recently was:

How successful is light rail? In 1980, before Portland began building light rail, 9.8 percent of the region's commuters took transit to work. Today, it is 7.6 percent.

Sounds terrible, doesn't it? But what he left out is the fact that the population of Portland increased at a greater percentage than did transit's carrying capacity. I don't have the precise numbers, but think of it this way. If transit has the capacity to carry 10% of the population in 1980, and you increase the capacity of transit by 5% over the years, while the population increases 20%, then obviously the percentage carried has to go down.

[EvergreenRailfan]

Sorry about that. I have heard of the Cato Institute before, they and Reason seem to be the Libertarian equivalent to the Heritage Foundation. It's interesting how Heritage had some pro-rail but pro-privatization people. I wonder if Reason and Cato have links to the group behind Toll Roads News, they had the radical idea of converting some of Chicago's rail lines to toll roads.(I know that don't stand a chance).

Up here, we seem to be a little bit like Switzerland, with voter initiatives ready to challenge anything a legislature puts up in either Olympia or Salem. Switzerland may vote on everything, but they got a great transportation system.

Population growth can skew old numbers. Plus, MAX operating costs would be much better than the bus if there was a Subway, but I guess Cato does not want to point that out.

Also, Amtrak Cascades might be able to promote the Cascadia Cup starting in 2011. Vancouver and Portland are getting MLS teams, allowing the resumption of a USL First Division rivalry. I heard the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers were an intense rivalry, just like the old Sonics/Blazers rivalry. The old rivalries the Seahawks had were with teams a long distance away, the Broncos and Raiders, but being in the NFC West, the twice a year rivalry is gone.

Speaking of sports and rail, DB did a great job with World Cup 2006.

[EvergreenRailfan]

I was watching a Duetsche-Welle Video of the Day podcast, about a protest of the TAV TGV line, although they had nothing to do with O'Toole, it was a vocal protest, between those who want to protect this valley between Turin and Lyon, and those who want the new train to bring in the tourists. Plus, doen't SNCF drop local service along a route upgraded to the TGV?

[jacorbett70]

The writer of that article, Randal O’Toole, and others are coming to the Seattle area next month with the American Dream Coalition.

They plan to let people know that Seattle "has persistently refused to expand highway capacity, making it one of the most congested cities in the nation. Instead, the region operates commuter trains (which carry just 4,000 per day to work) and is currently building the world’s most-expensive light-rail line."

Link:
http://americandreamcoalition.org/?page_id=5
& attached flyer

[EvergreenRailfan]

That is not true, seeings how we just surrendered railway right of way last year to widen I-405, the first Suburban Sprawlway. On many transit-oriented blogs and forums up here, we had a sometimes heated discussion over the fate of the Eastside BNSF Line, and one thorn in the side, Wilburton. The line passed over a tunnel on I-405 that could not add more lanes in it, so WSDOT daylighted it, and BNSF was not willing(as they should) to spend capital on a bridge that hosted just a few freights occasionally, and a daily Dinner Train, and the upgrade costs varied to make it a commuter line. On a moderate talk show, one caller said he was all for preserving this line, only if the rails were ripped up and made into a freeway. The NIMBY issue was barely manageable on the rail front, imagine building a superfreeway there. Plus, maybe the ADC should hop the South Lake Union Streetcar, walk down the wasteful bike path to the Kenmore Air Terminal, and hop a sightseeing flight, and they will get an aerial view of why in some parts of this region, we can't add anymore freeways. The city tried to ram then down the throat of people who did not want them, and now we have on and off ramps to nowhere at SR520 and the Washington Park Arboretum. The freeway would have continued North from there, through the UW Campus, right next to Husky Stadium and Edmunson Pavilion, at the time, Husky Stadium was not that big, the Kingdome seated more, or would seat more(at the time it was under construction).

Sorry about my rant.

[EvergreenRailfan]

The writer of that article, Randal O’Toole, and others are coming to the Seattle area next month with the American Dream Coalition.

They plan to let people know that Seattle "has persistently refused to expand highway capacity, making it one of the most congested cities in the nation. Instead, the region operates commuter trains (which carry just 4,000 per day to work) and is currently building the world’s most-expensive light-rail line."

Link:
http://americandreamcoalition.org/?page_id=5
& attached flyer

4,000 riders a day? I think if SOUNDER is what they are talking about, it is up to around 10,000 riders a day, and growing with more trains coming online in the next few years. Starting in July, LINK LRT will be connecting with those commuter trains, both will be seeing more riders. The American Dream Coalition thinks Intermodal Passenger Transportation is Un-American. That or they are worried about decades of success being undermined.

[jis]

I was watching a Duetsche-Welle Video of the Day podcast, about a protest of the TAV TGV line, although they had nothing to do with O'Toole, it was a vocal protest, between those who want to protect this valley between Turin and Lyon, and those who want the new train to bring in the tourists. Plus, doen't SNCF drop local service along a route upgraded to the TGV?

I think the issue needs to be looked at in somewhat greater detail.

So far SNCF has never taken a local line and converted it to an LGV. The LGVs have always been separate new lines on a new right of way, which sometimes more or less parallel classic routes and sometimes not. In the case when the parallel classic routes through service is typically reduced drastically on the classic route and replaced by TGV service on the LGV. However, typically the local departments (which is what counties are called in France) typically fund continuation and improvement of TER service on the classic routes. So service does get reorganized based on a hub and spoke arrangement around TGV stops, and frequency on the classic routes typically suffer some. But generally service does not completely disappear from the classic routes.

[EvergreenRailfan]

So far SNCF has never taken a local line and converted it to an LGV. The LGVs have always been separate new lines on a new right of way, which sometimes more or less parallel classic routes and sometimes not. In the case when the parallel classic routes through service is typically reduced drastically on the classic route and replaced by TGV service on the LGV. However, typically the local departments (which is what counties are called in France) typically fund continuation and improvement of TER service on the classic routes. So service does get reorganized based on a hub and spoke arrangement around TGV stops, and frequency on the classic routes typically suffer some. But generally service does not completely disappear from the classic routes.

Thank You. Sorry if I got it wrong. I do like the new equipment that is being used on some TER services, and other routes, where local rolling stock is improved though. The AGC is an impressive design, with the Bi-Mode and Bi-Bi Mode. If Bombardier could produce a high-floor/high-platform FRA Compliant version, I am sure some operators here could use it. I saw a map of the SNCF(or is it RFF now) network, and it is impressive looking, even with the LGV network being a small portion of it, the passenger network covers a lot of the country. Plus I understand that France is small by comparison to the United States or Canada, but still, an impressive network.

Also, another podcast I look at from time to time, is a weekly news roundup for a TV station in Duneiden, New Zealand, on the South Island, and it had an interesting thing that O'Toole probably would use to prove his point. Duriing a bike to work day promotion, the local tourist train operator ran commute time runs, and there were people circulating a petition to get something going permanently. The coaches looked like something from the Durango and Silverton or Cumbers and Toltec, but I expect that since some or all of NZ's rail network, is narrow-gauge. Still, it was amazing to see such a special demonstration with what they had available. Sometimes in looking at these podcasts from around the world, Tip O'Neil was right, All Politics is Local. It goes true for the Global Stage.